Before it became a multi-million dollar brand with wildly coveted (and copied) garments and accessories and with retail outposts spanning the globe, Gucci was a family-run business in Florence, Italy. Guccio Gucci began making leather travel bags and accessories in the early 1920s, and ultimately, looked to his sons Aldo, Vasco, Ugo and Rodolfo to help him expand the business throughout Italy and internationally. The Gucci brand continued to be run that way – largely by Mr. Gucci (until his death in 1953) and his familial successors – up until the late 1990’s when Gucci’s assets, including its famous name and interlocking “G” logo, were acquired by PPR – or what is now known as Kering.   

Kim Kardashian has been hit with yet another lawsuit for allegedly stealing another company’s trademark-protected logo – the latest in a long line of litigation and copying claims for the reality television family. According to the complaint that Vibes Media filed in a federal court in Illinois this week, KKW Fragrance is on the hook for selling a Kimoji fragrance in a bottle that looks a bit too much like the Chicago-based marketing company’s federally registered “Vibes” trademark.

How do you go from the Hollywood big screen to the cover of Forbes, alongside the title “America’s Richest Self-Made Women,” for building a $1 billion brand, in under a decade? Ask Jessica Alba. The actress is one of the co-founders of Honest Co., a beloved consumer goods company that boasts a lineup of “101+ safe, effective and delightful products for baby, personal care, cleaning, vitamins and more,” but you likely already knew that.

In light of widespread discussion about the #MeToo movement in the fashion industry, a significant segment of women have been overlooked in the effort against sexual harassment and assault: The women who make our clothing. However, a global coalition of trade unions, workers’ rights groups and human rights organizations is aiming to change that, releasing “a groundbreaking factory level research report” this week detailing gender-based violence in Walmart’s Asian garment supply chain.

Christian Louboutin’s red sole is a mixed bag when it comes to protection. Just days before the Paris-based footwear-maker-to-the-stars was handed a significant win from the highest court in the European Union, it was served with a loss before the High Court of Delhi, which held that Louboutin’s red shoe soles are not protected by trademark law – because a single color is incapable of being a trademark in accordance with the Trade Marks Act of 1999 – and as a result, Louboutin may not claim an exclusive right over such use in India.

Estée Lauder has settled the lawsuit filed against it last August by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), which accused it of discriminating against men by giving them less paid parental leave than women. The New York-based cosmetics giant – which owns Bobbi Brown, La Mer, and MAC, and holds licenses for Tom Ford, Tory Burch, and Michael Kors fragrances and brought in $11.8 billion in revenue for 2017 – has agreed to pay a sum of $1.1 million to settle the lawsuit that has been pending in federal court in Pennsylvania.

One day every July, Amazon buckles down and celebrates Prime Day. This year, the 36-hour sale (six hours longer than any year prior) features more than 1 million deals, and its global reach has been extended to four new countries. Now Prime members in Australia, Singapore, Netherlands and Luxembourg can join those in the U.S., UK, Spain, Mexico, Japan, India, Italy, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium and Austria in fetching deals on everything from apparel to electronics.

If Tom Ford's revamp of Gucci in the 1990’s has a non-monetary legacy, it is firmly grounded in sex. In his tenure at Gucci from 1990 to 2004, Texas-born Ford gave the faltering Italian leather goods maker – which was on the brink of bankruptcy in 1994 (when he was promoted to the role of creative director) – an identity … a bold and sexy one.

Burberry’s 2017/18 annual report revealed something interesting. Aside from reporting annual revenue of $3.61 billion, the London-based brand declared that the “cost of finished goods physically destroyed in the year [thus far has been] $37.8 million,” that is up from the $35.6 million figure the brand cited for 2017. The number for 2018 includes $13.76 million in “Beauty inventory,” meaning that the rest is ready-to-wear products and accessories.