The empire strikes back

When the schedule for February's autumn/winter shows in London was first published, the whispering started - for the first time in many years, designer John Rocha was not showing a womenswear collection. Designers have been known to take a season off, but there was also the closure of his London shop in February and the laying off of half of his 20 Dublin-based staff in the space of a year.

Then of course there was Rocha's past history: the Hong-Kong-born, Dublin-based designer had gone bust not once but twice before. The rumours about Rocha's business started to circulate with a vengeance.

"At the end of the day, I always said `I know what I'm doing and I know what I believe in'," says Rocha now. "If you're in the public eye, speculation is inevitable. But I'm happier now than I ever was before, and I think I'm doing the best work I've ever done."

Business is booming, too - all those closures, and the mysteriously missing season, were caused by a massive re-structuring of the John Rocha empire.

"I realised that my strength was in design and marketing and not in the manufacture and production end of things. I want to enjoy what I do. I've been designing for 22 years now and I'm finally free to do what I want. A good partner will allow you time for yourself." Rocha now has partners enough - and time enough - to expand into areas far removed from the fashion design that first made his name. Yet he is quick to point out that the news of the demise of his clothing lines was greatly exaggerated.

Instead, Rocha was busy signing licensing agreements with a number of manufacturing companies, who take care of the day-to-day production and distribution of his clothes. Menswear is now taken care of by a Portuguese company (Rocha's father was Portuguese), while womenswear is produced between Britain and Ireland. The Waterford Crystal that bears Rocha's design signature is going from strength to strength, particularly in the US market - Rocha estimates that it will bring in £9 million wholesale this year. This September, an extensive clothing and home range called Rocha which he created for the high street department chain Debenhams will also hit the shops in Britain and Ireland.

Then of course there are those other design projects. Following the success of his first design project, the Morrison Hotel, for Zeitgeist-y publican and developer Hugh O'Regan, Rocha has entered into a number of new design partnerships. A bar and an apartment block in a 1930s listed building in Liverpool with design company, Space; a bar in Manchester and another in Sweden and a jewellery range. Rocha is also working with O'Regan and architects Scott Tallon Walker on a project to revamp the old Ambassador cinema. Currently in the planning stages, it is envisaged that the cinema at the top of O'Connell Street would become a multi-media centre with space for art, music and theatre.

"Dublin is the capital city of Ireland and also an international capital city . . . I really hope that with the current schemes to revamp O'Connell Street, that whole area will become more of a focal point and the Ambassador is in a prime location. It's very exciting," says Rocha, with quiet satisfaction.

As he tells it, Rocha is now at the helm of a design studio consisting of nine people, including clothing designers and an architect, working out of a new premises in Hume Street. His criteria for taking on a new design project is simple - "I only take on work I like to do" - but Rocha is not naive when it comes to marketing and branding. Talking about the Debenhams deal, he points out that the range was a "licensing opportunity that will enhance the John Rocha profile and bring it into a wider marketplace. I did it first with Brown Thomas [Rocha designed a diffusion range, Chinatown, for A-Wear until 1993] so really I'm returning to my original market."

But isn't there a danger that making John Rocha designs available at much cheaper prices than his main ranges will somehow reduce the cachet attached to his name? "I still have the same image. I'm just making it possible for women to access it in different ways. Everyone in the marketplace is doing it now - Joseph, Katherine Hamnett, Betty Jackson. It would be foolish for me to say that I am only interested in servicing a certain level of the market."

Nevertheless, Rocha is clear on the difference between the Debenhams ranges and those he designs under his own name. He describes the latter as "directional" and points out; "It's all in the extra detail. If you buy a John Rocha jacket for spring/summer, the inside construction will be as important as the outside . . . For Debenhams, I know precisely what market I'm designing for but with my own collection, I have freedom of spirit."

Still, Rocha is a canny businessman, referring to his own name as "the brand" several times and retaining a high level of control over how his various ranges and licenses are marketed. "Put it this way, there's Waterford, and there's menswear and there's womenswear, and although they're all separate, I have to make sure that each new thing enhances the other parts of what we do. The price point is not the issue, it's how it's projected in the marketplace that's important."

For the photo shoot on this page, John took the role of creative director and suggested renowned photographer and old pal, Perry Ogden should be in charge of the five-day shoot, which took place in west Cork using local children and a male student plucked from the street in Dublin. "I still control the integrity of everything I do."

Life beyond the rumours seems to be pretty good for John Rocha, who is more keen to talk about his recent mayfly fishing trip than he is to talk about hemlines. Yet he does admit to some doubt about that missed season; "When we planned the re-structuring, I felt we could have done it but been rushed. With hindsight, we could have done it another way . . . It is a good thing that I'm not just doing fashion because it meant the brand was always out there. There is life beyond fashion but that is where I began my life and it is what I feel most passionate about. For me, it is important to find a balance."