The Importance of Broadening Academic Interest in Fashion Law Across Africa

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Over the past few decades, the intersection of fashion and law has matured from an ancillary interest into a distinct and respected field of academic study. Leading institutions across Europe and North America have established dedicated programmes, symposia, and scholarly literature that examine the complex legal issues shaping the fashion industry. These include, but are not limited to, intellectual property, labour regulation, international trade, sustainability, and consumer protection. Despite these advancements, legal scholarship on fashion within the African context remains limited. This is especially exciting given the continent’s growing presence on global runways, the rapid expansion of regional fashion markets, and the increasing cultural and economic significance of the industry. With the right legal education and frameworks in place, these developments offer immense potential to further elevate Africa's fashion economies and support their sustainable growth, both in academia and through policy innovation.

This gap is not merely academic. It reflects a broader disregard for the unique legal challenges and opportunities embedded within Africa’s fashion industry. Fashion law, as an area of study, demands scholarly attention across the continent, not only to protect African creators and promote industry growth, but also to ensure that law evolves alongside Africa’s creative economies.

1. The Intellectual Property Conundrum

At the core of fashion law lies the protection of intellectual property, a legal tool intended to safeguard innovation, creativity, and distinctiveness. For African designers, however, intellectual property is not solely a matter of commercial branding; it is deeply entwined with cultural identity, heritage, and community expression. Traditional knowledge systems, indigenous artistry, and symbolic motifs are often embedded in their work, reflecting centuries of craftsmanship and storytelling. Yet these creative elements rarely fit neatly into the contours of conventional IP law, which prioritises individual authorship, fixed originality, and commercial intent.

This disconnect leaves African creators and communities vulnerable. Iconic visual languages of groups such as the Maasai, Ndebele, and Yoruba have been repeatedly co-opted by global fashion houses, often without attribution, authorisation, or any form of compensation. While the resulting designs may win accolades on international runways, the source communities remain unprotected and unrecognised under prevailing legal frameworks.

A serious academic inquiry into this issue must ask more than how to extend existing IP protections. It must interrogate the foundational assumptions of those protections. How can sui generis legal instruments be designed to reflect communal ownership? What role can geographical indications and customary law play in asserting rights over cultural expressions? And how can domestic and regional systems evolve to provide equitable recourse for those whose cultural capital is continually extracted?

Without these questions at the centre of legal scholarship in Africa, the boundary between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation will remain not only contested but legally invisible.

2. Labour and Supply Chain Realities

Beyond intellectual property, fashion law is increasingly concerned with the regulation of labour and the transparency of supply chains. These dimensions are of particular importance to African nations that have become integral nodes in the global fashion production network. Countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Madagascar have positioned themselves as competitive textile and apparel manufacturing hubs, often supported by preferential trade arrangements like the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Yet behind these developments lie systemic legal and regulatory challenges that remain insufficiently addressed.

In many instances, the legal frameworks governing factory operations, wage standards, occupational safety, and collective bargaining are either underdeveloped or inconsistently enforced. The result is a precarious labour environment, where low-cost production is achieved at the expense of fundamental workers’ rights. This raises serious questions about the ethical and legal responsibilities of international brands operating in or sourcing from African countries.

Academic engagement with fashion law offers a crucial platform to interrogate these dynamics. It calls for a rigorous exploration of how national labour laws interact with global supply chain demands, how trade incentives may inadvertently suppress regulatory standards, and how international human rights obligations intersect with domestic legal regimes. Importantly, such inquiry must be grounded in the specific legal, economic, and socio-political contexts of African countries, rather than relying on imported models or assumptions.

Through doctrinal, comparative, and socio-legal analysis, fashion law scholarship can illuminate pathways toward more equitable and accountable supply chains—ones that respect the dignity of African labour while supporting sustainable industrial development.

3. Trade, Policy, and Continental Integration

Fashion, while often framed through the lens of cultural expression, must also be understood as a strategic economic sector. As the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) begins to redefine the parameters of intra-African commerce, fashion emerges as a key beneficiary—both in terms of cultural exchange and industrial growth. The promise of a unified market, with reduced tariffs and harmonised regulations, holds immense potential for African designers, manufacturers, and retailers. Yet this vision cannot be fully realised without robust legal frameworks that account for the specificities of the fashion value chain.

