Portraits à la Simone Rocha
My love for photography has produced fashion themed editorials, self-portraits and abstract stills. In a zine of photoshoots and articles, I looked to the British fashion designer Simone Rocha for inspiration. Influenced by the dark romanticism and female archetypes often seen in her campaigns, collections and brand values, I analysed the colour palettes, literary references and mythology at the crux of her craftsmanship. Here are some excerpts from each article, as well as the zine itself and featured photograph stills.
Madame D’artifice: Queen of Lace
This year's Spring collection discussed the need for decoration in a Covid-19 world. No sweet-toothed spectator would leave a Rocha show without parroting the words “sequins” and “ruffles'' at least a dozen times. The recent 'lockdown' collection was no different and debuted in September at the minimalistic Hauser & Wirth gallery (an unusual choice for the designer who's fond of grand runways). Sobered by the circumstances, spectators' sat in socially distanced rows to watch a line-up that alternated between minimal and overly decorated apparel. For those familiar with the brand's DNA, the absence of ribbon or lace on every other garment was painfully obvious. By neglecting flanks of material and solely lining the curve of the sternum, collarbone or pocket with neat rows of beads, the designer drew attention to the embellishment we expected- and needed at a time when many of us were suffering.
The Beautiful Nightmare: A Woman's Fantasy of Tulle and Blood
Simone Rocha's latest Moncler collaboration is a fever dream intersecting madness with
Movement.
Since joining Moncler's Genius Group in 2018, the designer (along with Craig Green, Hiroshi Fujiwara and Pierpaolo Piccioli) has released annual re-imaginings of the brand's ski apparel. Infusing outerwear with her statement melodrama, Rocha's pageants of puffed-out tents and black conical lampshades, level up on layered wadding and knitwear. The AW20 campaign video, produced with director Petra Collins, crossed a surrealistic threshold and entered the realms of art house horror. Swathing models in voluminous nylon hooded coats, the duo directed a montage about a ballerina’s descent into madness. This “beautiful nightmare” eclipsed previously tame projects with the collaborative syndicate and took place in a naturalistic ballet studio, possessed by an evil red spirit.
The video's first scene was marked by ballerinas' haphazardly rehearsing to an operatic soundtrack. Save for rouged cheeks and lips, the women were visions in white; wearing snowy leotard tops with long ‘Romantic’ tutus originating from the 1830s. According to Rocha, the bulbous skirts were characters in themselves and conjured a "push and pull between romance, horror, and movement." The focus then shifted to a mass of bodies writhing in the centre of an assembly hall, their gestures parodying the visceral choreography of dancer Pina Bausch. Her emotion-led Tanztheatre (mode of expressive dance) was so strenuous, it was labelled "pornography of pain" by critic Arlene Croce in a New Yorker 1984 review. The performances required loose clothing and as the video's sequence intensified, the troupe shed their shapeless dresses and
swayed in bras and skirts.
The stage was bathed in a pulsating red light, its violent flashes indicating danger or lust- it's unclear which. This Suspiria-esque symbolism can be traced back to Fellini's 1972 Roma and the symbolic malevolence of the colour red. Juliet's mannequin-like mother in Juliet of the Spirits (another film by the legendary director), was also referenced with robotic gestures, fingers jewelled in bloody iridescent beads and a faceless mask in the final scene. This was not the first time Rocha had used dance to set a terrifying premise and she turned to Michael Powell's The Red Shoes for AW19's ready-to-wear pink on black apparitions. A romantic tragedy about a ballerina torn between her craft and the man she loves, the film spoke of the anxiety and determination the designer felt when dancing as a child.
Although past collections have visited idyllic gardens, desolate mountains and a forest plucked from a Brother's Grimm tale, the concept of fantasy took a darker turn with this campaign. It was a welcome change. Rather than the frolicking nymphs of SS19, we saw a complicated narrative that incorporated symbolism and horror iconography to highlight the theatrical aspects of Rocha's aesthetic. The women themselves were tortured and emotional; showcasing the strength of the overtly feminine and the subversive side of sisterhood.
The Holy Trinity: The Maiden, Mother and Crone
Family and womanhood are at the core of Rocha's hyper-feminine brand.
Spanning ten years and incredibly personal, Simone Rocha’s portfolio reads like a family tree. At the roots are her Irish-Chinese parentage, the trunk is shaped by her grandparents and her daughter Valentine buds from its branches. Focusing on matriarchs, she honoured her family ties through a decade-long exploration of the female lifecycle: Maiden, Mother and Crone. Referred to in Neopagan circles as the Triple Goddess, the holy trinity celebrates the natural stages of womanhood and attracts a clientele base of various ages including: Alexa Chung to Chloe Grace-Moretz.
