Initial reaction:

Layers of Louise Bourgeois seen through Simone Rocha’s subversively feminine lens. “I just absolutely love her work and the fact that it’s so personal. Also a lot of it is very textile based, but I love all of her materials – marble, wood, glass, and the contrast of it. Even though it was personal to her a lot of people relate to it,” Rocha noted backstage, and you felt as if she could have been talking about her own work and the captivating universe she has created. 

Stitching together new meaning:

Rocha has been drawn to Bourgeois’ work since her college days in Dublin, and a year ago sat down with the late artist’s long-term assistant Jerry Gorovoy in a conversation with Dazed’s editor Isabella Burley. One of the topics discussed back then was Bourgeois’ fabric works, cut up from her own clothes and pieced together anew yet forever carrying their original memories and meaning. This sentiment in particular came across here, where deconstructed, sculptural dresses seemed as if the girls themselves had (very skilfully) been splicing together tulle and tweed and hacked away at hemlines before they walked out under the gothic arches and stained glass windows of Guildhall. You could have almost pictured them rummaging through attics to put incredible old wedding lace, mourning velvet, pearls and tapestries to new use in their darkly girlish dresses that preserved the symbolic meaning of each material. The tapestry in particular linked Bourgeois and Rocha: Bourgeois' parents had a tapestry restoration shop and the artist herself used it in her work, and it’s hard to think of a more fitting textile for Rocha and her love of historic opulence. “It was really nice to use something very solid but trying to work it in a very feminine way with the ruffles and the capes, a softer silhouette,” Rocha said of the upholstery fabrics adorned with spidery jet beading.

Phallus camouflage:

The hair that cascaded down the dresses felt like a nod to Robert Mapplethorpe’s portrait of Louise Bourgeois in a monkey fur coat – flashing a cheeky smile as she casually holds her giant phallus piece “Fillette” under one arm. “I read recently that when she was asked to go and have her photo taken she said she was so nervous she would rather hide behind her work so she just brought this huge phallus with her, which I think is a great idea,” Rocha said. “I’d much rather be behind a rail of clothes right now!”

The soundtrack to Simone Rocha AW15: