Always romantic, never saccharine: that’s Simone Rocha for you. For SS15 she chose Saint Andrews Church in London as the setting for her dark Baroque fairytale, starring models with bedraggled hair and ghostly wisps of tulle or chiffon, and set to the sound of a live organ accompaniment.

The poetic shownotes set the scene for the clothes: “Fidelity and fragility, nude mesh tipped with fluff,” read one line, referring to the sheer dresses and ethereal macs trimmed with boudoir-ready marabou. “Mad flowers, red flowers,” read another, nodding to the series of bold scarlet designs that came somewhere in the middle of an otherwise black-and-neutral show. Those blooms covered transparent veils and crawled across dresses and coats, and then reappeared later in funereal black and silvery brocade.  

Silhouettes had a touch of the medieval, with asymmetrical hemlines and dresses that hung nonchalantly from a shoulder, or else curved up in a delicate pattern around the neckline. Rocha’s mastery of textiles has always been central to her appeal, and for this collection she kept her touch light and sensitive; the embroidered details on barely-there fabric, for instance, or the delicate scalloped edges of a white brocade jacket. Even the shoes and sandals burst into quiet flurries of feathers and fluff.  

The takeaway from Simone Rocha SS15? Wet hair and plenty of flowers.