“My own personal conflicts were the starting point for this collection. There are a lot of conflicts in my life and in this society, so I wanted to talk about them. There are seven different conflicts in total and a room dedicated to each one. The first room, where Lily is dancing, is about my conflict between ‘London and Istanbul’. You know, I live in London but I’m from Istanbul and my family is still there. The second is about ‘mind and matter’, the conflict between my spiritual and physical side. And then there’s ‘natural and synthetic’, which is about me trying to be ethical [as a designer]... Choosing whether to use plastic or leather and natural materials.
“And then I have ‘modest and provocative’, which is about my background and my constant battle with it; it’s about me trying to be provocative. Deep down, I know that the reason I do this job is kind of provoking against that modesty. And then there’s ‘sinful and innocent’, which is about child marriage; girls being forced to get married and have children – that’s fine, that’s not a sin, but if they have sex before they get married, that’s a sin. And then there’s ‘future and past’ – I’m quite trapped in nostalgia, but I’m also curious about the future. The last one is about ‘good and evil’, everyone’s most basic conflict – there we have the devil and angel in the room, and then the bride on the bed.
“I am trying to raise awareness of child marriage and children’s education through this collection. I’m doing a project with World Human Relief where I’ll be dropping limited-edition t-shirts next week, exclusively on my website. A percentage of the profits will go to this charity for their work on child marriage and childhood education. Every collection I do, I try and talk about an issue, a problem, that people don’t talk about – even if it’s dark.” – Dilara Findikoglu
STYLING Ellie Grace Cumming HAIR Anthony Turner at Streeters MAKEUP Jenny Coombs at Streeters SET DESIGN Jabez Bartlett at Streeters CASTING Chloè Rosolek LOCATION Dennis Severs’ House
