Yahoo Lifestyle Simone Rocha goes back to school for AW25 – with a star-studded catwalk
Each season, we break down everything you need to know about the new collections in The Fashion Week Cheat Sheet. After speaking to the designers about their inspiration, their hero pieces, the faces on the catwalk and the names on the front row, we present your complete guide to autumn/winter 2025.
"The mood is very mixed, you know," Simone Rocha says of where fashion is at right now. Speaking on Zoom ahead of her autumn/winter 2025 show – which she presented in Central London on Sunday evening – the designer was feeling reflective not just of where the industry is at this point in time, but of what she's put out previously, and the stories she wants to tell to the world.
"At the moment, there is a lot of change and fashion is very much a reflection of the times. So there's always a lot of confrontation going on – and I feel like with this collection particularly, it made me really want to focus on who we are, what we do, the stories we want to tell, and to put out collections that resonate really strongly with us on an emotional level, and then hope that they do the same for others."
Theme and inspiration
"This season, I was kind of fixated on this idea of distilling the past for the present. I came into these four words – past, present, presence and pretend. I wanted to reflect on collections and narratives and handwriting and fabrications that I have historically looked at in the past but interpret them for right now. A piece of text that really summed it up was the 'The Tortoise And The Hare'. It was this idea of creating your own path and having the time to do it."
Rocha says that she had already been thinking about the kind of stories that she wanted to tell and reflecting on those that she'd told in the past before this text, which she'd studied at school, came into her mind.
"And then, side note, I was actually given as a gift an original copy of Aesop's Fables from 1912 when I was thinking about the story. I always remembered it since it was told to me by my headmistress when I was a young girl, and so I really wanted to bring that characterisation into the story as well."
The designer tapped into the tale with some direct and witty references to tortoises and hares (some which were draped around models' necks and others clutched close), while other references were to Rocha's time at school – we saw riffs off school uniforms, rugby shirts and nods to teenage stereotypes, from goths to nerds.
Hero pieces
"I've been playing a lot with kind of characters this season, but there's a few pieces that are almost a distressed tweed or the distressed school uniform that has been sliced and diced. Those pieces translate and travel through the collection, and then they are laced back together with these ribbon pieces. The ribboning which starts off as structured at the beginning, by the end of the show, become their own pieces. I think those are two stories I've tried to tell through the collection, which feel quite strong."
The setting
Rocha has a habit of choosing the most spectacular buildings in London for her shows, always with the most beautiful ceilings. This season was no different. The designer hosted her show at Goldsmith Hall near St Pauls.
"The idea is that I wanted the cast – the girls and boys – to be walking through the rooms so it almost feels a little bit like they are walking through a school corridor. The rooms are almost in a salon style – but I want them to walk with purpose. I am very into this idea of feeling very purposeful and necessary. I wanted to contrast the regalia of the building with quite a cold digital light, almost like a spotlight on the garments to take away from the idea of nostalgia, and instead feel very, very present."
Who was there?
Rocha put some serious star power onto the catwalk this season in the form of Alexa Chung, Bel Powley, Fiona Shaw and Andrea Riseborough, who strutted their stuff on the runway. Meanwhile, supportive partners Douglas Booth and Tom Sturridge looked on from the front row, joining the likes of Thomasin McKenzie and Pixie Geldof.
Catch up on more from this weekend at London Fashion Week in our autumn/winter 2025 round up here.
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