Simone Rocha Fall Winter 2025-2026 “A Dark Fairytale of Tortoises, Hares, and Haunting Nostalgia“. Story by RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Simone Rocha.

Simone Rocha has taken a turn into darker waters. For Fall/Winter 2025-2026, the designer—long associated with ethereal femininity, lace, and romantic flourishes—has plunged into black. Not just a few mourning touches here and there, but an overwhelming wave of ink-dark ensembles, broken only by eerie, stuffed rabbits as fake-fur stoles, and fragmented, tattered textures. This season, Rocha drew inspiration from The Tortoise and the Hare, taking the childhood fable to unsettlingly literal heights: fake fur hares draped over shoulders like century-old stoles, and resin tortoise clutches tucked into models’ hands.

A single childhood memory sits at the heart of it all. Rocha recalls a conversation with her school principal, who framed life as a race between two creatures: the reckless hare and the methodical tortoise. Rocha chose the latter, and 15 years into her brand’s existence, her slow and steady climb to fashion prominence proves the wisdom of that decision. But here, instead of a simple moral lesson, Rocha spins a story of ghosts, archetypes, and an unsettling beauty that lingers in the subconscious like a half-remembered dream.

A Turn to the Past

The collection’s silhouettes reach back to the early 20th century, drawing from an era when coats were dramatic, details were decadent, and layering suggested both excess and protection. The leather jackets and steampunk-esque outerwear whisper of Victorian rebellion, while slashed faux fur coats recall something between distressed luxury and controlled destruction.

Bel Powley and Alexa Chung appeared in perfecto-style jackets, playing out the “cool girl” aesthetic with a hint of menace. Meanwhile, Fiona Shaw—who walked in the show’s penultimate look—embodied a school principle, wrapped in a duchesse satin egg dress cinched at the shoulder and knee with bicycle lock chains. The detail, Rocha noted, was a nod to the school bicycle sheds—an infamous location for teenage rebellion, stolen kisses, and whispered secrets.

But it’s the hares that haunt the collection. Rocha’s faux fur stoles, mimicking vintage pelts, weren’t merely accessories; they were symbols of a bygone era, a strange relic from the early 1900s revived as a metaphor. Meanwhile, jackets and skirts in tinsel-threaded bouclé tweed were slashed and shredded, hinting at both decay and reinvention. There was something slightly unsettling about the way Rocha approached nostalgia this season—it wasn’t dreamy or soft, but fragmented, almost spectral.

The Tortoise Moves Forward

Rocha’s ongoing dialogue with restraint, layering, and delicate destruction reached a new crescendo with pieces bound together by ribbons, lingerie detailing, and cascading ruffles. One standout look featured strips of pink silk jacquard, loosely tethered with pink ribbon, draping over faux fur bloomers. Rocha’s signature play with historical silhouettes—whether through corsetry, structured tailoring, or exaggerated proportions—wasn’t absent, but it was infused with a new kind of tension.

Menswear was equally evocative, featuring ruffled rugby tops, bead-embellished suiting, and a standout belted fishtail parka, offset by a resin tortoise clutch. Rocha’s approach to masculinity, much like her approach to femininity, remains rooted in duality—fragile but strong, romantic but sharp-edged.

A Haunting Beauty

The show’s finale wasn’t just about closing a collection—it was about cementing an atmosphere. Shaw, embodying Rocha’s vision, described it like “I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

Perhaps that’s what Rocha intended. A vision of heaven, but not the soft, white-clouded kind. Instead, hers is a blackened dreamscape—where old tales whisper, hares drape over shoulders like ghosts of the past, and the tortoise, slow and steady, always moves forward.

See All Looks Simone Rocha Fall Winter 2025-2026