Dilara Findikoglu Spring Summer 2023 at London Fashion Week

Dilara Findikoglu Spring Summer 2023 at London Fashion Week, Dilara Findikoglu is a contemporary womenswear designer based in London who founded her namesake brand in 2016. She is an influential voice in steering together subcultural elements and infusing these with important and timely social commentary on feminism, religion and politics.

Her designs boast a completely unique perspective on luxury fashion, blending artisan traditions and techniques with punk and mentality executed with the highest attention to quality, detail and couture sensibility. They are worn by the likes of Bella Hadid, Maisie Williams, Madonna, Rihanna and Kylie Minogue.

With her SS23 collection, “Freedom is a Two Edged Sword”, the designer runs us through her own personal journey of spiritual freedom and re-birth.

Presented as a silent show in a grand but ran-down West London Victorian mansion, Dilara revisits traumatic memories from her past and everything aligns with this unsettling feeling, from the models’ attitude whilst walking to the lack of music making the audience feel purposely awkward, just as she did growing up.

The collection consists of four stages: trapped child, chained good girl, the funeral of Dilara’s own past and lastly, her re-birth. Each of these elements are reflected in the garments such as in the trapping techniques and destructing modesty of the different looks.

Taking inspiration from earliest and teenage memories, and metaphorically mourning her past, the collection embraces various ancient Anatolian and Victorian techniques with a modern twist – some of which have not been used in fashion before. The collection includes a lot of silk and upcycled vintage tapestry, Victorian hair techniques, embellished couture-like pieces, as well as Dilara’s first time use of denim in the catwalk.