As expected, Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler are the founders of the critical fashion account
By now, you’ll be aware of Diet Prada, the anonymously-helmed Instagram account that has quickly become the go-to for fashion criticism. Over the four years since its inception, you’ve probably enjoyed eating popcorn while it called out countless labels for unoriginal ideas.
Today, the duo behind the account finally revealed themselves in an interview with Business of Fashion. While Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler originally started the account as a joke, it has now grown to just under 450k followers, but isn’t their main job – Liu has his own label, while Schuyler runs a consultancy. In the expansive interview, the pair discuss how the account was first founded, the fame and fans (including Naomi Campbell, Kim Jones, and Simon Porte Jacquemus) and haters (Stefano Gabbana and Jonathan Anderson) that they have amassed. Elsewhere, they discuss some of their commercial partnerships – most notably with Gucci – and how they think the future of fashion criticism will continue to evolve.
The pair were originally unmasked by the Fashion Law’s Julie Zerbo in October last year, but this was vehemently denied on the account’s Stories, and an Instagram post about their identities was reported to the platform for copyright infringement. Another article also revealed that their accusations of copying wouldn’t stand up legally, something they might not be aware of as neither of them have legal backgrounds.
Now the pair have been officially unmasked, they wanted to make it clear that this won’t have an effect on their criticism. In fact, their plan is to continue and turn Diet Prada into a viable business. Expect to see plenty more callouts in the near future.
Read the full interview on Business of Fashion here.