"The paniers in question, unlike Marie Antoinette's, buckle and twist around the body, their lines sloping and asymmetric, their hemline left raw and trailing. Yet each undulation, although random, is intentional, each mistake carefully calibrated, if not precisely calculated. Rocha loves the look of the unfinished and undone, but it's actually only achieved as the result of lots of hard work."
"She was first inspired by the 1950s notion of couture, in particular, as a 'proposition' for clients - something she learned during her tenure as Jean Paul Gaultier's resident couturier two years ago. What they meant by that is that couture houses would propose clothes to clients as a jumping off point, to slot into their lives, rather than as a head-to-toe designer proposition."
Simone Rocha's Spring/Summer 2026 show at Mansion House in London revisited her obsessions, fixations and fetishes, dissecting and re-evaluating them. The collection juxtaposed unfinished, raw details with meticulous construction: buckled, asymmetric paniers with raw, trailing hemlines achieved through careful calibration. The designs drew on the 1950s idea of couture as a 'proposition' to clients, a lesson absorbed during a tenure at Jean Paul Gaultier, presenting garments as gifts to be integrated into real lives. The collection marked Rocha's 30th collection and 15 years in business and reframed romantic motifs as defiant, East London bouquets.
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