What happened between Diet Prada and Danielle Bernstein
A timeline of what’s gone down between WeWoreWhat’s Danielle Bernstein and Diet Prada
From the face mask scandal to the recent lawsuit against The Great Eros, Diet Prada has no problem calling out one of the world’s most established influencers. Here, we share a balanced and un-biased chronicle of their notorious Instagram feud.
21st July 2020
In late July Diet Prada publish an Instagram post which reads ‘AIC founding member Danielle Bernstein solicited masks from the Latina-owned company, then knocked them off’, which alleges how blogger and business owner of ‘WeWoreWhat’, Danielle Bernstein has copied a mask design from minority-owned company ‘Second Wind’, and ripped it off for her own line. The blogger details how she used the fabric leftovers from her collection to stop wastage and made these masks to match the garments from her clothing range.
The masks were linen, the same as her overall line, and included ‘a sunglass like chain’. The post contains screenshots which appear to be communications dated the 29th June, between Bernstein, and the ‘Second Wind’ Instagram account, they show the conversation where the brand has reached out to Danielle to ask for her address, in order to send her a mask. There is a later communication where Danielle states that he is ‘making masks with a detachable chain’.
Diet Prada have published Ms Bernstein’s address to its 2.2million followers and detailed in their description that ‘it’s a cute idea…lifted (it) directly from @bysecondwind’. The post received over 150,000 likes, and had over 10,000 comments, mostly trashing business owner Danielle Bernstein for ‘copying’ the mask, and ‘using her white privilege to rip off minority owned brands’.
28th July 2020
Just one week after the first post, Diet Prada announce their Patreon subscription platform, which, for a monthly fee of $5, you can read exclusive articles with more intimate detail in Diet Prada’s classic style. They claim, with this support, they ‘can continue retaining an independent voice and full editorial and creative control’.
29th July 2020
Diet Prada publish a promotional post for their Patreon account, featuring their first article which is directed on Danielle Bernstein, with the title ‘The Streisand Effect: A case study of an influencer scandal’. With the tag line ‘read the full story on patreon.com/diet_prada’ linking to their fee-paying link. The post claims that Danielle tried to suppress information, which in turn has drawn more attention to her. They claim she used her ‘privilege and money to throw a lawsuit around and cry defamation’. It’s worth mentioning that afterwards, Diet Prada received criticism such as ‘hilarious you started this as a means to blast people out for the coin…but here’s your Patreon page’, and ‘just give up already, Jesus Christ. At what point does this turn from supporting small business to bullying? Enough is enough, we get it, you don’t like DB’.
This article on Patreon disclosed confidential information that Diet Prada had extracted from a pending lawsuit against them, from Danielle Bernstein’s lawyers, they also created a meme in order to poke fun at her response to the backlash. After this post, Danielle then went onto address the issue in an Instagram story,’I wanted to address what’s going on. I went into production on masks a few weeks before I was introduced to Second Wind and her beautiful designs through a mutual friend’, Bernstein said,’I was really excited to support her small business, but in the spirit of transparency, just wanted to let her know that I had already gone into production on linen masks with chains based off of leftover fabric from an overall run that we did and chains that are coming out in a future swim collection’.
She continued, ‘I told her I still would love to wear her masks and support her small business because I think it’s awesome what she’s doing and there’s a bunch of really cool small brands making masks with chains right now and I’ll definitely be sharing those’. Bernstein concluded, ‘Wearing a mask is so important right now. I definitely encourage you guys to check out her brand, too. My goal has and always will be to help as many small businesses as possible. That’s why I created WeGaveWhat.’
WeGaveWhat is a platform community and charity initiative that Bernstein launched in April to support small fashion brands. After stating this, she then shared many brands creating masks
with chains, and stating why she loved each one.
