Dilara Findikoglu (Q2929)
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Dilara Findikoglu is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Dilara Findikoglu |
Dilara Findikoglu is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
“Another world is not only possible, she’s on her way.” So said Arundhati Roy at the end of her 2002 speech,Come September. The world Roy was manifesting has not yet materialized: far from it. So tonight Dilara Findikoglu created a parallel dimension in which it had. As she detailed backstage: “It’s about toxic masculinity—and being beyond it: I feel like tonight we are doing a mass ritual to end it. The collection is called Femme Vortex because I wanted to create a different reality, outside politics, borders, gender norms, any kind of systematic rules that have been created by hetero-patriarchal men. My previous collections were about fighting, about resistance. But I’m not fighting any more: I wanted to express divine feminine power somewhere beyond time, beyond reality, and beyond what is happening.” Welcome to the Dilaraverse.Almost every one of the 37 looks had a title, and was crafted to encapsulate the spirit of a Findikoglu-conceived character through costume. The models then inhabited them, accepting the possession of that spirit through the prism of their own individuality. The input of movement director Pat Boguslawski (who through his work here andat Margielais shaping an alternative world of his own) was a key contribution too.The opening look, Female Territory, laid the ground. Hari Nef wore a corporate suit, usurped and transformed. Its pinstripe wool and cotton shirting was deployed as a split skirt worn beneath corseting, latex opera gloves, and a BDSM bow headpiece. Nef owned it—as every model owned their respective looks—with a performance of self-possession that physically rewrote the succubus myth into a femino-heroic narrative.Some looks, including number three’s Man License, were accessorized with a tabloid newspaper whose splash headline ran: “OMG Dilara Is Doing a Satanic Orgy at a London Church.” Others, such as 12’s Fragile Ego, and the final two looks (Question of Time and Waking the Witch) were made of stiffened fabric apparently mid-flutter (or wrenched) as if to appear frozen in time. Look 32’s Cleopatra as a CEO turned eBay-purchased keys into the Egyptian queen’s hair above another suit-skirt as a declaration of office-culture revolution. Once she was done with power suiting, Findikoglu lampooned masculine tropes including soccer fans (her shirt came with Gaultier-esque bodicing).
These looks came with a see now, buy now scarf which, alongside the crystal-webbed black washed denim and corseted sportswear, hinted at promising real-world developments in Findikoglu’s business. Due to costs, the designer eventually elected not to show last season (here Look 25 was christened only SS24 and was surely a carry over). However, if she can further translate tonight’s powerful Dilaraverse alchemy into the production of totemic “real world” pieces, her universe can only expand. When that other world does arrive, she will be wearing Dilara Findikoglu.
18 February 2024
“I have been drowning in the fine line between my craft and the disaster for the last two weeks but I decided to do what I do best, use my voice as much as I can.” So declared Dilara Findikoglu, who is of Turkish heritage, in an Instagram pre-show urging donations towards earthquake relief funds.This showneededto go on. Entitled “Not a Man’s Territory,” it was angry, feminist, sexual, political: complex, true, and beautiful. Every brilliant model inhabited and embodied a character that was fashioned via excellent movement direction and Findikoglu’s intensely conjured clothing. Together these characters formed a chorus of female self-possession. Findikoglu said the collection came together as she contemplated the protest that followed the arrest—for wearing a hijab “improperly”—and later death in custody of Mahsa Amini in Iran last November. Backstage, Findikoglu said: “Why is a woman’s body a question of everything? Why is it exploited so much? It’s always a topic: what should she wear? What shouldn’t she wear? This is my little dance of revolution towards actually possessing your body back.”The look that embodied the collection and its starting point, she said, was number 27. Before we saw the belly dancer outfit crafted from braided hair and Victorian jewelry, its wearer walked from backstage entirely enveloped but for her face by a black shroud of fabric. She lifted her arm and it fell. “Women in the streets in Iran were cutting off their hair. It was so powerful, and I was so inspired. So here she is cutting her hair and turning it into garments to wear as she wants.” The look 8 you see in the gallery here is in fact unfinished: because just after that photo was taken the model stopped and kicked her mohair skirt to the ground. Observed the designer: “As I said, last time, I hate modesty. And this time I actually really destroyed it, I think. The roles that were given to a woman without her control: they’re taking that control back.”Alongside me Lisa Rinna exalted in ever more awestruck terms as the multiple tableaux presented themselves. One model in a red mohair bikini ran and halted her way through the space, her eyes darting, as if fearful of unwanted attention. Overwhelmingly though—despite the chains that sometimes looped at the ankle or hung through safety pinned fingernails—there was more anger than fear, more victory than victim, in these characters.
