All the world loves a good story and we found a lot of them when we set about to write the history of the great fashion houses of the world. Like the fact that Mario Prada had a personal policy of never letting the female members of his family into his work area. Now that is funny because his business only succeeded into the 21st Century because the women in his family put it into the stratosphere!

We knew ahead of time that Donna Karan was a celebrity, but we did not know that Maui Jim was a parrot!

We did not know that the California-based Costa del Mar Sunglass company has a big patriotic streak. Each year they treat military veterans to a day on the water fishing by sponsoring The American Veterans Fish Off in Florida. That makes us like them more!

We didn't know that the folks who make Police Sunglasses also have a line named Sting, but is the musician connected to the company? No! Antonio Banderas, George Clooney and David Beckham are, but not Sting.

We did not realize how many current fashion designers had their apprentices working under so many other fashion designers. What a world, so full of minefields! A quick example is that Yves St Laurent labored under Christian Dior in France.

We could not have imagined that a single pair of sunglasses were sold at auction for over $70,000 US! Imagine! They belonged to the American movie actor Steve McQueen, but you will have to read our article to find out who was the manufacturer!

We did not know that the Oakley Sunglasses company was named after the owner's dog! You'll have t read the article to find out what breed of dog that "Oakley" was. You'll never guess.

We did not know that at one time the owner of Oakley, Jim Jannard was friends with one of the founders of Nike, Phil Knight. They are not friends now, we hear. We don't write about that in our article, but you can look around yourself to find out about it if it interests you.

You hear names of companies all the time, fashion houses included, but unless you are in the fashion industry or follow the high fashion worlds of Paris, Milan, London, Madrid or New York, you may not be familiar with the real people behind the names of the companies. Pictured below are the real guys behind Dolce & Gabbana.