Gothic Feminism: Cherries and Cages

Art by Sarah Jeddy

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Designer Dilara Findikoğlu’s highly anticipated Spring/Summer 2026 collection, titled Cage of Innocence, debuted at London Fashion Week with a queue wrapped around the block and triple booked front row seats. From cherry stained corsetry and white ruffles to spiked metal bangles, sheer latex, and binding garments, this collection is about breaking women out of their cages. The location for this show was central London’s Ironmongers’ Hall, a neo-gothic space first established during the city’s medieval era. This venue added a flare of darkness that poetically lent itself to the collection's theme of freeing women from their metaphorical iron shackles. The themes explored within this collection are deeply personal to the designer and are reflective of her upbringing coming from a Turkish, conservative family. When she came to London to study, she found herself and her people in the Goth scene around Camden and the East London clubs.

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In the show notes, Dilara Findikoğlu states, “It’s about giving freedom to my ancestors and anyone who never had freedom. I feel like women have been kept in cages of innocence and purity, being told they have to be clean and represent virginity, all this kind of stuff, but we come out of this cage today.” In conversation with Vogue, Findikoğlu lends insight into the storybook events unfolding in her show. The story begins with “a girl in the village, being suffocated by the white dress.” The London based designer goes on to explain the rest of the girl’s journey. “Then she escapes, puts on man’s clothes, finds a horse, escapes. At the end, she disconnects from everything real and then just becomes another creature, and because she escaped with a horse, then she becomes it.”

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A series of white ruffled and lacy fabrics began the show as the material embodiment of virtue and purity, which progressively became more tattered and ripped with each look. In an ode to London and Istanbul, Findikoğlu includes elements from both of her homes through Victorian-style dresses and silver chain mail, as well as other metal pieces found at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. The models skulked and lingered on the catwalk as heavy, sultry ambient music echoed through the hall. Throughout the opening looks, each model emerged from the shadows with dirt smeared on their limbs while adorning twigs and leaves tangled in their hair.

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As the show continued, the looks became edgier and more restrictive, with metal jewellery hanging from the models faces, tight latex clinging to their bodies, and corseted designs taking over. The fabrics shifted from white layered ruffles to black sheer fabrics with leather, chains, and bindings limiting each step. One look featured a short ruffled, sheer dress with full sleeve latex gloves and the model crowned with head gear, while another signature look featured a sheer corseted cherry-stained dress leaving scattered cherries behind on the runway. The imagery of the models’ legs being bound and weighed down with metal chains and jewellery is symbolic of the oppression Findikoğlu seeks to express and challenge.

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The show concludes with Naomi Campbell in an all black leather and latex outfit with knee high boots, followed by a bright red sleeveless ruffled corset dress representing sexuality and empowerment. Of course, the final look of the collection exists beyond all realities, completely transforming the corseted figure into a horse-like creature with a collar, spiral nude leg bindings, dangling chains, and metal studs.

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This entire collection plays with different aspects of both gothic romanticism and erotic medievalism, ultimately displaying femininity and vulnerability as power. Cage of Innocence is a rebellious ritual of feminism through the lens of the one and only Dilara Findikoğlu.