(1) The Fashion Workers Act: New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Fashion Workers Act late last month, a law that will go into effect on June 19, 2025. The Fashion Workers Act requires model management companies to register their businesses and imposes several duties and responsibilities on both model management companies and clients in New York. The bill defines “clients” as … “a retail store, a manufacturer, a clothing designer, an advertising agency, a photographer, a publishing company or any other such person or entity that receives modeling services from a model, directly or through intermediaries.”
> Interestingly enough, the law states that “modelling services” includes the use of a “digital replica,” or “a significant, computer-generated or artificial intelligence-enhanced representation of a model’s likeness, including but not limited to … their face, body, or voice, which substantially replicates or replaces the model’s appearance or performance.” On this front, the law mandates that model management companies must “obtain clear written consent for the creation or use of a model’s digital replica, detailing the scope, purpose, rate of pay, and duration of such use.”
In addition to requiring a long list of things from model management companies, the law sets out duties for clients, including payment for overtime work, prevention of “unreasonable risk of danger,” provision of “adequate levels of liability insurance,” and the same terms regarding digital replicas as set out above, among other things.
Morgan Lewis attorneys stated in a recent note that “given the significant compliance burdens, we expect further guidance from the NYDOL before the law goes into effect in June, including on what constitutes a ‘violation’ and required forms necessary to meet the registration requirements.”
(2) The Digital Contracts Act: And speaking of digital replicas, there is a new law in effect in New York that governs the creation and use of digital replicas. Called the Digital Contracts Act, the legislation protects performers’ voices and likenesses from being copied or used without permission in New York state, mirroring laws previously passed in California (AB 2602 and AB 1836) and Tennessee (the ELVIS Act).
Putting the new law into perspective, Sheppard Mullin’s Lisa Thomas, Kathryn Smith and James O’Reilly say that they “anticipate other states will pass similar digital replica/AI laws in 2025. These laws should be kept in mind by companies that engage talent, or use third parties to create content, including for marketing purposes.”
LinkedIn released its annual jobs list, which charts the fastest-growing jobs over the past three years and the trends defining the future of work in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence jobs take a couple of the top spots on the list, with artificial intelligence engineers coming in at number 1, followed by artificial intelligence consultants (no. 2), and artificial intelligence researchers (no. 12). Among other jobs on the Top 25 ranking: travel advisors, event coordinators, community planners, grants consultants, directors of employer relations, chief growth officers and chief revenue officers, and research librarians.
An additional standout aside from AI-focused positions: Sustainability specialists …
Not the first time that sustainability-centric jobs have showed signs of growth. Academics from Yale University and Arizona State University previously found that based on global job ads, there was a tenfold increase in the number of jobs with “sustainability” in the title over the last decade, reaching 177,000 in 2021.
> And this rising demand includes legal jobs. This spring, National Jurist, for instance, reported that “amid growing climate concerns, environmental law is getting more attention. Companies striving for sustainability are seeking legal advice on eco-friendly practices, fueling demand for environmental law experts.”
Rolls-Royce revealed this week that it will invest 300 million pounds ($376 million) to expand its Goodwood plant in furtherance of an effort to focus more on bespoke cars for high-end clients. This means adding anything from gold sculptures and mother-of-pearl artwork to intricate embroideries and holographic paint finishes to its already-expensive cars. The BMW-owned British luxury automaker said that the decision to allocate the funds, the largest injection of cash into the Goodwood plant since it opened in 2003, follows from a 10 percent increase in “bespoke” vehicle revenue per unit in 2024, an all-time high.
“What we are not trying to do is make more Rolls-Royces but what we are trying to do — and we will do — is make more special commissions and more remarkable motor cars,” Chris Brownridge, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said of the plan.
This news is worth noting for companies across the luxury spectrum, as demand for customized goods is growing when it comes to personal luxury goods, like watches, as well. (This is something I first wrote about back in 2021.) The customization and/or personalization of luxury goods is not a novel idea: Hermès made headlines several years ago in connection with its bespoke division, and Goyard is well known to personalize its offerings by way of its “Art of Personalisation” endeavor. Even still, what is still interesting is the fact that in many cases, some of the most in-demand efforts come by way of unaffiliated third parties.
Consider the success of companies like Swiss watch workshop Artisans de Genève and London-based watch customizer Titan Black, and even the Shoe Surgeon, which personalizes sneakers, such as by adding luxury brands’ canvas to them.
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If the interest in/demand for products from these third-party companies is any indication, there is room for expansion by luxury brands either via in-house efforts or acquisitions. So far, brands do not appear to be taking kindly to the presence of third-party personalization providers; Rolex sued an unnamed Swiss workshop (almost certainly Artisans de Genève), for example, and Goyard and Nike are in the midst of trademark-centric suits against the Shoe Surgeon. (In its defense to the case waged against it by the Swoosh, the Shoe Surgeon alleges that Nike “reached out to [it for] over a dozen projects and collaborations over the last seven years.”)
Instead of taking legal action to fend off high-end customizers, the move that could potentially garner more traction among consumers and more revenue for brands is a collaboration or an effort to bring these parties on-board to build out in-house customization divisions or more robust ones. (It is also worth noting the sustainability-minded rise in attention to ways to generate revenue without making even more stuff; this could be one!) This is especially true given that these cases are not always a sure-fire win. Rolex, for example, lost its bid to block what is presumably ADG from taking consumers’ existing Rolexes and modifying them; more about that right here.
Given these potential upsides, there could be a meaningful opportunity in customizations. I will be keeping a close eye on this. So, stay tuned.