couture, ready-to-wear, handbags, perfumery, and cosmetics among others).^[1] She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France. Chanel has always specialized in items such as simple suits, dresses, women's pants, and costume jewelry. Coco Chanel's vision was to replace such opulent, sexy pieces with items which conveyed casual elegance. Her designs and creations are timeless, considering that the basic silhouettes have remained consistent from generation to generation. Today, Chanel is most famous for the "little black dress"

2. Gucci

Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence in 1921.^[2]Gucci generated circa € 4.2 billion in revenue worldwide in 2008 according to BusinessWeek magazine and climbed to 41st position in the magazine's annual 2009 "Top Global 100 Brands" chart created byInterbrand.^[3] Gucci is also the biggest-selling Italian brand.^[3] Gucci operates about 278 directly operated stores worldwide (as of September 2009) and it wholesales its products through franchisees and upscale department stores.^[4]From modest beginnings at the end of the nineteenth century, the Gucci^[5][6][7][8] company became one of the world’s most successful manufacturers of high-end leather goods, clothing, and other fashion products. As an immigrant in Paris and then London, working in exclusive hotels, young Guccio Gucci (1881–1953) was impressed with the luxurious luggage he saw sophisticated guests bring with them. Upon returning to his birthplace of Florence, a city distinguished for high-quality materials and skilled artisans, he established a shop in 1920 that sold fine leather goods with classic styling. Although Gucci organized his workrooms for industrial methods of production, he maintained traditional aspects of fabrication. Initially Gucci employed skilled workers in basic Florentine leather crafts, attentive to finishing. With expansion, machine stitching was a production method that supported construction.

3. Armani

Giorgio Armani S.P.A. is an international Italian fashion house that designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, eyewear, cosmetics, and home interiors. The brand markets these products under several, highly specialized sub-labels including Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Emporio Armani, AJ | Armani Jeans, AX | Armani Exchange, Armani Junior, and Armani/Casa. The Armani name has become synonymous with high-fashion and couture worldwide and is considered one of the most prestigious names in the fashion industry. End of year sales for 2005 were $1.69 billion.^[1]

Armani is planning in collaboration with Emaar Properties a chain of luxury hotels and resorts in several big cities including Milan, Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Dubai. The company already operates a range of cafés worldwide, in addition to a bar, restaurant, and nightclub.

4.Prada

The company's merger and purchasing sprees slowed in the 2000s. However, the company signed a loose agreement with Azzedine Alaia. Skin care products in unit doses were introduced in the United States, Japan and Europe in 2000. A 30-day supply of cleansing lotion was marketed at the retail price of US$100. To help pay off debts of over US$850 million, the company planned on listing 30% of the company on the Milan Stock Exchange in June 2001. However, the offering slowed down after a decline in spending on luxury goods in the United States and Japan. In 2001, under the pressure of his bankers, Bertelli sold all of Prada's 25.5% share in Fendi to LVMH. The sale raised only US$295 million.

By 2006, the Helmut Lang, Amy Fairclough, and Jil Sander labels were sold. Jil Sander was sold to the private equity firm Change Capital Partners, which was headed by Luc Vandevelde, the chairman of Carrefour, while the Helmut Lang label is now owned by Japanese fashion company Link Theory. Prada is still recovering from the Fendi debt. More recently, a 45% stake of the Church & Company brand has been sold to Equinox.

According to Fortune, Betelli plans on increasing revenue of the company to US$5 billion by 2010

5. Versace

There are several lines which make up Versace: Atelier Versace, Versace Couture, Versace Jeans Couture, Versace Home Collection, Versus, and Versace Collection. In addition to clothing and accessories, it also operates a hotel, the Palazzo Versace.

Versace Couture, which contains high-end, often handmade apparel, jewelry, watches, fragrances, cosmetics, handbags, shoes, and home furnishings, is the house's main line. Traditionally, this is the only line presented on the runway which is shown during Milan's fashion week, but this has not been strictly the case in recent years.Couture dresses in this line may cost about $10,000 and suits cost approximately $5,000. Donatella Versace directly heads this line and designs a vast amount of the items. The other Versace label named Versace Collection is the second high-end line of the group and is designed toward younger more fashioned people, the logo is discreet and consist in a hollowed V surrounded by the classic Greek frieze or is signed in all word with the word "collection" written smaller in black at the bottom line of the name Versace in hollowed letters or in white. The Versace Sport line was stopped in 2008 due to large counterfacting of this line, damaging the Versace group image.

