All images courtesy of Simone Rocha |
Welcome to a new era of Show Notes, in which a rotating cast of contributors from across the global GQ network will deliver breaking menswear intel, intrepid trend reporting, and amusing asides direct to your inbox all Fashion Month long. First up: senior style editor Yang-Yi Goh taps in from a scintillating Simone Rocha show in Florence.
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For her first-ever standalone menswear show on Thursday evening, the Irish designer Simone Rocha commandeered Florence’s soaringly ornate Teatro Della Pergola, one of Italy’s oldest opera houses. The models stepped out onto the stage, circled its raw, unadorned contours, and then descended into the audience, strutting up the aisle between tidy rows of red velvet seats.
“The minute I walked into the theater, I felt transported to a whole new universe,” Rocha said the morning before her spring 2027 presentation, explaining that she’d designed the 38 looks with specific characters in mind: painters, tradespeople, dancers. “I wanted them to perform and to put them on the stage.”
The irony is that Rocha’s parade of romantic leading men—delicately clad in ruched windbreakers and eyelet-embroidered bloomers, with the occasional tulle boa slung over the shoulder—often felt a great deal less performative and costume-y than some of the guys peacocking in over-accessorized pastel suits outside Pitti Immagine Uomo, the preeminent menswear trade show that brought Rocha here as a guest designer.
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“It feels tender, but also feels grounded,” Rocha said of the collection, which flowed from billowy tailoring to bookish knits to playfully suggestive aprons. While the 39-year-old launched her men’s line in 2023, this opportunity to focus wholly on it seems to have unlocked a new level of craft and depth. “What’s been really interesting is thinking about the codes and the details,” she said, “and forcing myself to slow down and look at what I can do, what I want to propose as a masculine wardrobe, and then carve out space for myself in this place.”
The resulting line is Rocha’s most fully realized—and Simone Rocha-iest—men’s offering yet: preppy and punkish, pretty and provocative, flirty and full of feeling. It’s all stuff tailor-made for the cohort of mousy, sensitive internet boyfriends currently running the table in Hollywood; don’t be surprised to see Josh O’Connor or Hudson Williams pop up in one of the lacy blouses or kilt-like pleated shorts at Cannes next spring.
Here’s a closer look at a handful of the cheeky style moves worth emulating and the beguiling grails worth coveting.
The Tee-and-Tailoring Combo Goes Turbo
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Remember those crocheted camp shirts that became the menswear catnip du jour a few summers back? Turns out they were just laying the groundwork for the full-tilt lace tops and silky bowed tunics we saw onstage last night. While Rocha did send a few models down the runway in such unapologetically feminine shirts with arms exposed, à la Alexander Skarsgård in his slinky Dior going-out top, I was far more taken with them peeking out from beneath the drapey tailoring. Consider it an advanced alternative to the ol’ T-shirt-under-a-blazer standby—or a very welcome upgrade on the recent rash of celebrities choosing to go shirtless with their suits on the red carpet.
Great Outdoors Meets Great Romance
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There was no shortage of elegant outerwear on display last night—lush nappa leather trenches and regal English wool evening coats. But the most thrilling layers of all were cut from a far humbler material: technical nylon. Just when you thought gorpcore was on life support, Rocha’s ruffled anoraks and embellished coaches jackets have given the form a much-needed injection of whimsy and drama.
Another Tie-Tuck Challenger Enters the Arena
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Perhaps the most straightforward nod to Rocha’s Irish upbringing arrived in these two looks that anchored the center of the show: a couple of folksy Fair Isle knit vests worn over soft-collared shirts and floral neckties, respectively paired with drapey pleated shorts and dress trousers, that looked just right for crossing the quad at Dublin’s Trinity College from one poetry workshop to the next. The real genius of the styling was in the askew placement of the ties—there’s been plenty of neckwear tucked into waistbands and shirt plackets of late, but this is the first I’ve seen the maneuver applied to a cardigan.
Ballet Flats Have Officially Arrived
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The ballet flat trend has been gaining momentum among fashion insiders and famous guys for years now, but it feels like we’re quickly approaching the critical mass necessary for the movement to cross into gen pop. (Regular dudes are gonna need a black loafer replacement sooner or later, right?) On Rocha’s runway, dainty Mary Janes lent a graceful air to everything from tuxedos to rugby shirts. “I love that it feels very grounded, very flat to the floor, with an earthiness to it,” Rocha told me of the silhouette. “But then the fact that it has this delicate strap, it’s that mix of being very grounded but refined.”
Click here to see all the looks from the show.
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