It seems the devil still wears Prada.
Egomaniacal fashion editors and stylists are alive and well, according to the Instagram account @FashionAssistants.
What began as a cheeky meme account in December 2017 has quickly snowballed into an online confessional for assistants to decry injustices in the workplace, including fat-shaming, non-payment, ridiculously superfluous requests and more.
The moderator (or moderators) behind the account posts screenshots of direct messages from fashion assistants about their alleged mistreatment, blacking out names for anonymity.
Some assistants report being verbally attacked. One anonymous intern was assisting a “big stylist” on set when the stylist’s phone charger broke.
When the assistant explained this, “In front of the ENTIRE crew and celeb, [the stylist] threw her phone on the ground, broke it and yelled that thanks to me her friend was now going to kill himself and it would be all my fault because I couldn’t charge her phone.”
Others have been blamed for their superiors’ mistakes. “I used to assist someone who was asked to do a big advertising job,” another anonymous assistant writes.
“They turned around to me, in front of the client, and said that I must have let [their request] slip through the cracks . . . They put all the blame on me, and I had to sit there and take [it], despite not being in the first meeting and getting the correct brief.”
Some even report physical acts of violence.
“[The stylist] was screaming, and began chaotically kicking and throwing things around. Unfortunately, one of those things thrown at my direction was a pair of knee-high Louboutin boots,” an anonymous assistant writes.
The Post has reached out to the account for comment on these allegations.
@FashionAssistants isn’t the first of its kind. @ShitModelMGMT, a meme account about the horrors of the modeling industry, including incidents of racism and sexual harassment, has been running since 2016 (although it’s gotten more prominent as the #MeToo movement went on).
An account for fashion publicists, called @FashionPRDaily, sprung up in January and pokes fun at the struggles PR mavens often face with stolen clothing samples.
Although it’s difficult to verify the contents of these accounts, it’s clear that workplace abuse is still happening in the fashion business. Industry leaders would be wise to address this disparity between the top and the bottom.
As Business of Fashion writer Anabel Maldonado points out, “Abusers may ‘get employees to comply, but not to commit. People who work for a bully are biding their time, looking for a way out.’ Or, in today’s world, looking for a way to get their story out.”
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