Simone Rocha’s universe is one of controlled contrasts: hard and soft, Victorian and modern, romantic and rigorous. When she was announced as guest designer for Pitti Uomo 110 in Florence, the question was not whether she would deliver a compelling collection but how she would translate a vision so associated with femininity into the context of men’s wear. The answer, it turns out, was to not translate it at all.
For Rocha, the Pitti Uomo showing represents a strategic expansion. Her women’s business has grown steadily since her Central Saint Martins graduation, with a loyal following that extends from London to Tokyo. Menswear presents a new revenue stream and a new creative territory — one that she enters not by diluting her signature but by applying it to a different body. The Florence audience gave her permission to continue.
The market reception was immediate. Pitti Uomo’s buyer base, traditionally conservative in its menswear preferences, responded with unusual enthusiasm to the collection’s more challenging pieces. Several retailers told Women’s Wear Daily immediately after the show that they planned to stock the ruffled shirts and wide trousers — categories that would have been considered uncommercial for Pitti’s core customer even two seasons ago. The shift speaks to a broader evolution in how men’s wear retailers think about silhouette and ornament.
The designer’s intent, as stated in the show notes, was to explore the idea of protection through layers. She referenced the Irish tradition of the heavy linen shirt and the Japanese kimono’s wrapping silhouette as cultural precedents for clothing that shelters rather than constrains. The collection’s palette — cream, dove gray, black, and flashes of Rocha’s signature red — reinforced the mood of a protective cocoon, each garment a second skin.
