What were the curious faux fur rabbits and ceramic tortoises clutched by Simone Rocha’s models? Were they emotional support toys for anxious fashion lovers? Apparently not (although they could certainly work that way). It was Rocha’s musing on the fable of the hare and the tortoise where the slow-and-steady tortoise wins the race. Rocha identifies as a tortoise, cutting her own, singular swathe through fashion, each season building on her unique design language as opposed to jumping onto fleeting trends.

The approach has served her well and won Rocha many loyal fans. For AW25, they can look forward to tougher pieces to add to Rocha’s signature dolly dresses and ravishingly pretty pearl accessories. Balloon sleeve leather perfecto-dresses and coats cinched with heavy duty chains and padlocks (think of cyclists wearing their chains around their waists and you get the picture) brought a rugged practicality to the Rocha look (kinky too, if you like that sort of thing). One baby pink, puff sleeve tulle dress was worn under a buckled leather harness. Elsewhere Rocha played with fake fur, using it liberally for ribbon hemmed coats, cave-woman bandeaus, hot pants and stoles. Meanwhile, ribbon streamers, fluttering from silk slip dresses satisfied the Rocha-girl need for something pretty. For men, fur trimmed army coats and heavy duty leather shorts contrasted with sheer tulle vests and frill-trimmed rugby shirts. As for the casting, with Fiona Shaw, Alexa Chung and Bel Powley on the catwalk, Rocha showed she can play the national treasure game as well as the big boys. Rocha is running her own race, and winning.

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