A Fashion Law Dinner Party with Fashion by Felicia

AI is changing fashion and Fashion Law. Designers are increasingly using AI as a design tool. Founders are considering whether they should be AI companies that produce fashion, instead of fashion companies that happen to use AI. Attorneys are using AI to practice court arguments, stress-testing their strategies and imagining what questions judges may ask. AI is now a key retail partner, with GAP rolling out agentic commerce. But what about fashion lawyers - how are AI tools useful for them? Can AI help stop counterfeits as much as create dupes, for example? In this episode we explore the...

The exhibition, Giorgio Armani. Milano Per Amore at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, Italy opened shortly after the Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s death in September 2025. The exhibition was planned closely with Mr. Armani, in collaboration with the Giorgio Armani Foundation, and with Mr. Armani’s team. What is the origin story of this exhibition? How did it come about and what can other fashion designers learn from this collaboration between the Pinacoteca and Mr. Armani? How do we value the emotional impact of Mr. Armani’s legacy, and the preservation of Mr. Armani's legacy through the Giorgi...

This year’s Met Gala, with the dress code “Fashion is Art”, celebrated The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s exhibition “Costume Art”. As the official description notes, the “exhibition explores depictions of the dressed body across The Met’s vast collection, pairing garments with artworks to reveal the inherent relationship between clothing and the body.” The Met Gala isn't just a celebration of an exhibit, however - it's the best Fashion Law hypo! In this episode, we take a law and humanities approach to the 2026 Met Gala looks with Maria Sole Costanzo, Assistant Professor of Italian at Boston College. Ho...

20 years ago The Devil Wears Prada took us behind the scenes of the job a million girls would kill for. In this episode, looking forward toThe Devil Wears Prada 2 ,we focus on the job a million fashion law students would kill for - an in house counsel position at a major fashion brand. Ava Farshidi, the Global In-House Counsel at Marc Jacobs, shares how she landed a job in-house as a confident law student by networking and building a book of contacts. We also get a behind the scenes look at what legal issues most often cross Ava's desk...

On January 14, 2026, the fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni was cleared of criminal charges in Milan, Italy. The charges stemmed from what has been known as "Pandoro-gate", a campaign Ferragni created in collaboration with the Italian brand Balocco to promote an Italian Christmas cake in pink with Ferragni's logos. The specifics of the case were complex, and included a number of actors and forums, from administrative fines, to public regulatory bodies and non-profits, consumers, and a public prosecution. Why was this case such a flashpoint in Italy? What is the difference between the fines Ferragni paid to regulatory authorities in Italy...

This holiday season you're like seeing celebrities and influencers collaborate with brands in an attempt to secure your purchase of the perfect branded holiday present. Brands take advantage of the celebrity connections and visual references we have in our consumer minds. The collaboration contract is the main legal document that cements the duties and obligations of both brands and talent for the holiday marketing campaigns we see today. Who owns intellectual property rights when a fashion brand collaborates with a celebrity? How did models negotiate fees for their appearance in social media posts, before social media marketing exploded? How...

New York Fashion Week, and Milan Fashion Week, spotlight new fashion collections but, also, new and recognized faces - the models who wear the clothing and help to create the glamorous lifestyle and aura that brands sell to their consumers. Not all modeling work is glamorous, however, especially if a model finds herself (or himself) at a disadvantage under the contract they have signed with their modeling management agency. To solve the incongruence and opaqueness of modeling contracts and the often problematic conditions in which models work and labor, organizations like Model Alliance in New York and Fashion in...

Have you ever wondered what it takes to put a deal together between a major fashion brand and a creative? How to prepare for a meeting with a luxury conglomerate as an emerging brand's executive? How to define value in fashion between creative outputs and financial bottom lines? In this summer Fashion Law Dinner Party, we speak with Christopher Rucker, a fashion industry executive with experience as Chief Revenue Officer at the streetwear brand Sp5der, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the luxury brand Pyer Moss, and currently the Principal of the strategic consulting group TwoSixTwoOne. Listen...

For fashion lawyers and scholars, the Met Gala is a dream hypothetical. This year, it was even more so thanks to the Gala's theme "Tailored to You" and the exhibition the Gala celebrated, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. A celebration of black fashion heritage and black cultural heritage, the looks on the blue carpet raised legal questions. How does the Zoot Suit, a core part of the historic concept of a dandy, spur creativity in fashion thanks to its status as part of the public domain? Can we spot separable elements of Rosalía's dress? What was functional and what w...

What would dupes, authentic fakes, or conceptual fashion that riffs on trademarks and their messages be without the designers who make and create this fashion? In Part II of this Fashion Law Dinner Party we speak with Professor Abigail Glaum-Lathbury from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago about her Project G.U.C.C.I - the Genuine Unauthorized Clothing Clone Institute. “[A] visual primer into copyright and intellectual property law and illustrate systems of exclusion and hegemony.”, Project G.U.C.C.I serves as a starting point for a broader, unvarnished conversation about the fashion syst...

