Dream a Little Dream
H&M pioneered the high-low fashion crossover when it teamed up with Karl Lagerfeld way back in 2004 and its designer collaborations since have set the template for this contemporary industry phenomenon. Whether it ’s Martin Margiela’s avant-garde experimentalism (2012), Marni’s exuberant maximalism (2012) or Versace’s high-octane glamour (2011), the Swedish brand has always had its finger on the pulse, distilling the fashion mood of the moment into an accessible, expansive collection and serving it up to the wider public.
This year, the prevailing mood in fashion is one of hopefulness in the face of darkness—beauty as a balm. Fittingly, H&M has tapped Simone Rocha for its designer collaboration. No other designer of her generation has captured the complexity and multiplicity of femininity today as well as Rocha. In the 11 years since she started her brand, Rocha has steadily and consistently built on her vision of romance with an edge and beauty with a grit—a powerful aesthetic that has garnered her a cult following that cuts across diverse groups and generations of women. “Simone Rocha has been on H&M’s wish list for a long time,” says Ann-Sofie Johansson, Creative Advisor of H&M. “We have been so impressed with how clear her point of view is, season on season. She offers a really dynamic reflection on modern femininity. I personally have been very inspired to work with a female designer who spends so much time thinking about contemporary womanhood. It ’s always about beauty, but there’s an edge too.”
That duality is something that comes up over and over when one talks about Simone Rocha, and it is also why her work has resonated with so many. “When I think of our collections, I think of a certain beauty, a certain timeless quality that is complemented by a toughness and a punkish spirit,
The wonderful world of Simone Rocha, where strength and softness are one and the same, is now open to all with her new H&M collaboration. By Jeffrey Yan inspired by the realities of everyday living,” says Rocha. “I’ve always enjoyed balancing the more overtly beautiful, flamboyant elements with an edge of some kind. I guess that comes from thinking about the strength and individuality of the wearer.”
In addition to beauty, strength and individuality, embedded in the heart of each Rocha collection is a wealth of stories—drawn from history, art, folklore, rituals, literature and elements from Rocha’s Irish-Hong Kong heritage. Her past collections have evoked a range of characters that run the gamut from Irish wren-boys and pearl divers to Chinese grandmothers and Tang dynasty concubines. Somewhere in the mix is always the spirit of Louise Bourgeois—most prominent in Rocha’s unwavering exploration of the female form, the tension between how things look and how they feel.
For her collaboration with H&M, Rocha chose not to hew to any one narrative but rather imagined it as a journey back through her archives. “I’d say this collection was really about celebrating the signatures of my label,” she shares. “I brought together themes that are always present in my work and we tried to make it very recognisably Simone Rocha. There’s the palette we adore—the creams, pinks, reds; there are the bespoke fabrications; and of course, the accessories and embellishments. It was a really pleasurable experience to look back and reflect on how the brand has grown and how certain classics have developed.”
Fashion fans will note how all those classics—the pearls, the bows, the pleated tulle, the seersucker tartan checks, the neoprene—have made their way into the H&M collection. But Rocha is adamant the collection isn’t just about replaying her greatest hits: “I really wanted to take archive details and reimagine them so they’re not mere re-editions; it’s about taking things and reinterpreting them for today and now.” And as the fashion landscape today is more fluid than ever, with binaries and boundaries melting away, it made perfect sense for Rocha to take on menswear and childrenswear for the first time in her career. “I was so thrilled that the collection allowed me to expand into areas I’ve long been fascinated by,” she says. “Every piece in the collection—his and hers, adult and small—is designed to be in conversation with one another.” For the designer, the Simone Rocha man and woman share the same sensibility. “It’s one unit, one identity,” she stresses. “It’s not so much that the menswear is about masculinity or that the womenswear is highly feminine— it ’s really about a mix, a sense of different pieces in dialogue, a crossover between genders. So there are tulle dresses alongside tulle suiting, a trench for him and one for her, shirting for both. I love the idea of people mixing and matching, and wearing everything in their own way.”
The dissolution of outmoded gender conventions is not the only change that Rocha has observed in her decade in the industry. “I think the past 10 years, and especially this current moment, have made us all think about what we buy and why,” she states. “I hope we are all becoming increasingly conscious consumers who buy pieces to last—things that we want to wear time and time again.”
As to why people buy so strongly into the Simone Rocha vision, Johansson expounds: “Simone is a designer who nods to the ‘fantastical’ side of fashion— the dreaming—but always in a way that feels very down-to-earth.” To her, there is no other designer better suited to meet this moment. “Recently more than ever, we have been confronted with the importance of fashion in bringing people joy. I think this collection will offer escapism, but in a way that feels honest, relevant and tender,” says Johansson.
As Rocha herself puts it, “I do believe that fashion, like art, offers the chance for fantasy, for escapism, for imagination, for beauty. I think that will be important as we come out of this period. I love the idea of people putting on these pieces and remembering what it’s like to adore fashion, to adore getting dressed up—that joy is always my hope when building a collection.”