11.   According to Marquez, fashion companies are giving importance to extreme sports because the athletes have become somewhat of role models for the younger generation.

12.   Buy a large-size dress with a credit card, and you may wind up receiving a hefty number of catalogs from large-size fashion companies.

13.   Carl Williams, the designer who uses the name Karl Kani, is quickly moving to leverage his popularity in hip-hop clothing into a multifaceted fashion company.

14.   Charles Henry Waeckerle III, a vice president of Oscar de la Renta Ltd., the New York fashion company, died Wednesday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.

15.   Coach is evolving from a maker of classic handbags to a fashion company offering leather clothing, shoes, jewelry, watches, scarves and more.

16.   Department stores are putting more pressure on fashion companies to assume a greater share of the risk for selling their products, helping to guarantee profits for the store.

17.   Enrique Martinez, a new fashion company from Mexico, will be opening its doors on Madison Avenue this summer.

18.   Even large, publicly held fashion companies have not been immune, and their share prices have suffered this year.

19.   Fashion companies, too, have looked outside their ranks for designers to bolster their lines.

20.   Fashion companies are becoming familiar in Washington.