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It was a wintry February afternoon when guests gathered at St Michael’s and All Angels, a magnificent Gothic church in Shoreditch, to witness the Turkish designer’s AW24 collection. Dilara Findikoglu. The show opened with model and actress Hari Nef taking to the runway in a bustier, striped skirt and latex opera gloves. It continued with a parade of lace-up leather pants, corsetry and bags, and closed with a look titled “The Witch Awakens,” for which model Aweng Chuol wore a jet-black dress made from “silicone tar.”
“This divine energy is feminine to me,” Findikoglu says of the show’s witchy inspiration. “I’m creating a world where toxic masculinity doesn’t exist.” Having grown up in a conservative Muslim family in Istanbul, she defined her aesthetic when she moved to London to study at Central Saint Martins, discovering her love for the esoteric and the spiritual. Through her designs, which have been worn by Madonna, Bella Hadid and Cardi B, she wants to expand the definition of a witch. “Witchcraft is in our nature. For me, it’s not about negativity. “I’m using the darkness to light up the world.”
If 2023 were the year of the doll, thanks in large part to the candy-colored success of Barbie – this fall promises to be the Season of the Witch. Rick Owens, Thom Browne and Simone Rocha (a long-time witch enthusiast) have also raised the topic. Kate and Laura Mulleavy Rodarte Returned to the fantasy world of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for her ethereal AW24 collection of black sequined column dresses, Victorian-inspired gowns and delicate tulle creations, and also recently launched a capsule collection. inspired by beetle juice. Having grown up on a diet of cult films from the ’60s and ’70s like The witch of love, black sunday and the filmography of Italian horror master Dario Argento, the Mulleavy sisters have always found inspiration in the gothic. “We love stories that try to reclaim narratives about women and subvert the status quo.”
There’s also a rich mix of darker foods in pop culture. Last month, Kathryn Hahn reprized her role as Agatha Harkness, the witch nemesis of Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch (from the acclaimed Marvel show). Wandavision) in Agatha all the time on Disney Plus. HBO Dune Prophecya prequel to the recent Dune films, will be released next month and will document the origins of the Bene Gesserit, the ruthless, mind-reading matriarchal order of the Empire. On the big screen, the long-awaited adaptation of the successful musical Wicked You’ll see Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good Witch and Cynthia Erivo turning green as Elphaba. Also consider the news that Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock are reuniting to play witch sisters in Practical magic 2.
“Witches in the media always reflect our fears and fantasies about girl power,” says Pam Grossman, author and host of the popular show The wave of witches podcast. “Pop culture witches are a mirror that reveals how comfortable we feel with anyone who resists, transgresses or rebels against patriarchal ideals. I appreciate how complex, nuanced, and even aspirational they are at times. “It shows that our collective relationship with girl power is evolving and that these types of images are becoming more easily adopted.”
Witchcraft is on the rise, particularly among millennials and Generation Z (the generation that, after all, has grown up with harry potter. The #witchtok hashtag has garnered over 45 billion views on TikTok and you can find covens of influential witches now performing spells on social media. The star of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was non-binary Irish singer Bambie Ray Robinson, who performed as Bambie Thug for Ireland. They became fan favorites when they donned devil horns and danced in the middle of a pentagram, surrounded by lit candles.
“To me, all trans and non-binary people are witches: we are magical and mystical,” says Robinson. “We’ve always been seen as outsiders.” Robinson grew up in the Irish countryside, steeped in the tradition of stone circles and fairy rings, before moving to London and connecting with a group of older witches. “There’s an element of escapism to it,” Robinson says. “Witchcraft is about trying to find beauty in a world so devoid of it.” They add that their practice is based on “good intentions.”
In the art world, Tali Lennox’s lush dreamscapes are filled with symbolism, mythology and folklore. The erupting volcanoes and eerie forests depicted in their recent show. Tremorsin Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles, were inspired by time spent in the caves of Kefalonia last summer.
“It reminded me of the vision of humans transforming with nature, where the elements combine and the natural world continues to spin and evolve beautifully,” says Lennox, daughter of pop star Annie Lennox. The first time she saw her mother perform was, she says, akin to witnessing a woman channeling something from another world. “It was as if another spirit and another force moved through her. In moments of experiencing artistic expression, the concept of magic does not seem so fantastic.”
The witch has often been political as well. Many self-proclaimed witches joined the 2017 Women’s March in protest of Trump’s election, prompting singer Lana Del Rey to tweet that she was casting a spell to get rid of Trump in office. Sometimes this seems to work. In 1968, on Halloween, a group of radical feminists called the Hell Women International Terrorist Conspiracy (WITCH) descended on Wall Street dressed in black hats and robes, casting a hex on New York’s financial district. The Dow Jones fell sharply the next day.