Dolce and Gabanna sues Diet Prada for Defamation

Dolce & Gabanna and the creators of Diet Prada

 Diet Prada, an Instagram account known for calling out fashion brands, is pushing back on a 2019 defamation lawsuit from Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana filed in an Italian civil court. 

The account, run by Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler, announced in a Thursday Instagram post that they answered the defamation suit with "a defense of our freedom of speech" ahead of their deadline to respond to the court.

Dolce & Gabbana's defamation suit accuses the Instagram page's owners of causing a loss in revenue after it published a critical post about the brand. 

In 2018, Diet Prada criticized Dolce & Gabbana, saying the company featured a "stereotypical and sexist depiction of a Chinese woman" in a controversial advertising campaign at the time. The account also shared what was purportedly a screenshot of a direct message from Stefano Gabbana's account that included anti-Asian remarks.

The brand's advertising campaign was met with international outrage at the time, leading to the hashtag #boycottdolce to trend on social media. According to NPR, the company's brand ambassador in China cut ties with the company after the incident. The brand's founders, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, later issued an apology.

Dolce & Gabbana's 2019 defamation suit requests €3 million in damages (over $3.5 million USD at today's conversion rates) for the company and another €1 million (around $1.2 million USD) for Gabbana. 

"This lawsuit is outrageous, on a number of levels," Susan Scafidi, the founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School who is defending Liu and Schuyler through the program's pro bono clinic, told Insider. "Ethically, how does a company publicly apologize, then quietly turn around and bring a lawsuit?" 

In Italy, defamation laws can include consideration of tone and public interest, on top of whether or not what was said was true, Scafidi said.

In the caption of Diet Prada's Thursday post, the page highlighted the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes in the US. "With so much anti-Asian hate spreading in the U.S., it feels wrong to continue to remain silent about a lawsuit that threatens our freedom of speech," the caption said. "We are a small company co-founded by a person of color, trying to speak out against racism in our own community."

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How Did Dolce and Gabanna Get Uncancelled?

 The Italian luxury label is once again a fixture of the red carpet and the subject of gauzy magazine profiles. In the last few weeks, Greta Gerwig, Blake Lively, Lupita Nyong’o and even the Duchess of Cambridge have worn the brand during public appearances. And on Tuesday, first lady Melania Trump, a longtime supporter, sported a dark Dolce & Gabbana suit to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.

Dolce & Gabbana’s many critics advocated to get the brand off the backs of A-listers in 2018, following a roughly six-month run where designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana managed to insult the Japanese fashion industry, Selena Gomez and the people of China in rapid succession.

The label’s hourglass-making, richly ornate looks were largely absent from awards shows for about a year. Their sudden return marks a new chapter in one of fashion’s most enduring mysteries: why, no matter what Dolce & Gabbana’s controversial founders say or do, does the brand always come roaring back, seemingly none the worse for wear?

This time around, some industry insiders credit Lucio Di Rosa, who joined the brand at the start of 2020 as head of worldwide celebrities and VIP relations, a position he held at Versace for 15 years and Armani before that.

“Lucio is a beloved figure within the fashion industry,” said fashion writer Evan Ross Katz. “He has really strong connections with stylists and celebrities.” Katz, a writer for Garage, Paper and other titles, has been following the brand’s moves for some time. He recently posted footage of celebrity stylist Karla Welch denouncing the brand at a panel for BoF West in 2018, pointing out that Welch had styled her own clients in the label last month.

Others argue that Dolce & Gabbana never really went away. Revenue for the fiscal year ending in March 2019 was up 5 percent to €1.38 billion ($1.54 billion). That was despite being frozen out of China, the world’s second-biggest luxury market, for months after a November 2018 campaign video depicting a Chinese model struggling to eat Italian food with chopsticks sparked a boycott.

Those resilient sales are a sign that Dolce & Gabbana’s antagonism toward critics and disdain for political correctness remains a viable strategy, even as other brands compete with marketing strategies, diversity committees and other efforts to stress to consumers they have a stance on political and social issues.

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