[1][2] It provides information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the men's and women's fashion, beauty, and retail industries.

Its readership is made up largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers, marketers, financiers, media executives, advertising agencies, socialites, and trend makers.

[4] The newspaper famously sparred with Hubert de Givenchy,[4][10] Cristóbal Balenciaga,[10] John Weitz,[4][10] Azzedine Alaia,[10] Perry Ellis,[10] Yves Saint Laurent,[2] Giorgio Armani,[2][4][10] Bill Blass,[4][10] Geoffrey Beene (four times – the first over Lynda Bird Johnson's White House wedding dress design which Beene promised to keep secret until the wedding day,[11] and later over the size of an ad in another of Fairchild's publications; Beene's allowing a rival publication to photograph his home; and a WWD reporter Beene did not like),[2][10] James Galanos,[10] Mollie Parnis,[10] Oscar de la Renta,[10] and Norman Norell (who was demoted from "Fashion Great" to "Old Master" in the journal's pages),[2] among others.

"[12] When designer Pauline Trigère, who had been excluded from the paper for three years, took out a full-page advertisement protesting the ban in the fashion section of a 1988 New York Times Magazine, it was believed to be the first widely distributed counterattack on Fairchild's policy.

[15] In November 2010, WWD celebrated its 100th anniversary at the Cipriani in New York, with some of the fashion industry's leading experts including designers Alber Elbaz, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors.

[17] The purchase by PMC included WWD's sister publications Footwear News, Menswear, M Magazine, and Beauty Inc as well as Fairchild's events business for a sale price close to $100 million.