SIMONE ROCHA

Is talent hereditary? Considering Simone Rocha's career, it's a fair question. Daughter of designer John Rocha, the 80s fashion icon who won Womenswear Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 1983 (Simone won the same prize in 2016), she is building a style that is very much her own, celebrating strong femininity with large cuts of tulle, embroidery and bows. Born in Dublin in 1986, Simone Rocha did not necessarily want to enter the fashion industry. She was encouraged by one of her teachers at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin to take a course in the subject. In 2008, she studied at Central Saint Martins in London, where she graduated in 2010. Impressed by her graduate collection, Fashion East offered to showcase her designs during London Fashion Week in September that same year.
Soon, her aesthetic of reworking traditional feminine elements became a resounding success and Simone Rocha was propelled to the forefront of the fashion scene. Fascinated by Louise Bourgeois' art, the designer aimed to create functional clothing that can naturally fit into people's lifestyles.
She won her first British Fashion Award in 2013 in the ready-to-wear Emerging Talent category. A year later, she received the New Establishment Award at the same ceremony. Two years later, she was chosen as the Womenswear Designer of the Year, in 2016.