Review of Simone Rocha Spring 2022 Fashion Show
Provocative Yet Beautiful, An Ode To Motherhood
By Lizzy Bowring
A/W 21 was tough and pretty compared to this S/S 22 ethereal presentation (not that Simone Rocha’s creativity is ever thought of as severe), yet the toughness of the previous season was gone and in its place a troupe of provocative sweetness.
Simone Rocha has an innate sensibility when it comes to choosing the venue for her shows. As we emerged from a prohibitive time, this one felt even more sensitive; the medieval Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great. The church may have felt dark and sombre, but Rocha’s creations shone just as the suns rays cast shafts of light through the hallowed windows.
I wondered about the talent that created these clothes and how Simone Rocha continues to effuse such sublime creations? Contrary to Rocha’s usual narrative that looks to art, nature, history, and her Irish heritage, this season, her recent motherhood informed much of the thought behind the collection as she wove her narrative around daughters and ceremonial services.
She created an element of subversiveness in these silhouettes. Every shape was unique, combining layers of featherweight silks, gauze, Broderie Anglaise and taffeta laced with satin ribbons.
Fine pointelle knits came worn over multi layers of tulle while her thigh-high platforms laced with pearls grounded the looks with grit that underscored the threads of reality.
Once again, this seasons love affair with the bra appeared, but in Rocha’s hands, these turned into something evocative and alluring and, too, were sprinkled with her signature pearls.
The romantic gestures which the designer is known for came to life in full-skirted dresses, tailored shoulders, and voluminous sleeves. Just as alluring, she sent out examples of nightdresses fully rendered in exquisite a-line shapes. Elsewhere, exaggerated renditions of nightgowns in sweet floral prints were given elaborate multi-tiered collars, exaggerated even further with edges of fragile frills.
Her colour palette of white, lilac, mint and pink, as delicate as they may appear, was grounded in black – just a reminder that motherhood is not as it seems.
I always find a ‘comfort and fragility’ in Simone Rocha’s work, but this season, there was an emotional, womanly touch that was enduring, sincere and personal.