Dupes - fake or replica products that may or may not be legal to produce and sell- seem to be everywhere. Between the "Wirkin", Dupes.com, and beauty dupes, it seems that many consumers are eager to prioritize value by buying "fakes" over brand loyalty and, perhaps, brands' heritage. But, is there a hidden authenticity to buying a fake, a replica, a dupe, of a Birkin bag or similar fashion or luxury product? What is the difference between a knockoff, a dupe, a fake, and other more specific legal terms like a counterfeit? And what role, and potential legal...

A Fashion Law Dinner Party focused on food and fashion has to have sustainability as a main topic of conversation. To discover the important role that sustainability plays in the food and fashion industries, we travel to Il Borro in Tuscany. A historic medieval village, a hamlet, which, today, preserves tradition, culture and sustainability in the heart of Tuscany as a place of luxurious hospitality, Il Borro is run by a part of the Ferragamo family, including Vittoria Ferragamo, Il Borro's Sustainability Manager. We speak with Vittoria about Il Borro's stewardship of the land on which it sits, the...

In the first Fashion Law Dinner Party of 2025, inspired by your New Year's resolutions related to food, we concentrate on the heritage and legal aspects of food and fashion collaborations. How can a fashion brand identity’s match a food product? Can trademark rights in a fashion logo applied to leather goods, and clothing, be expanded to food products as a new category of goods? What about place and a brand’s heritage - are there links to certain territories that can help communicate the authenticity of a fashion brand’s food products to consumers? The dinner party conversation starts...

While exploring film and fashion inspired places to visit in Rome and the Italian State's preservation and support of Cinecittà in the first part of this episode, some questions were raised about Italian fashion and Italian film's common origins in early 20th century Italy. Exploring the origins of Italian fashion and film raises complex notions like sprezzatura , a Renaissance concept most recently embodied on screen in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar winning movie, La Grande Bellezza. In this episode, we speak to Eugenia Paulicelli, a Professor of Italian, Comparative Literature and Women’s Studies at Queens College and The Graduate Cente...

Two central questions over the holidays include what to wear and what classic movie to watch. In many movies, fashion plays an important role, helping the characters express their identities and narrative arcs. The law also plays a role in films with celebrated fashion moments. Take "Roman Holiday". The ending of this 1950s classic with the fashion icon Audrey Hepburn likely would not have been possible without the rules of copyright law. If Irving had not had the right to effectively gift the images of Princess Anne/Anya's adventures in Rome, with the negatives, to her at the press...

As part of a series of conversations devoted to source communities, this episode travels to London and Naples to spotlight the global reach of the Neapolitan sartorial tradition and one heritage brand in particular, E. Marinella. In this episode we speak with Ben Allen, the President of Marinella USA and the Director of Marinella UK, who looks after Marinella's products (from scarves to ties worn by King Charles and more silk accessories) in the world. We discuss the history of Marinella as a historic Neapolitan brand, the vibrant retail environment that still exists in its original store in Naples...

Fashion benefits from a number of source communities, communities from whom cultural practices, traditional knowledge and even artisanship and designs themselves originate. In this Fashion Law Dinner Party we begin an extended exploration of the source communities that shape the fashion products we buy today, and even the designers and Creative Directors fashion brands hire. In this episode we speak with fashion scholar Michelle McVicker whose research, scholarship, and work as a cultural heritage professional, explores Latinx fashion. How are Latinx fashion designers building their heritage into the fashion products they design today? What can we learn about Latinx...

Following our dinner party with Professor Cathay Smith and a discussion about the fashion law ramifications of reproducing the American flag on clothing and using the American flag as part of fashion expressions, we turn to examining American fashion and style with archivists and fashion historians. What makes American style? What are the origins of an American fashion brand logo? What role does nostalgia have in our conceptions of American fashion heritage? During this Fashion Law Dinner Party we delve deep into the Tommy Hilfiger Archive with Becca Love, Senior Brand Archivist and Brand Historian at Tommy Hilfiger. We...

Having discovered the art, history, and culture of Paris, and its relevance for fashion, the second part of our Parisian Fashion Law Dinner Party turns to French Fashion Law. There is a myth that France extends more legal protection to fashion designs than the U.S. through French copyright law. Is this true? We talk to Laurine Janin-Reynaud, an IP attorney with TAoMA Partners based in Paris, about this legal myth, and more French legal claims, from parasitism to trademark dilution and even the concept of ambush marketing. After exploring intellectual property law's application to fashion in France, we...

Paris has been characterized as the capital of fashion. But what makes Paris so important for fashion, especially for the preservation of fashion's past? How do art and fashion meet in Paris and affect our perceptions of what counts as French fashion heritage? In the first part of this Parisian Fashion Law Dinner Party, we speak to Anya Firestone, the creator of premiere luxury cou-tours in Paris and the founder of Maison Firestone, to discover the rich interconnectivity between art, history, and culture in the French fashion capital.

