What do lacy lingerie and military uniforms have in common? A sense of utilitarianism, one could argue. Though they may seem worlds apart, aesthetically speaking, both genres of clothes uphold and support, albeit with different kinds of straps, garters and buckles. The unexpected common ground between the architecture of frou-frou underwear and the clothes worn on action-packed assault courses are what provided the impetus for Simone Rocha’s SS23 collection. “This idea of strength and power, but broken down through femininity,” as the Irish designer explained a few days ahead of her show in her light-dappled studio on the Regent’s Canal, where her fittings take place in front of a tall Venetian mirror.
We’re here surrounded by rails of contrasting confections. There are, of course, some of the delightfully saccharine bubble-shaped dresses with chintz damasks and embroideries, the kind of which Simone has carved out a solidly independent $17 million business. But there are also more ominous specimens of sombre black satin ruffles, military-khaki bombers with plenty of utilitarian straps, harness and buckles, humble cotton drill fabrics, and paratrooper-sized rucksacks that suggest a journey other than down the Rabbit Hole.
It’s a tale of two moods, which yesterday came to life in the marbled halls of the Old Bailey, London’s historic courts of justice. A fitting venue, considering this collection marks Simone’s formal introduction of menswear to her canon — and the scales of justice apply to her approach to menswear, and her eagerness for it to hold its own alongside her womenswear. “I wanted to kind of bring a fragility and a sensitivity to the masculinity — and then, as a contrast, I really wanted to bring kind of structure, power and functionality to the femininity,” she explains. The menswear, she points out, is a result of demand. More men and non-binary people have been buying her womenswear, and after her blockbuster co-ed collaboration with H&M, an entirely new clientele of men discovered the Simone Rocha universe, and are eager to get a piece of it (thanks to Dover Street Market, they’ll be able to via a special pre-ordering service). Besides, it’s 2022. It was about time.
So, what does Simone, a designer associated with the most whimsical femininity, have to say about the current state of masculinity? First and foremost, there’s a sense of protection and healing, and a lot of harnesses — “to harness emotion,” she reflects. “My last show was very much about escapism, and this feels very much like a response to today, like a uniform broken down with natural elements, almost medicinal or healing,” she says, her hand hovering towards the yarn embroideries of homeopathic echinacea plants on shirting.
Though she says there is a delineation between the two, her menswear is crafted with the same fairytale hallmarks of her womenswear — ballooned taffeta sleeves on a tuxedo jacket, subtle pearl embellishments on collars, embroidered tulle t-shirts to be worn over white shirts — but as with her womenswear, there’s a subversive darkness more akin to the Grimm Brothers than, say, Disney happily-ever-afters. Perhaps it’s the austere economic mood and the sense of emerging from an extreme winter, or maybe it was a sense of prophetic premonition on Simone’s part — but there is a funeral-esque undercurrent to the sombre blacks and tiered veils, which she says are borrowed from the Aran tradition of wearing petticoats as mourning veils.
Then again, Simone has always been drawn to the shadows, just as much as she has been to the lightness of baroque pearls and ivory lace — hence the cascading droplets of blood-red crystals that often punctuate her otherwise matrimonial dresses. Demonstrating the way that the many harnesses and garters can transform the silhouette of a dress or a blouse, it’s clear that Simone set herself the challenge of expanding the parameters of her technical construction. “Working on the menswear, it felt like going back to the beginning,” Simone says of her earlier shows, which were heavy on Savile Row-inspired tailoring and mannish brogues.
Working with all kinds of straps and zips requires a kind of military precision, especially because they’re displayed as decorative details. In this collection, they seem to suggest emotional and physical restraint; holding back the romanticism in favour of reality. “I go between the two,” she adds. “Some seasons, I find that I really like to be absorbed by something dissected, and then sometimes I can’t help but want to put out the clothes that feel relevant to this time and place.” Giant rucksacks, sometimes worn under even more voluminous dresses and veils, hint at the emotional baggage we’ve all acquired over the last two years.
The collection, as a whole, takes its cues from contrasts. An antique floral chintz – rendered in a variety of bled-out damasks, tulle embroideries, printed satins – offered a counterpoint to the graphic sequinned daisies, khaki satins, humble cotton drills, and metal buckles and zips adorning the straps on everything from shirts to the myriad bombers throughout the collection. Underwear of the antique variety – knitted rompers, frilly garters, and tulle petticoats – are displaced to the surface. The silhouettes are dropped, almost like bulbs, to suggest the weight falling to the bottom. And though it may not seem so at first glance, a sense of lightness and exposure cuts through those dramatically voluminous silhouettes. Underneath cloud-like layers lie simple tank-like shifts in transparent scrims of chiffon, which could be worn as barely-there slips – vulnerable translucencies of skin that suggest exposure, balanced by more protective volumes. And therein lies the genius of Simone Rocha: she is a designer able to find complexity and beauty in her examination of troubled times. In her hands, armour never looked as pretty as when tied with a giant bow to make it seem like a gift.
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Credits
Photography Eimear Lynch