- By
- Rebekka Ayres
Photography by Jackie Nickerson.
SIMONE ROCHA’S NEW YORK STORE
The most remarkable thing about Simone Rocha’s design hand is her power to charge her pieces with a sense of time and place, even before she had a space to share her vision. Take her clothing to the most desolate surroundings, and they’ll still be pregnant with the influence of Japanese Kinbaku-bi binding or the ceremonial dress of the Irish church. Now she has a retail concept to fully realize these immersive worlds; her first flagship store near her base in London opened in 2015 on Mount Street, and now there’s another, opening its doors stateside on New York’s Wooster Street this weekend.
“The New York store feels a very personal project, like one of my limbs,” says the Dublin-born designer, who devised the store in partnership with her father, the designer John Rocha. Their close familial collaboration is reflected in the intimate, poignant nature of the space.
Working with the original character of the SoHo building, the architectural details have been honed in the image of Rocha’s own collections. Cornicing is hand-carved, etching the walls with buds and bulbous roses, “like the 3-D flower embellishment, but translated into plaster.” It’s not only the trompe-l’œil that makes you take a second look; contemporary textures are visible in Perspex fixtures and handmade sculptures, rendering the finish rich yet still delicate. Such subtlety is near impossible to conjure at will, but Rocha has it down to an art—and art is a passion that saturates the very air that she breathes. As with her London location, the New York store will stage a circulating showcase of singular pieces and established installations, paying tribute to the American inspirations who have informed her own outlook. The enduring influence of Louise Bourgeois runs throughout her practice, while Roni Horn and Jackie Nickerson have each contributed collaborative works, captured in the hardback book that commemorates the opening.
Simone Rocha opens Sunday at 71 Wooster Street, New York.
- By
- Rebekka Ayres
Photography by Jackie Nickerson.
