Lux Juris

The History of Fashion Law: A Perspective from Ancient Greece to Modern Dress Codes

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Fashionable lady of the era, painted by Giovanni Boldini, an image that reflects the history of fashion law and its ties to luxury and social rank

Fashion law is often described as a modern and highly specialised area of practice, usually focused on trademarks, design protection and brand enforcement. Yet rules about what people wear and how clothing is controlled have existed for centuries. This article does not present a purely technical history. Instead, it highlights how laws, social codes and workplace rules about clothing reveal the deeper power structures that shape what we now recognise as fashion law. From Ancient Greece to twentieth-century copyright debates and current dress code litigation, the story shows how law, authority and identity have always intersected with what people wear.

Ancient Greece and Rome: Dress as Control

Fashion law’s roots stretch back more than three thousand years. In Ancient Greece, dress codes were introduced for religious reasons, restricting what people could wear, when they could wear it and who could wear particular garments. Ancient Rome developed the idea further. Clothing was used to signal social rank and control behaviour, especially for women. One clear example is the Lex Oppia, which limited women’s spending on luxury goods, regulated the use of certain colours such as purple, which was the most costly dye, and placed limits on how much gold could be worn at any one time. As Rome’s economy became stronger, such laws were repealed. This shows how laws about fashion have always reflected the state of a society’s wealth and its sense of order.

Medieval Europe: Sumptuary Laws and Social Class

In medieval Europe, sumptuary laws were used to preserve clear distinctions between classes. In England, a 1363 Sumptuary Law was enacted during a time of major social change after the Black Death. As the merchant class expanded and demand for luxurious clothing rose, the law aimed to set clear rules about what each rank could wear. The rules were detailed, stating exactly which fabrics and adornments were allowed for each social group. Women and children were often subject to stricter limits than men.

Sumptuary laws continued for centuries, changing repeatedly as England’s trade and wealth expanded. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, sumptuary laws were also used to limit the number of foreign imports and to control spending by young men who might otherwise waste their inheritances and fall into debt. Such laws show that clothing was not just about style but also about reinforcing social order and protecting national interests.

Colonial America: Old Laws in New Lands

Several hundred years later, these ideas shaped laws in colonial America. In 1651, Massachusetts passed a law that forbade people whose estates were worth less than a set amount from wearing gold or silver lace or buttons. Fines were imposed for breaking this rule. Dress codes were also used to mark social status within slavery, as states imposed clothing rules to create visible differences between enslaved people and others in society. By the nineteenth century, industrialisation and urban growth gradually pushed sumptuary laws aside, but the idea that clothing could be controlled by law did not disappear.

Garment Factories: Safety and Labour Rights

Fashion law is not only about intellectual property. Working conditions in garment factories have long raised important questions about workplace safety and labour rights. At the start of the twentieth century, many garment factories were overcrowded, unsafe and poorly paid, with large numbers of women workers earning just enough to survive. Strikes and advocacy campaigns led by wealthier women’s groups helped draw public attention to these abuses.

Image of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, used to illustrate the history of fashion law and workplace safety reform
The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City led to major reforms in workplace safety and labour law.

In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City caught fire and 146 people died because locked doors and unsafe conditions trapped them inside. The disaster sparked national outrage and led to landmark workplace reforms that shaped modern labour law in the United States.

Copyright and Brand Protection in the Early Twentieth Century

As the fashion industry grew in the early twentieth century, designers in the United States faced new challenges when trying to protect their designs. Copyright law did not cover clothing because garments were seen as functional rather than artistic works. To address unfair competition, the Lanham Act was passed in 1940 to protect trademarks and trade dress such as brand names, logos and distinctive design elements.

Hermès Birkin, a trademarked luxury bag that represents modern fashion law and brand protection.
Hermès Birkin bag: a trademarked and tightly protected luxury design that shows how brand control shapes modern fashion law.

Throughout the twentieth century, major cases focused on couture houses trying to stop companies copying their designs and selling cheaper versions. This remains an unresolved issue in the industry today.

Dress Codes in the Twenty-First Century

Dress codes continue to shape what people can wear in schools, workplaces and other institutions. Modern dress codes have led to legal disputes when they place unfair burdens on women or restrict religious expression. In the United States, courts have had to decide whether such rules can stand when they clash with individual rights. For example, in Goldman v. Weinberger, the Supreme Court upheld that the military could bar a Jewish member from wearing a yarmulke on duty, ruling that the armed forces may impose different standards of appearance than civilian life.

Cases like this are not always classified as fashion law in the narrow sense, but they reflect the same questions about who has the power to control appearance and whose identity is shaped by rules about clothing. This perspective helps explain why fashion law is not only about trademarks and design protection but also about the long tradition of using clothing as a tool of authority.

Looking Ahead

Fashion and law have been connected for thousands of years. From ancient dress codes and medieval sumptuary rules to twentieth-century copyright disputes and modern workplace regulations, clothing has always been shaped by legal systems that reveal who holds power and how identity is framed. Today, new technologies, global supply chains and fast production cycles continue to test old ideas about design protection, labour standards and trade. Trends reappear and spread more quickly than ever, but they do not rise naturally. They are often guided by trend forecasters and industry planners who shape what is produced at scale and what reaches the market.

What people wear is frequently less about individual choice and more about what is offered, promoted and sold as desirable. In this way, clothing is still regulated, not only by explicit laws but by the hidden hand of commerce and culture. The unsafe conditions in parts of the fast-fashion industry show that the same questions about worker safety and exploitation that shaped early garment laws have not vanished. Many of the earliest questions about how appearance is shaped, whose interests are served and how much freedom truly exists in what people wear remain open today. As new disputes appear, fashion law sits at the edge of this tension, not only protecting designs and brands but also revealing how a network of rules and market forces quietly defines what ends up in wardrobes around the world.

Author: Olivia Phillips | Research: Olivia Phillips | Editor: Qazi

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