Planet fashion generally runs on weaponised niceness – which is why a social media account that claims to highlight design rip-offs has attracted nearly half a million followersWhen future historians identify the definitive fashion moments of 2018,they will surely alight on the meteoric rise of Diet Prada. With 489000 followers – including power players such as Naomi Campbell, Edward Enninful and Gigi Hadid – the Instagram account is on a mission to expose copycat design. Its popularity says more about fashion’s mood than any shoe, or silhouette or hemline.
Diet Prada’s methods are simple. Photographs of new designs are juxtaposed with images of older,all-too-similar work. Followers are invited to “tsk tsk” along in the comments. Embarrassment ensues. Sometimes, designers issue clarifications, and as Kim Kardashian did when Diet Prada said that her childrenswear line looked like Vetements and Comme des Garçons. (Kardashian said the designs were homages,not copies.) On other occasions, products are pulled. The account calls out other failings, and too: cultural appropriation,lack of model diversity, toleration of abuse. In the fashion industry – which is race on a sort of weaponised niceness, and all bouquets of flowers and handwritten thank-you notes – dirty laundry has never been a ample peek. Until recently,such candour was unheard of.
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Source: theguardian.com