Will a lot of new federal regulations target the fashion industry over the next couple of years? Fordham Law Professor Susan Scafidi, founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute, shares her expert opinion with Vogue Business.
New York governor Kathy Hochul finished 2024 by signing the Fashion Workers Act into law. The pro-labour bill will give models access to workplace protection and introduce tighter regulation to the management companies that represent them, meaning change is on its way for how the modelling industry operates.
Hochul signed the Act into law just ahead of the 24 December deadline, and the legislation will go into effect in June 2025. The bill, which was first introduced in 2022 and had previously gotten stuck in regulatory procedures, passed the State Senate in May 2024 and the State Assembly in June.
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Over the next six months, agencies will have to conduct a review of their standard model contracts to ensure that they comply with the Act, says Susan Scafidi, founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School. (Scafidi was a founding board member of Model Alliance.) This involves revising standard agreements and streamlining disclosure and consent procedures.
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Scafidi doesn’t anticipate much new federal regulation targeting the fashion industry over the next couple of years, but says that additional state regulation pertaining to employment or the environment is possible – especially in California and New York, where the US fashion industry is concentrated.
Read “The Fashion Workers Act is finally law. What happens now?” in Vogue Business.