Look 4’s tousled lady was a salute to Marylin Monroe: Findikoglu had seenBlondeand hated it, so created a memorial Monroe who was her own sex object, not one owned by others. Like many of the characters, this one felt herself (in both senses) as she walked.Defiance and design saturated every look, but the last one was the fiercest. It was Joan of Arc reincarnated after having been burned at the stake for crimes including the heresy of dressing like a man. “She’s coming back for revenge, dressed as she wants. And she has her knives.” When Joan passed she met your gaze with hers, a fury. Findikoglu is an exceptionally special creator of worn impulse and intent.
21 February 2023
“My job in this world is to make this world more beautiful,” said Dilara Findikoglu. This afternoon though, she had a lot to unpack—and not all of it was beautiful. “This collection is about my journey to physical and spiritual freedom,” explained the 32 year-old. She elaborated that a return during the pandemic to her birthplace, Istanbul, had begun the process of liberation we saw expressed on the runway today.During her 18 months in the city, its association with her childhood memories plus some visa problems acted as her madeleine. “Because of the visa problems I felt trapped. And that's the feeling that I had throughout my whole childhood and teenage years. I just wanted to get out, beyond the control of lots of factors like religion, like tradition—things that I couldn’t change.”And so began the process of conception and creation of a collection whose pieces in some cases—such as the mini-pannier dress decorated with a universe of plaited locks of hair—took six months to realize. It came in four phases, characterized by Findikoglu as “trapped child,” “chained good girl,” “the funeral of Dilara’s own past,” and lastly “rebirth.” Layers of tulle were used to trap totemic elements. Upcycled vintage Victorian silk brocades were recast into bodices to reinforce the sense of a second life unfolding. Menswear jackets were worn, pulled down from the back and held at the wrist, as nearly cast aside shackles. A corseted look wrapped in vintage Union Jacks and topped with a crown of braids articulated Findikoglu’s transport to here.Coins and bells, emblems plucked from vintage Anatolian pieces, jangled on the runway as they passed. We knew that as there was no soundtrack, just a focusing silence as the models walked in the romantically destroyed rooms of a 19th-century hotel that will soon be demolished. A train made of old tailoring tugged and scratched against the puckered parquet and kicked up dust. A benchmate from i-D tried to enjoy a Mike & Ike mid-show, but the box created so much candy percussion that she slipped it back into her pocket.There was a lot of stylized sexuality—a lot of skin. “To me this comes from that feeling of being trapped,” said Findikoglu. “I want to take my burdens off: I feel strangled with modesty, I hate modesty, I want to destroy it.” Ghostliness and vivacity wrestled gorgeously together in a collection that was deeply mixed-up, and something of a classic.
