Exploring Simone Rocha's Singular Vision

In a business as hyper-saturated and mercurial as luxury fashion, making it ten years as an independent designer is a significant feat. How many brands have we seen disappear, swallowed up by large conglomerates or bankruptcy? Sustaining a line while developing and staying true to a strong creative identity is even rarer.

One designer with a singular impact who has made it into this uncommon second decade is Irish creative Simone Rocha, who celebrated her label's tenth birthday last year. Since launching her eponymous line at Lulu Kennedy's Fashion East incubator in London just weeks after finishing her Central Saint Martins MA under Louise Wilson, Rocha has explored and interrogated femininity to strong effect, unpacking tropes and weaving fantasy and sense of place into pearl-embellished lace and tulle frocks, layered wallpaper florals, and doilies translated into romantic, twisted shirting. Artist Louise Bourgeois, with her sculptural probes of sexuality, womanhood, and trauma, is a continual reference. Recently, motherhood, in all its beauty and challenges, has made its way into Rocha's work. "I always try to approach femininity in an honest, transparent way," said Rocha earlier this year. She was mid-show prep, leaving home at 8 AM to drop her daughter at school, rushing to fittings, and thinking about the collection through the night.

Rocha's celebration for her brand’s anniversary—leading up to her 2021 Independent British Brand win at the British Fashion Council Fashion Awards—refleced her vision of womanhood and its literal and conceptual historical precedents. A Perspex stained-glass "church" made with artist Janina Pedan traveled to Dover Street Markets around the world, accompanied by a limited edition of ten special tablecloths made from archival fabrics. Daisy broderie anglaise, red embroidered Delft plate, and cherub embroideries, previously the bases of garments, were crafted into delicate home objects. At her New York store, a collaboration with food artist Laila Gohar birthed butter carved into fish, egg-shaped cakes, and orange panna cotta in silver scalloped dishes. These were served with sausages, baguettes, and sugared fruit in a dark, beautiful, and slightly perverse rendering. Guests ate the installation as they celebrated together.

"I also wanted to make something physical to mark the anniversary," says Rocha of the church. "I wanted this idea of congregation. The structure was covered in Jacob Lillis's stained-glass imagery from the Fall 2021 collection, and the mannequins inside wore a mix of archive pieces from the past decade alongside new season pieces."

Rocha's work has always had a melancholic lens, tied to history and a sense of past that reflects her own experiences, the mythologies of Celtic Ireland, or a collective memory beyond. There's something deeply romantic, placed in a far earlier era, about the worlds Rocha constructs, yet her designs remain cuttingly subversive—and what could be more modern than that? An Elizabethan dress, for example, cut short and accented with snakeskin leather trim (Fall 2014), references Anne Boleyn. Rocha's clothes are stately, of a more beautiful distant history, and full of violence and resistance. Pearls on the hems of knee-high stockings (Spring 2014), a visual rendering of stones against the Irish Sea, pay homage to the nature of western Ireland. Biker jackets transform with outsized Edwardian sleeves (Fall 2021). Materials are refined and traditionally feminine—lace, pearls, velvet, and tulle turn up time and time again, used with a headstrong twist: the lace may be plasticized, or the pearls become punk. Rocha's teenage years growing up outside Dublin, her family (her father is esteemed Hong Kong-born designer John Rocha), history, fine art, and Celtic folklore all feature in her work.

"I see my signature as modern, rebellious, strong femininity," she explains. "I really enjoy working with the hand, using embellishments, unique fabrications, and historical references. I also love the pearl, I love how it's so classic but how it can be reinterpreted."

What to expect of the next decade? "I always feel open to collaboration if it is in a different discipline to myself, so it could be home, sportswear," Rocha trails off. "I feel very proud and humbled looking back over the past decade. It has been a very visceral and stimulating journey and it is very meaningful to me that what I do still resonates so strongly."

For more information, please visit SimoneRocha.com. Read this story and many more in print by ordering CERO04 here.