Dilara Findikoglu fired up London Fashion Week with her outing at Slimelight, the longest-running Goth nightclub in town. Lead by Lara Stone, a pack of ferociously badass women, clad in hyper-corsetry and second-skin chiffon body stockings stalked through the dark space, utterly entrancing the viewers. Entitled “Venus in Chaos”, the collection was “a divine feminine mutiny“, as the designer summed up in her press-notes. Botticelli-goth hair, a bustier covered with hundreds of shells, red velvet jackets (un)finished with punk-ish safety pins, unexpected cuts in the most “risky” places, tattered hems and ripped lace: all that created an extreme impression of total liberation from societal norms – and the pleasure of sexual self-possession. It’s easy to compare Dilara’s subversive work to John Galliano or Alexander McQueen’s, aesthetics-wise, but what makes her differ is her powerful female gaze that truly makes you believe these otherworldly women are here to break the patriarchal system.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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