Simone Rocha On Going Back To Her Roots

Simon Rocha's world suddenly makes a lot of sense when entering her family home. As soon as his mother opens the door of his Victorian home in the wealthy Ranelagh district of Dublin, there is a lot of activity. Plates of smoked Irish salmon appear next to homemade soda-baking towers. It is both pristine and comfortable here, and this is the same combination of greatness and comfort that has always been in the heart of the Rocha brand.


The paintings are lined with Lucian Freud and Shawn Scully, but in the piano, under the framed gilt Picasso, are pictures of Simone, currently the female fashion designer of the year at the British fashion awards, her 18-year-old baby one month old, Valentine's Day. Look, the original plaster that twists on the ceiling bears a direct resemblance to those that now adorn the Rocha London shop, created in collaboration with his father, designer John Rocha. Look down, the coffee table, filled with heavy technical books about people like Brancusi and Peter Beard, can easily be mistaken for one of their modborders. The impact of his teaching in his work is indelible.

It is no secret that Simon descended from a cultural dynasty: his father has a central bank for the romantic ethereal hand (with him went to Simon received at Buckingham Palace). His mother was his business partner. Simon grew up skipping school to attend the fashion shows of London Fashion Week and sleep in the camp bed in the Claridge hotel room just to feel close to everything. London is still Tosrha: "Every time I have a black taxi from the airport I feel the energy that can not be replaced anywhere else," she says. "It's the light, the noise, the feeling of being small in a very large city."

While my father Simon was at the foundation of his brand - his father taught how to sew, and customize tasks such as group rage crochet socks / summer of 1994, his mother drained the commercial side of things - it's "Debbie hippy" of the world, who grew up in, the creative energy that fills this house, which proved to be the most influential for its beauty. Childhood was filled with music and the Rochat parties, and often passed over the infiltration and finishing drinks of their parents, friends - everyone, from legends of the music of Gavin Friday and Paul Brady to U2. ("Everyone knows U2," and said that it shone - by the way, it was made with the father of his son at the annual gala dinner of the dinner band) The source degrees of secondary concern. After school, she climbed a fence to hang out in the lane near her home, smoking and racing around the BMX bikes. "I could not get home to do the homework," she says. "If I have a D, my dad just says:" It's great, I've already passed! ""

This was the period that inspired his group Spring / Summer '13, which consisted of "having your first cigarette, or your first drink, go home and put on a sportsman under uniform." The moss-covered areas of this alley inspired windows to be installed on Dover Street in London, the first major retail store to invest in. For an emerging designer, this was a huge opportunity and proved that doing things that were true to his world would work. "For me, it was a big turning point," he says now. "It was finally like," Oh, this is my religion, these are the people who understand what I want to do. "

The dresses that are extracted from layers of embroidered tulle, or tweed lines that turn into good-looking coats, offer a contemporary view of femininity: one subversive rather than female, and speaks of its comfortable approach. "Girly is a little brissy," Rocha laughs. "I always love that feminine, but I feel feminine rather than sweet." Instead, his clothing is now sitting comfortably in the luxurious stages of the Lancaster House or Middle Temple in London, where he introduced his latest fashion shows, as they do in this corridor.