Industry Jury pronounces Hoax Couture as the winning design for the BMW Auto Couture Design Competition.

Whitby, Ontario... BMW Canada's Auto Couture competition, which drew
submissions from thirteen prominent Canadian fashion designers, came to a close
on Tuesday evening with the announcement of Hoax Couture's blue logo-covered
BMW 540i sedan as the winning design. Second place was awarded to Tu Ly for his
"nearly naked" BMW 540i design which used a blonde on blonde colour scheme and
ostrich leather, while Joeffer Caoc (Misura) won third place for his design
that melded futuristic technology with fashion.

Many of the thirteen designers, including Hoax Couture, Tu Ly, Sunny Choi, Pat
McDonagh, Linda Lundstrom, Renee Beach, Khurana, Dominic Bellissimo and Roxanne
Nikki, attended a cocktail reception held at the Design Exchange in Toronto to
hear the announcement. Busy preparing for their Fall 2001 collections, Joeffer
Caoc, Ula Zukowska, Peter Marzynski and Nina Mdivani were unable to be present
at the award ceremony.

"The designers had free reign and so it was very difficult to decide between so
many creative submissions," said Tobias Nickel, Manager of Corporate
Communications at BMW Canada Inc. "The industry jury planned to meet for one
hour and that hour stretched into three because all of the entries were of
exceptional quality."

The industry jury was comprised of leaders in Canadian fashion including
Suzanne Boyd, Editor of Flare Magazine, Doug Wallace, Managing Editor of
FASHION Magazine and Bernadette Morra, Editor of Toronto Star Fashion and
Yolanda Beasley of Glitzparade.com. The Canadian arts scene was also
represented in the jury by Marc Mayer, Director of The Power Plant Contemporary
Art Gallery, Shin Sugino, Photographer and Lynda Friendly, President of The
Design Exchange. Their votes were combined with the 1200 votes contributed by
the Canadian public through the BMW website www.bmw.ca.

Established in Toronto in 1985, Hoax Couture is the creation of architect Jim
Searle and lawyer Chris Tyrell. Without formal fashion training, the Hoax duo
began hocking T-shirts on the streets. A few years later, a locally acclaimed
menswear collection followed and put Hoax on the local fashion map.

Hoax's two designers incorporated various elements of fashion such as corseted
seat covers and Louis Vuitton style logos into their winning design. Their
"Canadian winter convertible" also contained a glass roof, a shoe polisher and
a snowbrush holder in the driver's side door.

"We wanted to combine BMW's classic sophistication with a very modern, urban
look," explained Mr. Searle. "It's futuristic but is still styled on today's
trends."

Searle and Tyrell will next meet with BMW's automotive designers in Munich,
Germany in April 2001 to discuss the implementation of their design. Once
constructed, the exclusive BMW 540i will be transported to Toronto for use in
fashion shows, photo shoots and BMW events throughout 2001.

Tu Ly, co-founder of Sample and a designer for Roots, created the "Blonde on
Blonde" design that was awarded second place. Deceptively simple, the design
contained fine detailing such as ostrich leather seats, wool loopy yarn
carpeting, cream coloured tires and blonde wood side panels.

"I wanted to create a clean design that still had a great deal of depth and
luxury," said Mr. Ly. "It was such an honour to receive the award especially
since there was so much talent and originality in all of the designers that
participated in BMW Auto Couture."

The Auto Couture competition expands on previous partnerships between BMW and
the fashion industry.

"BMW has a long standing relationship with the creative arts, beginning with
the BMW Art Cars designed by artists like Warhol, Calder and Rauschenberg to
the sedan designed by Karl Lagerfeld," said Hendrik von Kuenheim, President and
CEO of BMW Canada Inc. "Canada has a tremendous wealth of creative talent and
we wanted to bring it to the surface."

In 1992, European designer Karl Lagerfeld designed a BMW 750iL sedan to
complement his creative additions to the "Schlosshotel Vier Jahreszeiten" hotel
in Berlin.

Developed with Mr. Lagerfeld's ideals of luxury, individuality and comfort, the
chauffeured car, employed by the hotel as a VIP shuttle, contains a TV/video
unit, a fax machine, and no fewer than three cellular phones. The 7-series BMW
also features a cocktail bar, a professional sound system and an on-board
computer.

BMW Canada Inc., based in Whitby, Ontario, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW
AG and is responsible for the distribution of BMW luxury performance
automobiles, Sports Activity Vehicles, motorcycles, and beginning in 2002 the
new MINI. BMW is represented by a total network of 32 independent BMW retail
centres and 16 independent BMW motorcycle retailers across the country.
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Pictures of the designers and their winning entries can be obtained by clicking
on the download icons on top and bottom of this text.