In a world challenged by COVID-19 lockdowns and other political struggles and ethical concerns, the fashion industry is united in our search for new business strategies. How can fashion designers and businesses protect themselves amidst a global recession? What does the revision of the fashion calendar mean for sales cycles, and should the industry be setting a common calendar at all? What are the best ways for fashion brands and media outlets to address diversity and inclusion? Is sustainability sustainable when companies are struggling to survive? This special event co-hosted with the Fashion Law Institute will explore how fashion professionals and companies can adapt to these and other emerging challenges, with speakers including Professors Susan Scafidi and Jeff Trexler along with other industry guests.
SUSAN SCAFIDI
Is the first professor ever to offer a course in Fashion Law, and she is internationally recognised for her leadership in establishing the field. She has testified regarding the proposed extension of legal protection to fashion designs and continues to work actively with members of the U.S. Congress and the fashion industry on this and other issues. Her additional areas of expertise encompass property, intellectual property, cultural property, international law, and legal history.
Professor Scafidi founded and directs the Fashion Law Institute, the world’s first centre dedicated to the law and business of fashion. A non-profit organization located at Fordham Law School, the Fashion Law Institute was established with the generous support and advice of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and its president, Diane von Furstenberg. Prior to teaching at Fordham, Professor Scafidi was a tenured member of both the law and history faculties at SMU, and she has taught at a number of other schools, including Yale, Georgetown, and Cardozo. After graduating from Duke University and the Yale Law School, she pursued graduate study in legal history at Berkeley and the University of Chicago and clerked for a distinguished legal historian, Judge Morris S. Arnold of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Professor Scafidi is the author of Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law (2005), as well as articles in the areas of intellectual property, cultural property, and of course fashionlaw. She is currently writing a book to be published by Yale University Press. In addition, she has spoken to legal, design, and academic audiences around the globe and has contributed commentary to hundreds of media reports on issues related to law and the fashion industry. Professor Scafidi also created and maintains the first website on fashion law, Counterfeit Chic, which has been recognized as one of the American Bar Association’s top 100 blogs.
JEFF TREXLER
Co-Founder, Moda Legal, and Associate Director, Fashion Law Institute Jeff Trexler teaches the Fashion Ethics, Sustainability, and Development course at Fordham University School of Law. He is an attorney and consultant whose clients include fashion brands, nonprofits, and social ventures. He has worked with organizations around the world on issues ranging from tax exemption and corporate compliance to intellectual property and communications strategy. His publications address a wide range of topics, including complexity theory and social enterprise, business ethics, copyright, and more.
Trexler previously served as a chaired professor and executive director of the Wilson Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Pace University and taught nonprofit organizations at Yale, SMU and Saint Louis University. Trexler holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in American Religious History from Duke University.
This webinar will take place on June 25, 4pm
Image credit @alexandrasipa
