Fashion brands are becoming publishers and storytellers of a wider narrative, in order to connect with consumers in a more meaningful way; build and maintain a loyal community of faithful customers, which extends beyond selling products.
In teams, plan, develop and produce a brand zine for a brand of your choice, exploring commercial and editorial concepts and offering original and creative solutions consistent with your chosen brand.
Simone Rocha is an Irish fashion designer, renowned for her refined and elegant attention to detail. Simone is the daughter of fashion designer John Rocha, she started working in his studio from the age of 13 and felt it was her destiny that she would follow in his footsteps in years to come. Simone trained at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin before moving over to the U.K to study womenswear at Central Saint Martins. Simone launched her graduate collection in 2010 at the Tate Modern and in London Fashion Week. Her first installation was in the window of Dover Street Market, with the retailer becoming the first stockist of Simone Rocha. Simone was named Young Designer of the Year in 2014, by Harper’s Bazaar, and Womenswear Designer of the Year in 2016, at the British Fashion Awards.
Dover Street Market visit… Simone Rocha installations.
Simone Rocha London Flagship Store, 93 Mount Street, W1K 2SY, London
Rough plan
Week 1
research and allocate individual tasks.
Week 2
Create mood board, aesthetic, lifestyle.
plan shoots.
allocate roles for zine ( Photographer, Editor, Stylist, Typography)
Week 3
Shoots and editing.
Week 4
Put zine together.
Mock-ups.
Heritage
Simone often draws from her Chinese heritage wether that be in patterns, silhouettes or decorations. With her mixed heritage that is often recognisable from season to season as she extracts from her Chinese and Irish roots. There is no one single inspiration behind the lavish garments she produces. She describes her references as “an interpretation of the 1800s and portrait paintings from the 15th century”. Delicate, intricate designs are at the helm of Rochas work, resulting in whimsical, playful, romantic pieces.
Simone Rocha Fall 2012 Ready-to-Wear
Simone’s debut first runway collection at London Fashion Week went down a treat. Having graduated from Central Saint Martins less than two years ago, Simone had already made a strong presence on the London fashion scene. Presenting two seasons with Fashion East, designing a six-piece capsule collection for Topshop and producing a cult shoe. Her first runway show featured minimal colours, peplum blouses, PVC dresses covered in wool and a street wear meets high fashion feel. Although you can see some brand codes, this collection seems rather simplified compared to the Simone today.
Simone Rocha Spring 2014 Ready-to-Wear
Simone’s SS14 show opened with “Island Song” by U.S. Girls whilst Sojourner Morrell opened the show. This collection felt like the end of the innocence. There was a new feel to Simone Rocha, one of darkness and authority. provocative creations featuring tulle barely covering the models figures, bouffant skirts and pearls. This is where we start to see the references from Simone today, this look in particular stood out to me and felt an early development reminiscent of what we see today.
4 MONCLER SIMONE ROCHA Fall Winter 2018.19 Collection
Simone’s first major collaboration was of course with Moncler. This was Simone‘s first collection for Moncler, and it did not disappoint. Inspired by the Victorian mountain climbers of the 19th century, it combined Moncler’s utilitarian practicality and fabric technology with Simone’s signature handwork and femininity. A fusion of creativity the looks created were styled to perfection, putting chic in ski wear! Both brands kept to their DNA creating instantly recognisable pieces that worked so well together.
Simone Rocha Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear
Simone’s most recent collection was extra special as it marked the return for some to physical shows. Staged at St Bartholomew the Great’s church in the City of London, the show focused on new beginning and the rituals surrounding bringing a baby into the world. The models dressed in white lace, tulle and borderline anglaise. The attention to detail was even more visible than usual, Simone felt that necessary as it would be for the first time in a while that people had been able to get up close to the garments. There were nursing bras, negligee and mohair baby cardigans. This collection encapsulated Simone at her finest.
What I have grasped from looking at different collections is how Simone has progressed into her own defined style. At the beginning the collections felt very simple, refined, low key. Whilst they still contained elements of Simone throughout the looks, in the past few years she has gone to significant measures to create powerful, feminine garments that have an edge to them, a sense of rebellion ( perhaps from her youth, she touches on this in Interviews).
