Rocha’s most recent menswear, for fall ’26, was presented within last month’s womenswear show in London. There she debuted a major new collaboration with Adidas, which, perhaps tellingly, was showcased exclusively on women. She also referenced the seminal 1999 book Pony Kids by the photographer Perry Ogden, who himself walked in Rocha’s fall ’23 runway show.
Rocha said: “Referencing the Pony Kids is related to the way I reference Louise Bourgeois. There are these inherent things that recur and represent femininity and masculinity, or naivete, or playfulness, or grotesqueness, or whatever they may be.”
Finding the right venue for her menswear debut has demanded a deep dive into the finest palazzos, villas, and parks in a city that has specialized in producing beauty since it birthed the Renaissance. “There’s an embarrassment of riches to choose from there,” said Rocha. “I want to put on a show that, even though it’s in Florence, feels like it’s a Simone show, in its own world. So I’ve picked a location that is a little more displaced, which I really like the idea of. “
Although her work inhabits its own often dream-touched world, Rocha hinted that, in her upcoming collection, that world might still be accented by its special context. “Florence is beautiful, and I’ve always loved A Room With a View, one of my all-time favorite Merchant Ivory films. So that has been fun to play with. How do you contextualize that and make it contemporary and bring it into this idea of a new men’s Simone uniform that I’ve been thinking a lot about?”
