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NEW YORK — Any monetary remuneration aside, Beyoncé Knowles gets one major perk from being the celebrity face of Giorgio Armani’s Emporio Armani Diamonds fragrance.
Tons, and she means tons, of very expensive clothes, gratis.

“Now that I’m doing these appearances, they bring me racks of clothes — and I get to keep them,” she says with a giggle. “All of them. Even the ones I don’t wear that day. I have storage here and in Houston — I have to ship a lot of the clothes. It’s too many great clothes. I’ve got no complaints. It’s so cool.”

How many Armani gowns does she own? Knowles is stumped. “A hundred. A lot? It’s very cool.”

So is being the first celebrity face of an Armani scent for Knowles, who loves smelling good. “I feel the sexiest after I take a shower, and I have on my lotion and perfume and my pajamas,” says the singer, 25, who is dating rapper Jay-Z. “I feel comfortable, and I feel like I smell good. I love it.”

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But if Knowles could bottle up any aroma in the world, “it would be my mom’s food,” she says. “When I walk into her house in Houston, it’s the most comforting smell. It makes me feel like a kid again. I can’t cook. My mom makes really good gumbo — we’re Creole. And she makes really good soul food. Yams, they smell so good.”

Earlier Thursday, Knowles was mobbed by lines of fans at a meet-and-greet in the Macy’s beauty department. She treated each fan, middle-aged women to tween girls, like a long-lost best friend. It’s a lesson she learned from Will Smith during a signing with him for the Men in Black soundtrack when she was 15.

“He was so nice to every person. I watched him. I knew he had to be tired, and I couldn’t believe how nice he was,” she says.

“We were the last people he met. I said, ‘I don’t care if I ever get that famous: I will always be like him.’ I always try to be as nice to the first person as to the last person and will make eye contact.”

Knowles, who’s in the middle of her Beyoncé Experience world tour, just earned seven MTV Video Music Awards nominations. And she’s still dancing in stilettos after falling down the stairs at her Orlando show while performing Ring the Alarm. Videos of the spectacular accident made the rounds on the Internet after being posted on YouTube.com, even though the star playfully asked the audience not to post it.

“Yeah!” she says of her high heels. “I have blisters and my feet are turning into crazy-looking feet, but it’s worth it. I guess.”

She plans on releasing a new album next summer, and then she will throw herself back into a movie role, preferably “something a little darker, but still a musical.” Adds the Dreamgirls star: “That’s my niche. I’m able to connect the drama with the music.”