Simone Rocha’s SS22 collection involved a lot of babyteeth and nightdresses...
Sumptous and saintly, Simone Rocha’s London Fashion Week show was a “big old disturbed, beautiful lullaby.”
DESIGNER: SIMONE ROCHA
SEASON: Spring/Summer 2022
EVENT: London Fashion Week
LOCATION: St Bartholomew’s Church, Spitalfields
If one has ever witnessed the unfolding of a religious experience, I can imagine it was similar to the feeling of laying eyes on a Simone Rocha collection for the first time. Sitting in a dimly-lit medieval church flanked by magnificent stone pillars, illuminated by the sights of Rocha’s pearly white silhouettes, it was evident that this was the only setting apt for bringing the CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS alum’s devotional dreamscape to life.
Akin to a religious experience, the Dublin-born designer’s collection must be seen to be believed. Held in St. Bartholomew’s Church in East London’s Spitalfields on Monday evening, Rocha’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection was a ceremonial rumination of mother and child, communion and christening. “I was looking a lot into the way children interpret and wear clothes, but then also birth, the ceremony of christening and communion gowns,” Rocha explained. “So there's kind of a funny, deranged negligee night-time sort of spooky, deranged insomnia theme running through, too.”
As the low hum of the strings commenced, the first look ascended down the aisle; a pearly iridescent lace and satin dress, complete with a pearled tiara, floated down the nave, reminiscent of a Dickensian Gothic character. Steeped in a palette of ivory whites, pale pastels, and a splash of blood red and black, a myriad of Rocha’s signature organza and taffeta gowns soon followed, cut from swathes of bedding brocade, cotton poplin sheets and broderie Anglaise.
A child-like playfulness pervaded the collection, intricately reflected in random spatterings of small stick-on cherub tattoos and sumptuous smocks and slips, layered with silken petticoats drawn across the shoulders with ribbon draw-strings. The Irish designer’s adorned accessories were something of religious relics in themselves; from pearly tiaras and hair-clips to sparkling jewelled necklines and socks, via babyteeth dangling from necklaces, the wealth of Rocha’s jewellery glimmered in the darkness like shards of shattered stained glass.
In a time where we can finally all congregate in the flesh, and can all feast our eyes upon clothing without having to view it through Zoom, the designer’s latest offering is embodied with a strong and urgent sense of poignancy. Rocha’s mediations on regeneration and reunion could not be more pertinent at this moment in time; emerging from the darkness, we are all reborn into creatures bright and shining, our new-found light refusing to dim.
Images courtesy of Simone Rocha.
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