Simone Rocha on her new collaboration with H&M
The latest H&M collaboration is with a designer who celebrates strong women – and creates genius outfit-makers, says Grazia’s Kenya Hunt
AFTER A DECADE in business, Simone Rocha is joining a pantheon of The Greats. Karl Lagerfeld. Rei Kawakubo. Alber Elbaz. Martin Margiela. Donatella Versace. Stella Mccartney. On 11 March, she’ll be the first Irish designer to release a collaboration with H&M. ‘It’s amazing to be a part of that history,’ she tells me from her studio in east London, where she has been preparing her autumn/winter 2021 collection for the coming season of virtual London shows.
Covid has had a devastating impact on many of the UK’S fashion businesses, but Simone Rocha is not one of them. Her beaded earrings and bejewelled hair slides, in particular – long popular among fashion insiders – have gotten a second life in lockdown as women looked for little outfit-makers during a year in which they’ve largely been seen from the shoulders up. And now, Simone’s subversively pretty pieces will be available to the masses.
Since debuting its first designer capsule in 2004, H&M’S collaborations have become the stuff of fashion history, each launch garnering notoriously long queues,
shockingly fast sell-out times and famously high resale prices. For many shoppers, it’s the gateway purchase to the world of high fashion. ‘I’ll never forget that first one; it was Karl Lagerfeld,’ Simone says, recounting her earliest memory of the partnerships. ‘And I remember thinking it was so wild and pioneering for someone like him as the head of Chanel to do the high street. It was huge.’
For a designer, to land one is a sign that you are crossing the threshold into joining fashion’s big league of household names. For Simone, the moment feels even more momentous because it shines a light on Ireland, a source of great pride. Born in Dublin, she is the daughter of designer John Rocha, the man largely credited with putting Irish fashion on the map. ‘This collection is a tribute to Ireland in a way and you see that in a lot of the pieces, such as the jumpers. I did a lot of Irish knitting,’ she explains. ‘And this collection is also an ode to strong women.’
Like all the most memorable H&M collaborations, Simone’s is a highlights reel of her greatest hits, and more. There is the bulbous pink coat, which was inescapable in the early 2010s. And her trademark full-sleeved and full-skirted floral and sequin dresses. And the tartan straight-leg trousers with the frilled pockets at the hips. ‘This covers all the touchstone moments of my career,’ she says. ‘I keep quite a heavy archive. Since I was a student, I have been documenting everything about all my work. So going back, it was like meeting old friends. I wanted to pick out things that felt really pivotal for me. Like when I introduced the neoprene and the pearls for the first time.’
And she hopes to build on the pivotal firsts introduced this time around. The collection marks her first ever foray into children’s and menswear, something she describes as a natural step in the progression of her brand. Might we see her formally launch ready-to-wear for both in the future? Possibly. ‘I incredibly enjoyed designing for men. I’ve always mixed the masculine and feminine in my work. I’d love to look at this in the future, especially the childrenswear. We are thinking about it.’
Most notably, the collection is a welcome reminder that there is more to get dressed for than the rectangular screen. Though this collection has plenty to make a person stand out on Zoom. ‘I do think it’s important to get dressed,’ she says. ‘You’ve got to get up and put shoes on or else the day isn’t going to get off to a good start,’ she says of her approach to styling out lockdown.
Like many women, she dresses for the juggle of work deadlines (her London Fashion Week show is just weeks away) with the responsibilities of sharing the homeschooling of her daughter Valentine with her partner, Eoin Mcloughlin. ‘Getting dressed is a small thing but it can make such a big difference. It makes you feel like you’re a part of society. I need that uniform during the day,’ she adds. Lately that involves a lot of smocked dresses and padded slippers with a furry footbed that ‘passes as a shoe but is very comfortable at home’.
Even before Covid reduced our wardrobes to nap dresses and tracksuits, Simone’s work had a functional ease that belied the trademark embroidery and delicate tulle she is known for. ‘You can wear it at home, you can wear it in the supermarket,’ she says. And that goanywhere functionality has resonated with women of all ages, shapes and sizes. For examples of this, look no further than her family – Simone’s mother Odette regularly wears her work, while daughter Valentine can often be spotted in custom, pint-sized versions of Simone’s pieces. Meanwhile, her runways regularly make headlines for their relatable casting, from full-figured model Tess Mcmillan to women over the age of 50, including Benedetta Barzini and Jan de Villeneuve. And in her work studio, Simone’s near all-female team are her biggest ambassadors, wearing Simone’s pieces daily.
Staunch Simone Rocha loyalists –and there are many – cite her willingness to design for a range of body types as one of the reasons they keep coming back to her stores. ‘I’ve always been very conscious of the fact that I don’t want my [clothing] to alienate people,’ she says. ‘I’ve always believed femininity isn’t an age or a size at all. It’s a feeling and an emotion and that’s ingrained in you and can’t be labelled. It’s about how these clothes can make you feel like yourself rather than you putting something on to look like someone else.’ Simon Rocha X H&M is available from 11 March; hm.com
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Dress, £139.99, and clips, £24.99, both
OPPOSITE
Jumper, £69.99, trousers, £79.99, and bows, £24.99, all