Fashion Meets Law: Insights from Sweden's Inaugural Fashion Law Conference

The first Fashion Law conference in Sweden was organized by the Stockholm IP Law Review and the Institute for Intellectual Property and Market Law (IFIM) on 28 May 2024. The event was highly successful and received with great enthusiasm by professionals in the fashion industry.

The conference, with the title "Undressing the Law: The Future of Fashion and Innovative Business Models” had as its ambition to create a common platform for lawyers working with or interesting in the fashion industry and the fashion industry in its different expressions. 

The conference succeeded in creating an interdisciplinary environment due to the mixed background of the audience but also of the speakers and panels. A particular focus was placed on the implications of AI in the creative processes and how this impacts the protection of fashion as well as of the fashion industry's business models. Upcycling and sustainability both as the industry's own objectives as well as of main points of reference for the current and future regulation of the fashion industry on a national and EU level, and its relation to requirements of the intellectual property system were discussed and concrete examples illustrating both the potential and challenges were debated in the panels. 

Designers, creative directors, sustainability experts, researchers, lawyers exchanged ideas on the current challenges faced by the fashion industry and the ways in which we can boost the industry in the future. 

According to professor Frantzeska Papadopoulou:  
"We hope that this event was the first one of many to come, and the first step in gathering players from the legal and fashion community, exploring ways of working together towards a more sustainable, innovative and collaborative future."

Sponsors and partners

The conference was generously sponsored by the Cassel Foundation, hosted in the premises of Vinge and supported by the Association of Swedish Fashion Brands. 
Conference curators were prof. Frantzeska Papadopoulou Skarp, Stockholm university, and Creative Director Annika Berner. 

About Stockholm IP Law Review

The Stockholm University Intellectual Property Law Review (SIPLR) is a student-led journal of legal scholarship with a focus on European Intellectual Property Law. The primary purpose of SIPLR is to create an academic legal forum where the most influential and significant topics of IP law are discussed by students, scholars and lawyers.

The Editorial Board comprises of students and the programme directors of the Master’s Programme ‘European Intellectual Property Law’ from Stockholm University. Students are selected in the first semester of the course.

stockholmiplawreview.com/

About IFIM 

Founded in 1956, Institute for Intellectual Property and Market Law (IFIM) is based at the Faculty of Law of Stockholm University. IFIM’s core mission is to promote research and education in the fields of intellectual property law and market law. To this end, IFIM undertakes several activities, including organizing events, maintaining and developing a special Library, and promoting knowledge of and research in the fields of intellectual property and market law.

ifim.se/