Today in London I’ve gone to Barbican, I’ve gone to Mayfair, I’ve gone to five fashion shows, I’ve gone on the bus and the tube and I’ve been counting sweaters. And in all corners of the city and its buildings I’ve seen six people wearing the exact same sweater. You know the one: Big red heart and the letter A over the chest. For those of us with a bleeding big red heart and a capital-A Aversion to Sameness: Simone Rocha.
“I was kind of the emo—that’s why the music was so emo,” said Simone after her Fall 2025 runway show. “I was definitely more of an emo girl, a bolder type, emo thing!”
With a pink ribbon in her hair, Rocha was recounting her high school years, that formative period of cliques and clubs that inspired her latest collection. “I wanted to look at teenage stereotypes whether that’s good girls, bad girls, rugby boys,” she went on, diving into the tropes of teendom. If each Simone Rocha collection is born from some primal urge—they have been about pregnancy, breastfeeding, dying swans and budding roses—this one was about a streak of independence. It’s not totally rebellion, even with clunky bicycle locks done as belts and studded jewelry and furry knickers Simone Rocha is still fundamentally sweet.
“Beauty, not creepy!” cheered actress Fiona Shaw, who made her catwalk debut in a black coccooned dress with a padlock at the clavicle. She was pointing to her fellow runway first-timer Fionn O’Shea’s choker, a lattice of studs, pearls, and metal flowers. “He’s got these pearls that are really beautiful—but there’s no S&M about it. It’s absolutely ethereal.”
Joined by Andrea Riseborough and Alexa Chung (two women infamous for strange campaigns: one for an Academy Award and the other for wearing black tights with jorts) on the runway, Shaw and O’Shea represented the Irish contingent that Rocha is always so proud to tout. You could feel it in the front row, where Rocha’s daughter saw mouth agape at her mum’s handiwork, and backstage where Celestine Cooney, the Irish stylist, was doling out hugs in layers of Rocha’s red silk.
Now why should you, at home, in yoga pants reading this with tech neck on your iPhone screen even care about a clutch bag in the shape of a turtle or a striped polo shirt dotted with frills? Or ballet sneakers? Or a dress of unraveling pink ribbons? Because it’s an alternative to being like everybody else that doesn’t ask to much of you. The clothes are smooth criminals—all you have to do is slip into them and get sauntering.
“I love it and I’m comfortable in it—I have to get out of it now and I don’t want to get out of it,” said Shaw of her own look. “I’ve worn some of Simone’s clothes in the last two [movies] I’ve opened and I’ve really enjoyed them: I’ve felt very well dressed, very well covered, and entirely comfortable—yet you’re looking more astonishing than you’ve ever looked in your life.” If that’s not a reason to give up the Scarlet Letter A, I don’t know what is.
