The pre-eminence of London as a fashion centre was confirmed this weekend with the news that John Rocha will open his first shop in the city next November. Less than two years ago, the designer had planned an outlet in Dublin but this failed to materialise and his clothes are currently stocked by a number of independent Irish retailers.
Instead, he has turned his attention to London, where a 2,400 square feet premises on Sloane Avenue in South Kensington will offer customers the full range of his women's and menswear together with the household lines he has created for Waterford Crystal and a selection of interior accessories.
Rocha's Sloane Avenue store will be designed by Irish architect Derek Tynan, who was also responsible for the John Rocha studio in Temple Bar, Dublin.
Aside from a brief period in which it was replaced by Paris, London has always been associated with John Rocha, since this is the city in which he chooses to present his new collections.
The latest, for spring/summer 1999, was shown on Saturday evening and displayed a taste for almost whimsical femininity. The skirt has returned back to the forefront, stopping either at the knee or mid-calf and, in Rocha's case, usually falling in folds from a gathered waistband. When leather was used, a straight pencil skirt appeared and other styles employed cobweb-fine crochet and paper taffeta.
Surface detail is another current trend acknowledged by Rocha and for next season, it takes the form of stitching and unfinished strips of chiffon applied seemingly at random to garments as diverse as a stone-coloured leather jacket and a double-layered silk georgette ruffle-hemmed dress. A Prince of Wales check trouser suit received the same treatment and, along with a number of other pieces, had hems left unfinished in several places.
Reminiscent at times of Yohji Yamamoto and Commes des Garcons, this treatment was given a specific Rocha character thanks to dashes of his favourite colour, a vivid imperial red, in the stitching thread or fabric patches and to the use of linen on some occasions.