Will Diet Prada Save Fashion From Itself?

Fashion is in a state of emergency and, like with many major conflicts throughout history, there’s a radical whistleblower demanding the industry right its wrongs. Diet Prada, Instagram’s unofficial authority on “ppl knocking each other off,” has recently risen to the forefront of fashion as a relentless watchdog calling out copycat culture — something they argue is needed now more than ever. “I think the industry has been lacking in a voice that doesn’t fear speaking the truth,” DP says. To that end, the anonymous founders (there are thought to be two of them) use their account to call out imitations or appropriations in order to push fashion through this bleak era they describe as “peak sameness.” Before creating DP, the handle’s co-creators had worked together for 5 years in the business. During this time, they began to take notice of striking similarities between new collections they’d see on the catwalks and older collections they recalled from previous seasons or more recent lines made by younger, more obscure designers who did not have the same platforms. “We started making side-by-side collages to see how accurate we really were with the ‘inspirations’ we remembered,” DP says via Google Hangouts, their preferred channel for communicating and maintaining anonymity. The earliest iteration of their “pet project” was on a private Pinterest, where the two would chronicle various fashion copycats and circulate the boards throughout their office at work. “Some of them were so spot-on that we shared them around. The reaction was always really positive, so we decided to put it on Insta.” When their Instagram account launched in late 2014, the format was critical to its success. By being anonymous, the Instagram had no relationships to maintain, regardless of how powerful the person being targeted was. “Anonymity can definitely help for those who fear repercussions,” DP says. “Because a lot of what we post is based on visual evidence, we don’t have too much fear in tackling most of the subjects we post about.” No one’s safe. Not Alexander Wang. Not Dior. Not even Gucci, who’s become seemingly untouchable under creative director Alessandro Michele. Read more at Paper.