{"id":630605,"date":"2026-09-20T16:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T16:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630605\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T16:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T16:06:13","slug":"irish-designer-simone-rocha-bares-all-at-london-fashion-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630605\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish designer Simone Rocha bares all at London Fashion Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Britain\u2019s most famous criminal courts became an unlikely setting for exposed underwear and bare skin as Irish designer Simone Rocha brought her London Fashion Week show to the Old Bailey.<\/p>\n

The Dublin-born designer, known for her heavily layered dresses, frills and floral embellishments, took a noticeably less covered-up approach to her spring\/summer 2027 collection, sending models through the marble halls of London\u2019s Central Criminal Court in sheer dresses, open leather jackets and little more than underwear.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

It was a departure for Rocha, whose clothes often conceal the body beneath layers of tulle, tailoring and exaggerated skirts.<\/p>\n

Speaking backstage, she said she deliberately wanted this collection to feel more vulnerable.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes I can be very layered, and I can really put clothes on top of clothes; it\u2019s a very protective thing, and I wanted to be this slightly more vulnerable,” she said.<\/p>\n

One model wore a black leather jacket with a plunging neckline that extended almost to the waist, its lapels decorated with oversized leather roses.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Worn with matching trousers and nothing visible underneath, it was a relatively stripped-back look for a designer whose clothes are often associated with a more covered and saturated kind of femininity.<\/p>\n

A sheer black dress embroidered with floral motifs revealed red underwear beneath, while another model wore a cream jacket with an enormous white floral collar and a pair of red briefs decorated with fabric roses.<\/p>\n

The collection, titled \u2018I Was Trying To Love You\u2019, was presented beneath the imposing arches of the Old Bailey, where some of Britain\u2019s most serious criminal trials take place.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Guests lined either side of the building\u2019s marble tiles as models emerged through the courtroom\u2019s imposing archways, passing carvings and stone statues, in clothes that seemed deliberately at odds with their surroundings.<\/p>\n

But for Rocha, the unlikely setting was part of the point.<\/p>\n

\"Irish<\/p>\n

The designer, whose clothes have been worn by the likes of Rihanna and Keira Knightley, said she had been thinking about the discovery of Caravaggio\u2019s The Taking of Christ, a painting that had spent years in a Dublin drawing room without being recognised as the artist\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

“I just thought what\u2019s the most beautiful thing in the most unobvious place and I wanted to put that into each garment,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

That idea extended to the clothes themselves, which mixed familiar Rocha signatures with details that made them feel less prim.<\/p>\n

Her trademark roses appeared in exaggerated proportions, sometimes framing the face or covering much of the upper body, exemplified in a look that swallowed up the model with red and black fabric blooms, while another appeared in a cropped floral top and a voluminous black skirt covered in oversized sequins.<\/p>\n

There were also rounded skirts, fitted bodices and delicate floral embroidery, but this season Rocha seemed particularly interested in what happened when those traditionally feminine details were worn against bare skin.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The exposed underwear formed part of a wider attempt to make the clothes feel as though they belonged to the women wearing them, she said, rather than existing as perfectly arranged runway looks.<\/p>\n

Rocha explained that she wanted to expose undergarments and tailored trousers beneath dresses, and have cuffs rolled up as though someone had reached in and adjusted the clothes themselves.<\/p>\n

She wanted everything to feel “a bit more personal”, rather than every model appearing to have been dressed in exactly the same way.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rocha, who studied at Central Saint Martins under the late designer Louise Wilson, has built her label around a recognisable mixture of romantic fabrics, dark florals and unusual proportions.<\/p>\n

This season, many of those familiar details remained. What changed was the amount of the body visible between them.<\/p>\n

The designer said she had wanted to explore different aspects of femininity without making the collection feel too removed from everyday life.<\/p>\n

That thinking was clearest in the looks that appeared slightly unfinished \u2013 jackets left open, underwear visible and dresses that revealed the trousers beneath.<\/p>\n

In a building where people are accustomed to being exposed to public judgment, Rocha was exploring what it means for a woman to reveal a little more of herself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Britain\u2019s most famous criminal courts became an unlikely setting for exposed underwear and bare skin as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-630605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}