The Italian fashion house, Dolce and Gabbana have filed a defamation suit against Instagram's fashion Bible, Diet Prada, seeking approximately $600 million in damages

In November 2018, Dolce & Gabbana canceled its Shanghai fashion show after widespread criticism on social media accusing the brand of racism in its #DGLovesChina ad campaign. Among those drawing attention to the ad were Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler, founders of the fashion watchdog Instagram account Diet Prada. However, just over two years later, Liu and Schuyler revealed that they have been battling a lawsuit from the Italian brand since early 2019.

The controversial ad campaign included a video in which a Chinese woman attempts and fails to eat Italian food with chopsticks. It was uploaded on the Chinese site Weibo at first but removed within 24 hours, though it remained visible on Diet Prada. The account also posted screenshots of anti-Asian remarks seemingly sent from Stefano Gabbana’s Instagram account.

Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana initially said that Gabbana’s account had been hacked. The two later appeared in a video apologizing to the Chinese people.

Following the viral criticism and the withdrawal of Chinese models and guests from the Shanghai fashion show, Dolce & Gabbana filed an action against Diet Prada’s founders in civil court in Milan. Claiming defamation, the suit seeks €3 million for Dolce & Gabbana and €1 million for Stefano Gabbana in damages. The suit was filed in Milan civil court in 2019 but only became public this week when the bloggers posted about it on their Instagram account, Diet Prada.

On Monday, Liu and Schuyler filed a defense of their freedom of speech in response to the suit. According to a statement by Diet Prada, Dolce & Gabbana claims that the Instagram account’s 2018 coverage of the controversial ad campaign caused the brand to lose revenue and was responsible for other harm.

Italian defense attorneys filed a brief this week in Milan civil court, arguing that Italy is not the correct venue for the case, given that the blog is produced in the United States and the alleged damages occurred in Asia. Representing Liu and Schuyler free of charge is the nonprofit Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University in New York, as well as Italian law firm AMSL Avvocati, which is helping the pair for a reduced rate.

Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, said: 'This whole case is a way of trying to silence Diet Prada, and to silence Tony and Lindsay personally.'

She said the fashion house is seeking €450 million spent to restore brand image since 2018 and damages of €3 million for the company and €1 million for Gabbana, to whom the remarks were attributed. The suit also seeks more than €8.6 million for the cancellation of the Shanghai show, another €8.6 million for staff expenditures, and €89.6 million for lost Asian sales from November 2018-March 2019.

Everything amounts to more than half a billion euros.

In a statement, Liu and Schuyler both said they would not allow their platform, which has also been vocal about the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, and recent attacks on Asians in the United States, to be silenced by lawsuits. One of the co-founders, Liu said, "Like many people of color in the United States, there's pain that stems from seeing ourselves depicted through inaccurate, harmful stereotypes. Often, it leads to racism and violence."

"We are confident that Diet Prada is on the right side of both law and history," said Professor Susan Scafidi, founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute, in a statement. "And we are honored to help them demonstrate that harmful stereotypes are never in style."

Since bringing the issue to the public, Diet Prada has raised more than $40,000 for its defense.