AnOther Magazine
AnOther Magazine is an international fashion and culture bi-annual magazine. Founded by Jefferson Hack in 2001 under Dazed Media. The current Editor-in-Chief Susannah Frankel, joined in 2016 and had been the Fashion Features Director of the magazine since its launch and regularly contributes to Dazed & Confused since 1998. AnOther Magazine is known worldwide for its unique blend of high fashion and world-class photography, there is something for everyone as the magazine touches on anything between the arts and politics.
AnOther Magazine launching twice a year ensures every edition is unique, special and feels like a collectors item. The magazine started out and still to this day making sure they use emerging talents to create youthful, enticing visions from a range of designers, stylists and photographers. It has now become the most recognised bi-annual magazine in the world with stars such as Tilda Swinton gracing its covers.
Dazed Magazine
Dazed is a bi-monthly British magazine founded in 1991. It features fashion, film, music, art and literature. Dazed is published by Dazed Media, alongside AnOther, AnOther Man, Nowness and Dazed Studio. The magazine was founded by Jefferson Hack and Rankin in 1991, previously known as Dazed and Confused. Cover stars have included Lana Del Rey, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Bjork and Kate Moss. Isabella Burley is the current Editor-in-Chief, Robbie Spencer, Fashion Director and Jamie Reid is the Art Director.
Pop Magazine
Pop Magazine is a bi-annual fashion magazine founded in 2000. It was co-founded by Ashley Heath and Editor Katie Grand. The initial creative directors for the magazine were Lee Swillingham and Stuart Spalding. Pop is owned by Bauer and the current Editor-in-Chief is Dasha Zhukova. Pop is renowned for its colourful, inventive and exciting approach to fashion and photography.
Tuesday 18th January
From today we have decided what roles each of us will be playing in the creation of our magazine. Although we will be making a digital mock-up, we felt Simone would prefer physical copies and her followers would appreciate that more. The magazine will include 3 shoots, 2 articles and pages filled with doodles, pressed flowers and inspiration we had come by. Deciding to go with the theme of new beginnings, coming out of lockdown with a fresh start felt most appropriate (after all Simone’s most revent collection celebrated going back to physical shows and new life). My role in this magazine will predominantly be styling of the 3 shoots. The first: inspired by Victorian women, the hardships they faced and how we see references in Simone’s work today. The second: focuses on details we have drawn from Simone’s shows; looking at her love for flowers, pearls, close ups. The third: a styling shoot utilising Simone pieces, how we can re invent the Simone girl in a refreshing way. I am going to get started making decks of looks, sourcing locations, scouting models and putting together concepts and ideas.
Robbie Spencer
Robbie Spencer is a stylist and the former Creative Director of Dazed Magazine. He has worked with some of the fashion world’s most respected photographers, magazines and brands. Building his own unique, venerable style that is reflected within his work. Robbie is one of the most influential stylists in the past 10 years, styling covers for magazines such as Dazed, AnOther, AnOther Man and L’Uomo Vogue. Working with talents such as Iris Apfel, Grimes, Vivienne Westwood and Rihanna. He styles multiple brands for runway shows and editorials, of course one of these is Simone Rocha. Robbie and Simone have had a long standing relationship, he has helped her style her shows and campaigns over the years adding his own touch and creative flare to her pieces, resulting in the Simone aesthetic that has built up such a cult following.
Andrew Nuding
Andrew Nuding was born in Dublin, Ireland. Andrew graduated from the NCAD Fine Art Media, in 2015. He currently lives in London and has photographed many editorials for Simone Rocha. He has a clean, minimal approach to photography which works well alongside Simone’s vision. Exhibitions include: 'Making Strange' 2019 Grand Prix Eyes on Talent in Photography & Sustainability, opened on 6th November during Paris Photo (2019) / 'Making Strange' Hyeres International Festival of Fashion and Photography (2019) / 'Labs New Artist III' Red Hook Labs (2019) / ‘There’s Life in it Yet’ (2016), with Kieran Kilgallon / ‘The Fighting Irish’ (2016) at Drop Everything Festival on Inís Oirr Island, Galway / ‘Resonate’ (2015) at Gallery of Photography, Dublin / 'Apparitions' (2015) at NCAD, Dublin / ‘Thread’ (2012) at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin.
“ Simone Rocha takes over DSM with a pagan-inspired installation.”
