Get in Loser, We're Going to Venus: Dilara Findikoglu's New World Order Finds Beauty in The Chaos
If women are from Venus, what the hell are we doing here?
![Backstage at Dilara Findikoglu Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection [PHOTOS]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Z1Pp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F430355c6-40d4-4b9f-9b3c-bdd15e642c39_800x533.jpeg "Backstage at Dilara Findikoglu Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear Collection [PHOTOS]")
London Fashion Week is a Petri dish of unbridled creativity. Usually less product-focused than New York, and certainly not as pretentious as Paris, London is an oasis of young innovation. Dilara Findikoglu, a graduate of Central Saint Martins (one of the most prestigious fashion institutions in the world), is a powerhouse of artistry and damn good design. Her hatred of modesty, incredible ingenuity (she once made a Joan of Arc-inspired dress with cutlery as armor), and feminist worldview have wooed the entire industry, making her a designer to watch.
Ideas
“Chaotic but beautiful at the same time” is how Dilara Findikoglu described her Fall/Winter 2025 collection. Dilara’s past two shows (excluding her most recent F/W 24 collection) have been presented against the backdrop of charmingly dilapidated venues. Her models, sometimes under the guidance of Pat Boguslawski (the movement director responsible for Maison Margiela’s famous S/S 24 artisanal couture collection), usually slink across the floor in a disjointed yet bewitching manner. For her S/S 23 show, Dilara ditched the runway music which amplified the click-clack of the models’ heels on the cold stone floor, the rustle of organza against aged leather, and the awkward bodily functions of guests (fashion week ASMR, anyone?). All these elements, along with the “damn good design” I mentioned earlier, coalesce to create the universe known as Dilara Findikoglu.
I first joined the cult of Dilara when I saw her S/S 23 collection. The closing look was a red dress made of feathers with jutting hips and an equally feathery high-neck bolero. The model wore smeared red lipstick and a solemn, contemplative expression. This called to mind Alexander McQueen’s S/S 01 show entitled Voss where his finale featured a gown constructed from red ostrich feathers and microscope slides.
To many, Dilara’s work is reminiscent of McQueen’s: her gothic lean, her reverence for women, the use of found objects in her collections, and more direct references like the red feather dress discussed above, are all components of the prolific British designer. The trained fashion eye can also see elements of other legends like Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano. However, Dilara manages to prevent all these influences from diluting her own voice.
The Collection: Venus From Chaos
Venus from Chaos takes inspiration from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (one of the most important artists of the Renaissance era), which depicts the birth of the Roman goddess of love on the shores of a Mediterranean island. She emerges from an oversized scallop shell, fully formed but nude, with nothing but her luscious locks for cover.
In her press release, Dilara describes a universe where women, sick of the havoc that men have wreaked on the earth, decide to return to Venus (a reference to the popular 90’s self-help book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus ). In doing so, her models undergo a metamorphosis that obliterates all their patriarchal trappings, shedding the “cinched tailoring beloved by the cooperate man”1 and leaving her new citizens basking in glorious, divine feminine energy.
The show opener, entitled TRANSCEND (Dilara usually names each look), was a black, embossed leather, knee-length skirt laced with ribbons, paired with a matching corset featuring a décolleté neckline framed by black ruffles.
Look two was breathtaking, and my favorite from the entire collection: A curious combination of seashells and safety pins were placed atop a corset bodice, resembling armor. The safety pins, arranged in neurotically perfect vertical and horizontal lines, formed the bodice and chest piece while seashells of all types were tucked between. Two huge shells— possibly of the snail variety— were placed at the hip, while others marched up the center of the stomach and decorated the breastplate and shoulder epaulets. The look featured a high neck layered with pearls and cushioned by ruffles, adding the slightest hint of softness to the amalgam of the natural and metallic.
Dilara’s exploration continued in the sensual, 18th-century romantic gothic fashion that made me a fan back in 2022: sheer, gauzy fabrics stretched tightly over the bodies of models, a scallop shell cheekily did the job of a panty, and nude tattooed bodysuits were worn under diaphanous textiles.
In a collection bursting with technique and artistry, Dilara manages to make her wearable items just as covetable as her more conceptual pieces: a crimson red, velvet hook-and-eye blazer trimmed at the hem with safety pins with white lace cascading from the sleeves was a definite standout. Low-rise denim and leather trousers with signature Dilara Findikoglu touches, like deep v-cuts, leather buckles, and lacey fabric decorating the waistband and pant leg, are guaranteed commercial successes. And I’m certain that Look 28 —a red, snake print two-piece with painted seashells adorning the breast and a choker to match — already has stylists emailing their pull requests for their clients (my bet is on Julia Fox).
An important element of this show that I don’t want to go unnoticed is hair. Dilara used hair as a styling motif in her S/S 23 collection, where brown tendrils were seen encased inside a sheer organza number and again decorating a mini-pannier dress. For F/W 23, inspired by Iranian women protesting the democide of Mahsa Amini by cutting their hair, Dilara transformed braids into bralettes and chokers, showing that women should be free to wear their tresses however they please. For F/W 25, hair reappears, this time in opposition to the notion that women must shave their bodies to be considered desirable or respectable. It’s also a direct reference to The Birth of Venus when the goddess emerges into the world with only her hair for protection.
Themes of feminine agency are brazenly and unapologetically embedded into every Dilara Findikoglu collection. Her designs are intelligent artistry, constructed to empower women and imagine an alternative to a patriarchal society and all its ailments. As long as Dilara is in charge, I’ll go to Venus any day.
direct quote from press release