17 September 2022
“I don’t want any burdens,” says Dilara Findikoglu plainly. “I just want to make people feel amazing—and I want to feel amazing. I don’t want any extra clothing. I just want body, mind, and soul.”Less baggage, more brio is Findikoglu’s message—and the spirit of post-lockdown life in general. Free yourself, live wildly, embrace the unknown, go outside and reconnect with nature. Her recommended method? A seaside escape—and she has just the wardrobe for it too. Tomorrow, Findikoglu is launching a new swimwear collection that translates her maximalist vision of corsets, bows, and veils into its purest form yet. “We were looking for ways to feel lighter and feel more fun,” Findikoglu says. “Usually I look at politics and religion, these heavy subjects and issues. This time, after the heaviness of COVID, I don’t want to hear any of that. I want to strip back and be more minimal.”The swimwear pieces are still as sexy, with corsets inset into one-pieces and bikinis made with many ties and straps. Much of it, in colors like cherry red and lilac, could double as ready-to-wear or bodysuits, especially a one-shoulder swimsuit and the lace-up swim leggings. Other pieces in the collection are actual ready-to-wear, like ruffled jeans, a nostalgic track jacket, and a trio of wickedly beautiful dresses in ivory, floral, and black with mirrored beading.Even in the crowded swimwear market, Fidnikoglu’s pieces will stand out for their unabashed femininity. Making sure every person exists in a state of ultimate babedom is her goal—and she is especially in tune with the ways our bodies (and our feelings about them) have shifted during the pandemic. “We have been indoors. We couldn’t work out. I think everybody is beautiful and I want to show it,” she says, pointing to her sheer one-piece style with floral “pasties” and her corseted pieces as being particularly hot for summer.To help show off the collection, she has enlisted the Academy Award–winning director Yorgos Lanthimos, who photographed a cast of models along the British seaside wearing the collection. Calling it a Hot Girl Summer would be reductive. It’s a Hot Coven Summer at least, a communal happening of women reconnecting with the sea, nature, and each other.If that sounds like your ideal summer vacation, these are the swimsuits for you. But if vacationing remains out of the question, Findikoglu is bringing her vision of eclectic escapism to the metaverse too.
Her first NFTs, a trio of works made in collaboration with artists Enes Güc and Zeynep Schilling called “Saint Dilara Beach Club,” go up for auction this week. “It is a place, on the way to Golden Fleece, where the sun shines in a glamorous silver, where the days are so long that you can live in an endless summer breeze, and where the nights are only for joyful dreams,” reads their description. Findikoglu hammers the idea of escapism—however you can get it—home: “I want people to have fun and feel good. That’s why this collection and project is really important for me; it’s a completely new thing for me, a breath of fresh air.”
27 July 2021
The decorum of the corseted era Dilara Findikoglu loves to reference says that women are supposed to be quiet. They are to be kept busy with their thoughts and their handicrafts, not interfering with matters of philosophy, power, or psyche. Findikoglu, if it’s not immediately obvious, is not the type to sit idly by. She is a furious creator who injects cultural commentary into each of her collections, having spoken out about climate change, women’s rights, marriage equality, and gender disparity in recent seasons. For fall 2020, she’s speaking out for herself.Backstage, Findikoglu explained how events in her personal life led her into a deep introspection. She psychoanalyzed herself in this collection, christening her models into two sects: light Dilara and dark Dilara. The division didn’t exactly correlate to a color palette or silhouette but was more about mood. As is her habit, each look was named. Mother was a blooming harness top in fuchsia with a red, slashed-away maxiskirt. Self Destruction was a viciously ruched dress that appeared on the runway on a model holding a snow-white cat. (Findikoglu mentioned the idea of a crazy cat lady as a shorthand for madness.) Borderline was a ruched black bodysuit, Power was a pale blue menswear suit, Insecurity was strips of silver fabric with floral appliqués worn with a bridal veil that came after Future, a similar ensemble cut out of blood red fabric. Modesty and Overthinking were both miniature poufs, one asparagus green with a Cristóbal-meets-Cardin headpiece, the other with the same headpiece rendered in black and white flowers. The set for these looks was a bombed-out dinner party, bottles of red wine spilled on tables of berries and grapes. Models wore powdered faces, slinking between the tables, ruffling guests’ hair, or reaching down for a quick bite.The theatrics of a Findikoglu experience rival that of designers who have been at this 10 times as long as she and who operate with 10 times her budget. Where she advanced leaps and bounds this season was in her ability to translate her passion into clothing to actually be worn. These pieces were still hauntingly referential to her ghosts and spirits but with a contemporary twist. See her first look out, a crimson tweedy skirt suit with a logo belt. It was called—quite cheekily—Gabrielle (as in Chanel). Sisterhood 1, a micro-mini iteration of the suit in pale pink, was another salable option.