A central symbol of an American summer is the American flag. With the 4th of July, we find more and more fashion featuring the American flag. But the American flag can also be a part of brands' heritage and identities. Why can artists and fashion designers alike reinterpret the flag and make their own prints or patterns with the flag? Are there any laws that actually circumscribe the use of the American flag? In this episode, we speak to Professor Cathay Smith, a copyright, art law, and cultural heritage law expert at Chicago-Kent College of Law, about these questions...

For fashion lawyers and scholars, the Met Gala is a dream hypothetical. What parts of a Met Gala dress might be conceptually separable under copyright law? What additions within reproductions inspired by the archives are original? How might we balance the preservation of antique fabric with a desire to upcycle that fabric into a new gown? These are just some of the issues Felicia Caponigri explores during this dinner party with her colleague Lucrezia Palandri, a fashion law scholar based between Florence and Como, Italy.

Securing a position in-house, especially with a luxury conglomerate, is often at the top of aspiring fashion lawyers’ career goals. But how can you move in-house and, once you arrive at this dream destination, what do your day-to-day responsibilities look like? In this episode, we speak to Viola Bardi, Legal Manager at Kering Eyewear, about her career in Milan and explore how she incorporates heritage and even the concept of iconic into her legal practice in house.

Partnering with culture and supporting heritage doesn’t just benefit a brand’s reputation. Partnerships between fashion and cultural institutions can also benefit a fashion brand’s bottom line. Over dessert, we speak with Giuseppe Abatista, an Italian attorney, tax specialist, and Ferragamo’s own Tax Consultant, about his experience negotiating agreements for the restoration of cultural properties and more between cultural institutions in Florence and the Ferragamo brand.

What makes a great partnership between a fashion brand and a cultural institution? In this episode we explore the legal and ethical standards and rules that frame presentations of fashion as part of our wider culture. The presentation of fashion’s cultural significance often happens in a museum, but it can also happen in a public space, like a piazza, where so many fashion shows are staged, or even on a red carpet. During the appetizer and main courses of our dinner party, we speak to Dr. Valerie Steele, the Director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Te...

As fashion accessories go digital, one of the main issues is how to categorize these born digital objects into traditional IP boxes like trademark and copyright. Things can get even more complicated when artists and fashion brands collide in our blurred universe of commerce and culture. What is a trademark use anyway? Can an artist use a trademark in their work or can’t they? Join me for our coffee and dessert course as we speak to Mark McKenna, Vice Dean of Faculty & Intellectual Life Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy at...

Just as fashion is increasingly going digital, so is fashion heritage. Fashion’s past isn’t just available through archives behind closed doors- it can also be just a click away. But making fashion heritage digital may not be easy. Join us for our first and second courses of this fashion law dinner party as we speak to Natalie Nudell, a Professor at FIT, about her creation of the Fashion Calendar Research Database which uses innovative technologies like AI to make information about fashion weeks scheduled by Ruth Finley from 1941 to 2014 available to all.

You might have noticed a word that is increasingly present in commercials, in your inbox, and on your social media feed: iconic. What does iconic mean in fashion? How do brands use iconic and do consumers use iconic in the same way? Can the recognition that a product is “iconic” increase IP rights for brands in the product’s design or name?

With Jessica Barber, Calvin Klein’s Historian and Senior Archivist, we discuss the word iconic in fashion and in the Calvin Klein universe. And Eleonora Rosati, Of Counsel at Bird & Bird and a Professor of Intellec...

We end our conversation about the value of archival designs for fashion design and for IP rights in fashion back in New York with Tianni Graham, the Senior Archivist for Thom Browne. We talk about how the Thom Browne archive and design team work together, the archive’s role in the celebrations for Thom Browne’s 20th anniversary, and about Tianni’s own career path, including her time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art working with Celia Hartmann.

During the second course, we travel to Italy and London to delve deeper into the preservation of archival items by fashion brands, including fashion designs and other corporate ephemera. Our first guest Stefania Ricci, the Director of the Museo Ferragamo and of the Fondazione Ferragamo, gives us a behind the scenes view of Ferragamo archive, its uses by the brand and its purpose for the public. Matteo Augello, the author of Curating Italian Fashion: Heritage, Industry, Institutions, shares a historical perspective on the value of archives for fashion brands, especially those still operating today in Italy.

Do archival designs increase a fashion brand’s market share? Are archival designs more authentic than other, newer designs for consumers? What challenges and opportunities do archival designs present for brands’ trademarks, their protection, and their scope?

Over the first course of this Fashion Law Dinner Party, we’ll explore how one emerging luxury designer in New York, Sarah Mae Ettinger of MAE, is building her brand, including through collaborations with Scalamandré and their archive. We’ll also talk to Serena Totino, a Senior Associate at K&L Gates, about the value of an archive for the scope of...

Welcome to A Fashion Law Dinner Party! In this episode Felicia Caponigri explains the genesis of the podcast and the inspiration for discussing topics in the fashion design, heritage, and legal space.