Fashion law deals with legal issues that impact the fashion industry. Fundamental issues in fashion law include

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

, business, and finance, with subcategories ranging from employment and labor law to real estate, international trade, and government regulation. Fashion law also includes related areas such as textile production, modelling, media, the

cosmetics Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...

and

perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

industries, questions of safety and

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

dress code A dress code is a set of rules, often written, with regard to what clothing groups of people must wear. Dress codes are created out of social perceptions and norms, and vary based on purpose, circumstances, and occasions. Different societies an ...

s and religious apparel, consumer culture, privacy and wearable tech, and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

. Clothing laws varies by country.

History

Fashion has long been subject to legal regulation throughout history, from sumptuary laws that limit who can wear certain garments to trade restrictions and varying degrees of intellectual property protection. However, fashion law was not conceived as a distinct legal field until the mid- to late-2000s. In May 2004, a group of French lawyers led by Annabelle Gauberti published
supplement entitled "Droit du luxe"
(which translates into either "law of

luxury goods In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...

" or "luxury law") in the prestigious French legal magazine ''Revue Lamy Droit des Affaires''
This supplement
explored specific legal and tax issues at stake in the fashion and luxury goods sectors and was one of the earliest analyses of the interactions between the legal field and the fashion and luxury goods industries. Professor

Susan Scafidi Susan Scafidi is an American lawyer, legal scholar, advocate, nonprofit executive, and commentator. The first professor to offer a formal course on fashion law at a U.S. law school, she is the founder and president of the Fashion Law Institute, ...

offered the first course in Fashion Law at

Fordham Law School Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. In 2013, 91% of the law school's first-time test tak ...

in 2006, thus creating a new field of legal study. At the same time, Fashion Law courses for designers were developed by Guillermo Jimenez at the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college in New York City. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) and focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It ...

and Deborah McNamara at

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

. In 2008, Scafidi wrote that fashion law was only then starting to be recognized as a distinct area of law., p. 8. In 2010, the world's first academic centre dedicated to fashion law, the Fashion Law Institute, launched with the support of Diane von Furstenberg and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Since then a number of other institutions around the world have offered courses or programs in the area of fashion law. These include the University of Milan, the

University of Insubria The University of Insubria ( it, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria) is an Italian university located in Como and Varese, with secondary locations in Busto Arsizio and Saronno. It was founded in 1998, it has been named after the area where it i ...

, the Instituto Brasileiro de Negócios e Direito da Moda, University at Buffalo Law School,

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. p ...

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, the Fashion Law Project at Loyola Law School, the Moda Hukuku Enstitusu in Turkey, the annual Fashion Law Week at Howard University, and McGill University Faculty of Law. Fashion law has also developed into an established field of practice and study. In 2010, designer-turned-lawyer Brittany Rawlings led the first Fashion Law practice group dedicated entirely to issues that arise throughout the life of a fashion business. The

New York City Bar Association The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

has had a dedicated Fashion Law Committee since January 2011, and the New York County Lawyer's Association has had a Fashion Law Subcommittee since September 2011. While double-digit turnover growth is being generated by many companies involved in the fashion and luxury goods sectors, an increasing number of lawsuits are filed in this industry, and more legal practitioners are focusing their practice on this particular industry and sector. The international association of lawyers for the creative industries (ialci) was founded in 2013 during Paris Fashion Week. The goal of the association is to provide relevant, useful business and legal knowledge and solutions regarding the creative industries, including fashion and luxury goods.

Segments of Fashion Law

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property protection has been a substantial legal concern in fashion since the emergence of fashion brands in the 19th century. It has been the subject of congressional debate, multiple academic articles, and the first fashion law blog, as well as a major exhibit at the

Museum in New York. Key issues include: *the scope of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

protection, *

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

infringement and

counterfeit goods Counterfeit consumer goods (or counterfeit and fraudulent, suspect items - CFSI) are goods, often of inferior quality, made or sold under another's brand name without the brand owner's authorization. Sellers of such goods may infringe on eith ...

, *utility

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s, particularly in connection with advances in technology, *the use of design patents as an alternative or supplement to copyright protection, and *comparative international standards. A prominent related issue has been

cultural appropriation Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from ...

, such as the use of Native American or religious designs by commercial fashion brands.

Financing and Corporate Structures

Fashion law encompasses the broad spectrum of issues pertinent to starting and funding a fashion business, such as: *the widespread use of factoring, *the influx of

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

investment, and *

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

s by major fashion brands.

Manufacturing

Legal issues in the production of clothing and accessories include: *worker safety and other labor practices, *garment district zoning, and *source indication.

Marketing

Legal issues addressed in connection with marketing include: *labelling requirements, *licensing, and *deceptive advertising.

Retail

Legal issues connected with the retail environment include: *consumer data privacy and the security of credit card information, *discrimination based on racial profiling, and *real-estate leasing and ownership.

Ethics, Sustainability, and Economic Development

Concerns pertaining to fashion ethics, sustainability and economic development have had a substantial impact on the industry, affecting both the legal framework and self-regulation initiatives. Important issues have included: *organic certification, *

greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims ...

, *supply-chain monitoring and certification standards (including the

Higg Index The Higg Index is an apparel and footwear industry self-assessment standard to rate environmental and social sustainability throughout the supply chain. It was launched in 2012 by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), a nonprofit organization of ...

and

SA8000 The SA8000 Standard is an auditable certification standard that encourages organizations to develop, maintain, and apply socially acceptable practices in the workplace. It was developed in 1989 by Social Accountability International, formerly the C ...

certification), *the regulation of digitally altered images, *fair trade fashion, and *the impact of philanthropic initiatives and clothing donation programs.

International Trade

In addition to the international implications of issues noted above, fashion law also addresses other matters connected to international business transactions, including: *grey market goods, *import and export quotas, *transfer pricing taxation, and *customs duties.

Modelling Law

The legal status of models has become a prominent issue in fashion law, as exemplified by: *The regulation of models' weight in places, such as Madrid, Milan, and Israel; *New York's enactment of a statute giving underage models protection under the state's child labor law; *antitrust enforcement in relation to model pay-rates; and *efforts to curb fashion-related human trafficking.

References

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