Redefining Feminine Fantasy
Simone Rocha is the expert on “wearable fantasy” or livable fairytales. She continuously defines herself with each collection—having a way of making the obscure feel sensible, transforming a boarding school uniform, Victorian fantasy into reality.
Photography Christina Fragkou
Her clothes speak of giddy, frilly pleasures in each look and are adorned with ribbons, deep luminous red tones, neutral shades, bright baby pinks, glitter, ruffles, and pearls. Accessories are formed into shapes and fabrics that allow the wearer to layer, manipulate, or play with the garments to communicate whatever mood they want to express. Suppose most designers diverge from the female binary using blazers and wide-leg trousers suited for the modern businesswoman or “quiet luxury” in the dawn of the minimalist, neo-womenswear look of the late ‘90s reminiscent of Ally McBeal (1997-2002). Rocha, however, dreams of a surreal, maximalist escape using visual art as a muse that goes beyond feminine fashion. There’s a magnetism towards hyper-femininity, girlhood, or #coquette fashion, regardless of its potentially negative connotations of female adolescence, which has encapsulated fashion as of late. Brands like Sandy Liang, Miu Miu, and Paloma Wool use the feminine imagination in a mundane reality at the forefront. Yet, Rocha upstages this and amplifies the female body through the limitations of the garment, allowing you to move and over-identify in it with her Spring/Summer 2023 show last year being the most flamboyant as looks ranged from ruffled layered dresses under bold bomber jackets to umbrella-like tutus hanging from wearers' heads as veils.
via Simone Rocha, the brand’s Instagram, look 3 Spring 2023 ready-to-wear
Rocha was born in Ireland and is the daughter of Chinese-Irish designer John Rocha. She founded her brand in 2010, showing at London Fashion Week. Rei Kawakubo, a pioneer Japanese fashion designer, identified the promise in Rocha when she visited the London Showrooms in Paris in 2012. The following year, Rocha was commissioned to create an installation for the spring reopening of Dover Street Market, a multi-brand retailer founded by Kawakubo and her husband Adrian Joffe in 2004.
Rocha’s clothes are intelligent without pretentiousness, separating from the conventions of women's ready-to-wear. They're not wearable in daily life, but art that is wearable in the imagination of playing dress-up like costumes, echoing brands such as Comme des Garçons, Molly Goddard, and Rodarte. Rocha's silhouettes and layers of garments misrepresent that they’re effortless to wear. The clothes can be as coy or expressive as the wearer chooses. Her collections focus on dresses made from pleated fabrics woven with embroidery and illustrative motifs, demanding the wearer fully immerse in the garment.
The fandom of Rocha’s work has increased exponentially over the past couple of years, with Gen Z reverently in love with the candor of femininity in the digital age. The cult-like support around her brand resembles that of Comme des Garçons by Kawakubo. Buyers use her clothing to complement clunky shoes with a bomber jacket or trench coat that mixes elements like ribbons and ruffled white midi dresses to express their unique imagination. Rocha has referenced artist Louise Bourgeois's provocative vision of femininity as inspiration and signals an attitude about feminine concepts, gender nonconformity, and wearable art. Rocha was able to take her talents to H&M in her March 2021 collaboration with the company, featuring womenswear, menswear, and kidswear, making this the first time she was offering clothes for both men and children.
"Simone Rocha SS23 Womenswear." Courtesy of Simone Rocha.
The gender-fluidness of dressing has been a prevailing conversation in fashion, with menswear becoming more inclusive of female garments. Rocha's clothing taps into fashion and identity shifts that spread beyond her label. She formally introduced a menswear line last Spring/Summer 2023 in September 2022, but her clothing has always been inclusive to both genders regardless of who the garment is intended for. Rocha redefines both women's and men's clothing for the younger generation. She is a designer who designs specifically for the wearer's intentions and identity, exploring the art of dressing up beyond conventional trends. It’s up to the wearer to style the garments to make them feel assured or bizarre—open to interpretation from both the wearer and viewer—valuing the art of frivolity through art and beauty as a means of dressing up and expressing oneself unconventionally.
