“I really wanted a collision,” says Simone Rocha.
She's seated next to Jean Paul Gaultier at his Rue Saint-Martin offices in Paris in something of a reunion for the two designers, who haven’t discussed Rocha’s upcoming Haute Couture collection for the house since she was on-boarded as guest about half a year ago.
A week after our interview, Rocha presented her vision for the French house's half-century-spanning archive to the world — and to Gaultier — no doubt tinctured in her signature coquette-core style.
Gaultier inaugurated his guest designer program following his retirement in January 2020 though he continues to design costume for the stage, like Berlin’s Friedrichstadt-Palast, as his Fashion Freak Show continues to tour the world.
He offered his ateliers and ‘enfant terrible’ legacy to Chitose Abe of Sacai, Olivier Rousteing of Balmain, Glenn Martens of Y/Project and Diesel, Haider Ackermann, and Julien Dossena of Paco Rabanne.
As the sixth in an illustrious line of guests, Rocha’s darkly romantic oeuvre, though distinct from Gaultier’s, has points of intersection with the French designer’s hand.
Both explore facets of exaggerated, subversive femininity: Gaultier perhaps most notably in his corsetry and cone bras, Rocha in her romantic puff sleeves, pearls and homespun silhouettes.
Both take equal inspiration from their heritages (Rocha is often inspired by folk tales and myth from her dual Irish and Chinese heritage and Gaultier draws from French pop culture) and subcultures to craft their wearable fantasies.
In extending an invitation to a designer, Gaultier is insistently spotlighting each proteges, ensuring they have “total freedom” while interpreting his design DNA. In Rocha’s case, he handed over the keys with little more than a friendly suggestion regarding his design codes: “Don’t respect [them]!”
Highsnobiety: What was it about Simone Rocha that inspired you to invite her to guest design your Haute Couture collection?
Jean Paul Gaultier: On one hand, I knew the work of her father, [Rocha’s father is CBE-awarded Chinese-Irish designer John Rocha, whose first show debuted at London Fashion Week in 1985, where he showed until 2014] he was recognizable because of his long, black hair. It was a tradition of family with her spirit that is more contemporary. Even though she has a classic style, she can surf on the waves of fashion.
HS: Simone, how did you feel when you received the invitation to work with Jean Paul Gaultier?
Simone Rocha: It felt like a gift. I was surprised but humbled and excited. It has felt very generous from the atelier, to the team, to access to the archives, to Mr. Gaultier himself. A really generous experience.
JPG: I love that. And I think she’s great [for the job]. I really appreciate your work and the world of your father. [Simone] has a big heritage of fashion so I thought for sure she would be able to do it - and she is!
HS: Do you see similarities between your work?
JPG I think there are a lot of twists. For example, with a perfecto, a biker jacket, I work in a particular way. Something I never did, that she does, is adding little pleats. She modernizes, let’s say, with twists, bringing together different cultures - biker and romantic. It’s this kind of thing that I love, what we have in common, but each of us do it in our own way. She does it in her own way.
SR: I felt the same. It was this twist, this kind of contradiction and comparison. What that would look like, what that would create is what I find stimulating. Also, obviously, things that were overtly feminine, but then harnessing that, thinking of the process and the technique. I was trying to find the red line between the two.
HS: And with access to archives as cavernous as these, what was your starting point?
SR: Personally, for me, there were a few intentions. I wanted it to feel provocative, playful, sensual, historic, scientific. I wanted a collision. So, looking at the wealth and body of Mr. Gaultier’s work, but then also being really very personal and extracting ideas and playing into pieces from the archive that I just felt a genuine draw to - in comparison to my own work where you’re loaded down with everything else.
HS: What scared you?
SR: I felt that the idea of all the technique could be intimidating but it was about harnessing that. Whether it’s hand painting, pleating… I wanted the embroidery to almost become hardware, like armour. And how the armour would also connect to this idea of the lingerie and the corsetry and how they’re harnessing and protecting the body, but also exposing and celebrating the body…
JPG: A good plan!
HS: So you touched base at the beginning of the process but didn’t work together?
