Towards a Jurisprudence of Fashion
Susan Scafidi*
Introduction

  The full text of this Introduction may be found here.

29 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media &Ent. L.J. 429 (2019).

Introduction by Susan Scafidi

People nowadays are so absolutely superficial
that they don’t understand the philosophy of the
superficial . . . . A well-tied tie is the first
serious step in life.

With this, the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media, and Entertainment Law Journal’s first issue dedicated to fashion law, an emerging legal field takes one more step out of the closet and
into the mainstream of legal academia.

After my research began late in the last millennium, defining fashion law as a serious academic discipline and calling for its recognition via a blog, Counterfeit Chic, and other avenues, Fordham was the law school that gave me the opportunity to teach the world’s first Fashion Law course. Then, in 2010, Fordham became the site for our launch of the Fashion Law Institute. Two master’s degrees in fashion law, a ten-course curriculum, dozens of public programs, and hundreds of designers assisted through our Fashion Law Pop-Up Clinic later, the Law School and the Institute are known worldwide as the epicenter of the still-growing fashion law movement. The publication of scholarly articles is equally important to fashion law’s development, and this special issue is a vital contribution to the field.

*Founder and Director, Fashion Law Institute, a nonprofit organization headquartered at Fordham University School of Law and the world’s first academic center dedicated to the law and business of fashion. Thanks to the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Greenwood and the journal staff for their groundbreaking commitment to this project; the contributing authors; and my esteemed colleague, Fashion Law Institute Associate Director, Jeff Trexler.