“The narrative was taking the ideas of the technique of haute couture, and very much looking at Mr. Gaultier’s spirit—and bringing that to the table through the guise of myself,” said Simone Rocha. “So it was the harnessing, the femininity, the sexuality, the sensuality, being very provocative. There’s a playful provocativeness about Gaultier I really wanted to bring in. And being very, very individualistic.”
Simone Rocha’s turn at Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture—her chance to run riot with the creative freedom and skilled ateliers of the house—turned out to be a delicious meeting of minds. For anyone who hadn’t seen her work—she’s been showing her eponymous collection in London since she left Central Saint Martins MA 14 years ago—it was a moment to get acquainted with the powers of her female gaze, her Irishness, her subversive personal codes and underlying obsessions.
You could read them—see into the Rocha-isms—all over the place, from the up-turned ruby satin tips of the breast-pieces she devised (“like rose thorns!” she laughed) to her transparent pannier dresses and all the Gaultier-saluting old-school pink cross-laced satin corsetry. She delighted in paying tribute to Gaultier classics, turning his Breton stripes into a t-shirt made entirely of ribbons and bows, and reapplying the seeing-eye and serpent iconography of his famed tattoo collection.
Rocha started delving into the JPG archive straight after she got his invitation last summer. There, she was astonished to discover he’d used traditional Irish crochet. Soon, she was making a molded, silver-dipped dress from it, and later fashioning a magnificent ecru doily lace one with stiffened breast-pieces.
Rocha does a top-to-toe look with aplomb and a lot of wit. Her lucite heels sprouted pearls and feathers, there were earrings in the shapes of dangling garter belts, ribbons, and cow-parsley blooms. Expressing and celebrating female physicality in all its fecundity and uncontrollability has long obsessed her. Her padded underpants—stuffed to create bustle-like protuberances—were eye-turningly unconventional.
But she also let herself loose on the idea of the grand haute couture ballgown—huge, frankly romantic-ballerina shapes made from dozens layers of tulle. It was a gorgeous, characterful performance that won her rapturous applause—and a giant hug from Monsieur Gaultier himself.
