About
Fashion by Felicia, LLC
Design, defined as the union of form and function, increasingly pervades all aspects of our lives. [Fashion] design, [industrial] design, [museum exhibition] design provide just a few examples. Today, design is increasingly tied to heritage, both intangible and tangible. Heritage can be understood as [brand] heritage, [cultural] heritage, or [world] heritage, to name a few categories. Connections between design and heritage are framed by the law. While new legal fields such as [fashion] law, [luxury] law, and even [design] law, have developed to address the unique needs of the fashion and luxury industries, [intellectual property] law and [business] law, including contracts and licensing, provide foundational legal rules for design activities. As design meets heritage, [cultural heritage] law also provides important guidance for duties and obligations of preservation and valorization, collaborations between cultural institutions, brands, and communities, and activities held within cultural sites, among other initiatives.
Fashion by Felicia, LLC defines fashion broadly to include designs and social phenomena accepted by members of communities for variously identifiable periods of time which are also indicative of identity and the construction of culture (building on the work of Tortora, Steele, Barsotti, and Loschek). Fashion by Felicia, LLC facilitates fashion and luxury brands' heritage initiatives; supports provenance research for heritage brands and cultural institutions; and engages with academics researching law, design and heritage issues, with a particular focus on academic dialogue between Italy and the U.S.
ABOUT FELICIA CAPONIGRI, FOUNDER,
FASHION BY FELICIA, LLC
Felicia Caponigri, J.D., Ph.D. is an American lawyer and comparative cultural heritage, art, and fashion law scholar. As part of her academic activities and projects, Dr. Caponigri collaborates with brands and cultural institutions on design and heritage initiatives. Her work has been published in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, AEDON, The Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, The Notre Dame Journal of International and Comparative Law, the Notre Dame Law Review Online, and the Rivista Trimestrale di Diritto Pubblico. She has presented her work at the Luxury Law Summit in London, the AALS Annual Conference, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and at the Università degli Studi di Firenze in Italy. Dr. Caponigri co-organizes the Summer School "Italian Hours and American Days" at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, where she is also a Guest Scholar. Her academic engagements have spanned the globe, occurring in the United States, Ireland, Denmark, Hong Kong, Chile, Poland and Italy. Dr. Caponigri is also a member of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) and currently serves as Co-Director of Chapter Development for the Society.
A member of the Indiana bar, Dr. Caponigri received her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School and her B.A., cum laude, in Art History from The University of Notre Dame. She has also studied at the American University of Paris in France and at Bocconi in Milan. In 2019 Dr. Caponigri received her Ph.D. in Institutions, Markets and Technologies (Curriculum in Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage) from IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca in Italy. Her dissertation, "Fashion Design Objects as Cultural Property in Italy and in the United States", written under the supervision of Professor Lorenzo Casini, explored how fashion design objects may be recognized as of historic, artistic, or other cultural interest for the public under cultural property law in Italy, historic preservation law in the United States, and copyright law in both countries. She previously taught Fashion Law and Art & Cultural Heritage Law at Notre Dame Law School, and formerly managed the Law School's Program on Intellectual Property Law and directed its International & Graduate Programs.