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Tulle on tulle on tulle. Ribbon corsets on cardigans. Bows on tank tops. Pearl eggs as handbags. Crystals on Crocs. Simone Rocha's sensibility is heavily laced with feminine accoutrements. But these bows aren't mere bells and whistles. Her eponymous label, which turns 15 this year, has been defined by romance, but it's not without a streak of rebellion. Pretty, but also pretty punk. It's beauty with bite. So yes, she'll see your coquette-core. But raise you a 'hardcore.' Her words, not ours.
The Dublin-born, London-based Central Saint Martins graduate has carved out one of the most distinctive voices in British fashion today. Her work integrates themes of identity, the female gaze and subversive beauty, offering a vision of girlhood that’s as complex as it is layered, often framed through Victorian and baroque references.
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Last January, Rocha collaborated with Jean Paul Gaultier on his couture collection, and a few months later, dropped a capsule line with Crocs. Rocha’s world thrives on such dualities, whether in the brands she partners with or in her own mixed Irish-Chinese heritage. There’s always a push and pull. And right at the centre of that ‘tension,’ as she calls it, is where she finds her sweet spot. It’s also where her most authentic work lives. In a conversation with ELLE India, the designer lets us into the inner workings of her world.
ELLE: You often cite your Irish-Chinese heritage and your family’s influence as one of your key inspirations. How does that manifest in the collections?
Simone Rocha (SR): I’ve always been very comfortable with the alien, and that comes from belonging to two different places—growing up in one place and being influenced by its heritage, alongside the contradiction of longing for another. I’ve been very comfortable in this in-between, this place of tension. So for me, there’s Ireland, where I grew up, which is so rich in nature. And there’s Hong Kong that I visited every year growing up, and where I have a lot of family, which is a concrete jungle. But both are islands, so this idea of both being isolated has really influenced my collections. I love to combine two different things in my designs, whether it’s fabrication or taking something handcrafted and joining it with something machine-made. I also love when something’s a bit off—so if we’re trimming a dress, I’ll want to edge only one side, or add two frills to another, just to throw off your eye a little bit.
ELLE: The idea of duality is so central to your work. What draws you to it?
SR: Even if it’s something overtly feminine, there’ll always be a sense of realism or a dark underbelly beneath it. My shows read more than one note. And as for the clothes, I love that sometimes they might look one way, but when you put them on, they make you feel completely different. Sometimes a piece may appear to have a lot of fabrication, leaving you to wonder if it’s going to be suffocating. But then you wear it and realise it’s so comforting—a protective uniform.
And this aesthetic has always been a part of me. It’s obviously blown up into a big trend today, giving people the license to feel feminine and flirtatious and playful while still feeling strong. I like that it’s a dialogue now. But it has always been the bloodline running through my collections all along.
ELLE: You explore femininity in such layered, subversive ways. What does ‘feminine’ mean to you in 2025?
SR: Femininity is strength. It’s having an opinion on how you want to project yourself. It’s being in touch with your feminine side, which is complex. It cannot fit in one box. It can be naivety, girlhood and memories. But then it can also be someone much older, established and very comfortable in themselves. It goes between the two.
ELLE: What has your experience been with the Indian market so far? Do you see synergies between your design language and Indian craftsmanship?
SR: We’ve done some embellishment development in India in the past, but I haven’t visited yet, though I do think it will be very interesting to be on the ground there. Especially as I’ve always been very enamoured with the country’s craft, technique and heritage, as well as the power of the Indian textile industry.