The character arc of Simone Rocha
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 11 September 1986 in Dublin, the daughter of the fashion designer John Rocha. Between then and now sit a first fashion show attended as an infant, five years working in her father's studio from the age of thirteen, a school she struggled in because of dyslexia, an art class where she has said she was the only version of herself that felt good, training in Dublin and then a master's at Central Saint Martins, a graduate collection shown at Tate Modern and London Fashion Week in 2010, a first shop of her own in August 2015, and awards from 2013. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Simone Rocha?
Only art class felt good, and it became the whole job.
Her father is a fashion designer, and she attended her first fashion show as an infant. She has said it felt inevitable that she would follow him and that fashion was a hundred per cent a part of her life, which is a difficult starting position: everything she does is measured against a name that already exists. She worked in her father's studio between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, which is five years of a real apprenticeship before most people have finished school.
School itself was hard. She struggled because of dyslexia, and said in 2021 that the only place she felt really good was in art class. She trained at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and then took a master's at Central Saint Martins in London under Louise Wilson, who ran the fashion department there and who taught most of the designers of that generation. She showed her graduate collection at Tate Modern and at London Fashion Week in 2010.
From there she built it herself. A pop-up inside a London department store, stock in a Paris boutique, and in August 2015 her first standalone shop, on Mount Street. She has shown a collection every autumn and spring since 2012, and opened shops in New York, London and Taiwan. She has collaborated with an Italian luxury house in 2018, with a high street chain in 2021, designed a Met Gala look in 2023, and in January 2024 was invited as a guest designer to present a haute couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier. Her work modernises Elizabethan and Victorian shapes with pearls, lace, patchwork and handwork, alongside pink neoprene, and draws on both her Irish and her Chinese heritage. She was named young designer of the year in 2014 and British womenswear designer of the year in 2016.
The moments
Simone Rocha's timeline.
The 1980s
Born in Dublin
Everyday. Her first fashion show, as a baby, in a pram.
The 1990s
Five years in the studio
Milestone, and it changed everything. Thirteen years old, and already working in a real studio.
The 2000s
School was the hard part
Setback, and it changed everything. One classroom out of the whole timetable, and that was the one.
Art college in Dublin
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The art class, made into a degree.
Central Saint Martins
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The hardest fashion course there is, under the teacher everybody remembers.
Use the family name
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: show under her own name, taken, or work in his house. She showed her graduate collection at Tate Modern and London Fashion Week, and was named womenswear designer of the year in 2016.
The 2010s
A graduate show at Tate
Milestone, and it changed everything. A student collection, in a national gallery and on the London schedule.
A pop-up, and a Paris boutique
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Two of the hardest shops in the world to get into, and she was in both.
Two collections a year
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Every autumn and every spring, without missing one.
Young designer of the year
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Three awards in two years, and she was still in her twenties.
A shop of her own
Milestone, and it changed everything. Her own name over her own door, at twenty eight.
Womenswear designer of the year
Milestone, and it changed everything. The biggest award British fashion gives, at thirty.
The 2020s
Couture for Gaultier
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Invited to put her hands on somebody else's couture house.
Dublin is the accent and London is the studio, and both the Irish and the Chinese sides of her show up in the clothes. What it has set moving is worth saying to any child who is failing at everything but one subject: the one subject was the answer, and the school reports were not.
Your turn
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Hers was a hard school and one good hour a week in art, and it became the career. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Simone Rocha: frequently asked questions
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Sources
- Simone Rocha, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- British Fashion Awards records, 2013, 2014 and 2016.
- London Fashion Week show records from 2010.