A Special Edition Fashion Law Dinner Party: The 2025 Met Gala

For fashion lawyers and scholars, the Met Gala is a dream hypothetical. This year, it was even more so thanks to the Gala's theme "Tailored to You" and the exhibition the Gala celebrated, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. A celebration of black fashion heritage and black cultural heritage, the looks on the blue carpet raised legal questions. How does the Zoot Suit, a core part of the historic concept of a dandy, spur creativity in fashion thanks to its status as part of the public domain? Can we spot separable elements of Rosalía's dress? What was functional and what was ornamental in Janelle Monáe's accessories and cloak? And what legal relevance did eBay's presence on the red carpet have?

To parse the intellectual property rights in looks at the 2025 Met Gala, from Doechii's Louis Vuitton monogrammed look replete with trademarks (including a tattoo!) to Dapper Dan's inclusion in the exhibition and new logo, Felicia Caponigri speaks with Naomi Price, an IP litigation associate at BakerHostetler.

For further reading on some of the IP issues discussed in this episode, see

• Perzanowski, Aaron. "Tattoos and IP Norms." Minnesota Law Review 98, no. 2 (2013): 511-591. (Work published when author not on Michigan Law faculty.) ( https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles/2608/ )
• Shontavia Johnson, BRANDED: Trademark Tattoos, Slave Owner Brands, And The Right To Have "Free" Skin, 22 Mich. Telecomm. & Tech. L. Rev. 225 (2016).Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mttlr/vol22/iss2/2