Founder, YourFashionLawGuide | Founder, Legal Luxe

Interviewer: Bornaa Baruah
Platform: Fashion Law IP Blog

Edited interview transcript.

In this conversation with the Fashion Law IP Blog, Diya Kumar, the mind behind YourFashionLawGuide and the founder of Legal Luxe, shares her perspective on the evolving legal landscape of the fashion industry. Drawing from her work in IP strategy, brand protection, influencer contracts, and cross-border fashion law, Diya reflects on why fashion law today extends far beyond design protection and into ethics, sustainability, culture, and technology.

---

Segment I: Understanding Fashion Law & IPR

• What does Fashion Law actually include?

Diya explains that Fashion Law is often reduced to Intellectual Property, but in reality, it is a broad legal framework governing the entire fashion ecosystem. While IP laws protect designs, logos, and brand identity, fashion businesses are equally shaped by contracts, labour laws, environmental regulations, advertising standards, and compliance requirements. Fashion Law, she notes, treats fashion as an industry rather than merely a creative pursuit.

• How do IP laws protect creativity in fashion?

She highlights that trademarks play a strong role in protecting brand identity, but copyright and design laws remain inadequate in addressing knockoffs and mass replication. These gaps, she argues, have serious environmental, human, and creative consequences. Diya stresses the need to reform these areas to ensure that IP protection aligns with the realities of fast production and consumption.

• Why is legal awareness becoming crucial for fashion professionals?

According to Diya, fashion can no longer operate on instinct alone. Designers, founders, and creators must understand the legal structures governing their work to maintain control over their businesses, avoid disputes, and grow sustainably. Legal literacy, she emphasizes, is no longer optional in the fashion industry.

Segment II: Industry Challenges & Cultural Concerns

• What are the emerging legal challenges in the fashion industry today?

Diya identifies sustainability and greenwashing, counterfeiting, misleading advertising, labour exploitation, and cultural appropriation as some of the most pressing challenges today. She points to global controversies involving unverified sustainability claims and counterfeit supply chains, underscoring the need for stronger regulation and informed consumers.

• How does commercialization affect traditional art and indigenous communities?

She explains that traditional crafts and indigenous designs are frequently commercialized without recognition, consent, or fair compensation. This not only causes economic harm but also strips cultural expressions of their meaning. Diya advocates for legal frameworks that ensure acknowledgment, financial benefit-sharing, and long-term protection for artisan communities.

• Is India doing enough to protect traditional crafts and designs?

While acknowledging some progress, Diya notes that India’s legal framework still falls short. She refers to collaborations between global brands and local artisans, such as memorandums of understanding, as positive but limited steps. Without enforceable and proactive protections, she warns, cultural exploitation remains a serious concern.

Segment III: The Future of Fashion Law

• How is authorship evolving with digital fashion, NFTs, and AI?

Diya explains that authorship in fashion is no longer purely human-centric. With AI-generated designs and digital fashion, creativity often involves collaboration between human intent and machine assistance. This shift raises unresolved questions around originality, ownership, and rights transfer, areas where existing legal frameworks are still catching up.

• What role do academic platforms like the Fashion Law IP Blog play?

She emphasizes that academic platforms play a crucial role in bridging the gap between law, fashion, and industry. Such initiatives make fashion law accessible, foster informed discourse, and help prepare future professionals. Diya also highlights the need for structured fashion law education in law schools, noting that while some institutions have begun offering courses, the field remains underdeveloped academically.

• One reform you would recommend for the fashion and textile sector?

Diya calls for comprehensive reforms addressing counterfeiting, sustainability claims, labour protections, cultural appropriation, and digital fashion. She stresses that legal reform must be accompanied by consumer education, enabling people to understand the real social and environmental costs of fashion.

Additional Insights

Diya encourages the Fashion Law IP Blog to make fashion law content relatable by highlighting how everyone interacts with fashion, whether through everyday purchases or encounters with knockoffs in local markets. She recommends relying on accessible resources such as The Fashion Law, Business of Fashion, and industry journals to stay updated, rather than expensive textbooks.

She concludes by encouraging continued curiosity and consistency, emphasizing that awareness and education remain the most powerful tools for change in the fashion industry.