シモーヌロシャの感性的なオード、彼女の「エモ」な学生時代へ

School was on Simone Rocha’s mind this season. Alongside her own “emo youth” spent listening to bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, Cocteau Twins and Radiohead, the Irish designer was thinking in particular of a Greek fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, first introduced to her by the school’s headmistress. The story goes something like this: a hare challenges a tortoise to a race, the hare takes a nap during the race because the tortoise is so slow, then the tortoise crosses the finishing line before the hare wakes up, sweeping a surprise victory.

The moral of the story is clear: slow and steady wins the race. This sentiment can easily be applied to the Simone Rocha brand itself; in an industry rife with fickle trends and gimmicky stunts, Rocha has stayed unwaveringly true to her own vision of darkly romantic, subversive womenswear (true to form, she only added menswear into the fold two years ago). And instead of fleeing to Paris, as many promising young designers are wont to do, Rocha has stayed on the London Fashion Week schedule for nearly 15 years, making her show one of the biggest tickets on the schedule.

Shown at Goldsmiths’ Hall – a plush Grade I-listed building in the City of London, replete with enormous chandeliers, marble columns and stone busts – Rocha’s Autumn/Winter 2025 collection took the The Tortoise and the Hare both literally and figuratively. Under clinical-grade floodlights, models sauntered along the carpet to the crooning anthems of Radiohead’s No Surprises and Fugazi’s I’m So Tired in some of the designer’s sexiest outfits to date. The fable’s aforementioned tortoise appeared as miniature sculptures clutched close to the chest, or in the protective casing of bulky black leather dresses and jackets. The hare, meanwhile, was referenced in plenty of faux fur pieces; there were stoles slung over the shoulder like overused children’s toy rabbits, or tied tightly – to the point of asphyxiation – around the neck. Rocha gave the faux fur a sexy edge too, using it to create barely-there short shorts, bustiers, and coats sliced up to the hemline to reveal some skin beneath.

Rocha has a penchant for slipping a few actors in amongst her models, and this season was no different; there were Irish actors Fionn O’Shea (Normal People), Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve) and Ollie West (who appeared on the cover of our new issue), British actors Bel Powley and Andrea Riseborough, and South Korean actress Kim Min-ha (Pachinko). A natural-born storyteller, this casting quirk makes perfect sense; when we speak over Zoom a few days before the show, Rocha says that, in another life, she would be a filmmaker).

Below, Simone Rocha talks about the inspiration behind her new show, the importance of music, and why she writes poetry instead of traditional show notes.

Violet Conroy: Tell me about your new collection?

Simone Rocha: I’ve been thinking about this idea of distilling the past for the present, and I landed on [the words] past, presence, present and pretend. During the last few seasons, I’ve had this feeling that I want to show collections that can really only be conceived and live in that moment. I want them to be stuck to this time and place.

I was also looking at the Aesop fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, and this idea of going along your own path. I wanted to put my best foot forward and show a collection that feels very authentic to me, so I did a bit of reflection on my past collections and reinterpreted notions from them. I’ve been playing with the idea of interpreting the tortoise, the shell and the cocoon, and bringing that idea into leather, where it becomes this protective shell.

VC: How did you first come across the fable, The Tortoise and the Hare?

SR: My school headmistress – this staunch but very smart woman – told it to us at school.

VC: How do you usually start off the ideas for a collection?

SR: Historically, I will think of an emotional attachment to a memory. Then I like to research something more narrative or historical to back up that original emotional attraction to something. In the past, I was really interested in taking up space in the room, so I was making these dresses with these big hips. Then I started looking into how, in Tudor times, women would take up space in the room without being able to talk, and then I looked at how those garments were constructed. It always begins with a gut instinct, an emotional reaction, and then I find something solid to back it up. That can be going to the library, going to see exhibitions, talking to people, going to performances or going to bookshops.

VC: In the past, you’ve said that shows are what keeps you going creatively. What do they offer for you?

SR: I love the shows. It’s the final piece. I treat them a bit like a play, like a little vignette or an intermission in the middle of like a play. I like to give the collections a sense of place, and it makes it [about] more than just clothes. I don’t think I could design racks and racks of clothes – it would be really soulless.

VC: That’s interesting that you mention the brand is about more than just clothes. Last year, you published a book with Rizzoli, and you curated an exhibition of women artists in 2022. How important is that world-building aspect of the brand?

