The Brides Wore Simone Rocha: An Ode to Rocha’s Many Frou-Frou and Fantastical Vogue Wedding Looks
By Lilah Ramzi
At her Tuscan wedding in 2022, Rachel Bakewell epitomized the Simon Rocha bride.Photo: Jacob Lillis
On Wednesday, Simone Rocha—the Irish designer with a deft (and almost inexplicable) ability to outfit grown women in girlish tulle and make them look cutting-edge cool—will debut her collection for Jean Paul Gaultier at Paris Couture Week.
ICYMI: In 2020, Jean Paul Gaultier (the designer) announced his departure from Couture Week—but the shows would go on! Later that spring, the storied French maison revealed that each collection would be helmed by a new designer—a steady rotation of couture collaborations would follow, beginning with Sacai’s Chitose Abe in July 2020. In addition to keeping things fresh and drumming up excitement with the announcement of each new designer (today’s fashion industry, after all, is fueled by hype), the setup allows designers of ready-to-wear the chance to craft couture. Among those designers previously chosen for the honor are Rabanne’s Julien Dossena, Haider Ackermann, Y/Project’s Glenn Martens, and Olivier Rousteing.
The assignment? It’s more or less carte blanche, but designers are invited to reinterpret the codes central to the house of Jean Paul Gaultier. A theme not to be ignored is the tradition of the couture bride finale. While the final exit of a bridal look is not a hard and fast rule, we have a feeling it’ll be one embraced by Rocha, who has made waves in the wedding industry ever since the launch of her bridal line in 2021. (And who could forget her bridal capsule for Ssense—a collection that answered the question of what Miss Havisham would have worn if she were cast in Mad Max.)
In honor of Rocha’s forthcoming debut—and our hopes for a Simone Rocha x Jean Paul Gaultier couture bride—here’s a look back at the many Simone Rocha brides as featured in Vogue Weddings.
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Photo: Samm Blake1/11Bride Quinn Jackson wore a pearled Simone Rocha dress to her rehearsal dinner set on the beach in the Hamptons in the summer of 2023. See the full wedding here.
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Photo: Samm Blake2/11Jackson paired her dress with coordinating platform sandals, also by Simone Rocha.
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Photo: Jacob Lillis3/11Rachel Bakewell wore a full Simone Rocha look (dress, headband, and handbag) to her wedding in the Tuscan countryside in 2022. See the full wedding here.
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Photo: Jacob Lillis4/11Bakewell’s look featured a puff-sleeved bodice and a tiered tulle midi skirt.
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Photo: Hannah Thomson5/11Thessaly La Force wore a Peter Pan-collared Simone Rocha dress to her Manhattan wedding in 2018. See the full wedding here.
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Photo: Hannah Thomson6/11La Force’s long-sleeved gown featured pieced-together panels of bias-cut satin.
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Photo: Christopher Currence7/11In 2023, bride Gia Kuan wore seven looks to her wedding—one of which was part of Simone Rocha’s bridal capsule for Ssense. See the full wedding here.
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Photo: Christopher Currence8/11Kuan’s voluminous tulle look featured a lace hem with bow motifs and a coordinating veil.
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Photo: Richard Young9/11In 2022, London-based PR Daisy Hoppen wore a custom Simone Rocha dress for her wedding: Rocha is not only a childhood friend of Hoppen, but also a client of hers. The lace dress was based on a slip dress Rocha had shown in a previous collection. See the full wedding here.
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Photo: Richard Young10/11Hoppen’s vintage shoes were be-pearled by Rocha’s team.
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Photo: Monica Leggio11/11For her after-party look at her 2022 wedding in Ischia, Jamie Hunter accessorized with Simone Rochas’ pearlescent egg-shaped bag.
See the full wedding here.
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
Lilah Ramzi
Lilah Ramzi is a senior shopping and features editor at Vogue. Prior to this, she worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the New York University where she studied visual culture with a focus on costume studies.