DIET PRADA

Diet Prada is an unofficial Instagram account that calls out people in fashion who are being a ‘copy cat’. They challenge brands for imitating and appropriating others.

Their Instagram account launched in 2014 and although their founders are anonymous we know that they have worked in the fashion industry so they have an inside knowledge to the fashion world. They begun to notice similarities between new collections on the catwalk and older collections that they remembered. Their anonymity definitely helps the page be as honest as they want and as they can’t face any repercussions, no one is safe. DP has a huge Instagram following of 470k, this includes a large celebrity following and Business of Fashion founder Imran Amed, so you can tell they have a large presence felt in the fashion world.

DP believes that fashion today has destroyed personal style and subcultures, they say “You see the same images of Kim, Kendall and Bella circulating to everyone around the world, and that affects retail in a huge way. Before you know it, you’re seeing all the same things in the stores and on your friends’ Instas.” I love the account and think it’s so interesting how some fashion brands can get away with blatantly copying something but I did wonder where DP draw the line between deciding if something is being referenced or exactly imitated. They say that before posting anything they thoroughly discuss it and 9 times out of 10 you can see when someone has identified a design that works that they then try to receive commercial gain. DP spoke about Marc Jacobs and how he is constantly referencing fashion history and old collections however he is always mixing his inspiration and creating new context for it. “There’s a difference between being inspired and trying to pass something off as your own,” Jacobs says, however he also believes it’s very difficult to do this in the industry today as people are so quick to call out appropriation.

Diet Prada say that no one is safe in their mission to call out copies, however they only do this because of their love for fashion.

Hollie Rose x