“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.” That’s the manifesto behind Dilara Findikoglu‘s autumn-winter 2024 show presented at a moody church in London. All 37 looks had a title, and were 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. Hari Nef, being “Female Territory“, 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. Other 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 “Fragile Ego“, and the final two looks were made of stiffened fabric apparently mid-flutter (or wrenched) as if to appear frozen in time. We still have to see what’s cooking at Sean McGirr’s Alexander McQueen debut collection, but I feel like Dilara would do absolute wonders under Lee’s name.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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