Irish designer Simone Rocha shows her rebellious side at London Fashion Week
Irish fashion designer Simone Rocha whose London Fashion Week show took place at the Goldsmiths Hall. Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty
Irish designer Simone Rocha unleashed a rebellious streak during the autumn/winter 2025 shows at London Fashion Week at the gilded Goldsmiths' Hall.
“It was a play on teenage stereotypes and nostalgia,” Ms Rocha said backstage after the show.
The collection inspiration harked back to the halcyon days of freedom, when constructing identity through fashion often revolves around disobeying convention and going against the grain.
It resulted in structured leather biker jackets and harnesses that subverted her signature saccharine organza dresses and distressed skirts with crystal embellishments.
Tailoring, slip dresses, and fur coats are slashed while ribbons tie up floral jacquard dresses, as if they were torn apart in frustration and pieced together again. Tweed jackets are styled with fur bloomers and wool coats are accessorised with bike chains, naughty flourishes that played into teenage mischief.
The collection was shown on a roster of Rocha’s famous friends like actors Fiona Shaw, Andrea Riseborough, Fionn O’Shea (in the brand’s menswear), and perennial cool girl Alexa Chung, and models young and old.
The show comes as Ms Rocha enters her second decade in business, following a whirlwind 2024 where she was a guest designer for a Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture collection and released her debut monograph with Rizzoli.
In a world where personal style feels increasingly diluted or dictated by algorithms, Ms Rocha is singular and unwavering in her approach to fashion. Hers is a universe that is considerably more assured and self-possessed than its teenage stereotype inspiration would imply.
Sinéad O’Dwyer is another designer with an utterly unique world, designing for everybody and every body type. Her Saturday evening show was confident and sexy, shown on a size inclusive range of models and using a suite of sustainable fabrics.
A semi-finalist for the upcoming 2025 LVMH Prize, a prestigious €400,000 award for young talent, Ms O’Dwyer elevated her signatures in her clearest outing yet.
There were harnessed silk organza dresses and bubble skirts; shirting with internal corsetry shown in deadstock nylon and red satin; knitwear that nods to Japanese bondage. She developed denim—first introduced last year—in deconstructed denim jackets, jeans, and leotards, and leather—shown here in shiny black coats and micro-shorts.
That London has fertile soil for the genesis of new talent with strong identities is no secret. It is the city that produced Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, and Jonathan Anderson (the Northern Irish designer is notably absent from the calendar this season).
“London is about and will always be about creativity, innovation, and breaking boundaries,” said Caroline Rush, the CEO of the British Fashion Council, at a welcome address on Friday.
Two of the most promising shows of the weekend came from Jawara Alleyne and Conner Ives.
Jawara Alleyne, whose fans include Rihanna, delivered a self-assured array of draped and deconstructed looks in more sophisticated fabrics like wool jersey, tweed, and felt. His abstract constructions of polo shirts, jeans, and gowns were original and exciting.
The American designer Conner Ives’ show at the iconic Savoy Hotel was inspired by the 1979 musical All That Jazz. In his quest for sparkle amidst chaos, with a commitment to conscious fabrics, he arrived at something beautiful: a modern stamp on what glamour can look like today.
In London, there is a pervasive tension between new and old.
Ruby Slevin’s five-year-old brand Banshee of Savile Row is the only fully bespoke tailoring brand for women on Savile Row—the birthplace of the suiting tradition.
Dublin-born Ms Slevin offered a succinct collection of 13 looks for autumn. She put a playful, personal twist on her tailoring prowess by fusing it with Eleanor Ekserdjian’s prints inspired by Scottish landscapes. The silk linings on her Donegal tweed coats and velvet suits, shirts and accessories such as bow ties, featured patterns from the Armenian artist.
“I love everything about Savile Row—using the techniques that have been around for hundreds of years and making them more modern without breaking them apart,” Ms Slevin said before the show.
Reinventing tradition is writ large across collections from Kent & Curwen and Paul Costelloe.
At Kent & Curwen, Daniel Kearns is flipping the house’s signatures—tailored blazers, trench coats, and sportswear—on their heads. The Irish designer behind the 99-year-old British brand’s reboot is peddling exaggerated shoulders in tailoring, rugby shirts that become baby-doll dresses, and layered and distorted herringbone and argyle patterns.
“There’s a comfort in [tradition] that anchors us. It’s about taking what we know and shaping it for the future.” Mr Kearns said before the show.
On Friday, Paul Costelloe opened London Fashion Week with his usual early morning slot. For autumn/winter, he channeled his energy into the equestrian. From equestrian illustrations to dressage-inspired looks, Costelloe combined his lifelong passion with his signature old-timey silhouettes, some chunky Irish knitwear and wool tailoring with fabrics from Magee of Ireland.
London Fashion Week concludes with a blockbuster Burberry show at the Tate Britain.
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