Women's Wear Daily (WWD) is a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called "the bible of fashion." WWD delivers information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the fashion, beauty and retail industries with a readership composed largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers, marketers, financiers, media executives, advertising agencies, socialites and trend makers. It is the flagship journal of Fairchild Publications, Inc. As of 2012, WWD's circulation is 56,562 copies , up from 30,000 copies on March 6, 2000.

The journal was founded by Edmund Fairchild on July 13, 1910, as an outgrowth of the menswear journal Daily News Record. Though WWD's reporters were assigned to the last row of the 1955 couture shows—a sign of the newspaper's low stature—the paper rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s.John Fairchild, who became the European bureau chief of Fairchild Publications in 1955 and the publisher of WWD in 1960, improved WWD's standing by focusing on the human side of fashion. He turned his newspaper's attention to the social scene of fashion designers and their clients, and helped manufacture a "cult of celebrity" around designers. Fairchild also played hardball to help his circulation. After two couturiers forbade press coverage until one month after buyers had seen their clothes, Fairchild published photos and sketches anyway. He even sent reporters to fashion houses disguised as messengers, or had them observe designers' new styles from windows of buildings opposite fashion houses. "I have learned in fashion to be a little savage," he wrote in his memoir. John Fairchild was publisher of the magazine from 1960 to 1996.

Nicole Camille Richie (born Nicole Camille Escovedo; September 21, 1981) is an American fashion designer, author, actress, singer and television personality.

Richie rose to prominence for her role in the Fox reality television series, The Simple Life which lasted five seasons. Afterwards she turned her focus on other projects including charity work and environmental issues. In November 2007 Richie and husband, Joel Madden, created "The Richie Madden Children's Foundation". She is currently one of the three mentors on NBC's Fashion Star.

Richie's personal life has also attracted media attention, including her dramatically thin appearance, driving under the influence arrests in 2003 and 2006, as well as her extensive drug abuse throughout her late teenage years and early twenties.

Nicole Richie was born in Berkeley, California. Her biological father is Peter Michael Escovedo, a musician who played for a brief time with Lionel Richie, and her biological mother Karen was the executive assistant for her aunt Sheila E. At the age of three, her parents agreed to let her move in with Lionel Richie and Brenda Harvey because they could not afford to provide for her financially. "My parents were friends with Lionel," she told People in 2003. "They trusted that they would be better able to provide for me." Initially, Lionel Richie became her guardian. Lionel Richie and Brenda Harvey effectively raised Nicole as their daughter. She began attending weekly sessions with a psycho-therapist at age three, remaining in therapy throughout childhood.

Anna Wintour, OBE (born 3 November 1949) is the English-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for younger designers. Her reportedly aloof and demanding personality has earned her the nickname "Nuclear Wintour".

She is the eldest daughter of Charles Wintour, editor of the London Evening Standard. Anna became interested in fashion as a teenager. Her father consulted her on how to make the newspaper relevant to the youth of the era. Her career in fashion journalism began at two British magazines. Later she moved to the United States, with stints at New York and House & Garden. She returned home for a year to turn around British Vogue, and later assumed control of the franchise's magazine in New York, reviving what many saw as a stagnating publication. Her use of the magazine to shape the fashion industry has been the subject of debate within it. Animal rights activists have attacked her for promoting fur, while other critics have charged her with using the magazine to promote elitist views of femininity and beauty.

Ashley Fuller Olsen (born June 13, 1986) is an American actress, fashion designer, producer, author, and businesswoman.

Olsen and her fraternal twin sister Mary-Kate Olsen were born in Sherman Oaks, California to David Olsen (born 1953) and Jarnette "Jarnie" Fuller (born 1954). Despite being very similar in appearance, they are not identical. They have an older brother, Trent, a little sister, Elizabeth Olsen, and two younger half siblings Taylor and Jake from their father's second marriage. Mary-Kate and Ashley's parents divorced in 1995.

Along with Mary-Kate, Olsen was cast at the age of nine months to share the role of Michelle Tanner on the ABC sitcom Full House. The Olsens portrayed Michelle throughout the series' 1987–1995 run. In the early 1990s, the sisters established a company, Dualstar, which produced a long string of TV movies and direct-to-video releases featuring the girls. The Olsens continued to release direct-to-video films up to the early 2000s, along with starring in the 1995 feature film It Takes Two. After Full House, the sisters starred in two other sitcoms (Two of a Kind and So Little Time) and an animated series (Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action!), each of which lasted only one season. These ventures, combined with a massive array of licensing deals for their names and likenesses, made the twins phenomenally wealthy at a young age. They became co-presidents of Dualstar upon their eighteenth birthday. Following a second feature film, 2004's New York Minute, Ashley gave up acting because she didn't feel a connection to being an actress anymore. In 2009 when asked about acting again Ashley said, "Never say never." Ashley contemplated giving up fashion and going back to acting in 2009. Ashley changed her mind in 2012 as she and Mary-Kate decided to retire from acting to focus on fashion. In 2007 Mary-Kate and Ashley expressed an interest in producing movies together.

Tory Burch (born June 17, 1966; née Robinson) is an American fashion designer, business woman and philanthropist who was born, raised and educated in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

She attended the Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, PA, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta. After graduation, she moved to New York City, where she began a career working with fashion designers, including Zoran, a Yugoslavian designer. She worked at Harper's Bazaar magazine. She was a copywriter for Polo Ralph Lauren and worked for Vera Wang.

She began a fashion label in February 2004. The label was an immediate success and was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey the following year. The label has stores in several large American cities and has lines that are sold in several upscale specialty department stores. Burch has won several fashion awards for her designs. The company has since grown to 36 stores, four of which are outlet stores in Woodbury Commons, NY; San Marcos, TX; Camarillo, CA; and Orlando, FL Premium Outlets. Her fashion label known as "TRB by Tory Burch"—later as "Tory Burch"—began as a business operation in her Upper East Side apartment and quickly blossomed into free-standing boutiques, now numbering 68. In February 2004, Tory Burch opened a flagship store in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The store was almost completely sold out on the first day. Stories about her and her fashion line have been in a broad spectrum of magazines and newspapers, and in April 2005, Winfrey endorsed her line on The Oprah Winfrey Show.