‘I feel like my role is to tell stories through my collections,’ Simone Rocha said, days before her AW26 show. ‘As designers, we’re quite emotional beings, and I think if you can bundle that up and put it into the clothing, then you can make something that can resonate with others.’
Rocha’s stories, so often rooted in history and Irish folklore, most definitely resonate. The designer has become one of London Fashion Week’s headline acts, her show consistently one of the hottest tickets season after season. Few designers can lure the fashion crowd too far beyond the usual central London fashion week stomping ground, and yet, on Sunday afternoon, about 500 guests made a pilgrimage to Wood Green’s Alexandra Palace, in the depths of north London, for the show — a testament to the power of Rocha and her brand.
With her collection this season, the designer transported us to a Celtic otherworld. Or Tír na nÓg, to be exact, the mythical realm in Irish folklore that’s often characterised as a supernatural paradise; one where beauty, joy and everlasting youth pervade. ‘I wanted to make a collection of clothing that embodied that chasing and wanting and longing of a potentially impossible thing,’ Rocha explained. ‘I really thought of the white horse and how that symbolised this kind of beacon of hope that we’re all following and chasing – and agony and ecstasy.’
But Rocha — a master of straddling fantasy and wearability with all her designs — also wanted to bring a sense of realism to the mythicism. Part of that was found in the magic of Perry Ogden’s seminal 1999 ‘Pony Kids’ series, which documented Traveller and Settled children and teens, largely from estates on the outskirts of Dublin, at the monthly Smithfield horse fair, trading ponies for the price of a pair of trainers. ‘These incredible people were wearing old equestrian, lived-in, worn pieces that were hand-me-downs mixed with their own sportswear,’ Rocha said. ‘[There’s] this naivety and practicality — but then you’re riding bare-back on these horses and selling them.’
Rocha also looked to Elizabeth and Lily Yeats, sisters of poet WB Yeats and artist Jack B Yeats, who James Joyce fleetingly referred to as ‘the weird sisters’ in Ulysses. The Cuala Press founders were pivotal figures in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement during the early 20th century, Rocha explained. ‘I just felt this whole characterisation could be a really interesting story to tell, and felt very fitting for today,’ she added. ‘We’re all a little bit fight-or-flight.’
Rocha wove these three stories into a beautiful narrative that was at once harmonious and full of contrasts and contradictions. Deconstructed tulle pleated dresses were hand-embroidered with satin ribbons, evoking ‘best in show’ rosettes in a nod to the pony kids. Actual rosettes appeared as pins on men’s sheepskin coats, decorated mini dresses and hung off trouser belt loops. A tangible sense of realism was woven into the fantasy, whether through a fuzzy-lined bomber jacket thrown over chalk-stripe tailoring, or a three-stripe Adidas bomber teamed with a ribbon-embellished sequin skirt. Elsewhere, a more buttoned-up, twisted tweed suit was finished with a furry hem, which later exploded into a voluminous-skirted dress, layered over a tee.
The story felt much earthier than last season, with the designer’s signature crimson — a literal red thread that runs through her collections — sitting alongside more grounded tones. ‘These peat tones, these turf tones, these khaki muddier tones,’ Rocha described. ‘The red became less acidic and became more blood.’
During the show, the designer also debuted a brand new collaboration with Adidas, recognisable thanks to the reengineered logo placing the famous Trefoil inside Rocha’s SR ribbon motif. Track tops and leotards were teamed with frilly sports bloomers, while classic three-stripe tracksuits were Simone-ified with puff sleeves and tulle and lace petticoats. ‘I wanted pieces that grounded the femininity of my work,’ she said.
‘For many, many years, I have had a vision for a feminine proposition in sports,’ she said. ‘It’s come from a place of me genuinely seeing a place for femininity in sportswear, and really thinking about how my codes and my vocabulary can produce something new.’
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