Dilara Findikoglu has officially entered the bridal market, and predictably, she isn’t doing it quietly. The London-based, Central Saint Martins-trained designer, known for a signature mix of historical reference and rockstar edge, hard corsetry, Victorian tailoring, and shredded lace, has launched an eight-piece bridal capsule adapted directly from her ready-to-wear line, translated into softer, paler colors for brides.
The launch is less a fully new venture but more of a formal extension of work she was already doing. Findikoglu has previously made jaw-dropping custom bridal looks for photographer Harley Weir and Vogue Scandinavia editor Allyson Shiffman, and the new capsule takes that same sensibility – corsets, ruffles, sheer millefeuille layers, and deliberately unfinished fabric edges – and applies it more broadly. For the designer, a bride shouldn’t have to choose between feeling sensual and getting married, and shouldn’t feel bound by any rule, including white, if something else feels more like her. Her only real standard for a wedding day is that it should be one of the moments a person feels most fully like themselves. Prices for the dresses run from $3,528 to $4,342, with separates starting at $1,968 a piece.
The campaign, shot by photographer Pavel Golik, leans deliberately provocative and includes Dutch model Yasmin Wijnaldum, known for her runway work with the likes of Prada, Chanel, and Valentino, among its cast. Images include one bride photographed sitting in a mess of cake, and another shot with a kneeling groom kissing her thigh.
Findikoglu herself has built a decade-long career on exactly this kind of tension. Turkish-born and raised in Istanbul before training at Central Saint Martins, she’s made a name for herself in London with collections steeped in religious iconography, punk attitude, and unapologetic sexuality, earning an LVMH Prize shortlist nod in 2017 along with multiple Fashion Awards nominations since. Her designs have been worn on stage and off by Madonna, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga, and on the red carpet by Kim Kardashian and Naomi Campbell, cementing her reputation as one of London’s most distinctive and least conventional fashion voices, bridal included.
Photo: Pavel Golik
