Critical acclaim for European Fashion Law: A practical guide from startup to global success
'This is the best industry-focussed legal textbook I’ve seen. Rosie covers a lot of ground and navigates complex areas of law in plain English. The book is accessible, well-structured and highly relevant.'
– James Sweeting, Senior IP Counsel, Superdry PLC
‘A refreshingly insightful overview of the legal challenges and opportunities facing fashion businesses operating today in Europe. It condenses vast realms of information into digestible and practical summaries, all written in a modern and commercial voice that enthuses passion for this fabulous industry.’
– Head of Legal, at a well known online fashion business
'This is a wonderfully comprehensive look at fashion law, covering IP and other legal rights together with business and other practical concerns (such as—“how do I begin”?). The author’s treatment of fashion technology is novel and particularly welcome. Altogether, a must-have, must-read for anyone who deals with the fashion industry.'
– Neil Wilkof, Dr Eyal Bressler & Co, Israel
'Rosie Burbidge’s European Fashion Law is a joy to read. The book manages to achieve the impossible: technical precision, consideration of several key areas, and an informative and humorous tone. Irrespective of their professional background, readers will find this work a fantastic companion for their exploration of the increasingly complex world of fashion law: it's a must-have!'
– Eleonora Rosati, University of Stockholm, Sweden
The Reviews
The first review came from the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice. Carina Gommers at Hoyng Rokh Monegier kindly says:
Rosie Burbidge provides an excellent overview of different aspects of fashion law in a European context. ...
I recommend readers, and in particular those who are planning to work in or for the fashion industry, to go out and buy the book to get acquainted with and/or further educated on all aspects of fashion law.
Hayleigh Bosher writing for IPKat says:
I only wish this book was available when I was teaching at the London College of Fashion and Central St Martins (UAL)! This practical guide is essential reading for those working in the fashion business, including practitioners and lawyers with fashion clients, or in-house.
It will no doubt be a welcome resource to any student of law interested in moving into the fashion industry as well as fashion students. The structure and presentation of the book also makes it a valuable and easily accessible for fashion start-ups, early fashion businesses and students in fashion, design, or retail.
There's a five star review on Amazon from Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers and Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”
PERTINENT LEGAL ADVICE FOR FASHION ENTREPRENEURS WITH GLOBAL DOMINATION IN MIND
From drawing designs on the kitchen table… to opening a shop… to launching a website… then opening more shops… then embarking on the processes of global expansion… anyone involved at any stage of the fashion business needs at least some understanding of the crucial legal issues.
If you happen to be a lawyer acting for clients within the fashion industry, this is the book to buy, or to recommend enthusiastically to said clients, especially if they are starting up, or branching out.
Author Rosie Burbidge makes the point in the chapter on incorporating your company that the ideal components of a fashion entrepreneur are creativity and business acumen; two attributes that are not necessarily found in the same person, although of course there are exceptions.
As a typical fashion house starts as a team effort, a certain tug-of-war between the creative and the practical may cause tensions, or possibly disputes down the line, especially as the author points out, ‘insufficient thought is put into the structure of the business at the outset, whether as sole trader, or partnership, or eventually a company.’
This is typical of the plain-speaking, hard-headed advice that Burbidge doles out to the reader, as page after page from beginning to end, the main legal issues that all fashion businesses need to be aware of, are plainly set out, together with what the author calls, ‘the best (and worst) approaches and examples from the legal front line.’
The most pertinent legal topics for the fashion industry include employment, data protection, and above all, intellectual property. These, as the author puts it, are woven into the modern fashion business. ‘I start with a fashion design student,’ she says, ‘and take them a journey to global domination.’
It should be added that the author is an intellectual property lawyer, the kind who can help you if someone pinches your creative ideas, passes them off as their own and profits from the results. IP therefore looms large as an issue in this book.
The author has also worked with a few contributors from across Europe, which gives the book its pan-European orientation.
Brexit or no Brexit, the world’s major fashion capitals are in Europe, namely Paris and Milan - the third being London. Oh - and there’s New York, but there are lots of books about legal issues in America’s fashion industry.
Burbidge’s book, however, is singularly important, in that legal texts about the European fashion industry are all too rare. Independent practitioners and in-house lawyers, as well as their clients, will doubtless regard this book as essential and well-nigh compulsory reading, although the author has warned in effect that while a legal text is helpful, it cannot replace proper legal advice.