Dilara Findikoglu’s self-destructive female genius
Since graduating from CSM in 2015, Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu’s name has become synonymous with rebellion. Stoking up controversy by showing satanic-themed collections in churches or using the catwalk to speak out about gender inequality, she’s certainly not one to blend in with the crowd. Her collections have always reflected this non-conformist spirit and over the years she’s honed a signature neo-gothic aesthetic featuring corsetry and red velvet galore.
This season, she paid homage to the female trailblazers of the past – like 19th Century French sculptor Camille Claudel, Bloomsbury Group writer Virginia Woolf and original sad girl poet Sylvia Plath – whose lives helped pave the way for her own work. Yet this isn’t a straightforward narrative of female empowerment. These women might retrospectively be considered feminist icons but their real lives were beset with internal conflict: all three suffered from mental health issues that saw Plath and Woolf take their own lives and Claudel dying in a mental asylum.
In solidarity with these women, Findikoglu opened up about her own emotional struggles with her AW20 collection. Featuring her signature ruffles in addition to suiting, deconstructed evening wear and sleek leather, the displayed looks made historic visual references to the Victorian Ottoman Empire and Renaissance France but corresponded with a spectrum of feelings (i.e. “anxiety”, “melancholia” and “insecurity”) that the designer has experienced more recently over the course of 2019.
Beyond a tongue-in-cheek engagement with the “rebel woman” trope – Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” soundtracked the finale and the show featured its very own “crazy cat lady” – the show seemed to proffer a serious consideration of the psychic toll of female creativity. Talking to Vogue about the collection, Findikoglu cited her approaching 30th birthday and mental health strains of working in fashion as influencing factors; suggesting that the designer is reflecting on her own creative process and what it might take for her to mature artistically.
The effervescent energy of youth might have catapulted Findikoglu to industry infamy, but this latest collection seems to be suggesting that it’s emotional growth and mindfulness that will help sustain her success and prevent the mental and creative burnout that has befallen her spiritual predecessors who have pushed against the system.
Check out exclusive backstage images from Dilara Findikoglu AW20 below.
