Founded by Tania Phipps-Rufus (2013)

Fashion, Law & Business covers legal issues most notably on IP MATTERS (copyright, trade mark, designs) Related to the fashion industry. Culture is the space where critical thought happens. We provide research-led insights & commentary that gives a focus to the commercial, creative, and intersectional cultural and legal topics that currently impact on the day-to-day running of the fashion business

FOUNDER & Editor

Tania Phipps-Rufus
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, London

Tania read law at the University of Kent, Canterbury (2002), and obtained her Master of Laws degree in intellectual property from the University of London, Queen Mary (2006). She was awarded an AHRC funded research scholarship to conduct a PhD on the role of intellectual property in the fashion industry (2013). Currently she is senior lecturer and course leader of fashion culture and business at University of East London. She also works as an guest associate lecturer and module leader teaching the module intellectual property, trademarks and fashion brands on their MA in luxury brand management at Goldsmiths University. Prior to this she was a lectured at Coventry University London and lecturer at Istituto Marangoni and has held the position of lecturer of law at Hertfordshire University where she taught across the LLM in intellectual property law, m-commerce law, and media & entertainment law. Tania is co-convenor of the Society of Legal Scholars ‘Open subject section.’ She regularly speaks at conferences and events on the topic of fashion and law and has presented her work at the V&A Museum, University of Antwerp, (in collaboration with MoMo Fashion Museum Antwerp, and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts), University of Oslo, Central Saint Martins, London College of Fashion, University of Glasgow, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University in New York to mention. She has also appeared on BBC Radio 4 to discuss IP rights for street fashion photographers, and her work on fashion and intellectual property has been published in the Guardian and the Huffington post.

Tania decided to set up Fashion, Law & Business in 2013 to address the limited focus and development of the discipline of Fashion Law in the UK and as an extension of her PhD research. Acknowledging the growing focus of Fashion Law in the U.S with dedicated academic centers such as the Fashion Law Institute, when she first embarked on Fashion, Law & Business there existed no academic platform for Fashion Law in the UK. It first started as a meet-up group (2013) to create and connect a community of fashion law enthusiasts and drawing on her years of dedicated experience has now evolved into the U.K destination for Fashion Law with a global perspective – providing a platform that offers commentary on legal cases and topical issues in fashion as well as opportunities to gain deeper insights and training in the field of fashion law through bespoke fashion law courses, and events for those in the fashion and legal communities.

If you want to contact us in connection with any media related request please email: tania@fashionlawbusiness.com