22 September 2025 |
There’s buzz and then there’s Dilara. She only shows once a year – viral celebrity moments courtesy of Charli xcx, Kim Kardashian and Sabrina Carpenter keep things ticking in-between times. That said, she knows how to sear the fashion show experience into your memory. There were queues around the block (at one point the police were called to deal with it) and triple booked front row seats. That was followed by an hour long wait to see Naomi Campbell and Amelia Gray on the catwalk wearing kinky, horsey-inspired looks. One young wag described it as “Hermès for the dark web”.
Those with long fashion memories likened the hysteria to the heyday of Alexander Mcqueen. Dilara’s dark, gothic Victoriana aesthetic also has a kinship with the late great designer as does her ability to bring complex conversations to a fashion catwalk. Dilara’s sex positive feminism is at the core of her approach. “I feel like women have been kept in cages of innocence and purity, being told they have to be clean and represent virginity, all this kind of stuff, but we come out of this cage today,” she said. It was a rallying cry for next-level vixen dressing. Following her narrative, Dilara’s muse escaped from virginity into freedom. Her models stalked and slinked through the historic rooms of Ironmongers’ Hall inside the Barbican, in looks that ranged from tiny white corseted mini dresses, their hair matted with twigs and leaves as if they’d been romping outdoors, to a buckled leather harness dress complete with a long horsey tail swishing behind. One model wore a bit between her teeth. Naomi Campbell walked in a corset based on a bridle and blinkers, whilst Amelia Gray played the ultimate scarlett woman to perfection in a tiny red lace number. That trajectory of throwing off the shackles of convention mirrors Dilara’s own story. From a conservative Turkish family, she found her freedom in the goth clubs of London but she’s acutely aware that her experience is radically different to the generations that went before her. “What appears light and virtuous in name has, in truth, weighed heavily across generations, transforming supposed ideals into invisible walls.” Dilara’s subversive sensuality took a wrecking ball to all that.
Photography courtesy of Dilara Findikolgu.
