During its seven-season run, Pretty Little Liars focused on five stylish girls who were stalked and harassed by the anonymous “A.” “A” mostly tormented Alison, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer through text, but also managed to send messages via cereal, human teeth, dental surgery, embryo implantation, and even hit-and-runs. These girls were not not safe anywhere as long as they were on “A’s” radar and with the recent Diet Prada and Dolce & Gabbana lawsuit, it seems the fashion industry has their very own anonymous tormentor too.
If you have any interest in the fashion industry, from Shein and H&M to being an avid follower of Fashion Week (aka me), and you have an Instagram account, then you probably follow @diet_prada on Instagram. Diet Prada reports on fashion and pop culture news in a very straightforward manner. However, they gain most of their traction from calling out fashion brands for their frankly messed-up behavior. A Gossip Girl-esque scandal bomb, if you will. (I personally always read their posts with Kristen Bell’s voice in my head.) Diet Prada’s biggest M.O. is calling out designers and retailers for their racism, discrimination, and copying designs from smaller retailers and small businesses.
Diet Prada has reported on almost every fashion scandal under the sun since its inception in 2014, but the one making headlines recently for its huge lawsuit involves the vibrant and sometimes even costumey brand Dolce & Gabbana. Diet Prada founders Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler called out the Milan fashion house in 2018 for their racist comments against the Asian community, causing a boycott from Asian consumers. The result? D&G filed a defamation suit for upwards of $600 million. The fashion house made a public apology and had a quiet lawsuit in 2019, which the Diet Prada account made public in 2021. Dolce & Gabbana’s argument is that since the blog is produced in the United States, the issues occurred in Asia, and the suit is filed in Italy, the currency just won’t transfer. Did these fashion house representatives ever study world history? Have they heard of freedom of speech, and the punishments that go along with it?
And D&G isn’t the only brand that’s faced the “A”-esque behavior of Diet Prada. New York designer Alexander Wang also came under fire in December 2020 on Diet Prada’s account. According to their Instagram post, Wang has quite the reputation as a partier, and his status in the NYC party scene is “mythic.” The NYC social scene has coined terms like “Wangover” and “party animal,” which he celebrated by putting the terms on headbands his models wore in a show. He’s even worked with R.Kelly, who was just found guilty on nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering on September 27. Owen Mooney, a male model, went to TikTok to share his story about Wang groping him at an NYC nightclub in 2017. Diet Prada highlighted these allegations so that Wang couldn’t get away without consequences, as well as those of other survivors, including many trans women. Wang denied the allegations.
Diet Prada also focuses on calling out the plagiarism of major brands like Shein, Brandy Melville, RomWe, and Nordstrom, who often try to get away with ripping off small businesses by stealing their designers and marketing them for a cheaper price. Diet Prada also calls out brands for cultural appropriation or discriminatory products, like in the case of Shein’s terrible swastika necklace, and Anthropologie’s stolen designs that were originally created by an Indigenous sustainable small business. Suffice it to say, Diet Prada is taking its job as the “A” of fashion pretty seriously — no “little liar’s” mistake is missed, and no brand gets off scot-free.
While the fashion industry might not have their fashion shows destroyed by Diet Prada’s wrath (yep, that happened in Season 2 of PLL), the account has definitely damaged some of their reputations (and probably their revenue as well). Most brands pride themselves on having positive values and lofty ideals — sustainability, equality, originality. But with Diet Prada’s watchful eye, always ready to call them out with just the click of a “share” button, it seems they have to watch their backs just like our favorite little liars.
Follow Sami Gotskind on Instagram.