SR: It’s so important. I think it’s necessary to be able to connect to people. Connection is such a special and personal thing, and you have to do it in a way that is exciting but sensitive and authentic. It’s a necessary part of telling your story. I find a lot of inspiration through collaboration, discovery, learning and fighting. Otherwise, it becomes one note.

“I really like clothing that makes you feel protected, strong and secure. But then I also really like that you can feel provocative, playful or flirtatious, but essentially, you’re in control” – Simone Rocha

VC: How important is music to your shows? And what do you have planned for this show?

SR: I love the music element of it. I think about what time of day it is when people walk into the show, how they sound in the room. I hate the idea of music when people enter. I prefer the idea of everyone awkwardly talking. I like that congregation of voice rather than sound.

This season, I wanted the music to feel like when you’re walking through your school concourse, it’s empty, and you’re late. We also went quite hard on my own personal emo teenage youth and referenced a lot of the Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, Cocteau Twins and Radiohead. It’s a little bit disjointed because I think it’s nice to have all the different chapters in the show.

VC: Instead of doing traditional show notes, you write poetic verse. Tell me about your attraction to that medium, and the choice to not give too much away?

SR: When I was growing up in the 90s, I always thought that show notes were such a barrage of information with so much descriptive information. There was no license for someone to have an interpretation. I start every collection by writing all my ideas and thoughts down. I end up distilling that down, and that becomes the show notes, six months later.

I don’t do big moodboards. I don’t think it’s fair to spoon-feed everyone the information. You want to give people the license to feel how they feel about it and connect the dots. I always like it when people have an opinion on the show – good or bad. I’m quite humbled that the show notes have become their own thing because I’ve always been very dyslexic. English was not my best subject at school.

VC: When you’re designing clothes for women’s bodies, what are you hoping to offer?

SR: It’s a complete collision between security and flirtation. I really like clothing that makes you feel protected, strong and secure. But then I also really like that you can feel provocative, playful or flirtatious, but essentially, you’re in control. I want the clothes to feel like they’re a second skin, for how you want to feel that day and what you want to project.

VC: How do you want people to feel when they watch this show?

SR: Robbie [Spencer] and I were talking about this a lot. I’m not the kind of designer that’s like, “I want to define how women want to dress going to work.” It’s so far from that. I want people to feel excited, moved and emotional. Just those few little things. [Laughs].

School was on Simone Rocha’s mind this season. Alongside her own “emo youth” spent listening to bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, Cocteau Twins and Radiohead, the Irish designer was thinking in particular of a Greek fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, first introduced to her by the school’s headmistress. The story goes something like this: a hare challenges a tortoise to a race, the hare takes a nap during the race because the tortoise is so slow, then the tortoise crosses the finishing line before the hare wakes up, sweeping a surprise victory.

The moral of the story is clear: slow and steady wins the race. This sentiment can easily be applied to the Simone Rocha brand itself; in an industry rife with fickle trends and gimmicky stunts, Rocha has stayed unwaveringly true to her own vision of darkly romantic, subversive womenswear (true to form, she only added menswear into the fold two years ago). And instead of fleeing to Paris, as many promising young designers are wont to do, Rocha has stayed on the London Fashion Week schedule for nearly 15 years, making her show one of the biggest tickets on the schedule.

Shown at Goldsmiths’ Hall – a plush Grade I-listed building in the City of London, replete with enormous chandeliers, marble columns and stone busts – Rocha’s Autumn/Winter 2025 collection took the The Tortoise and the Hare both literally and figuratively. Under clinical-grade floodlights, models sauntered along the carpet to the crooning anthems of Radiohead’s No Surprises and Fugazi’s I’m So Tired in some of the designer’s sexiest outfits to date. The fable’s aforementioned tortoise appeared as miniature sculptures clutched close to the chest, or in the protective casing of bulky black leather dresses and jackets. The hare, meanwhile, was referenced in plenty of faux fur pieces; there were stoles slung over the shoulder like overused children’s toy rabbits, or tied tightly – to the point of asphyxiation – around the neck. Rocha gave the faux fur a sexy edge too, using it to create barely-there short shorts, bustiers, and coats sliced up to the hemline to reveal some skin beneath.

Rocha has a penchant for slipping a few actors in amongst her models, and this season was no different; there were Irish actors Fionn O’Shea (Normal People), Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve) and Ollie West (who appeared on the cover of our new issue), British actors Bel Powley and Andrea Riseborough, and South Korean actress Kim Min-ha (Pachinko). A natural-born storyteller, this casting quirk makes perfect sense; when we speak over Zoom a few days before the show, Rocha says that, in another life, she would be a filmmaker).

