In what is widely being considered fashion’s best-kept secret, Givenchy’s Clare Waight Keller is the designer behind Meghan Markle’s much-anticipated royal wedding dress. After names like Ralph & Russo, Erdem, Stella McCartney, and Burberry were throw around with increasingly fury leading up to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's big day, Waight Keller’s name and her cowl-necked creation were a striking surprise for fashion insiders and many in-the-know royal devotees, alike.

In the latest royal wedding to rock international headlines, British Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle are set to wed on Saturday in Windsor Castle’s St. George's Chapel. The ceremony has been touted as much more intimate than the nuptials of Harry’s older brother and king-to-be (following his father Prince Charles) Prince William to Kate Middleton in 2011 which took place at Westminster Abbey. However, in much the same way as countless individuals across the global waited in anticipation to see what dress – and which designer – Middleton opted for, all eyes were on Markle and her wedding dress.

It is very rare for celebrity designers to go far. Need proof? The marketplace is rife with lifeless celebrity-centric fashion ventures that burned out as fast as they came. Lindsay Lohan’s leggings line comes to mind, as does Mandy Moore’s Mblem collection, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten brand, and former reality star Heidi Montag's Heidiwood. Stella McCartney, whose last name is one of the most famous in the music world thanks to her father, Beatles' member Paul, is not such a tale. The British-born designer’s celebrated eponymous label turns 17 this year.

As  Kate Middleton stepped out of the car in a Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen wedding gown on the morning of April 29, 2011, the internet went into a fury. Among those clamoring for a peek at her highly-anticipated dress were brands looking to replicate it. Less than one month later, retailers were offering knockoffs of both the new royal’s gown and the McQueen frock her sister and maid of honor Pippa Middleton wore.

What do you get when you combine Instagram “it” girls, “the most in-demand fashions on social media” and lightning-speed production? You get a bona fide competitor for Zara, H&M, Boohoo, ASOS, Fashion Nova, and the like. Choosy – a New York-based company that describes itself as an “on-demand social shopping platform,” where collections are inspired by the garments and accessories that appear in top-tending Instagram posts – is aiming to do just that. Topple the fast fashion establishment.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma made headlines when he took on the topic of counterfeit goods a couple of years ago. Speaking at the Chinese e-commerce behemoth’s investor day in June 2016, Ma made markedly controversial comments about the manufacturing and quality of Chinese-made fakes, noting that oftentimes, “they are of better quality and better price than the real names.” The Chinese tech billionaire went on to state that counterfeits “are made in exactly the same factories, with exactly the same raw materials [as authentic goods].”

Fashion industry giants are busy setting up venture funds. In February 2017, Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton made headlines when it launched LVMH Luxury Ventures, a subsidiary of the Paris-based luxury goods conglomerate for the purpose of investing in emerging-stage fashion, cosmetics or accessories companies. More recently, Net-a-Porter founder and FarFetch co-chair Natalie Massenet announced buzzy new venture capital firm, Imaginary Ventures, which she officially launched last month alongside New York-based investor Nick Brown with an initial $75 million in funding to spend on “early stage, direct-to-consumer brands at the intersection of retail and technology.”

In 2007, fashion insiders – perched in their seats at the tail end of New York Fashion Week – were reeling that Marc Jacobs had the gall to start his Spring/Summer show a whopping two hours late. Meanwhile, ahead of the start of London and Paris Fashion Weeks, the British and French Fashion Councils were making headlines and raising eyebrows for failing to follow in the footsteps of their Milanese counterpart, which had opted to enact a ban on putting size zero models on the runway.

Almost exactly a year ago, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the Paris-based conglomerate that own Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Celine, became France’s biggest company by market value. In nabbing the top spot, the Bernard Arnault-owned group ousted energy giant Total and pharmaceutical behemoth Sanofi, which had shared the title of the most valuable for nearly a decade. 

Wider-leg denim may be trending amongst the fashion pack, but skinny jeans are at the center of a new legal battle involving QVC. According to a lawsuit filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Skinny Brand Jeans LLC – you guessed it, the maker of … skinny jeans – and its founder Catherine Hart allege that after pitching its jeans to QVC, the home shopping network knocked off the “slimming fabrication and slimming wash pattern” that is unique to its New York-based brand.