With Christmas behind us and looking forward to 2010, but with the worries of Climate Change uppermost in our minds, (along with how on earth to get the pine needles out of the carpet, and wondering what the balance will be on our credit cards), we thought we would cheer ourselves up by taking a look at the success story of John Rocha. (Along with his bright and colourful collection for Spring/Summer 2010, of course).
John Rocha was born in Hong Kong, on 23rd August 1953 and is of Chinese and Portugese descent. He came to England in the 1970′s to study fashion. He studied at the Croydon School of Art, where he developed his own style for hand-crafting exquisite applique to his fabrics which sparked a visit to Dublin in the 1980′s where he has remained and lives with his wife Odette and his children.
He started out with his own label ‘Chinatown’, and moved on to design for both men and women for Irish stores ‘A Wear’ and ‘Brown Thomas’, and has since expanded his design portfolio into everything from Crystal (with a soon-to-be-relaunched ‘Waterford Crystal’ in 2010), to homewear and accessories for Debenhams. He opened a lifestyle boutique in Dover Street in 2006, and his design business Three Moon Design has an annual turnover of around Euro’s 200 million.
John Rocha is a ‘fabrics’ man. His beautifully skilled embellishment to garments with different textures is his Signature style, and was never more apparent than at his Spring/Summer 2010 Show at London Fashion Week.
Exquisite pieces were adorned with petals, and came in luscious colours including pale pink, green and bright orange. White sharply tailored trouser suits with lace panelling were cut with precision to look chic, yet edgy. Skirts in earthy colours, contrasting perfectly with feminine hats resembling flowers. Models took dainty steps in ultra high wooden wedges, only adding to the ‘picture perfect’ theme of a rural Irish scene, but with the delicacy and grace of the Orient.
It is no wonder that John Rocha was awarded a CBE in 2002 for his contributions to the fashion industry, and then in 2008, he was awarded the ‘Special Award’ at the Ernst and Young Irish Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
Another equally important measure of his success is the fact that he researches the background to production on the fabrics which he uses, and their environmental impact. He has wholeheartedly backed The Environmental Justice Foundation’s ‘Pick Your Cotton Carefully’ Campaign, which has been founded to help the plight of poor farmers and their children in Uzbekistan. (It is said that the children have in the past, been forced to work for up to 13 hours per day picking cotton.)
The high volume of pesticides which have been used on the cotton are deemed to be of serious global concern (as well as the obvious danger to the agricultural workers themselves, whose deaths are reported to be in the thousands due to pesticide poisoning.)
However, the production of Organic Cotton is now underway in many countries and is a major step towards cotton production, without the environmental hazards of pesticides.
John Rocha, (along with other designers including Giles Deacon, Allegra Hicks, Zandra Rhodes, Luella, Katherine Hamnett, Christian Lacroix and Betty Jackson) have all designed tee-shirts made from organically grown cotton to support EJF, and all proceeds go to the charity.
Don’t Forget – we will be covering as many fashion shows as possible this year, from across the Globe. (In Countries both rich and poor). We will endeavor to ‘give you the lowdown’, on each show, wherever possible providing links and information on the designers.
For more information on EJF, go to www.ejfoundation.org
(As published in Aspect County Magazine – January 2010)