There has always been something so uncomfortable about the space between admiration and accountability. I imagined Dilara Fındıkoğlu standing in that space last Friday. Interns, Glassdoor reviewers, and fans, including me, were there too, just a few steps aside. I could almost hear a girl ask her friend if good, in fact, very good, design is supposed to make us look away. No one moved, and neither did I. Consider the question answered.
Promised this when the Vanguard Award landed on her shelf, well, the couture curtain has lifted. It all actually started with whispers and Louis Pisano, a fashion journalist and watchdog, who kept tabs on the designer’s Glasdoor reviews for years. Pisano nudged the conversation forward, former staff began speaking out, and Fashionista keeps the full dossier. By the books, the studio’s staff count stayed perfectly consistent. According to UK government filings from 2021 to 2025, Dilara Findikoglu Limited lists only her and one other rising star. Off the books, however, it seems the label leans on a far larger crew to secure silver chains on Kim Kardashian’s enviable dresses. We’ve taken the liberty of renaming the rest of our cast.
Our first star, let’s call her Mary, described some of her time at the Findikoglu studio to Fashionista, where she says she worked full-time under an NDA she claims she never met eyes with again, presumably filed away somewhere between myth and a vintage desk drawer. She paints a studio powered almost entirely by unpaid stamina, “the entire brand is built on interns,” she shared with the publication. No travel covered, no meals, just 16-hour days and expectations stitched in silence. Racially charged comments allegedly flew around, with “ghetto” reportedly tossed casually toward Black models. Interns according to her, were sent out shopping with company cards that declined on cue, unless the mission involved prosecco or Gucci flip-flops. When materials didn’t arrive, work didn’t stop, it just ran later. Much later. At crunch time, interns were reportedly sewing in moving cabs, hand-finishing garments en route to handovers. No pressure, couture edition.
Stephanie remembers the “9-to-9” grind like a survival sport. Student, intern, same story, no breaks, no bathroom, barely food. One morning she allegedly fainted on a model, still had to finish the fitting before being told to “go eat when you finish, you can see that this is not done, you finish that first”. She claims she was tasked with pattern cutting, draping, prepping PR, booking cabs, even getting cleaners, all while keeping one eye on the phone for last-minute whims. Uber banned her boss? No problem, Stephanie ran the logistics solo. Twenty-five Ubers a day, apparently. By the end of two years, she quit, “utterly drained,” throwing up each morning before work. Fashion’s real price tag maybe?
Katy, NDA-signed and all, navigated a studio where English was mandatory, unless you whispered in Turkish behind someone’s back, apparently that was fine. Long days, errands, prep, last-minute chaos, all crucial, all invisible. Steven’s hours stretched just as long, the pressure just as relentless, though he somehow dodged the direct wrath. Together they describe a place where you were indispensable but off the radar at the same time, and occasionally lectured on proper English.
Designer Karina Bond recently went on TikTok about similar studio chaos and “real-life Devil wears Prada” she joked, later confirming to Fashionista it was all about Dilara, no further comment. “Jokes on me because I heard about the reputation of this designer before I started” she quips, having survived a mere three days. Allegedly, a vase once flew at an intern. Bond raced through sewing just to grab a bite, when she dared ask the manager if she could eat, she got laughed at and told to finish first. She finally left at 3 a.m., with zero expenses covered.
How uncomfortable are you willing to feel for great fashion? Me? A lot, honestly. Body-wise only. The rest, the chaos, the unpaid hustle, the odd flying vase, I’ll leave to someone else’s couture adventure. Fashion will always ask a lot. Here’s hoping it never forgets the hands who make it possible. Awareness has always been the first stitch toward fairness.
