Simone Rocha Fall 2026
Simone Rocha’s Fall 2026 show at Alexandra Palace felt like a coming-of-age story told through tulle, track jackets and memory. The setting, with its grand Victorian arches and sweeping views of London, was as cinematic as the clothes themselves. Rocha looked to youth as both subject and state of mind, pulling references from Irish mythology, Dublin’s Pony Kids, and her own teenage years. What emerged was a collection that balanced delicacy and defiance, innocence and instinct. Models moved through the space in layers of lace, satin and nylon, their knee-high socks pinned with ribbons, their sneakers catching the light like jewellery. It was Rocha’s world distilled into movement: emotional, practical, and strangely timeless.
At the centre of the collection was her long-awaited collaboration with Adidas Originals, which felt less like a branding exercise and more like a deeply personal conversation. The familiar three stripes became an ornamental motif, stitched into puff-sleeved dresses and reimagined across track jackets that gleamed with pearl zippers. Training shorts were cut from silk, and sneakers came laced with ribbons, a nod to the ballet influences that have long defined Rocha’s work. She has always been a designer who understands that beauty can be physical as much as visual, and this partnership made that idea literal. Sportswear met romance and found common ground.
Every detail of the collection carried meaning. The palette, grounded in moss, ruby and olive, referenced the paintings of Jack B. Yeats, while the silhouettes echoed stories of eternal youth from Irish folklore. But beneath the mythology and ornamentation was a sense of personal reflection. Rocha has spoken about wearing Adidas under her vintage tutus as a teenager, and this collection felt like a continuation of that impulse: to make the practical beautiful and the beautiful wearable. It was a study in transformation, proof that romance and reality can coexist on the same runway, and that a ribbon, when tied just right, can be as powerful as a logo.
