February 19, 2023 |
She weaves a rich and beautiful spell, Simone Rocha. She’s a storyteller and her shows strike an emotional chord. For AW23, she leant into her Irish heritage, exploring folk traditions and pre-Christian rituals particularly around Lughnasadh (or Lughnasa): the harvest festival which is rooted in paganism. Rituals such as the daubing of children’s foreheads with blood to ward off evil were interpreted by Rocha with blood-red ribbons fixed to the model’s clothes and faces (like poetic tears). The models walked to the lamenting tones of a live folk band, wearing beribboned negligee dresses, crinolined lace gowns and dazzling golden lamé skirt suits (to represent the sun) and sheer puff-sleeve party dresses padded with raffia (to represent the hat harvest).
Rocha’s details are compelling. New this season were sheer knee socks decorated with crystal Rocha crests. The designer’s new menswear line, in its second season, was also on show. Here she makes a fascinating fusion between masculine tropes and the ultra femininity of her materials and embellishment which has supercharged her aesthetic. A sailor suit was made entirely in white lace, its collar intricately encrusted with heavy pearls. Her beautiful boys wore crochet collar coats, leather skirts, lace shirts and pearl key chains. “I’ve always been interested in contrast – the contrast of fragility and strength or masculinity and femininity,” said Rocha ahead of the show. “I wanted to explore masculinity itself as an identity. And the sensitivity that maybe I could bring to that, by really exploring this idea of the relationship between the men’s collection and the women.”
Photography courtesy of Simone Rocha.