Enfant Terrible, long-sleeved corset top with low-slung skirt, would work nicely for day-job goths, as would Real World, Findikoglu’s version of a business suit with pointed breasts darted into its vest and high-cut briefs stitched into the trouser. (The message to decode there won’t be hard to read.)The best piece, and possibly the most radical, was Istanbul. Named after Findikoglu’s home city, the look was a photo print of belly dancing attire on stretch jersey that hugged the body like a second skin. It was the first time she’s made anything that simple, stretchy, and unadorned—and the ensemble that resonated the most with her personal past. People will want to buy it and wear it, and when they do, they’ll be getting a special slice of Dilara.
15 February 2020
In the three years since Dilara Findikoglu graduated from Central Saint Martins, the London-based Turkish designer has built a sizable business and won plenty of celebratory press. Her magical creations are also unmatched in the fashion sphere for their haunting beauty and carefully wrought craftsmanship. Findikoglu’s popularity and profits are thanks to her uncompromising aesthetic taste; the world she has created in her name is one where history and historical dress fuse with artistry, the occult, the supernatural, and the perverse. For many designers, this would be enough: to have a cult following (literally) and be among the wisest, most inspired young designers in the game. But Findikoglu is intent on doing more with her label. For Spring 2020, she created a mass ritual to summon awareness about climate change, complete with a poem, talismanic structures, and a peace sign stamped on to the wall of her show space in what seemed to be blood.Communing with nature and its spirits has been crucial to Findikoglu’s work since day one, but now she is putting her creative energy where her mouth is, so to speak. She estimates that 60 to 75 percent of her collection shown on the catwalk today was sustainably made, using up-cycled vintage garments or handmade techniques from her native Turkey to eliminate waste. Her moiré skirts, in shades of dusty rose, were hand-woven and dyed in Turkey by a women’s collective, resulting in variance in the colors between bolts of fabric. That irregularity played into the design, with Findikoglu staggering waistbands and hems to reflect the fragmented nature of her materials. Elsewhere, she turned studio scraps into three-dimensional floral embellishments and turned vintage skirts into a lively cape worn with some of the store tags still hanging.Her dedication to sustainability led her to examine the work of her spiritual predecessor Vivienne Westwood. The two are quite kindred spirits, equally passionate about the environment and firm in their distinctive style. If a male model with “Vivienne Says Buy Less” scrawled on his chest in red lipstick was the obvious homage to Dame Viv, Findikoglu’s mini crinis, deconstructed gray check suiting, and subversively sexy button-off trousers were the more niche ties to Westwood’s oeuvre.But saving the planet and talking to the spirit world wasn’t enough, either. Findikoglu also issued herself a surprising design challenge this season: assess the waist.
Since the start of her brand, she has built most of her garments to be tightly cinched by corset, darts, or belt to accentuate the female form. For Spring 2020, she spoke about rethinking the area from the sternum to the hipbone, letting it be wild, unencumbered, and free. Backstage after the show, she motioned to the model wearing her first look: A red cross top and low-slung blue jacquard skirt. “This elongated skinny look is something I have never done before, and I’m pleased that I can still make it look theatrical but minimal at the same time,” she said. In addition to the many hip-hugging skirts, Findikoglu also cropped her corsets to look more like breastplates, accentuating the midsection and letting it breathe. It’s there, of course, between the ribs and the hips that life is born, which is perhaps why one model came out with a baby clad in black frills harnessed to her torso. “There are a lot of fresh shapes in this collection that I have never explored before,” Findikoglu continued. “I’m quite proud of myself.” The feeling is much deserved.
14 September 2019