Simone Rocha was born in 1986 in Dublin, the daughter of the Irish-Chinese designer John Rocha. She studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, continued at Central Saint Martins, and presented her first London collection in September 2010, at twenty-four.

The Silhouette

Rocha’s vocabulary — oversized tulle ball skirts, pearl-encrusted embroidery, deliberately awkward tailoring, exaggerated white collars, and the recurrent oversized silk bow at the neck or waist — draws from Catholic iconography, pre-Raphaelite painting, and Irish lace tradition. The feminine darkness of her collections has been read, by most critics, as a deliberate counter to the minimalist luxury of the 2010s.

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A dress should feel haunted. Only then is it honest. — Simone Rocha

The Craft, and Gaultier

Her hand-knit pieces are produced in Donegal; her lace collars are finished in Limerick. In January 2024 Jean Paul Gaultier invited Rocha to serve as guest couturier for his house’s Spring 2024 Paris couture presentation — the first woman and first non-French designer to hold the guest role since his retirement from couture. The collection was received as her critical arrival at the couture tier.