Professor Susan Scafidi, founder and academic director of Fordham Law’s Fashion Law Institute was quoted in a Law360 article about the trial of Anna Sorokin, the con woman who posed as German heiress Anna Delvey.
From Rikers Island, Sorokin continued to cultivate a glamorous image, enlisting the services of professional stylist Anastasia Walker, and wearing designer brands including Michael Kors, Yves Saint Laurent and Victoria Beckham during her three-week trial. Her clothes prompted breathless fashion coverage in the media and an Instagram account devoted to “Anna Delvey court looks.”
That’s because her sartorial decisions were inherently linked to the case against her, according to professor Susan Scafidi, director of Fordham Law School’s Fashion Law Institute.
“The interest in her appearance had to do with the fact she was able to create this entire other persona and sell it to people for quite a lot of money,” Scafidi told Law360. “Part of creating a persona is costuming. I think we were interested in her costumes for court because they stood in for the costumes that seemed to have fooled a lot of people, from apparent friends to hotel owners to restaurateurs.”