Simone Rochas Autumn/Winter 2015: (Light and) Dark Matter

From Anne Boleyn to Louise Borgeois, Simon Rocha's women are as varied as can be - but there's often a thread of anxiety that runs in common. Autumn/Winter 2015's inspiration is the aforementioned Borgeois: a French-American artist whose most famous works include larger spider sculptures - the spindly essence of which could definitely be seen in Simone's creeping lace embroidering in black on nude mesh. But back to Boleyn - there remained a slight Tudor edge with Simone's use of volume and pleating, especially on sleeves.

Borgeois often dealt with issues of betrayal and anxiety within her work, so it makes sense that many of the looks seen today were physically different from front to back. No one slice of pattern cutting or fabric necessarily looked married to the other - especially as Simone added amorphous padded shapes onto hips, shoulders and breasts, wound chunky ruffles around dresses asymmetrically and planted seemingly random sections of hair-weave from seams. Of course nothing about this was by accident, but something felt wilder and more energetic than Simone's already impressive previous collections.

Tapestry and tulle, tweed and lace, chenille upholstery and mesh - whether in all-black, brown, startling red, soft pink or fully nude Simone played the balance of hard and soft in silhouette, colour, texture and most likely in mood and personality - what normal woman doesn't? Feeling tough or in need of some cosseting, Rocha provides.

See the collection in the gallery below...