Ms Bernstein then addressed the issue again, amid the allegations from Diet Prada, stating that she copied by second wind, and then tried to cover it up. She stated ‘This has gotten a bit out of hand because I’m now getting death threats, which is really scary and not cool, and so I wanted to let you know that I started the process of creating masks on May 19 and I’m gonna share the email that proves that’, she said, ‘Second Wind had reached out to me three times in June before we actually got in touch on June 29. I really love her masks and think you guys should still support her. A chain on a mask is not an original concept and I’ve never claimed for that to be my own’ she continued. ‘I think that the point of all of this is that we’re still in a pandemic and we’ve created these masks to not only protect ourselves, but others around us and we can’t lose sight of that’.
Following the new statement, she posted a screenshot of an email chain, which featured the date May 19, 2020 and the subject line ‘Re: Linen Masks’.A PDF file was also included, showing white, beige and black mask design mock-ups with both gold and silver chain options.
As a result of the Instagram post published by Diet Prada, Bernstein has received threats of violence and abusive messages and comments on her Instagram, she addressed it on a separate occasion, ‘I have been on the phone with police and attorneys and the death threats and beyond horrifying messages aren’t stopping. The only thing I can think to do is to tell MY truth and show you more receipts,’ she wrote in part on her company’s Instagram Stories, sharing a message that read, ‘You b—ch ass racist mayo covered crackkker sandwich. Hope you get raped and killed.’
Bernstein decided to donate all of the masks she created, to masks to Freedom and Fashion, a non-profit that uses fashion and beauty to empower youth and women overcoming sex trafficking, domestic violence and other injustices.
3rd August 2020
Diet Prada publish their third dedicated Danielle Bernstein post. This time, calling her out for allegedly throwing ‘her team under the bus after getting called out for copying an Etsy seller’. The blogger posted an outfit photo, featuring some tan coloured shorts, explaining in the post that she bought these shorts from a vintage store, and how she gets inspired from her vintage finds so has started to make a style similar for her brand. Its later revealed, through Diet Prada’s post, that a member of her team ordered the shorts, and because they didn’t have a label she assumed they were vintage. Danielle Bernstein corrected her Instagram post, stating ‘these are from Etsy and I totally thought they were vintage but they are made to order. – someone on my team ordered them for me a while back – I will not be making them!’. Danielle after realising, tagged the brand to give credit.
4th August
Diet Prada post a Patreon exclusive story titled ‘The Danielle debacle: is it over or is she going to slap us with a SLAPP suit?’. The post details how you can ‘read the full story on Pateron for just $5’. The post explains how Danielle’s lawyer reached out to ask the platform to take down their post, as it is causing harm to Danielle’s brand, and her reputation is being slandered as a result of the negative press.
9th September
Diet Prada post about Danielle, on the matter of her being infected by COVID-19. The influencer has taken to her Instagram story to inform her followers that she caught the infectious illness that is currently circulating the world. She detailed how she ‘was careful, and always took notice of guidelines and took precautions’. The post exhibited a comment made by a follower of Diet Prada ‘she stole mask designs from a small biz and wont even wear one…’. And another post which shows a screenshot of an article titled ‘ Danielle Bernstein spotted at massless Hamptons party pre-COVID-19 diagnosis’.
It’s worth noting that in keeping with New Yorks’ phase 4 reopening, Danielle Bernstein was within her rights to not wear a mask at an event where food and drink is consumed.
17th October
Diet Prada post information disclosing details of Danielle’s lawsuit against The Great Eros. The post starts ‘Danielle Bernstein has been pretty quiet since recovering from COVID-19, but it seems she’s been busy with some other tasks’.
Bernstein and her business parter Onia are suing the Brooklyn bases lingerie company who claimed their packaging design was copied. Danielle is seeking a declaratory judgement lawsuit to detail by the court that their print does not infringe on The Great Eros design. The post then goes on to detailing both brands packaging side by side, ending with a screenshot of the story posted by The Great Eros, claiming that ‘know you didn’t just sue us with this lawsuit, you sued every small independent designer, business owner and artist’.
Danielle Bernstein isn’t the first influencer for Diet Prada to publicly criticise, and knowing fashion’s most influential ‘watchdog,’ she will probably not be the last.