Who is Simone Rocha? Everything to know about the Pitti Uomo 110 guest designer

Over its lifespan, Pitti Uomo has emerged as a platform used by up-and-coming and sometimes well-established designers to mark major milestones, spotlight a conceptual pivot, or usher in a new chapter altogether. For some, the esteemed guest designer slot serves as an opportunity to show in Italy for the first time; for others, it's an indication of a shift in scale or simply an opportunity to reach a more global audience.

Given the Florentine fair’s dedication to menswear and tailoring, however, many leverage the event as a way to double down on or even expand into the category. In 1990, Vivienne Westwood staged her first men’s runway show at Villa Gamberaia. She was followed by Valentino in 2012, Virgil Abloh at Off-White in 2017, and Marine Serre in 2024, each also debuting dedicated menswear shows.

Now, the torch has been passed to Simone Rocha, who is taking up the guest post at Pitti Uomo 110, taking place June 16 to 19, where, akin to her predecessors, she will be showing her first menswear-only line. In fact, the selection of the Irish-born, London-based designer comes at a pivotal moment for menswear as a whole. The category has undergone an evolution in recent years, transitioning from loud and hype-driven to a more curated and quietly expressive style. Some trendwatchers have described this period as the “post-streetwear” era, seeing menswear emerge at the intersection of relaxed tailoring and a reimagined prep.

The Rocha brand and a menswear translation

To spotlight Rocha at this time appears as a direct response to this mutation of the menswear market, urging it out of a relatively cautious period. Her namesake brand holds a distinct identity, rooted in challenging the often rigid preconceived notions of gender. In the words of Pitti Immagine’s special events coordinator, Francesca Tacconi, the brand’s character sits between Gothic novella and cult sportswear.

“Simone Rocha does not follow trends, she creates them and draws us into her world,” Tacconi stated when initially announcing Rocha as this year’s guest designer. “In a fully crossover logic, her looks emerge, always unmistakable, disobedient to the rules of pairings and registers, of eras and genders distinctions, of proportions and decor.”

For Rocha, showing at Pitti reaffirms a departure from a label that was once solely dedicated to womenswear. The designer only first ventured into the men’s category in 2021, as part of a H&M collaboration. She then officially incorporated a handful of pieces into her collection for SS23, presenting the looks during a show at London Fashion Week, where she is a reliable regular.

While undertaking this major shift, however, Rocha has been intentional about maintaining the distinctiveness and persona that has become so integral to her brand. The SS23 collection, and those that followed, was defined by a meshing between masculine and feminine. Military-like khakis collided with delicate floral embroidery, deconstructed corsetry moved beyond gender, and voluminous layering exaggerated forms and shapes, blending seamlessly into the existing womenswear and continuing the blurring of gender lines.

From student to critical acclaim

Pitti is just another step on an already well-decorated ladder for Rocha, yet much of her acclaim has been largely contained to the UK and Irish borders. Participating in the Florentine fair potentially points to a deepened global ambition for the designer, as she follows in the footsteps of now internationally renowned names, from Raf Simons to Grace Wales Bonner to Jonathan Anderson.

Rocha’s own trajectory has been similar to those before her. The designer attended The National College of Art and Design in Dublin, graduating with a BA in Fashion, before heading to Central Saint Martins, where she completed the university’s renowned MA Fashion in 2010. She then went on to debut at London Fashion Week, where she has remained a steady staple of the event.

Her work has since garnered notable accolades. At the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Awards, Rocha has been the recipient of Emerging Talent RTW 2013; British Womenswear Designer Award 2016; Independent British Brand 2021; and British Womenswear Designer Award 2024. In 2016, she received the Harper’s Bazaar Designer of the Year Award.

Commercially, Rocha has also found acclaim. The designer operates four seasonal standalone stores across London, New York and Taiwan, each housing a mix of fashion, art and furniture, as well as collaborative products. The brand is further stocked in shop-in-shops in Dover Street Market Worldwide, as well as department stores like Selfridges, Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom.

A pinnacle moment in Rocha’s career came early 2024, when she took on the temporary role of guest designer for Jean Paul Gaultier, a position only a handful of emerging talent have had the pleasure of filling. The opportunity saw Rocha decamp to Paris for a season to present at Haute Couture Week, where she fused the identifiable traits of both houses in a collection that had Gaultier himself grinning throughout the show.

The Rocha ethos

As a mother of two, Rocha’s brand and her perception of femininity, womanhood, and now masculinity has evolved, growing and changing alongside her personal life. Her ethos, however, remains entrenched in the modernisation of these facets and the intimate connection she has with portraying this concept authentically.

Speaking to Elle last year, Rocha said: “When you are designing clothes for women, as a woman you do feel a sensitivity to the garments themselves. There’s a deeper understanding of what those clothes could make you feel or help you portray, whether it’s security in it being like a uniform, or maybe it’s provocative and flirtatious.”

It was also last year that Rocha marked 15 years in business, a milestone celebrated in collections that dug into the brand’s signatures and then doubled down on them in a “push to the extreme”, she told British Vogue. This was then followed up by an autumn/winter 2026 collection grounded in Irish mythology, which incorporated storytelling and realism in looks reflective of bedtime tales. A collaboration with Adidas sat at the centre of the line, ballgowns, corsetry, and tailoring contrasted the iconic three-stripes, adapted to preserve her authentic handwriting, Rocha said to Vogue.

What to expect at Pitti

With Rocha’s last collection taking her on a slightly diverted path into subtle sportswear, which also sat alongside robust looks that felt starkly disparate from the softer, pastel-infused collections of the past, it is hard to predict where she will go for her Pitti show. At the time of the announcement, Rocha hailed the participation as a “new chapter in my work and world”, adding that she is approaching it with “authenticity and vulnerability, seriousness and playfulness”.

As mentioned, her selection further deviates from a menswear market that has been in some ways impaired by caution, meaning she could lean in to her more audacious view of the category, channeling her signature juxtaposition of delicacy and volume. All in all, Rocha is expected to remain true to her vision, “a reflection on intimacy that stems from personal roots and connections” to be exhibited in a “sensory journey to be worn beyond time”, Pitti’s Francesca Tacconi added.

The date and venue of Rocha’s show is yet to be officially announced, with details expected to be revealed closer to the time.