From the classification of textiles under tariff schedules to the regulation of digital commerce and the protection of origin-based branding, the legal architecture governing cross-border trade in fashion remains fragmented. Many national laws have not yet adapted to the demands of an integrated creative economy, and in many cases, regional trade protocols do not adequately address the nuances of the fashion sector. This legal underdevelopment risks marginalising African fashion actors in the very markets the AfCFTA is designed to expand.

Fashion law, as a scholarly discipline, is uniquely positioned to address these gaps. It can inform the design of policy tools that not only facilitate trade but also protect domestic industries, incentivise ethical production, and promote regional value chains. By drawing on insights from trade law, intellectual property, and cultural policy, fashion law scholarship can help align AfCFTA implementation with broader developmental goals, including those articulated in Agenda 2063. This requires an interdisciplinary and policy-oriented approach—one that situates fashion within the wider project of African economic transformation.

4. Consumer Protection and Sustainability

As global discourse on fashion increasingly turns toward sustainability and ethical consumption, legal frameworks are being called upon to address complex questions of accountability, transparency, and environmental stewardship. Within the African context, these issues take on distinctive dimensions. The dominance of second-hand clothing imports in many local markets, coupled with the informality that characterises large segments of the fashion economy, creates unique legal and regulatory challenges. Product safety, consumer rights, environmental compliance, and deceptive marketing practices are areas that remain underexplored within formal legal regimes.

At the same time, the urgency of climate goals and the mounting pressure to manage textile waste demand proactive legal interventions. Many African countries face growing environmental burdens, with limited infrastructure to manage the lifecycle of fashion goods, from production to disposal. These realities underscore the need for legal scholarship that interrogates how sustainability objectives can be locally grounded and enforceable, rather than imported as abstract global ideals.

Moreover, the rapid digitisation of fashion across the continent—evidenced by the proliferation of e-commerce platforms, online marketplaces, and influencer-driven advertising—raises further legal concerns. From the formation of binding contracts in digital spaces to the regulation of influencer marketing and the protection of digital consumer rights, the evolving landscape of fashion commerce requires updated legal responses.

A serious academic engagement with fashion law can illuminate these intersections, proposing legal models that are responsive to local realities while aligned with broader international standards. In doing so, it can position African jurisdictions as both participants in and contributors to the global movement toward a more just and sustainable fashion industry.

5. Building Legal Capacity for the Creative Future

If Africa is to realise the full potential of its fashion economy—an industry projected to contribute significantly to continental GDP in the decades ahead—it must begin by strengthening its legal infrastructure through education and research. Legal capacity building is not peripheral to creative growth; it is central. This involves integrating fashion law into university curricula, supporting interdisciplinary research, convening academic and industry-led symposia, and cultivating a scholarly ecosystem that connects legal theory with creative practice.

The development of fashion law in Africa should not be seen as an adoption of foreign academic trends. Rather, it must be understood as an urgent and context-specific response to the legal needs of a rapidly expanding industry. Fashion law in Africa can serve as a vehicle for protecting cultural heritage, ensuring fair labour practices, promoting sustainable production, and enabling participation in global trade on equitable terms.

Establishing this field across African institutions would not only address existing legal gaps but also cultivate a generation of scholars, practitioners, and policymakers equipped to engage with the evolving dynamics of fashion and creativity. In doing so, Africa positions itself not merely as a site of production or inspiration, but as a thought leader in shaping a more just and sustainable global fashion system.

Fashion law is not an academic luxury. It is a strategic imperative for the continent’s cultural, economic, and legal development.

Africa’s fashion industry is asserting itself as a global force, shaped by innovation, cultural richness, and entrepreneurial spirit. Yet, the absence of a structured legal discourse to accompany this growth leaves the sector vulnerable to regulatory gaps, inequitable practices, and missed opportunities. Without deliberate legal inquiry, the rules that govern the industry will remain fragmented, reactive, and ill-suited to the continent’s distinctive needs.

Now is the moment for African legal scholars and institutions to take fashion law as a field worthy of rigorous academic engagement and strategic development. By doing so, we do more than legitimise a previously overlooked area of legal scholarship. We begin to craft a legal foundation that affirms the rights of creators, regulates the responsibilities of industry actors, and supports the equitable evolution of a sector poised for continental and global impact.

To study fashion law in Africa is not to follow a trend. It is to engage in the urgent and necessary work of shaping the legal contours of one of the continent’s most promising creative economies, rooted in African realities, responsive to global standards, and equipped for the future.