Leather leads the runway in Simone Rocha’s AW21 collection

4th March 2021

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Dublin designer’s twists on the biker jacket add femininity to the classic silhouette

Irish fashion designer Simone Rocha may have surpassed herself with her Autumn/Winter 21 collection.

She calls the main materials she uses, satin, leather and silk, the ‘Three Graces’. And her imaginative use of leather has really got us excited.

A real contrast to the lightness and femininity of her tulle and net embroideries are the super-chunky boots in punched black and white leather. The extra-high platforms add real presence to the wearer’s silhouette.

But perhaps the high point of the collection is the use of black leather for a reimagining of the biker jacket.

Just as the femininity of the rest of the collection is challenged by the bulky boots, the essential functionality of the biker jacket is interrupted by generous, puffed sleeves.

Another version of the biker jacket sees it extended and widened into a gorgeous, sweeping coat, leaving the classic zips and colours as a centrepiece to the whole garment. A shorter version of this finishes on the hips, serving almost to exaggerate the extra width.

Simone Rocha presented her collection in an audience-free catwalk show in late February and it has already created a huge buzz across the fashion industry.

Of her use of leather, she explains: “I was thinking of clothes in a protective and practical way, which brought me to the leather. Taking something very protective and seeing how I could manipulate it into something more feminine.”

She has certainly managed that!

Watch the video of her catwalk show here.