There's more than one way to make a bra, and Simone Rocha included unusual thorn-like protuberances in her understated but rather unique couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier.
“I love it, it's not as aggressive as mine. He is more feminine in a way because he is more rounded,” Gaultier enthused after the show, raising a glass of champagne to toast the latest guest designer at the Puig-owned house that bears his name.
The legendary couturier stated that Rocha's effort exceeded his expectations and, in the spirit of the Eurovision contest, which he is obsessed with, awarded the designer the maximum votes.
“I would say Ireland, England, China and France, 12 points,” he declared with a laugh. (The daughter of Hong Kong-born designer John Rocha, Simone Rocha is Irish, lives in London and has been moonlighting in Paris ahead of Wednesday's show.)
“It's been an incredible experience and wonderful to be here,” Rocha said after the show.
He referenced three of Gaultier's main codes (tattoos, corsets and sailors) and fused them with the melancholic, homespun femininity that is central to his distinctive brand.
“Her love of the breast and the hip and the female form—exploring that and harnessing it,” the designer said, explaining all the skirts and dresses full of panniers and crinoline bustles.
Breton stripes were represented by navy ribbons tied in bows and loosely pinned to illusion tulle, which also appeared on unconventional padded briefs.
Meanwhile, he treated the corset “as security and a kind of second skin on the body.” In fact, her corset dresses often verged on formal, loosely laced and softened further with fluff of tulle. The corset laces also reappeared on the pink satin sailor hats and on the long gloves in blood red, one of Rocha's fetish colors for her own brand.
There was none of the crazy, camp energy that defined Gaultier's shows for decades. Kirsten Owen, one of the moodiest models of the '90s, walked for Rocha and exemplified her introspective, pagan vibe.
Owen's sullen, dark-haired contemporary, the model known as Steinberg, meditated in her black taffeta mermaid dress, around which orbited 2,000 tiny blood-red feather pompoms.
No wonder Rocha was stunned by the capabilities of Gaultier's haute couture atelier. “Incredible, so artisanal,” he said. “They are capable of making dreams come true.”
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