This week's 41 Madison newsletter shows the new Royal Doulton tableware line from Monique Lhuillier. This same page shows Vera Wang's designs for Wedgwood. Since more than 60% of formal china sales come from bridal registries, tabletop companies are smart to partner with wedding dress designers. I imagine if the industry hits harder times the smart players will continue to seek partnerships with wedding designers, celebrity wedding planners, etc., etc. Anything to get their tableware ahead of the others.
On a side note, Royal Doulton's website is an embarrassment to the company. It's amateurish. The Monique Lhuillier subsite doesn't even work in Safari's browser on a Mac computer. Macs account for 10% of computers in the U.S., and 50% of student (aka aspiring brides') computers.