Staying Power: Ten Meets Simone Rocha

What does it take to build a fashion business in London with true staying power? Surviving and showing as a British-based brand takes more than catwalk plaudits. Talent wins attention, but grit, ingenuity, the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and a deep, supportive network are the common threads behind who thrives and who becomes a footnote in fashion history.

SIMONE ROCHA

London was always a big draw for Simone Rocha, 39. She grew up in Dublin, where some of her earliest memories are of playing in the studio of her father, John Rocha, the acclaimed fashion designer. A life in fashion beckoned and she dreamed of studying at Central Saint Martins, just like her idols John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. “These were people that had their own voices in such an intense industry, and it was a real voice driven by creativity. For me, that was the most aspirational place to get to,” she says of the pull of London.

She graduated in June 2010 and showed her first collection at London Fashion Week that September, as part of Fashion East. “It was fantastic for me to be able to be a part of that collective and landscape. Especially at that time, London was hopping, really buzzing,” says Rocha. She had a studio on Shacklewell Lane in Hackney, next door to Jonathan Saunders. “A lot of my team are still my team, so it doesn’t feel 100 per cent different. But it was very collaborative, very hands on. It was really fun,” she recalls.

“The thing I’ve always liked about London is everyone can be very individualistic but the city gave people this space to breathe and push each other on, knowing that we were all very different from each other,” says Rocha, who joined the likes of Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou, Thomas Tate, Erdem Moralıoğlu, Louise Gray, Gareth Pugh and Roksanda Ilinčić on a packed London schedule that drew editors and buyers from all over the world to spot new talent. It was the perfect launch pad for her business.

“I think fashion goes through lots of cycles and it was a cycle where everybody was really up. There was a lot of support and sponsorship,” says Rocha, who soared on the London schedule, quickly establishing herself as a major name.

She developed a fruitful relationship with Dover Street Market in particular, and that retail support helped grow her business. Opening her first store in Mayfair’s Mount Street in 2015 (which boasted a Francis Bacon triptych of original lithographs in the basement), her New York outlet opened two years later, followed by outlets in Taipei and most recently at DSM Ginza last year. Rocha’s stores are also events and exhibition spaces, communicating her 360-degree design approach, and have proved crucial to her success. “Fashion is such a living, breathing thing and it’s very personal and emotional to meet customers. So to be able to apply that to your business, it’s made it possible for me to do all the things I want to do.”

She launched menswear in 2022 and has expanded her accessories line, which has powered her brand. “I’ve always been a head-to-toe designer. It’s exciting being able to also design shoes, jewellery, bags, and to be able to produce and deliver them. They become an entry into the label.”

“It’s grown,” she says of her brand over the past 15 years. “My team has grown. Our footprint has grown, but our core is still the same. It is still independent, family-run and has a very important retail footprint.”

Her decision not to take on outside investors and remain independent was a key decision. “My ambition was to be like the Rick Owens’s of this world. I’ve always had an independent spirit and it’s a trajectory I’ve continued to follow,” she says. The biggest benefit of independence? “It’s given me creative freedom within the business and to pursue other projects, and that’s incredible.”

As well as an ongoing collaboration with Crocs, she cites the 2019 Moncler Genius collaboration, a sell-out H&M collection two years later and her 2023 Jean Paul Gaultier couture collaboration as career highlights. “It made me want to bring back to SR a sense of purpose and pride, an idea of focus and expertise, and wanting things to really be at a certain level for me,” she says of her couture experience.

Hers is a well-oiled machine, but the past decade, which has brought Brexit and the pandemic, plus the boom of online stores and then the collapse of many, including key stockist Matches, has been the most challenging. Her advice? “Don’t panic. We’ve come up against hurdles, as everybody has, but you have to be as pragmatic as possible, strategise the best and worst outcomes and protect what you can to ride out the storm.” She’s been blessed with good counsel. Her mother Odette and father John have decades of experience running an independent fashion business. And Adrian Joffe of Dover Street Market has been a key advisor. Rocha has worked hard on all her professional relationships. “We have a lot of partners and that means we really see it as a partnership,” she says of her expanding wholesale and retail business.

As she settles into her new East London studio, her mind turns to future projects. More stores and a fragrance are high on the list. The next 15 years look set to be as fruitful as the last.

Taken from 10+ Issue 8 – FUTURE, JUBILEE, CELEBRATION – out now. Order your copy here

simonerocha.com

STAYING POWER

Photographer HARRIET MACSWEEN
Fashion Editor GARTH ALLDAY SPENCER
Text CLAUDIA CROFT
Model MOFEOLUWA ONASANYA at PRM Agency
Hair TOMI ROPPONGI at Julian Watson Agency using BUMBLE AND BUMBLE
Make-up MEGUMI MATSUNO at Of Substance using DIOR Forever Foundation and DIOR Capture Le Sérum
Digital operator MARIA MONFORT PLANA
Photographer’s assistant CAITLIN CHESCOE
Fashion assistants GEORGIA EDWARDS and SARA OJALA
Production ZAC APOSTOLOU and SONYA MAZURYK