Dilara Findikoglu showed her SS26 ready-to-wear collection at London Fashion Week to a groundswell of recognition for the season’s looks. But within the designs by the Central Saint Martin’s graduate lied a deeper message surrounding the constraint and liberation in women’s experiences.

The collection was designed to highlight the restrictions women have faced in a variety of ways, physically, emotionally and spiritually. “Our collection seeks to release this inherited pain, to give voice to women of the past who were denied their own,” according to the brand. “It imagines a dream they could never have dreamt for themselves: a freedom to step beyond innocence, to choose sharpness or sweetness, strength or softness without guilt and without limits.” 

The collection brought a natural wildness to the runway through branches used as hair accessories, cherries adorning—and smudging—a dress, as well as makeup smeared on some models to resemble dirt. Constraint is revealed through corsets, bodices and leather buckles that synch in skirts. Decorative headdresses and restrictive headgear reveal the tension at the heart of the collection’s inspiration.

Findikoglu is known incorporating Victorian and goth elements into her designs, and the collection showcased both the tension and harmony between her historical inspirations. Silk and lace deliver a feminine touch while leather details and spiked bracelets suggest a bracing for battle. Torn fabrics echo this struggle while suggesting fragility, and metal detailing is incorporated into clothing and accessories.

Naomi Campbell, Amelia Gray and Tish Weinstock were some of the featured models in “Cage of Innocence.”