Puberty comes with a lot of very awkward experiences. Your first period (traumatising). Your first bra (absolutely horrifying to wear). And the moment your mom showed you how to put it on after school while you’re sitting in your childhood room. When she shows you how to shave your legs — something you didn’t know you had to do until then. But the hair is growing thicker, darker. Your hips get wider and somehow you hate everything; you’re scared of classmates laughing at you, while trying to be proud of becoming a woman. Sounds unsettling? Well, these are the teenage years for the majority of girls all around the world – and what Simone Rocha’s Spring / Summer 2026 collection was all about.
But you don’t necessarily have to be born a girl to understand these emotions; in the end, we want to disturb our non-girly readers without losing them. So, for everyone who didn’t experience those exact weird moments, it’s about the unshakable feeling of being on display although you would rather hide. A changing identity, with one foot in childhood and the other stepping into confidence and self-awareness. This unnerving and bittersweet period of time between youth and young adulthood – a continuation of the London-based designer’s multiseason narrative thread after the Fall/Winter 2025 collection – told the story of early school days and the children’s tale, The Tortoise and the Hare.
This time, for this continuation, Simone Rocha named two main inspirations in a very cryptic press note: Maureen Freely’s 1992 essay My Dress Rehearsal: or How Mrs Clarke taught me how to sew, and Justine Kurland’s Girl Pictures, a series of staged photographs of teenage girls who had run away from home and formed a community just outside the city, in fields, meadows, and forests. Sleeping together, wandering around, hiding, making fire. A romantic, free-spirited imagination of girlhood that you can find in the collection’s pieces as well as the venue, Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of London, built in 1739. A place that resembles a prom ballroom and seems like a space in which the designs awkwardly look like they should be here, but don’t really belong.
Accessories and elements that embraced that illusion were silver tiaras worn by the models, asymmetrical statement necklaces. Wide crinolines, panniers, hooped trapezes, and bustles that seemed wonky, clumsy, and reminded one of a girl’s first attempt to dress up, as well as the princess costumes at children’s birthday parties. There was organza layered on top of them, with pressed flowers or real lilies. Brocade, silk taffeta, jacquard. Tiered cotton poplin. Quilted eiderdown with its softly ditsy floral patterns. Sateen georgette, but also knitted underwear, merino wool, and to break the soft, flowy fabrics: vinyl overcoats, (period-)red shorts, and black leather found in bags disguised as pillows that the models anxiously clutched against their chests — a bit like Bianca Censori strolling around Florence two years ago.
One highlight, for example, was the opening look: a sheer blush skirt layered on top of these unsteady hoops, with something that looks like a casual cord as waistband and bow, and a silver sequin bralette whose thin straps carelessly slipped off the shoulders. Combined with rose-coloured ballet flats with a small heel and glitter buckles, while other models were wearing shoes from the designer’s ongoing collaboration with Crocs.
But it wasn’t only the looks that spun the narrative further: the models were styled with messy hair, disjointed makeup, tired eyes; with shrugged shoulders, crossed arms, and a seemingly insecure attitude. Only as the runway show continued did the designs reveal a much more mature confidence: a chartreuse gown with padded hips, or a crème satin dress with a graphic tulip print and wide shoulders. Symbols of the changing body a girl has to go through in those mentioned years of puberty and awkwardness.
In the end, the longer you look at Simone Rocha’s collection, the prouder you get. Because the fashion industry is (as we all know) a world dominated by men. Especially this season, in which a total of fifteen new creative directors are debuting at luxury brands – with Louise Trotter for Bottega Veneta being the only woman among them – it feels good to have a powerful statement of female endurance. You get proud that Simone Rocha has been a constant successful at London Fashion Week since 2010. You get proud of her using her stage to embrace girlhood and to speak about a topic that is incredibly common, yet made you feel like you were alone with it back then.
A reminder of times in which we all were more naïve, troubled yet wild-hearted and impulsive. A reminder of the moment when we got our first bra, and that in the end it wasn’t that traumatising. No, it made us stronger. Simone Rocha’s collection made us happy. Now, we can only wait for next season to see how she interprets adulthood.
