Bar and Bouclé

Bar and Bouclé is a recurring column authored by Rahul Bagga that examines the textured tension between fashion’s transience and the law’s appetite for permanence. His writing interrogates how style becomes subject to structure, and how the seams of legal reasoning often unravel under the weight of fabric.

Bar and Bouclé·Column

The Scent of a Trademark: India’s First Smell Mark and the Future of Sensory Branding in Fashion

India has quietly walked into a new era of trademark law. The acceptance of Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ “rose scented tyre” as a registrable trademark…

by Rahul Bagga

December 11, 2025

Bar and Bouclé

Green is the New Law: Fashion, Virtue, and the Ecomark Bureaucracy

The Ecomark Rules, 2024, apply to seventeen major categories of consumer goods, ranging from soaps and paper to textiles and electronics, under a voluntary…

by Rahul Bagga

October 8, 2025

Bar and Bouclé·Column

GIs of Time: How the World’s Watchmakers Turn Geography into a Trademarked Tick

This is the geography of timekeeping: when the law itself becomes a watchmaker, measuring not seconds but a sense of place. As a child,…

by Rahul Bagga

September 29, 2025

Bar and Bouclé·Column

From Catwalk to Customs: Fashion’s Global Border Patrol

“Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life,” observed fashion photographer and historian Bill Cunningham. However, the armour is now increasingly…

by Rahul Bagga

September 15, 2025