Simone Rocha is a cool young girl who dresses her peers. Her clothes are ideal for girls who want to look like young ladies but roll freely with the boys. She uses classically girlish colours, fabrics and shapes but cuts her garments to allow for irreverent posture, quick movements and off-the-cuff styling. Her girls are tomboys at high tea.
This season, Rocha produced a collection of signature effortlessly feminine dresses, coats and skirts that can worn with boyish insouciance. The offerings in her post-Fashion East third solo collection include dresses in loopy white lace, butter coloured laminated leather and lemon yellow plastic cut into sunflower designs. The only patches of darkness appeared in voluminous houndstooth jackets over matching dresses and a delicate sheer black lace blouse. The purity of her aesthetic stretches to the way some of her models wore white and pale gold headbands perched on the back of their heads, like haloes. Here, Rocha gives us a glimpse into her inner world.
Dazed Digital: What do you wear that makes you feel prettiest?
Simone Rocha: A dress with a coat over it, that way I feel comfortable and covered but knowing I probably have a pretty short skirt underneath. Ha!
DD: What's your earliest experience of crochet?
Simone Rocha: It was working on my dad's AW05 show – there was a thin line of crochet chain stitch in the socks, so it wasn't my mother or granny. It was my dad.
DD: Do you think women should embrace looking sweet today?
Simone Rocha: Pretty and sweet can be sickly so I think it can be embraced if it has a boyish undercurrent which makes it more balanced.
