Fashion law is an emerging legal specialty that encompasses issues surrounding the arenas of fashion, textile, apparel, luxury, footwear, jewelry, and cosmetics industries from conception to brand protection. Clients in the fashion industry face complex legal and business challenges that can rattle even the best-run organizations. The important work includes safeguarding intellectual property and brand equity of designers, fashion houses, distributors, manufacturers, modeling agencies, retailers, and photographers. Indian IP laws, including The Copyright Act, 1957, The Designs Act, 2000 cover the legal mechanisms necessary to protect the fashion law clients.

Responsibilities and Duties of a Fashion Lawyer  

Fashion attorneys give their valuable suggestions to clients on legal issues including fashion, luxury, footwear, textile, apparel, jewelry, cosmetics industries. They provide guidance in areas like procuring licensing, merchandising distribution, franchising agreement to intellectual property employment; and labor relation issues. They include safety, sustainability, and consumer protection issues. Various aspects of corporate, finance, real estate, tax, and business law also come into play.

Fashion lawyers perform a broad range of duties ranging from forming and dissolving business entities, advising on brand development and protection to drafting and negotiating contracts in arbitrating and litigating trademark, copyright, and other intellectual property issues.

Educational Opportunities 

There are very limited courses for fashion law around the world, not many colleges have launched this course yet. As of now Fordham University, New York, is the only Fashion Law Institute, which came up in late 2010 with the support of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Diane von Furstenberg which have launched the fashion law program in their curriculum. The institute offers J.D. and LL.M. students the opportunity to study fashion-related legal issues.

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The Fashion Law Institute also provides pro bono legal counseling for designers in need. Specialty courses include topics such as Fashion Law, Finance and Fashion Ethics, Sustainability, and Development, as well as Fashion Retail Law and the Fashion Law Practicum. The institute offers a public seminar series for design and legal professionals, as well as a summer intensive course that’s open to both degree and non-degree students.

The University of Milan offers a one-month fashion law course to students every year in the month of July. The course curriculum offers a wide range of subjects to choose in the fashion law course comprising Intellectual property, Financing; and Corporate Structures, Manufacturing, Marketing, Retail, Ethics & Sustainability & Economic Development, International Trade, and Modelling law.

Also, there are some universities in the United Kingdom which do not offer fashion law as a separate course but they have a subject within intellectual property law that focuses on fashion law.

The reason for the growth of Fashion Law

Nowadays, fashion law is gaining momentum as there are a lot of instances of design piracy as a result of which pirated products can be seen in the market all over the globe. For example, copied dresses and accessories of renowned designers such as Elle Saab, Sabyasachi, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Jimmy Choo are few which could be seen in the market at a very low price. Few instances of copied products were also seen to be worn by bollywood celebrities in the year 2019. Recently, Shweta Nandan, daughter of the famous bollywood personality Mr. Amitabh Bhachan launched her own fashion line and one of her clothing design was an exact copy of a T-shirt that is sold by the brand TL Room. In October 2019, Michelle Obama was caught in an ASOS knockoff of a Diane Von Furstenberg Fall 2011 frock. With the increasing rate of such cases, fashion law has become essential in the field of textile, footwear, accessories, and many more to protect the design legally and give the appropriate advice in the given case.

How to break into the field of Fashion Law?

Today, very few law firms specialize in the area of fashion law in India. You can potentially intern with one of the law firms that specialize in fashion law or works with fashion clients. Taking courses in fashion law, intellectual property, business and finance, international trade, government regulation, and consumer culture can also provide a foundation that might boost your chances of employment in this specialty. Interning to assist in providing pro bono legal services to the fashion community is another way to gain contacts and related experience.

Career Opportunities

Once you complete a full-time JD or LLM course or a diploma in fashion law you can apply for jobs in various sectors as mentioned below:

• Law Firms:

A growing number of law firms and consulting firms are focusing on fashion law, given the increasing demand for transactional, contractual, and litigation services. In this sector, more preference is given to people with experience.

• Fashion Houses:

Fashion lawyers are particularly valuable as in-house counsels given the specific nature of this business sector which requires legal professionals with multidisciplinary expertise and an understanding of complex legal issues at the national, trans-national, and international levels. Fashion designers seek consultation in protecting their designs in clothes, accessories such as trademark, copyright, and also seeks help in getting their work patented.

•Textile, jewelry, hi-tech industries:

The launch of fashion products involves several steps and a wide range of activities often performed by different suppliers and partners that may entail intricate contract negotiations, shared responsibility for transportation and distribution, protection of copyright, and patent rights.

The fashion law industry is a newly emerging arena of law with ample opportunities for law students and lawyers interested in the field. It is a fresh arena for lawyers to step into the fashion world and bring their legal expertise to the table.

  – Authored by Shreya Gupta, Head – Department of Fashion Law, Legal Desire