Post by Derrick Fun

#simonerocha #men Spring 2027. It was pleasant to wake up in Florence,” observed E.M. Forster in 1908’s A Room With A View.This is a novel in which Forster shows the sensory stimulation of this city—its art, its heat, its beauty—as the catalyst that moves his characters to reject convention and follow their hearts. Almost 120 years on, Simone Rocha has been getting used to waking up in Florence while preparing for her very first all-menswear show here this evening. Speaking just before it, she said: “To be able to bring my vocabulary, distill it down, and refocus it in this way has been a very exciting process, and the whole experience here at Pitti has been fabulous. I’m very grateful to Pitti for having me as their guest designer.” While gestating the collection, Rocha returned to the 1985 Merchant Ivory movie adaptation of Forster’s book, reacquainting herself with an Oscar-winning suite of Edwardian costume design by Jenny Beavan and John Bright almost as exquisitely realized as Florence itself. “This is my Irish man and he’s arrived in Florence and become the main character,” she said of a designed ensemble that was inhabited by multiple character studies. It was shown in the performance space of the Teatro della Pergola, a 17th-century opera house, with all of the curtains raised to show the guts of the backstage. “It’s the bare bones of the space, and I think that this shows an interesting kind of clash between the ornate and the industrial,” she said. Ruffled rugby jerseys, long-hemmed shirting with stiff formal bibs and collars set in needle-striped linen, Gladstone bags, metal sleeve garters, shiny Oxford shoes (sometimes spiked) and super-wide Oxford bag pants and culottes were glances back towards the British Isles. Tailored jackets were presented with conventional-ish front facades (a strapped turn-up apart) but with gaping, ruffle-edged cut-outs at the back. Many of the models wore lilac-stained organza feather boas.