Once again, it is both an honour and a privilege to edit the ‘Fashion Law Over Borders Comparative Guide’ and work with so many of the world’s foremost fashion and intellectual property lawyers. This third edition now covers 21 jurisdictions and features two Market Insights articles.
In the words of Coco Chanel: “Fashion is not merely clothing but a pervasive, living force that exists in ideas, surroundings and the zeitgeist”. Fashion is a dynamic, highly responsive, globalised industry driven by consumers’ constantly evolving tastes and preferences. For most economies around the globe, the fashion industry is a highly valuable contributor to national turnover. In addition, it is a creative industry capable of reflecting each country’s unique cultural, artistic and folkloristic heritage.
Notwithstanding its pervasive nature, the fashion industry is not without challenges, particularly in the current economic climate. The need for fashion businesses to operate with sustainability, adapt to rapidly changing AI technology and address shifting consumer expectations has led to many new operating practices and stringent new legislative compliance requirements in many jurisdictions around the world.
Changes in the United States trade policies and the introduction of tariffs are causing fashion brands to reconsider sourcing locations. According to the BoF-McKinsey ‘State of Fashion 2026’ report, the word most polled by top fashion business executives this last year was ‘challenging’. Fashion brands know that they need to change and adapt rapidly while remaining agile if they are to ride the current wave of economic volatility.
Fashion law is an amalgamation of different laws rather than a cohesive body of law. This creates a complex interdisciplinary legal landscape for fashion law practitioners and in-house counsel. In Europe and elsewhere new sustainability and greenwashing regulations have been introduced, along with requirements to use ethical and transparent supply chains, due to increasing consumer awareness of environmentally unethical practices and unacceptable labour standards. In the European Union, apparel and footwear brands will face a series of binding legislative sustainability requirements over the next few years, resulting in some necessary changes in product design, changes in how sustainability performance is communicated to consumers, how sustainability data is reported within companies, and how product information is structured and shared.
The world of consumption is forever changed in this emerging era of data-driven technologies. There is a clear shift to ‘direct-to-consumer’ models encouraging more customer engagement and more personalised online shopping experiences. Consumers increasingly rely on agentic AI and chatbots for style tips, virtual ‘try-on’ technology, social media influencer marketing and targeted digital advertising. These factors require companies to ensure that they comply with privacy laws, data protection, and relatively new online advertising laws as well as complying with new transparency regulations around the use of AI.
Another current challenge for the fashion industry is the rise of deepfakes using AI manipulated photographs and videos. These can damage the reputation of brands and their celebrity influencers as well as unaware consumers. Legal protection around this is still piecemeal around the globe as legislators work towards criminalising non-consensual AI-generated and manipulated images.
As editor of this guide, and with a highly competent team of lawyers working on this project, we have created a framework of Q&As which effectively cover all the key areas of law currently applicable to the fashion industry.
Since the specific laws are complex, a country-by-country comparative fashion guide of this nature can only point legal professionals and in-house counsel in the right direction, highlighting relevant legislation and case law around the globe. We trust it provides a structured and practical exposition of the key legislative provisions and serves as a useful resource.
A huge thank you to all the contributors for providing such a comprehensive analysis of each area of ‘fashion law’ while considering it from both an industry and a consumer perspective.