Irish folklore is populated by superstition and otherworldly beings such as leprechauns, banshees and aos sí, supernatural beings similar to fairies and elves. And it is precisely this ephemeral, mythical quality that you feel when first encountering the work of Dublin-born, London-based designer Simone Rocha. Just when we think we have latched onto a more tangible aspect of her inner workings, she seems to fade away again – fleeting movements, at once present then evasive. But let’s back up a little for a moment.
It all started with a picture. I remember it well. I was travelling, and the woman next to me was leafing through a magazine. My eyes caught a glimpse of a photograph. In it was a beautiful young woman, standing still in a gusty wind and out of focus. She was wearing a green parka, a white skirt with “interruptions” of red print “dwelling up” from underneath it. My eyes froze. I asked the lady if she would kindly let me take a look at the photo credits and memorised the name of the designer: Simone Rocha. The thing that jumped out at me was this skirt and the memories it awakened inside me. Simone Rocha once said: “I think any kind of work benefits from a biographical or traditional foundation. I feel that if I let some of myself inform the work I do, then some of me is contained within it.” When looking at that photo on the train, I intuitively recognised this personal relationship and wove it into my own biography. I wanted to look more deeply into this woman and designer.
Is it possible that the art of fashion lies in the visibility of its creator, and in inviting us to not just scratch the surface but to feel what it has to do with us? It is late January when I ask Simone Rocha about this thought, and how much of our roots – our “entangledness” – gives birth to creative expression.
"My mom taught me about respect and enthusiasm."
SLEEK: What do you love about us women?
SR: The strength and fragility together. The balance and the tension and the surprise.
SLEEK: Do you need your own sensibility, your own approach, your own passion to flow into your work?
SR: My work feels very personal and comes from me and where my head is at during that moment in time, which makes it very personal.
SLEEK: How much of your being a woman plays into it?
SR: The good, bad, uncontrollable [aspects] of femininity are important to my work and it always has a place in the clothes.
Femininity plays a crucial role in Simone’s work. “It’s not as if I one day made the conscious decision to focus on women,” she explains and continues: “Rather, there is an automatic strength in designing for women. I integrate my personality and my emotions into my pieces. But also the awareness that it’s not about me.” Through this, one becomes familiar with her worldview – her upbringing and contact with the ‘art’ of womanhood in her family. Her mother, her grandmothers and her relationship to her daughter Valentine.
SLEEK: I was very touched by how entirely natural you and your mother work together. The ‘question’ of age doesn’t seem to be a problem. Do you also see the strength, energy and enriching qualities of your work together?
SR: We’re very lucky to work together and learn a lot from each other’s experience, expertise, and inspiration. My mom taught me about respect and enthusiasm.
This understated sentiment isn’t the first time during our conversation that Simone has defied the ‘chatty’ national stereotype Irish people are often labelled with. Moreover, with Simone there’s a single-mindedness at work that, to be honest, is at once hypnotising and slightly terrifying. As a partner, her mother Odette – born in Dublin, where Simone also grew up – plays a very special role. Fragments of this mother-daughter relationship pop up everywhere, cross-fertilising and informing each other fluidly.
Simone’s business is a team- and family-affair where she paradoxically finds the independence she requires for her self-realisation. She doesn’t think it’s possible to change anything about that: “The people I admire are free spirits like Kawakubo, Miuccia Prada, Dries Van Noten, or generally just people who pursue their own independent and exciting path and who, along the way, produce characteristic and inspiring work,” she says. It is important to Simone Rocha to hold onto the essence of what it is you want. She incorporates the word traditional to ‘locate’ herself and because her roots are vital to her. “I am proud to be Irish.” Today, she likes to return to her homenation, but she has said that she “hated” growing up there.
Now that could definitely qualify as an Irish trait. Although the Irish love Ireland, they just don’t always love sounding Irish or being Irish when they’re abroad. Some wish to appear worldly, lose the accent as much as possible, but then get glassy-eyed when someone mentions the ‘Emerald Isle’. No place like home.
When Simone moved to London, she became homesick for the places she grew up in, her romantic associations blossoming. She developed a nostalgia for her Irish upbringing. “I started to be interested in Ireland’s history and was practically obsessed with Irish writers and poets.” Having previously struggled with literature because of her dyslexia, she found this sudden interest amusing but adored it all the same. She speaks of her love of note-taking.
"Desire is the dramatic need for something."
SLEEK: I read that you take notes – observations with people from the team – and browse through books. Is this curiosity actually important for designing clothes?
SR: I think we should always be learning and growing, so I really enjoy research. With each collection, it usually starts with an idea, which is usually more intuitive, which then leads me onto new research.
This self-inquiry and the continuous re-shaping of her work are transformed into her designs. Her collections tell an abundance of stories, nods to unique local cultures and oral traditions. “Even as a young woman I loved the practicality of work,” Rocha says. She began to absorb and love the vernacular Irish crafting methods in her father’s studio, the Hong Kong-born, British designer John Rocha. She remembers her father’s fabric room: “It was all very tactile: my father used a lot of tweed and wool, very traditionally Irish fabrics, everything had a certain weight and texture.” Fashion and rituals were an integral part of the house of Rocha for as long as she can remember.
SLEEK: Do you really think up your designs free from any constraints, situations and age?
SR: My process is very natural and my designs are influenced by so many
different things: a sense of place, the landscape, memories, emotions. How you can get those feelings from people, art, traditions. My designs also mirror the milestones of a woman’s life: sex, grief, black lace-ruffled, white silk. When someone dies we grieve in a variety of ways, which is also reflected in the colours and rituals. I love when human emotions or my own feelings are transformed into a dress and how this dress then shapes the one who wears it or how she wears it.
SLEEK: Is there a woman in your life who always inspires you, touches
you and invites you on such a constant journey of discovery?
SR: Many women, my mother, Louise Bourgeois, Roni Horn, my friends, my team … every day.
And so, it seems that Rocha’s designs are more than just dresses. They instead represent a woman’s choice to move ahead while always remembering her roots. Finding where that place is isn’t an issue for Rocha. Since she launched career as an entrepreneur and designer with her graduate collection in 2010, she has held onto that which she banked on from the beginning: her family – an all-female team – her sensitivity, and her unique creative vision.
SLEEK: I remember something Louise Bourgeois once said: “You have to look at yourself as you are and when you like yourself and can accept yourself, the silence will dissolve and you can begin a dialogue.”
SR: My own identity is the most important thing for me. Once you’ve found it, the rest will follow. But the world is a challenging place at the moment.
SLEEK: And desire… ?
SR: Desire is the dramatic need for something.
Simone Rocha says she is a very reserved person, a very private one. On the surface, that might clash with the stereotypes people often have of Ireland. But look beyond the cliches and you will see that her work, steeped in local folklore and myth, doesn’t just display an affinity for Irish culture—it’s a part of it as well.