Simone Rocha’s First Stateside Boutique Opens Today

Irish fashion designer and British Fashion Council’s 2016 British womenswear designer of the year, Simone Rocha, is opening her first stateside store (and second store ever) today on Wooster Street in New York.

Simone Rocha, from Ranelagh, designed the space with John Rocha, her father and now retired fashion designer. It’s a high-ceilinged space, with windows of handmade red Perspex art, and cupboards made of plexiglass displaying her collection.

There is a register desk made of pink onyx, holding free photography books by collaborators and muses, below?artwork by Louise Bourgeois. ?We are very happy to have the beautiful original tapestry by Louise Bourgeois and her hanging sculpture, which have been huge influences for me,” Rocha told Vogue. “For it to come full circle and for my clothes to hang beside the work that’s inspired it, it just tells such a beautiful story. I really wanted to be able to share that with people when they walked through the door.?

A photo posted by @simonerochashop on Feb 9, 2017 at 3:00pm PST

Simone and her father designed her first store on Mount Street in London together, which was decorated with fine art and sculptures made by Simone. She told Vogue they’designed the Wooster Street store with movable displays and?furniture, in order to change and rework them as Simone and her collections evolve, but that mirror her designs.??For example, the circular cage almost looks like one of my fabrications, one of the embroidered ropes [from Spring 2016],? she explains. ?It’s really about translating the fabrications of the collections into structured pieces that could house the clothes.?

Simone Rocha 71 Wooster Street, New York Opening Friday 10th February
A photo posted by @simonerochashop on Feb 9, 2017 at 3:00pm PST

This is Simone Rocha’s first stateside store, though she has previously had installations at Dover Street Market in New York and is stocked in Nordstrom stores in the United States and in Ikram in Los Angeles. New York was an important location for her first American store, and Wooster Street in particular, she told Vogue, for it’s fashion history. ?I love the energy in Soho and also all the stores, and Wooster Street really stood out to me because historically the first Comme des Gar?ons store was on Wooster Street and I think one of the first Prada stores [in New York] was on Wooster Street, so it’s kind of an amazing milestone.?

Simone Rocha opens today at 71 Wooster Street in New York.