Simone Rocha’s A/W 2026 runway show featured a surprise Adidas collab

On the third day of London Fashion Week A/W 2026 (22nd February 2026), Simone Rocha invited her audience to ascend the slopes of North London to view her latest runway collection inside the Alexandra Palace Theatre. Built in 1872, the location’s history is befitting of the Irish designer’s penchant for melding romance and realism; not only did the building burn down a mere two weeks after it opened (it was rebuilt two years later), but the theatre was renowned for its special effects, with performers of ballet, pantomime and opera magically ‘dissappearing’ or ‘flying’ over the 3,000 seats below them, all thanks to a network of intricate machinery behind the scenes.

‘I know it’s a procession to get here, but I really wanted to show the collection in the round,’
said Rocha backstage, explaining that the theatre, which is now in a state of ‘arrested decay’ after refurbishment in 2018, provided the ideal backdrop for this season’s clothes. ‘I wanted to strip [the venue] back, because a lot of the pieces were quite ornate, quite intricate, and romantic.’

Rocha also drew on three distinct sources for A/W 2026, with the show then split into three sections accordingly. The first act referenced Jack B. Yeats’ 1936 oil painting ‘In Tír na nÓg’, depicting the Celtic otherworld and the ‘land of youth and beauty’, with verdant brushstrokes reminiscent of the trees and grasses visible on the climb to Alexandra Palace. ‘Then [with the second part], I wanted to cut through the mythology with some realism,’ she said, noting that artist and family friend Perry Ogden’s seminal 1999 photobook Pony Kids was brought in to do so.

The black-and-white photo series documents the Traveller and Settled youth living in the estates surrounding Dublin’s Smithfield Market. Here, they would congregate on the first Sunday of every month to sell, buy and exchange their ponies. ‘I had three fillies, white fillies, that day in Smithfield. I was trying to get sale for them that day so I just rub them up a bit and so you came on the scene like and I was full of hairs like,’ says one ‘Pony Kid’ on the pages of Ogden’s book, a quote that Rocha selected for her shownotes.

The third act examined the legacy of Elizabeth and Lily Yates. The siblings of Jack and William Yates would found Cuala Press in 1908, a women-led printing press publishing new work by Irish writers. Cuala’s needlework department produced embroidered textiles and tapestries as part of the Irish Arts & Crafts movement. ‘They were coined “The Weird Sisters”,’ explains Rocha, alluding to the pointed nickname given to them by James Joyce in Ulysses. ‘There’s all this amazing imagery produced by Cuala Press depicting the Hill of Tara, and I really wanted to bring that earthiness into the mix.’

Opening with a diaphanous ivory look, representing ‘the white horse of Tír na nÓg’, the A/W 2026 collection unfolded into a blockbuster bursting with distinct Rocha motifs. Lightness – lace, tulle, silk, satin, delicate florals, twinkling embellishment – danced with the weight of thick wools, nylon, suede and shearling. The latter took the form of chunky Aran knits, double-breasted outerwear, and hardy bomber jackets cinched at the waist. Curly brown faux fur trimmed coats, or became sleeves. Some of these sleeves even appeared to be cut off and paired with a charcoal grey cocktail dress, as a strange twist on evening gloves. A bar-style jacket, part of a twinkling black skirt suit, was given a bustle, also decorated with the same permed trim.

Elsewhere, tailoring arrived in relaxed blazers teamed with kilts, or floor-skimming trousers belted and worn with a satin bralette. Ribbons were omnipresent: affixed to garments in patterns, or tied onto them in bows, and woven through eyelets on corset-like slices taken out of what Rocha called ‘monster ballgowns’. And also in rosettes, that not only swung from bags and belt loops, but even multiplied to form a blossoming, scarlet mini dress.