Dilara Fındıkoğlu’s fall 2023 invite was a replica of The Star tabloid from 1986, featuring clippings that read “Marilyn Monroe topless” and “Fergie wishes for a bubbly bath.”
“There’s a lot of Marilyn Monroe inspiration because I absolutely hated that movie,” she said backstage about Andrew Dominik’s recent film “Blonde.”
What irritated Fındıkoğlu was that “people use this woman too much, especially men, and a man making her life biography showing her as a victim and sad.”
She called one of the looks “Marilyn’s Ghost,” made up of a sheer corset bustier with gray tulle covering the model’s face and upper body worn with an oat yellow wool skirt that was taken off halfway through the runway.
“Everyone wants to see a piece of her skin, but this time she’s doing it for herself,” explained Fındıkoğlu.
There was a cold eeriness about the show, mainly because it was set inside the Holy Trinity Church Bow in East London against the sound of water dripping drop by drop.
The Turkish-British designer intended for all the nuances.
“This whole collection is about a woman possessing her body back. We’re doing a small revolution within this space. I think everyone’s body has been exploited way too much. I have been questioning it a lot with the Iranian protests; that was the kickoff point,” said Fındıkoğlu.
This season was more than the last. The unfinished hems and feather bras, underwear and dresses nodded to avant garde designers such as Ann Demeulemeester and Martin Margiela; meanwhile, the corseted bride wearing flowers dipped in resin was a reference to Fındıkoğlu’s graduate collection at Central Saint Martins.
“I wanted to bring it back because women were also seen as vases of flowers,” she said, adding that the look was called “Typical Flower,” inspired by The Slits song “Typical Girls.”