Zara

Zara has pulled off the difficult trick of making fast fashion look like high fashion. Designs combine sharp tailoring - even a basic jacket will have a nipped in waist and sexy cut - with feminine details and pretty prints Photograph: PR

Detractors claim Zara rips off designers. Which high street store doesn't? What Zara is brilliant at is turning out designs with a Marni-esque or Prada-lite look without directly copying Photograph: PR

When Zara opened in England, it was the first fashion chain to constantly restock. That has become commonplace but then it was a brilliant new strategy: luring customers back weekly by offering something different on every visit Photograph: PR

The chain has also broken from the fashion pack over collaborations. Where Mango, Topshop and Gap have scrabbled to sign up Kate Moss or Penelope Cruz, Zara has maintained a dignified silence Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

Zara'a parent company Inditex first started in 1963 in the bedroom of chairman Amancio ­Ortega's home in Galicia, northwest Spain, making bathrobes. He hardly ever appears in public and never grants interviews. He has already anointed his 24-year-old daughter Marta Ortega Pérez as heir Photograph: PR

It is frequently claimed Zara can get a new item into stores in just two weeks. Unusually, it makes more than half its clothes at home in Spain. Keeping a tight control of the supply chain means it can get 10,000 new designs a year out in record time Photograph: PR

Uniquely for a mainstream fashion retailer, Zara spends very little on advertising. This is a fascinating strategy - it prefers customers to discover it in store rather than in magazines. Indeed there are stores on some of the world's most exclusive shopping streets - including Fifth Avenue in New York Photograph: PR

Now the group has nearly 3,900 stores in 70 countries around the world, including Casablanca, Morocco, pictured here Photograph: PR

Inditex has managed to branch out to a younger generation with its Bershka brand. This is where rivals have struggled to attract fickle, younger customers Photograph: PR