The designer graduated from the fashion design MA at Central Saint Martins in 2010 and was described by mentor Louise Wilson as having a “strong, modern femininity”. She emulated this when updating elements from her grandmothers’ (Margaret Gleeson and Cecelia Rocha) wardrobes for the AW13 assortment. Named ‘Respect Your Elders,’ it featured candy floss knee-length frocks paired with velvet brogues and daisies dotted onto sheer skirts with slight bustles. An effervescent force, the ‘elderly woman’ returned in 2017 when ‘60s models Jan de Villeneuve and Benedetta Barzini, walked for the Fall collection.
Rocha gave birth to Valentine three months before the AW16 show and haunted by the trauma of pregnancy, she fashioned loose overalls and randomly slashed amphora skirts. The designer’s next portrayal of motherhood in AW19 was far rosier and derived from her daughter’s love for china dolls. With Peter Pan collars and broderie anglaise cuffs, the runway maidens' looked like extras from Peter Weir’s 1975 Picnic at Hanging Rock. Nestled on their shoulders were the puffed heads of gigot sleeves and some wore wide-legged trousers. Although whimsical, these pieces were vaguely inspired by the clothing of the 1890's Gibson Girl and applied an austere edge to the flouncy array of frocks.
One could read her collections as one neo-Gothic epic: the young seductress present in the first half of the decade and mother haunted by the trauma of birth 2016 and tragedy four years later. Like a magpie, she has surveyed the Victorian period, picked out aspects of dress that suit her vision and empowered her consumer with delicately strong garments.
The Irish Gothic Novel and Rocha
Attempting to tap into her Irish heritage, Rocha has explored themes of the Gothic novel and its portrayal of Ireland as a hub of rural terror.
"We had to drive down teeny tiny roads in the middle of nowhere," Sinead O'Conner told me from her home in Dublin. Recounting a disastrous road trip to rural Kerry, the fashion student was floored by the "hella' intimidating" vastness of the Emerald Isle. Her awe-struck iterations mirrored the writings of 19th century contemporaries, who saw Ireland’s wilderness and its conflicted history as one entity.
Gothic novels (such as Le Fanu’s Uncle Silas or Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Grey) typically include themes of murder, sex and the supernatural. The designer’s shows are similarly formulaic, sticking to a template of flared skirts, puff sleeves and lace. Irish craft is a constant proponent of her work and traditional fabrics such as tweed and wool instill a feeling of patriotism. Although the designer's heritage was not overt in the SS13 show, it was present in the Mary O’Donnelo floral crochet technique and Chantilly lace veils inspired by her grandmother’s mass cards.
Her inclination towards Catholicism (despite not being religious), highlights its deep-rooted presence in Irish culture. Religion was a grey area during the 19th century and although Anglo-Protestants antagonized the rural Catholics, they provided employment for the poor and set up organisations that taught the impoverished how to make lace. Their efforts were visible on Rocha's SS19 veils, which were embroidered in a Mountmellick white-on-white lace originating from an 1825 Irish Quaker establishment.
Ireland's godly society was easy prey for the Gothic novelist and he delightedly tormented his readers by converging biblical and pagan beliefs. The 1898 play Riders to the Sea by J.M. Synge, explores this conflict through the hardships of a grieving mother whose sons are drowned at sea. Named after the play, the AW20 spectacle mimicked Synge's reverence of the ocean by framing faces with halos of shark teeth and strips of enamoured bone. Translating Synge's Irish creole into her own vernacular of dress, she freely draped the Aran stitch across her models and showered them in Perspex pearls. The show amplified the sea's sublime power over man and its relentless nature was touched on again later that year, when the pearls resurfaced as large oval-shaped egg bags.
The Big House is another proponent of the Gothic novel and a by-product of colonised Ireland. By setting their tales in a haunted mansion, writers’ exposed the dark side of the country's rolling hills and desolate pastures. Catholic tenants would use the term when referring to the estates owned by their Anglo-Irish landlords and tensions between the classes cast the Big House as the ideal setting for evil intentions. Many of the designer’s shows have been hosted by some of London's big houses, with the designer debuting at the Southwark Cathedral, Goldsmiths Hall and Lancaster House.
Rocha’s fascination with the macabre derives from her Irish heritage and the country roads that haunted the imaginations of Gothic writers like Le Fanu and Bram Stoker. Tattooing Gothic lore onto the national imagination, they continue to haunt designers like Rocha and inspire the dark undertones running through her collections.