What the **** @WeWoreWhat

Let me begin by introducing you to Diet Prada: an Instagram account through which two recently unmasked influencers from the world of fashion draw the spotlight to brands who blatantly, or subtly, copy others' designs. The voice of Diet Prada is  the pioneer and premier movement with the primary goal of delivering karma where it's due.

The most fickle  thing about Diet Prada is that oftentimes their followers will send them information about knock-offs or 'inspiration' that designers butcher. In my personal experience, there is  nothing quite as satisfying as alerting the literal ‘fashion police’ about trend repeaters through a quick Instagram DM. Which leads to the hardest direct message I've sent.

@WeWoreWhat, or Danielle Bernstein, is (or was) one of my favorite fashion and lifestyle bloggers. She has edgy and eclectic style that I relate to and strive to recreate in my own closet frequently.

However, in early May, Bernstein 'created' a line of jewelry with Nordstrom entitled, LuluDK X WeWoreWhat. The idea that  we could all own the same locket, as well as other jewelry, that had been coveted by the blogger, herself was great. The locket particularly was inspired by the exact same locket she uses to hold a picture of her recently-passed grandpa. The emotional response was beautiful, letting her followers own the same locket to physically hold a representation of someone they love or have lost.  But after strict consideration, and a huge obsession with jewelry that I came to through Ylang23, I realized many of the pieces looked strikingly similar to pieces I dreamed to own once I made enough money to do so. And the real kicker-- she's selling every piece in the collection for under $100.

Her emotional response to being called out by Diet Prada as well as jewelry designers such as Foundrae and Retrouvai to name a couple, was not as polite as it should be. She Instagram storied about feeling attacked instead of owning up to the shocking pain she inflicted on these artists  having their life's work copied and sold as cheap costume jewelry. ooking back it probably did hurt her feelings,after all, she is human. However, after witnessing her expression of sadness and watching her cry on camera, her next story had a swipe-up link to shop the line as soon as it releases.  

Even after Nordstrom pulled several pieces from the line, they should have apologized to the boutique jewelry designers they knocked off. Bernstein didn't copy big businesses, she copied designers who worked their whole lives to create quality jewelry that would last a lifetime. The designers, themselves, were commenting how hurt they were to have been deceived as Bernstein wore their jewelry often and even went over to one of the designer’s houses to look at pieces and borrow them for personal wear.

What pushed me even further (being the psychoanalytic person that I am) was @WeWoreWhat’s opening pop-up in NYC. On the wall, it said “...Ended up at Nordstrom’s,” blatantly copying the “...Ended up at 1Oak” sign that adorns the super popular international club. Before the event began, the original sign was removed to just say ‘Nordstrom.’ Although I couldn’t find the picture of the pre-event sign, the thoughtless plagiarism stands.

I tried everything in the book to forgive my favorite influencer for her ethical faults. She used a personal family death, something I can relate to, to endorse a jewelry line that took clients away from the actual designer’s work. This also This also brings up the critical issue of using vintage jewelry as a means for inspiration or if it’s technically plagiarism. After discussing further with my friends, one of them said she unfollowed Bernstein for the implementations listed above. I haven’t done so just yet because I do still hope to run into her, or have this conversation with her, because it really does hurt my dedication as a consumer and dedicated follower. As silly as that may seem, it leads to a feeling of disrespect and deception amongst readers and avid listeners of her blog.

All commentary welcome and appreciated. Also, for further stalking, the comments on Diet Prada are worth a look as well as the photos below.

Xx,

Morgan