Thanks to its creative director, Alessandro Michele, Gucci's sales and reputation reached new heights in 2016. For a closer look at the brand's eventful, standout year, we decided to break it down. Consider this your month-by-month guide to what it takes to reach it-brand status.

With more U.S. retailers carrying South Korean skincare and makeup imports, and beauty brands increasingly plucking ideas from the range, K-beauty’s U.S. reach extends far beyond the tutorials and shelfies of beauty junkies. In fact, it’s gone mainstream.

Today, models’ Instagram photos and follower counts are referred to often, by everyone from casting directors wondering about their personalities to brand executives looking to align themselves with influential talent. In short, they’re commonly the catalyst for models’ biggest deals.

Michael Kors is currently on a rocky road to top-tier luxury brand status. Last week—during its second quarter fiscal 2017 earnings results announcement—it announced how it plans to continue elevating its reputation.

Racks of ready-to-wear at fashion retailers will soon be joined by rows of beauty products. Fashion retailers like H&M and Primark have begun expanding their merchandise offerings in order to become more “specialty,” and adding beauty into the mix is part of the move. The transition plays into the industry’s widespread...

Conventional wisdom says collaborations between top-tier designers and mass-market retailers are the latest indications of democratization of fashion — but it might be the opposite. A closer look reveals that the goal of many of these partnerships is not typically “fashion for all.” Instead, they foster exclusivity, and they typically end...