Dilara Breaks Boundaries With Gothic Elegance And Feminine Power
By Ethan Hall
Hosted in Angel's Electrowerkz, a 19th century warehouse used for raving since 1987, Dilara presented her first show in a year since skipping her SS25 show.
In her show notes and title, she references John Gray's controversial book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", a manifesto for enforcing gender roles. And so in this collection she says "to Venus we return", where she imagines a world that is safe for women that "men of power would call a toxic environment" to combat the toxicity of the environment enforced by this culture.
There is a modern gothic affectation to the collection, as per Dilara's design philosophy. The colours were consistently blacks, reds and whites that painted these form fitting looks. Snakeskin was a prevalent fabric, which gave the models a fierce and powerful look, especially when paired with the corsetry that appeared throughout. Other powerful looks that came down were the ones furnished with an intricate shell and pearl armors.
To contrast these powerful looks sheer fabrics were seen across many of the looks, cascading around the body, some ruched while others flowed freely. These would be paired with low waist trousers that accentuated the shape of the v line or in the form of an angelic feather-woven dress.
The most striking was the dress made of sleek, skin-like material. Dilara had collaborated with tattoo artist Jonah Slater to design tendrils of cyber sigil-inspired tattoos across this dress. Converse also collaborated with Dilara, producing worn-down Chuck Taylors adorned with safety pins – another recurring motif of the collection.
Dilara has struck London Fashion Week by storm after a year off, creating an influential show to help pull attention back to London. She has returned with a collection that, conceptually, demonstrates the force and drive behind her creativity.
