Praying Is the Fashion Industry’s Most Perverse Viral Hit - Vogue.com

Praying’s clothes are—at first glance—straightforward. They sell tees, slip dresses, and bags plastered with slogans in a basic, serifed font, or cut-out images of pop-culture icons. Some of their most popular pieces include a cropped polo with “Father Figure” emblazoned across the chest, a tennis skirt printed with Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, and a tiny shoulder bag that reads “God’s Favorite.” This juxtaposition between the innocence of the slogans and the sexiness of the design—combined with the brand’s extremely online marketing—creates a darkness that underscores the simplicity of the label. Praying transforms their simple creations into something more sinister, perverse, and wanted. So far the brand, created by Alex Haddad and Skylar Newman in 2020, has gained an eclectic mix of fans including Rosalía, Jennifer Coolidge, Megan Thee Stallion, Heidi Montag, and Olivia Rodrigo. The label has also captivated New York downtowners. “Our customer base varies a lot for us,” Newman says. “Like Olivia Rodrigo likes it, and some scummy New York people like it.”

The label was birthed out of boredom and friendship. Before Praying, Newman worked at a software company in New York, and Haddad at an architecture firm in Los Angeles. As a side gig, Newman made promotional clothes for a media company, which inspired him to make clothes with Haddad. They started small, distributing pieces to their friends, and eventually launched Praying. Haddad and Newman claim that their designs are up for interpretation, and they use phrases that appeal to them. “In terms of intellectualizing the brand, we just liked the idea of putting messages on clothes that have unclear, multiple meanings, and presenting them clearly,” says Newman. “Generally, the message has more than one meaning or reference. Some people see the messages as ironic, and some people see them being serious.”

The phrases and words are pulled from unlikely sources. There’s a quote from Corinthians on a pair of shorts (“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things”). There’s also a line from the saccharine bop by Nash, “I Hate You, I Love You” on a sports bra (“You said you wouldn’t and you fucking did”). Sometimes, the phrases read as a dig, notably the “they don’t build statues of critics” merch, a quote that has been attributed to Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Similarly, their flirty “Do It” dress reads, “Do It/ Nothing Is Impossible,” but the words are positioned in such a way that it can also be interpreted as “Do Nothing / It Is Impossible.” Praying’s messaging is in the eye of the beholder—and it can be as dark as you want. It’s skanky deepness at its finest.

The marketing emphasizes this sarcastic edge. Their e-commerce site is reminiscent of a low-fi Geocities fansite, an aesthetic that has worked for other buzzy brands like Online Ceramics. Their Instagram feed masterfully merges fact and fiction in a way that’s almost impossible to discern. Some fabricated images include a paparazzi shot of Lindsay Lohan wearing Prayings’s “Holy Trinity” white bikini that reads “Father” and “Son” on the cups and “Holy Ghost” on the crotch; a yearbook photo of Paris Hilton wearing a shirt that reads “You Matter/Don’t Give Up;” and Adam Sandler in full Praying gear, toting their Twilight fan bag. Praying’s fandom is already so bizarre—see Heidi Montag and Rosalía—that any one of these images is plausible. “If you zoom in to some of those photos, they are clearly not real,” says Haddad. “We see it the same way when people in real life wear it. There are some surprising people, like Olivia Rodrigo.”

Surprising or not, Praying cheekily promotes even its most unlikely fans. The tactic is reminiscent of Teflar tapping Sonja Morgan to model in their campaign, Raul Lopez of Luar doctoring images of Judge Judy to promote his Ana bag, or even Balenciaga promoting Justin Bieber as the face of their label. Everyone is leaning into the irony.

While the brand has quickly become a celebrity-favorite, the biggest piece of evidence that they’ve made it has been their knockoff on Fashion Nova. The retailer is selling a “God’s Favorite” T-shirt for only $6.99. Sure, Praying’s shirt is not that hard to create; it’s just a basic font on a tee. Whereas other small brands might be offended that a fast-fashion company lifted their design, Praying both embraced it and posted a screenshot of it on their Instagram. Our only question remains: Is it real or is it fake?

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