When looking at Simone Rocha show rooms, what springs to mind first is her DSM installations. They were after all her first stockists and have really helped develop a further vision and feel to her brand for potential buyers. Her SS20 collection focused on her Irish roots, “Wren day” in particular, on the 26th December the tradition was to hunt wren birds. Wrenboys would go from door-to-door dressed up in straw suits, playing music and dancing in a circle. Simone translated the straw into her garments adding a completely different look and feel to the fragility of her lace and tulle creations. As well as the collection, Dover Street Market let her include an installation of straw Pagan-esque round houses, fitting in with the clothing perfectly and setting the scene.
10 years of Simone, Dover Street market.
To celebrate 10 years of Simone Rocha, Dover Street Market presented an immersive installation alongside a selection of special, exclusive items on display. The installation ran from Thursday 16th September 2021, before travelling to Dover Street Market in Los Angeles, Ginza and Singapore. From the first “Living Lane“ which is inspired by her childhood home in Ireland, to “Flowers and Cars”, which intwined her relationship between nature and man made. Janina Pedan created the Perspex and steel structure covered with stain glass vinyls from her AW21 show… a fusion of past collections with present, the perfect homage to Simone.
Simone inspired flowers
We were looking at the idea of new beginnings, flowers seemed like a great way to represent new life. Simone uses a lot of floral references within her work, wether that be in her embroidery work, jewellery or physical flowers. For the magazine we each did a flower watercolour to add in behind the articles…
My flower painting
Group Pinterest inspiration
Here you can see our group Pinterest board we created… showing the inspiration behind the shoots we came up with for the magazine.
Shoot 1 inspiration
For the first shoot, we thought it would be fitting to do an Victorian inspired shoot. Going back to the roots of some of Simone’s greatest inspirations looking at her Moncler collab that was based on women of that time. We decided to try out a black and white film shoot with some of my Victorian clothing pieces. The clothing pieces are my Granny’s that she has been passed down over the years, they are very special to me and I felt they would fit in perfectly. All the pieces are white, completely made from hand and of course show signs of age, which I feel adds further to the historical feel of each piece. I paid a visit to the Kingston Antique shop to grasp some Inspo for my initial mood board. It too was full of victorian era garments, jewellery and collectible items.
My moodboard shows a range of elements we wanted to capture within the shoot. Simone references, Victorian women, churches, architecture, flowers, candles the list goes on. Next I want to do some location scouting and see what I can find near Kingston that is most fitting.
St John’s Church, Kingston
When looking for Churches around Kingston, St John’s came to mind. It is really accessible from my halls and seemed to tick all the boxes… unfortunately it was in use on the day we wanted to do the shoot.
All Saints Church, Kingston
After viewing this church, I felt it was the perfect fit for the shoot we wanted to conduct. Luckily it was free and I managed to book it out. It is the main church in Kingston, it has beautiful stained glass windows and lots of greenery around ( perfect for if we wanted to take the shoot outside).
Gracie, the model.
Here are the decks for the initial 3 looks I had put together.
Within the shoot and concepts, we wanted to look at the Victorian woman and how we could relate her to today. Simone’s collaboration with Moncler served as a great source of inspiration… looking to which clothes could resonate and reflect with what we wanted to achieve. My granny has been passed down clothing from my Norwegian relatives in the Victorian era, everything back then was handmade ( the detailing is incredible), tiny and super delicate. She kindly let me use the clothes for the shoot, they were after all made at the time and perfect for what we wanted to create. I put together 3 initial looks, super simple, with no jewellery or accessories apart from the bonnets and gloves. I felt it vital Not to distract from the pieces themselves, we added some ribbons into Gracie’s hair which went well with the two little plaits at the front of her head.
Here are the film photos… the shoot went well, the church proved to be a perfect location the interior was stunning, creating a strong atmosphere and contrasting against the sweet innocence of the looks. The film camera, unfortunately, broke after 20 images, so we were unsure how they would turn out. I like how the imperfections turned out, making the images look aged, atmospheric and like they could be from the Victorian ages! Joseph then went through editing and deciding which ones we were going to include within the magazines and sent them to Martha.
