Irish designer captivates at Paris Couture Week

Irish fashion designer Simone Rocha has presented an haute couture collection in Paris.

The Dublin-born creative exhibited her work as a guest couturier for Jean Paul Gaultier on Wednesday.

Gaultier launched the initiative upon his retirement in January 2020 with Rocha becoming the sixth person invited to guest design couture – the most elite branch of the fashion industry.

“I was really humbled, excited and enthusiastic when I got the call,” Rocha told BBC News NI ahead of the show.

“I think it’s a real gift that he has done this way of working. It feels really generous… to be so open to interpretation.”

As part of the process, the ‘enfant terrible’ gives his guests free reign to interpret the Gaultier brand as they see fit.

“He wants to wait to see it in the show, because it’s designer to designer – that’s the best process,” Rocha said.

When the show was announced, fashion commentators speculated on how Rocha’s hyper-feminine, whimsical signatures would translate to the Jean Paul Gaultier brand.

“I love that,” Simone said.

“When I was asked to do it, straight away I could see it being very feminine but also very provocative and playful, all these iconic Gaultier troupes.”

Rocha described the opportunity as an “invited challenge” and she relished in exploring Gaultier’s archives.

“Some were quite preserved, all in tissue in these wooden boxes, which are actually called coffins – which I also loved – some pieces were so old they were almost starting to disintegrate, so you couldn’t even try them on,” she said.

Hand-crochet and manipulated Irish lace feature in the collection, which includes “a nice mix of techniques that feel very close to home”.

However, Simone also embraced newer design methods “that feel almost a bit alien, but amazing”.

“It’s quite a labour intensive process, but at the same time I think we’ve been using restraint in some areas and then [been] excessive in others,” she explained.

Rocha appears to have struck the balance, according to early reviews from the fashion press who have praised her reimagining of Gaultier’s conical bras, corsets and sailor hats.

The collection marked “a new high point in the Irish designer’s career”, according to The Irish Times, which claimed each item was “outstanding in its own way”.

“It’s that rare collection where every single look warrants conversation,” added Fashionista, while Harper’s Bazaar has deemed the show “a resounding success” full of “exquisite tulle creations”.

Elle magazine labeled the partnership “a meeting of minds and beauty”, and, as for the main man, Jean Paul told The Guardian that the collection “went beyond what [he] expected”.

Since graduating Central Saint Martins in 2010, Rocha has established herself as one of the world’s leading fashion designers, receiving numerous accolades for her work.

These include Harper’s Bazaar Designer of the Year Award and Fashion Awards for Emerging Talent, The New Establishment Award and British Womenswear Designer.

As the daughter of esteemed designer John Rocha, she has carried the family name to further prominence with stores in London, New York, Taipei and Hong Kong, and notable collaborations with Moncler, H&M and J Brand.

Born in Dublin in 1989, Rocha has spoken of a colourful childhood filled with music and laughter.

She began assisting her father from a young age, immediately feeling at ease in the studio but unsure of her future creative practice.

“They used to have really good parties in the house I grew up in. Shane MacGowan, Van the Man… it was really fun. Wild. All the kids just ran around and what was really nice is that we were always very much a family,” she previously told The Telegraph.

It is those strong family ties that took the designer across the world from a young age, regularly visiting relations in Hong Kong.

“I’m really proud of being half Irish and half Chinese,” Rocha told BBC News NI.

“I grew up in Ireland and I really enjoyed it. I was really fortunate to go to art college in Dublin [National College of Art] before I went to do my masters in London.

“There’s such a natural heritage of storytelling, writing, music, film [in Ireland]. And it has completely been a part of the work that I make… the duality and contrast of being from two different places.

“A lot of the [Irish] landscape has really influenced my textiles and fabrication and then, contrasting that with this idea of the man-made, the practical side of life and living, has been a big part of my process.”

The Children of Lir, wren boys, mummers and John Millington Synge’s Riders to the Sea have influenced Rocha’s designs in recent seasons.

“I’d read the body of text [Riders to the Sea] and I was also thinking about the traditional mourners in the Aran Islands and how the women used to dye their petticoats and wear them as veils,” she said.

Envisioning men lost at sea, she was inspired to create lifejacket-inspired Aran stitch knitwear.

When Rocha decided to show menswear and womenswear together for winter 2023, she initially explored traditional Irish relationship rituals.

“Folklore, things like a snail leaving tracks of an [initial] in flour… throwing an apple on the floor to foretell the name of your loved one,” she explained.

As her research deepened, Rocha looked to Lughnasadh – an Irish autumn festival with pagan origins.

What followed was elaborate, macramé garments paired with red ribbon ‘tears’, which she said represented the blood traditionally daubed on children’s foreheads to protect them from harm.

The collection was the beginning of an “all encompassing” triptych, exploring preservation and historical dress, with Wednesday’s couture show a second offering.

Her winter 2024 collection, due to be presented next month in London, has seen the designer explore an alternative archive.

“I was privy to all of Queen Victoria’s mourning clothes… it’s been amazing, I’ve been exploring this idea of preserved clothes and mourning, and that’s going to influence the collection in February.”

Rocha explained that her work has always “felt like an extension of [herself]” and it is a “huge compliment” to have it embraced by a growing fanbase.

Reflecting on her earliest shows and the supports available, Rocha admitted the industry has changed significantly over the last decade, partly because of the Covid pandemic.

“There was a huge appetite, suddenly even if you were showing in London you felt totally international, and I do feel like that’s still the case,” she said.

“I think the industry itself, post pandemic, retail has all had a shift.

“Everyone – especially if you’re independent – had to step back and look at your business, your identity, what you want to say and think of the steps to go forward.

“That comes with experience… for young designers the whole landscape is harder to navigate.”

Having said that, opportunity is aplenty, Rocha explained, with designers no longer fixed to the traditional fashion colleges and capitals.

“If you make the right work, you can share it now with social media, you don’t have to be at the fashion week, people are producing at different times, it’s so less regimented… people can see it in all different ways,” she said.

“If you do something that you really believe in and you do it really well, it’ll find the space and people will find you.”

Haute couture is considered the ultra-elite of fashion design.

The clothes are often made from the finest of materials and are extremely expensive with starting prices in the tens of thousands.

The ‘haute couture’ (high dressmaking) denomination is legally protected and its requirements are defined by the French chamber of commerce.

Participating fashion houses must design custom, fitted pieces for private clients and maintain a Paris atelier (workshop) with a minimum of 15 full-time staff.

Additionally, they must employ 20 full-time technical workers and showcase a collection of at least 50 original designs per year.

Jean Paul Gaultier is one of 16 members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture regulatory body, although guest houses have occasionally been invited to showcase their designs at couture week.