What’s in a wedding?
These days, marriage is a tradition so challenged, so stretched, analysed and reconsidered, that for many couples they want their nuptials to be as unique as themselves.
For brides, throwing off the yoke of bad meringue dresses in stifling shapes has never been more important. Turning to designers who understand silhouettes for many body shapes, sometimes in hues that help subvert bridal expectation, many modern, stylish brides are now taking charge.
In this series, 'The New Bridal', ELLE UK speaks to designers and couturiers bringing bridalwear into our unprecedented, unconventional era, and the brides who choose to wear them.
While Simone Rocha’s designs almost innately lend themselves to the world of bridal dressing, full bridal couture is not yet something the designer offers. 'If I only had the manpower!' the London-based designer laughs.
Nonetheless, many have looked to Rocha’s oeuvre for the perfect piece to wear on the day they wed. 'I couldn’t ever imagine myself in a conventional wedding dress,' stylist and Simone Rocha bride Rachel Bakewell explains. 'I always wanted the chance to wear one of Simone’s more dramatic fairy-tale pieces.'
'We’re always open to discussing what’s possible,' Rocha says of bridalwear requests. 'Anyone can make a request; we have an amazing team that really looks out for everybody.'
Every body is a key factor in requests for dresses by Simone. For those who don’t fit a sample size or for whom traditional bridal gear is the ultimate ick, Rocha’s designs are often the holy grail. 'My work is essentially inspired by femininity,' Rocha says. 'That doesn't have a size, it's a visceral feeling.'
'When draping, when fitting clothes, I love to work with volume, I love to work with proportion of scale on the body,' she continues. 'I've never designed on paper, I design very much on the body - on a model, on a stand. I want to see it on people.' Indeed, people want to see the designs on themselves, too.
Some (those exquisitely lucky friends of the designer) have worked closely with Rocha to create a dress that is as much about themselves as it is the rich references Rocha’s work imbues. 'Laila, for example,' Rocha says, remembering chef and artist Gohar’s 2017 wedding in Andalusia, 'saw a white cotton poplin dress that she loved, so I made it for her in a silk organza. She rode in on a donkey, wearing this - it was one of the best bridal moments.'
It is this play with fabrication that Rocha turns to when bringing her designs bespoke and bridal. 'A lot of the fabrics I like to work with - corded lace, tulle, organza, taffeta - lend themselves historically to that type of dressing. What's really nice is then you're given twistyness, or playing on those things, and seeing what unfolds.'
Gohar’s wedding 'was the first time someone interpreted Simone Rocha as bridal,' she muses. As both a bride-to-be and a lover of ceremonial dressing - traditional or with said 'twistyness' - Rocha’s designs have always looked like perfect wedding-wear to me. However, having grown up in 'Catholicism-heavy Ireland', Rocha says her dresses are rather inspired by 'baptism and communion; confirmation dress, rather than wedding'. It’s interesting therefore, that so many turn to her designs for outfits that buck tradition. For, a Simone Rocha wedding dress, while high femme, always brings a subversive edge to matrimony.
Those who want to wear Simone Rocha: 'want something formal or something that feels less classic, but then at same time, feels very personal,' Rocha says. So how should mere mortals go about even beginning to consider Simone Rocha for our special day? 'We work special dresses into each collection,' Rocha explains. 'So that there are pieces already that people can wear.' It’s true: the ready-to-wear line is often plucked straight off the runway to wear down the aisle.
Gia Kuan, for example, the downtown New York PR known for repping Telfar and Luar, donned a head-to-toe Simone Rocha look that was exclusive to the retailer SSENSE. Her white drop-waist dress and tiered tulle hat and veil had delicate bow-embroidered trimming and was as unique as her own brand of nuptials, held earlier this year.
'The Simone Rocha dress was the perfect balance of old world romance – but also modern in the sense for its versatility in wear, given its sheerness,' Kuan said. 'I layered the dress with a vintage Comme des Garçons white ruffle tee which paired perfectly. The extravagant veil was the cherry on top.'
Otherwise, Rocha advises, 'what works really well is people come into the store on Mount Street, or in New York, and look at the collection there. We have a very close connection with the studio and the store, so then we can start off a dialogue if someone wants something special, how it can be done.'
'I never wanted to have a label that was only for one specific type of person,' Rocha concludes. 'I think we're all so multifaceted. It was really important to make clothes that I connected to, that felt personal to me, that people could feel a personal connection to as well. And I don't think you can do that in just one shape.'
It is this connection to the personal and the universal that is the true romance in Rocha’s clothes and is, I suppose, what makes Simone Rocha such a uniquely desirable design partner for any bride-to-be.
Visit Simone Rocha's store at 93 Mount Street, London W1K 2SY.