Shoot 2
Shoot 2 is going to be my styling shoot, interpreting Simone’s brand DNA in my own way and seeing what I can come up with. I started by creating a mood board with all the aspects I felt were important to include. I was looking at locations, colours, accessories, makeup, hair and clothes. I knew it needed to be somewhere green with lots of flowers, Richmond Park seemed like a perfect location for the shoot. I then started gathering look inspiration for my models ( I wanted two) and sourcing pieces.
Richmond Park
Gracie couldn’t make it to the shoot… luckily Honor stepped in!
For Gracie’s main look I wanted to capture the darker side of Simone Rocha. As a brand most think of the tulle, hand beading and feminine looks, but there are also elements of more gothic clothing and angst. Creating a full black look felt the best way to make my ‘hardcore Simone look’. I found this black top that gathered around the bust featuring a sequin heart and lace insert, pairing that with black floral tights added a feminine but still dark feel. I found some shorts to go underneath the tights ( incase the top was not long enough) and paired it with some chunky black boots. For the hair, I noticed Simone uses a lot of bows and I thought a series of black bows would look amazing in Gracies hair. Pairing the bows with a dark purple vampy lips and earring options. The look felt dark, grunge and rebellious perfect for a strong Simone woman.
For Maisy’s look, she has amazing bright red hair which would add a punk-feel to the ’girly’ look. I found this white Simone puff sleeve dress, such a staple piece for Simone in silhouette and colour. Pairing it with knee high bow socks and Mary-Jane shoes, preppy some would say?! I wanted to jazz the look up, adding plenty of pearl necklaces, hair slides and a cute mini pearl bag. To top the look off a black smokey eye, which will look fab with her hair!
The main pieces I had ordered never showed up for the shoot, so I had to replan all the looks right before! Honor had some Simone pieces from her collaboration with H&M that she let me borrow and I searched online for anything I was able to get my hands on that could arrive the next day!
Here are the revised looks.
For the shoot I had envisioned the 2 sides of Simone coming together, creating a fusion of grunge and femininity combined with my own ideas and interpretations. Maisy has bright red hair, which I thought went well with the more girly looks ( in particular the powder pink dress). Honor had the perfect look for the grunge punk-rock Simone girl, pairing Demonia’s with tartan tights and a tulle top, channeling gothic energy that still felt relatable to the brand.
Simone shoot outcome
I am really pleased with how the Simone shoot turned out, the photos I feel have captured the brand in the way we had envisioned. It feels fresh, exciting and innovative… what we felt the brand stood for. We were unable to travel to Richmond Park on the day, instead we chose to shoot by the River in the Kingston Town Centre.
Credits
Stylist: me
Photography: Meelie
Assistant: Lizzie
Honor Look 1
Top- Rick Owens
Skirt- Miss Sixty
Tights- Stylists own
Boots- Demonia’s
Necklace- Vivienne Westwood
Earrings- Simone Rocha X H&M
Maisy Look 1
Top- Simone Rocha X H&M
Dress- Simone Rocha X H&M
Gloves- Asos
Pearl necklace- Asos
Hair clips- Mango
Honor look 2
Top- Simone Rocha X H&M
Skirt- charity shop
Shoes- Asos
Maisy look 2
Dress- Topshop
Shoes- Asos
Bracelets- Asos
Bag- SVNX
Simone Details Shoot
Look 1
Photography, Hair and Makeup- Meelie
Stylist- Me
Assistant - Lizzie
Look 2
This shoot focused around details, inspired by Simone and our own interpretations. Meelie came up with the concepts of using petals, tattoos and pearls to decorate Lottie’s face and body. I styled the first look with a pearl necklace and white Dover Street Market shirt ( they were of course her first stockists). The second look had more of a grunge feel to it, I paired the black vinyl gloves as I liked the strong contrast they produced compared to the delicate petals.
Petal scanning
Pearl scanning
Meelie and I had a go scanning flowers and pearls, to help us come up with strong imagery that we could use for the front cover.
Layout plan for the Zine..
Title page (textile piece)
Victorian shoot (4 pages)
Lizzie’s first article (2x flower paintings in the background)
Simone clothing shoot (6 pages)
Romance article (2x flower paintings in the background)
Polaroids (2 pages)
Black and white family image (poem layered on top)
Close ups shoot (4 pages)
Credits page (2 pages with flower pressing as background?)
