London Fashion Week highlights: Simone Rocha

Refined, elegant with just a little flounce, Simone Rocha’s outing for LFW was just plain wonderful. Neat cocktail dresses and soft tailoring were sweetened with dalliances of fabric in perfect ruffles. 

There was a sense of regalia to proceedings; gowns befitting a lady of Henry VIII's court, only far more expressive and independent than a typical young patriarchy-controlled Tudor princess. 

Flounces there may have been but Rocha’s autumn/winter collection wasn’t saccharine. It was polished, preened just-so and for the most part, totally wearable. The daughter of stalwart expressive fashion designer John Rocha, Simone kept things seamlessly chic in darkest black satin, grown-up snakeskin and tartan. 

Mature it may have been but this collection wasn’t without an element of fun. A sea-weed looking green leopard-print dress was crowned with a tiara and pastel-pink geometric meshing played with monarchical perspectives of propriety. 

Ecclesiastical embroidery and sheer dresses in nude and blood red retained a sense of youth and modernity in their boxy shapes and loose-cut. A princess she may be, but Simone Rocha's girl knows that daddy king is in charge so that she can party.

Simone Rocha AW14 (Daniel Sims, British Fashion Council)

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