Below, Simone Rocha talks about the inspiration behind her new show, the importance of music, and why she writes poetry instead of traditional show notes.

Violet Conroy: Tell me about your new collection?

Simone Rocha: I’ve been thinking about this idea of distilling the past for the present, and I landed on [the words] past, presence, present and pretend. During the last few seasons, I’ve had this feeling that I want to show collections that can really only be conceived and live in that moment. I want them to be stuck to this time and place.

I was also looking at the Aesop fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, and this idea of going along your own path. I wanted to put my best foot forward and show a collection that feels very authentic to me, so I did a bit of reflection on my past collections and reinterpreted notions from them. I’ve been playing with the idea of interpreting the tortoise, the shell and the cocoon, and bringing that idea into leather, where it becomes this protective shell.

VC: How did you first come across the fable, The Tortoise and the Hare?

SR: My school headmistress – this staunch but very smart woman – told it to us at school.

VC: How do you usually start off the ideas for a collection?

SR: Historically, I will think of an emotional attachment to a memory. Then I like to research something more narrative or historical to back up that original emotional attraction to something. In the past, I was really interested in taking up space in the room, so I was making these dresses with these big hips. Then I started looking into how, in Tudor times, women would take up space in the room without being able to talk, and then I looked at how those garments were constructed. It always begins with a gut instinct, an emotional reaction, and then I find something solid to back it up. That can be going to the library, going to see exhibitions, talking to people, going to performances or going to bookshops.

VC: In the past, you’ve said that shows are what keeps you going creatively. What do they offer for you?

SR: I love the shows. It’s the final piece. I treat them a bit like a play, like a little vignette or an intermission in the middle of like a play. I like to give the collections a sense of place, and it makes it [about] more than just clothes. I don’t think I could design racks and racks of clothes – it would be really soulless.

VC: That’s interesting that you mention the brand is about more than just clothes. Last year, you published a book with Rizzoli, and you curated an exhibition of women artists in 2022. How important is that world-building aspect of the brand?

SR: It’s so important. I think it’s necessary to be able to connect to people. Connection is such a special and personal thing, and you have to do it in a way that is exciting but sensitive and authentic. It’s a necessary part of telling your story. I find a lot of inspiration through collaboration, discovery, learning and fighting. Otherwise, it becomes one note.

“I really like clothing that makes you feel protected, strong and secure. But then I also really like that you can feel provocative, playful or flirtatious, but essentially, you’re in control” – Simone Rocha

VC: How important is music to your shows? And what do you have planned for this show?

SR: I love the music element of it. I think about what time of day it is when people walk into the show, how they sound in the room. I hate the idea of music when people enter. I prefer the idea of everyone awkwardly talking. I like that congregation of voice rather than sound.

This season, I wanted the music to feel like when you’re walking through your school concourse, it’s empty, and you’re late. We also went quite hard on my own personal emo teenage youth and referenced a lot of the Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, Cocteau Twins and Radiohead. It’s a little bit disjointed because I think it’s nice to have all the different chapters in the show.

VC: Instead of doing traditional show notes, you write poetic verse. Tell me about your attraction to that medium, and the choice to not give too much away?

SR: When I was growing up in the 90s, I always thought that show notes were such a barrage of information with so much descriptive information. There was no license for someone to have an interpretation. I start every collection by writing all my ideas and thoughts down. I end up distilling that down, and that becomes the show notes, six months later.

I don’t do big moodboards. I don’t think it’s fair to spoon-feed everyone the information. You want to give people the license to feel how they feel about it and connect the dots. I always like it when people have an opinion on the show – good or bad. I’m quite humbled that the show notes have become their own thing because I’ve always been very dyslexic. English was not my best subject at school.

VC: When you’re designing clothes for women’s bodies, what are you hoping to offer?

SR: It’s a complete collision between security and flirtation. I really like clothing that makes you feel protected, strong and secure. But then I also really like that you can feel provocative, playful or flirtatious, but essentially, you’re in control. I want the clothes to feel like they’re a second skin, for how you want to feel that day and what you want to project.

VC: How do you want people to feel when they watch this show?

SR: Robbie [Spencer] and I were talking about this a lot. I’m not the kind of designer that’s like, “I want to define how women want to dress going to work.” It’s so far from that. I want people to feel excited, moved and emotional. Just those few little things. [Laughs].