In a non-descript workshop in Asnières-sur-Seine, a quiet suburb just northwest of Paris, a Toile Monogram-covered metallic case meant to house a 36 centimeter trophy has been in production. The workspace belongs to Louis Vuitton, and the one of a kind carrying case – the official World Cup Trophy Travel case – is destined for Moscow. It is one of between 450 and 600 special orders – "the most exceptional requests" – that the LVMH-owned brand accepts each year.

Raissa Gerona's Instagram account is jam-packed full of imagery of her dining alongside Chiara Ferragni in Milan, partying at the Ritz Paris with Julie Sarinana and Negin Mirsalehi, frolicking in front of the Eiffel Tower with Belen Hostalet, or at Coachella with Kaia Gerber, on a beach in Spain with Chriselle Lim and Camila Coelho, and sitting poolside in the Hamptons amongst a bevy of influencers, whose collective follower count almost tops 30 million. 

While just about every brand from Ikea and Nike to Rimowa wants to adorn their products with the coveted Off-White striped logo (or quotation marks), there is one company that wants no part of the hype that comes with Virgil Abloh’s buzzy label: Helly Hansen. The Norwegian sportswear brand, which maintains a headquarters in Auburn, Washington, filed suit against Off-White this week in federal court in Illinois, alleging that the brand is intentionally infringing the stripe mark that it began using – and has consistently used – in the U.S. more than 40 years ago.

Believe it or not, the number of officially-filed sexual harassment complaints hit a two-decade low in 2017. In the midst of the #MeToo movement, which has brought to light alleged wrongdoing by film executive Harvey Weinstein, Guess co-founder and CEO Paul Marciano, famed photographers Terry Richardson, Patrick Demarchelier, and Bruce Weber, American Apparel founder Dov Charney, and many others, “the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and its state-level counterparts received just over 9,600 complaints in 2017,” according to data obtained by Bloomberg. That is down from the more than 16,000 complaints received in 1997.

Chanel tops a new ranking that aimed to gauge brand equity, including expertise and emotional connection with consumers. According to the Luxury Institute’s annual “Emotionally Intelligent Brand Index,” Chanel beat out Christian Dior, Gucci, Hermès, and Saint Laurent, among other brands, in connection with a survey of over 1,200 individual with a minimum of $150,000 annual household income. Fellow Paris-based brand Louis Vuitton nabbed the second-place spot on the Luxury Institute’s list.

The appeal of a Chanel product goes far beyond the product itself, the Paris-based brand alleges in a recently-filed lawsuit. Chanel, which made headlines early this month when it revealed its nearly $10 billion in annual revenue, is alleging in suit filed early this month in a Brooklyn federal court alleging that Ryan Ladijinsky, the individual behind a number of eBay accounts, is selling hundreds of fragrance and beauty products bearing Chanel’s trademarks.

Amazon is being sued … again. This time, the Seattle-based e-commerce company is being accused of trademark infringement by upscale bedding company The Comphy, which claims in the compliant it filed last week in a federal court in Illinois, that Amazon is running afoul of the law by allegedly providing search results for "inferior third-party sheets" when consumers search on its platform for terms like "comph" and "comphy.”

Remember Romeo Gigli, the Italian designer who, as the New York Times put it, “almost single-handedly revived a taste for elegant, architectural clothes when he started his company in 1983”? Recall the designer who was “poised to become fashion's great game-changer: the Armani of the 1990s” and who many of today’s most renowned names routinely look to for inspiration? Well, even if you do not, someone does, and that someone has been actively amassing rights in the long-lost fashion designer’s name across the globe. 

Consumer goods, including handbags, are on a new list of items that will likely be taxed in furtherance of Donald Trump’s trade war with China. Following from announcements this spring by the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) that the U.S will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, as well as an additional 1,300 products, a new list of proposed tariffs on Chinese goods, ones with a value of $200 billion, has been released by the USTR in the midst of a trade war centering on China’s alleged theft of American technology.

In May, Christie’s brought in $5.5 million in sales by way of an action in Hong Kong. Unlike its usual offerings of impressionist paintings or “exceptional jewels,” this one was different. All but a very small number of the nearly 220 lots that went up for sale were Hermés bags – mostly Birkins and Kellys, with bidding for more than a few of the bags topping $100,00. A Géranium Porosus Crocodile Diamond Birkin 35 with 18k gold accents sold for $120,074, a rare Matte Black Niloticus Crocodile So Black Birkin 30 for $176,108.