Versace Jeans Couture, a casual clothing line, focuses on informal clothing and high-end denim and classic Versace print shirts. It is readily available and comparably affordable, but has been discontinued from the United States for the most part. This line is distributed through 56 boutiques and flagship stores, and 1800 multi-brand points of sale, including Internet-based shops. Versace Sport encompassed active wear and accessories. The name was often printed on t-shirts.

6. Valentino

For over forty years Valentino Garavani, known to all simply as Valentino, has been one of the most prominent names in fashion, creating some of the world's most elegant eveningwear and classic designs.

Born in Voghera, Italy, in May 1932, Valentino's childhood interests in fashion, painting and architecture, coupled with an immense talent for drawing, prompted him to study fashion design and French at the Accademia dell Arte in Milan. His success led him to further studies at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, and it was there that Valentino flourished. Moving to Paris to study fashion while still in his teens, Valentino also took up dance lessons and developed a love of French theatre. While still a student, he was awarded a prestigious prize for fashion design by the International Wool Secretariat (a prize that was later won by both Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld). This award led to his being noticed by couturier Jean Desses, at whose fashion house he took up his first design job in 1950.

7. Dior

Christian Dior S.A. (more commonly known as Dior) is a French company which owns the high-fashion clothing producer and retailer Christian Dior Couture, as well as holding 42% of LVMH Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury goods firm.^[3][4] Both Dior and LVMH are controlled and chaired by businessman Bernard Arnault. The Dior label is the namesake of designer Christian Dior who launched the haute couture empire in 1946. Christian Dior Couture, a division of the whole House of Dior, designs and produces some of the world's most coveted haute couture, as well as luxury ready-to-wear fashion, menswear and accessories. Today, Dior operates about 160 boutiques worldwide with plans to open more in the coming years.

8. Marc Jacobs

in recent years, the Marc Jacobs brand has increased the number of boutiques and direct point of service locations. This is evident in the signature list of cities featured in the company's print advertisements (although such adverts do not provide an entirely accurate or exhaustive survey of the brand's retail operations). Some of these branded showrooms present only a certain portion of the company's several brands (The Marc Jacobs Collection, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Little Marc, a children's line). A number of branded boutiques, for instance, feature only the Marc by Marc Jacobs product line.^{[citation needed]} As of May 2008, Marc Jacobs boutiques in the United States include multiple locations in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as well as shops in Boston, Bal Harbour, Las Vegas, Guam, Chicago, Savannah, and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Worldwide, other such stand-alone stores are found in Europe (Paris, London, Madrid, Copenhagen and Moscow), the Middle East (Beirut, Riyadh, Dubai, Kuwait, and Doha), across Japan (multiple locations in Tokyo and Osaka, as well as Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, Sendai, Shizuoka, Nagano, Chiba, Matsuyama, and Tottori), Korea (multiple locations in Seoul) and elsewhere in Asia (multiple locations in Hong Kong and Taipei, as well as Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, and Bangkok). The various ready-to-wear and accessory collections are also widely available at leading department stores around the globe.

9. Fendi

Fendi is an Italian high fashion house best known for its "baguette" handbags. It was launched in 1925 as a fur and leather shop in Rome, but today is a multinational luxury goods brand owned by LVMH. Karl Lagerfeld is the creative director.

10. Dolche and Gubana

Dolce&Gabbana (spelled without spaces, unlike the name of the company) specializes in luxury items influenced more by designers and is more formal and 'timeless', responding to long-term trends rather than seasonal changes^{[citation needed]}. It also sells sunglasses and corrective eyewear, purses, and watches. In February 2010, it was announced that American singer Madonna would design a collection of sunglasses set to be released in May of that year. They also have a set of fragrances for men and women.