JPG: To be honest, I haven’t seen anything. We didn’t speak about anything. I wanted to give her [Rocha] the most freedom. I’ll tell you why: I was thinking, for example, if someone asked me to [guest design] for Yves Saint Laurent or Pierre Cardin, it could be traumatizing. “Oh gosh, maybe I won’t do it how he’d like to see it,” so I think it’s better to leave total freedom.
She is my choice because she is able to bring something different and it has to be a mix, it has to be her vision. In some ways, [the concept] is quite pretentious, as though I’ve done enough for someone to play on my codes. It’s already pretentious, so enough pretension! It’s for her to do, it’s no longer my job. I’m not a teacher, she is her own.
HS: Simone, this is your first Haute Couture collection. Was there a transmission of knowledge from the Maison?
SR: Yes and the ateliers are incredible. Really very generous in their expertise, in their discipline, and in their touch with the garments. But also, their openness, to look at techniques or ideas and how to achieve them has been really nice because I wanted to be sensitive to the historical way of doing things but also, we’re talking about the twist, what does that create? Whether it’s manipulating the fabric in a different way, or using antique fabric treated in a new way - I really wanted to play on that as well.
HS: And then marrying your vision with that of someone else’s, was there a discussion?
JPG: Not at all! It was like, “You do it!”
SR: This is probably the most you’ve heard me talk about the collection. Because I know that this is Mr. Gaultier’s intention to really give this gift, which is only shared on the day of the show. And I love that we also share in the experience of the show. The thing about Haute Couture is that it's slightly performative - and that’s when we’ll see it together.
HS: What was it about her aesthetics, her design hand, that drew you to her?
JPG: What I like about her is [her mixed cultural heritage], and her sense of twist, in changing the classic. I’ve always loved that and in many ways, I was influenced by the streets of London, [for their contrast to] France’s conservatism and she’s got all that. It’s not a vision of Couture and Gaultier, but [of Simone] being herself, I don’t ask her to become something else. It could be a sweet morphing, but it has to be both identities. I think she has enough style, ideas, and capacity not to be frightened of, ‘Oh, I have to respect this and that’. Don’t respect!
SR: It didn’t feel intimidating in that way, more exciting. And like Mr. Gaultier said, I’m Irish Chinese, but I studied in London, my studio is in London and that spirit is something that is very natural to me. This mix, like you said, I’m a mix, and I’m very proud of that, and bringing that to the table and to somewhere else is exciting, but then intimidating for me.
HS: What was your relationship to Mr. Gaultier’s work before this collaboration?
SR: Very much a fan. And very much drawn to the provocative spirit. Very much like, iconic! And just to be able to be a part of that, to be able to be a part of that today, in my generation, it was incredible.
HS: Why is it so important for you to give this freedom to a new generation of designers?
JPG: When we create, we need freedom. With all the people we work with, [Simone], for example, she knows how it is, she knows the limits, where she can go and where to stop. So, I want to be surprised, in reality. That is the only thing. It’s like I’ve made a present for myself, to have the surprise of seeing her vision. I love that. To be honest, when I was doing my collections, I went a few times to see other designers’ collections - Rei Kawakubo, Vivienne Westwood - one or two times, but not so much. I think maybe sometimes I was frightened of being influenced. But sometimes it can be like a present.
SR: One hundred percent. And there’s so few surprises in life and work, today. Everything has to be so regimented, or formulaic or transparent, so it’s really nice to be able to do something that is a surprise. And to me it felt so normal, I could see straight away what it could be, a version of. But everyone’s like “I don’t know what it’ll be!” And I love that. There’s so few surprises and that made it even more exciting, to not [necessarily] give people what they want, but to give them what they don’t know.
HS: Speaking of surprises, the further you delved into the archives, did you have any unexpected encounters?
SR: One anecdote, when I was doing this process. A mutual friend, Lily Cole, said, “When I used to model with [Gaultier], he would give all the models a rose, himself, pre-show.” And I was like, “That’s so nice!” I’ve done a little nod to that in the collection - but I don’t want to take away from the surprise!
