so the Dilara Findikoglu expose finally came out

let me tell you why nobody in fashion wanted to touch it.

Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope you’re all doing well, except, honestly, one particular designer who’s probably not having the best week and deservedly so.

and no, I’m not talking about Dario Vitale, whose exit from Versace literally just hit WWD as I’m typing this sentence (wtf, I was rooting for you king) but rather about Dilara Findikoglu, who just won the British Fashion Council’s Vanguard Award, and then, almost immediately, got hit with a Fashionista investigation yesterday full of abuse, exploitation, and racism allegations, which I knew was coming.

If you haven’t read Ana Reitz’s piece yet, please do. It’s rough. ( the story not the writing ). Former interns describe 16-hour workdays with no breaks, using their own credit cards to buy materials because the company card kept getting declined, and a whole list of comments that go from casually racist to just straight-up nasty. Multiple people say she used “ghetto” to describe looks, dismissed Black models because they didn’t fit her precious transparent silks, and rejected bigger models for not being “elevated” enough. It’s exactly the kind of stuff people assume happens in fashion but still wince when they see spelled out.

If you follow me on Twitter/X, none of this is new information. I’ve been pointing out the nightmare Glassdoor reviews for years. She’s reportedly been flagged to Central Saint Martins, the British Fashion Council, basically every institution in London. Everyone knew but nobody acted which is par for the course in fashion. That’s the part that always gets me, the jarring difference between what people openly discuss on Twitter and the absolute silence you get from the real-life fashion ecosystem. It was the same pattern with the Alexander Wang sexual assault allegations, Twitter had been talking about it FOREVER, industry people definitely knew, but it only became a “story” once it exploded online. ( Does anyone remember the Clubhouse space on it I co-hosted during lockdown? )

The thing people outside the industry don’t really understand is that reporting these stories is very very very complicated. People outside are like, “She’s allegedly abusing people, go write about it!” But inside fashion, there is an entire machine you’re up against. Everyone that’s attempted to write a piece on this has pretty much been told by the publications they pitched that it’s a no. Dilara has Lucien Pagès, one of the strongest PR firms in Europe…no actually maybe the world. If you want invites, access, brand relationships, basically if you want your career to function in any sort of outwardly fabulous way, you do not mess with their clients…or them. It’s that simple. You will most likely not see anyone at Conde Nast picking up this story, you for sure won’t see any of the fashion commentators whose cachet has been boosted by him posting about this, and you definitely won’t see any of the “cool” fashion writers here in Paris touching it for fear of getting locked out of a Byredo cocktail party.

Before I got myself completely blacklisted from every PR list in Paris for running my mouth or Twitter fingers one too many times, I had those conversations constantly. People were very direct: be careful who you criticize if you want to stay in the room ( let me tell you the amount of times I was told a lot more doors would open to me if I started writing more kindly about Jacquemus ). But anyways a lot of stories don’t get told for that reason alone.

I actually thought about investigating this a few months back, but people underestimate how emotionally heavy this kind of reporting is. When I did the Yeezy investigation, it drained the fuck out of me. My boyfriend would see me anxiously pacing around the house at 4a.m on calls. You’re talking to people who are still processing what they went through. Their feelings change. One day they’re ready to talk, the next they’re scared or someone pressures them into backing out. It’s a lot to manage, and you want to treat their stories and trauma with care. So genuinely, credit to Ana for following through.

I remember someone once asked me, while I was reporting on the dark Carl Hirschmann ( founder of Heavensake ) sexual assault cases, “What’s your point?” And honestly, my point isn’t that anything is going to meaningfully change, there’s too much money moving around for that to happen, i’m a realist. My point is accessible information. I don’t want to be part of the crowd that knew all along and stayed quiet god forbid if something worse happens down the line. If you see something, say something. We need to democratize information, even if it doesn’t feel like it’s enough. ( By the way, in the end he never actually followed through with taking me to court, kind of hard to do when you’ve already been found guilty in a court of law for the very thing I reported on. During that whole situation, he even emailed every major PR agency in Paris—Lucien Pagès, KCD, Karla Otto, complaining about me and my reporting. That’s a glimpse of what’s at stake when you dig into these stories. Oh, and as a cherry on top, I’m now blacklisted again, right after they had started inviting me back to events, by his PR, Spread The Word due to reporting on him. I’m well used to this song and dance by now so no sweat. Life goes on ladies! )

Anyways back to Dilara there’s also this conversation floating around that she is getting dragged so hard because she’s a woman, while men in fashion get away with far worse. And honestly? Men do get away with worse. John Galliano for example, Ludovic de Saint Sernin allegedly ( that’s another story that’s been bubbling under for a few years now ). I also have a theory (a messy but possibly true one) that gay men in fashion tend to excuse the behavior of other gay men because certain kinds of meanness and boundary-pushing are normalized in queer spaces. But that’s a longer conversation for another day. Bottom line is that Dilara had years of feedback, years of warnings, and plenty of opportunities to change. She didn’t. Eventually that catches up with you. Unfortunately for her there is much more to this story ( allegedly posting pro-Nazi content, design theft ) at the precipice of coming out.

Until then I hope she takes this situation seriously and starts treating the people who actually keep her brand running with some basic respect. Fashion is already exhausting. No one needs to be dealing with racism, 16-hour days, or buying fabrics on their personal AmEx on top of all that. The bar is low. Here’s hoping she finally decides to step over it.