As she explained it at a party at a Benetton store at 597 Fifth Avenue, it advises simplifying one's life and sharing one's expertise.

Colors de Benetton is being sold only in Benetton stores, where fragrance testers sit near the cash registers and in the dressing rooms.

The Benetton store is in the old Scribner building, once the site of a Brentano's bookstore.

Benetton stores are opened in Australia, Scotland, and the Republic of Ireland, none of which remain.

Colors, introduced in 1991, is sold in Benetton stores and on newsstands in 85 countries; the cover price in the United States is $3.

So far this year, 20 Benetton stores have closed, while 10 new ones have opened.

There is no mention anywhere of the 7,000 Benetton stores around the world, including two that recently opened in Havana.

But last week, a branch concealed in a Benetton store at Fifth Avenue and 48th Street closed, a victim of low visibility.

Thanks to Benetton's methods of franchising, the chain experienced a brief boom in popularity in the US, where, by 1989, there were 800 Benetton stores.

It opened a Benetton store next door to the Scribner Building at 601 Fifth Avenue in the spring of 2003.