Back page (dead flowers)
+ QR code (playlist of music to listen whilst you read)
Promotional event
Meelie and I are going to be designing a promotional event for our zine. We looked at everything we would want to consider and include:
Event Mood-board
Event Mind-map
Flower pressing companies
Leather work companies
Simone previous events
Location / Time of year / Number of people
Invitations / Dress code
Social media promotional page
Mock-up of inside
PR package
Design for leather stamps
Current jewellery and what we would be creating
The end result
My initial mood board covering everything we want to include and potential areas to research and explore.
The Simone Rocha Chinese New Year party took place in 2019, to celebrate her heritage. Collaborating with MatchesFashion, they produced a party in honour of her Chinese family traditions and to celebrate the arrival of her Spring Summer ‘19. Surrounded by Simone’s friends and family… the party was a great success!
Another successful party, Simone’s couture party for her Moncler collab. For the launch of the Moncler house’s latest diffusion collection they partnered with MyTheresa to throw a fashion Week dinner, full of it girls and gorgeous creations! Food installations by Laila Gohar and floral displays by Mary Lennox.
One of the earliest Simone parties I could find, back in 2016 to celebrate the launch of Simone’s up-coming capsule collection, Ruth Chapman, co-Chairman of MatchesFashion.com hosted an intimate dinner during Paris Fashion Week.
As the second activity we wanted people to be able to leather stamp their own bags. I designed a base of a black leather tote bag with red tartan handles and detailing. From this I thought you could pick between a Shamrock and a Bauhinia to press onto the front of the tote bag, paying homage to her Irish and Chinese roots.
Social Media promotional page
I had a look at what sort of social media Simone uses, her main 3 are Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I had a look on all 3 sites and they all shared a very similar aesthetic, a classic Simone look and feel throughout. Her instagram is what she uses the most, posting the latest shows, collections and various collections to her 545k+ followers. I designed the invitation keeping it short and sweet, with the location, time of the treasure hunt, using a photo from my styling shoot. I feel we have got to a strong place now within the planning of the event, we can now start putting both our areas of research together to create the final outcome.
Ferdinando Verderi
Ferdinando Verderi is the Creative Director of Vogue Italia, since May 2019 after the departure of Giovanni Bianco. He takes a modern and distincitve approach to fashion and communication, making him one of the most desired Creative Directors of his time. For his debut issue of Vogue Italia, he chose DNA as the running theme displaying his vision of identity, heritage and family origins in todays world. Models Gigi Hadid, Karen Elson and Imaan Hammam featured on the three different covers and were interviewed discussing their origins and took DNA tests. Verderi has led global creative and strategic direction with brands such as Google and Diet Coke. Partnering with high end brands such as Versace and Chanel. He has recieved awards at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, D&AD and Clio Awards.
Marc Ascoli
Marc Ascoli is an Art Director who is the current Creative Director for AnOther Magazine. Ascoli started working with Yohji Yamamoto in 1984, since then he has collaborated with brands such as Jil Sander, Cerruti, Chloé and Balenciaga.The Yohji Yamamoto A/W 87 catalogue featuring Naomi Campbell, which Ascoli collaborated with Nick Knight and Peter Saville, has become part of fashion history. Ascoli is married to Martine Sitbon and was her image director for her label ( Rue du Mail) before it closed in 2013.
Back page development, scanning dead flowers and playing around with the composition. Meelie has then offered to edit the colour etc to form the back page.
Now we are just working on putting together the zine, editing photos and creating a mock up of all the page….
I am helping input ideas and inspiration as to how each page should turn out at the end. We decided to create a digital magazine for submission and a physical magazine so each of us could have a copy as the final result. We felt a physical copy felt appropriate for the Simone reader, but it takes 3-4 weeks to print ( hence the digital submission.)
This project has turned out well in the end, my group worked cohesively together and we got started planning ideas and roles from the moment we were briefed. We all had our own areas we felt most confident within which made it easier to asign jobs. I have thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with everyone particularly the photographers on my styling shoots. It has worked out great to not have full creative control for once… I am happy and confident moving on to future collaborations and group projects I may undergo. The magazine came together cohesively and Martha did a fab job with the typography and layout. I am looking forward to getting a physical copy!
Link to the zine: https://marthaheron.wixsite.com/simonezine
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