Simone Rocha has always built entire worlds. Since launching her label in 2010, the Irish designer has filled her unique universe with pearls and perspex, Catholic symbols and folkloric heroines, debutantes, dolls, and clothes that feel both sacred and slightly dangerous. But for Rocha, creating this vivid world has never meant closing it off from the outside.
Working with others has repeatedly let her crack open the oyster of Simone Rocha and let the pearls shine. An early partnership with J. Brand saw her bring ruffles and bold colors to denim, while learning about fabric washes and dyeing along the way. In 2024, she stepped into Jean Paul Gaultier’s archive as the house’s guest couturier, telling Vogue it was a chance “to see what your spirit does in response.” Then this June came another step forward: her first standalone menswear show, held as Pitti Uomo’s guest designer in Florence, where she called it “a new chapter in my work and world.”
The best collaborations, she tells Vogue from her east London studio, create something that “either party couldn’t produce like the other.”
“I love to surprise people and have them think, ‘Oh, I wasn’t expecting that, but of course I totally see that.’ That’s when something can feel magical,” Rocha says.
That brings us to Adidas, and the start of a long-term partnership between Adidas Originals and Simone Rocha. The first collaboration was revealed at the designer’s fall 2026 show inside the grand, sprawling Alexandra Palace during London Fashion Week in February. The collection wove together dreamy ideas: the ancient Gaelic story of eternal youth and romance from the myth of Tír na nÓg, mixed with Perry Ogden’s 1999 photo series Pony Kids, which captured youths from Dublin’s housing estates riding horses in a blend of equestrian gear and worn-in sports kits. This came through in classic sporty Adidas shapes, reworked through Rocha’s soft, feminine eye: track pants with lace layers and ruffled fronts, football socks dotted with diamanté and pearls, and bags draped in broderie anglaise.
Faced with the much bigger universe of the Three Stripes, Rocha found herself asking a very specific question: “Adidas is just a big universe. So I’m kind of like: ‘What is our planet?'” Here, exclusively on Vogue, the full picture comes into view: photographed by Justine Kurland in one dreamy scene. The full collection launches globally on September 10.
As it turns out, Rocha had been dressing for that world since her teenage years. Generations of Irish schoolgirls know it well, too. “I used to wear Adidas under my school skirt,” the designer recalls. Later, at college, that mix grew into something much closer to the visual style she would eventually build her fashion house around: vintage petticoats and old tutus worn over Adidas Three Stripes football shorts. “I had a red Firebird with black stripes that I loved,” she says. “I always liked how it grounded the femininity that came very naturally to how I dressed.”
That’s the core tension behind Adidas Originals x Simone Rocha: a partnership that sent the fashion world into a frenzy last February, but one that, for Rocha, has been right in front of her for decades. There’s a cultural familiarity to it, too. Growing up in the Republic of Ireland, Rocha saw sportswear tied to a certain kind of youthful rebellion along the River Liffey. “It very much represents youth culture—boys and girls and the scene,” she says. “At home, you don’t want to be too dressed up. For me, it’s a big part of the culture, to almost feel like you’re kind of on the ground.”
The urge to tone down preciousness without losing femininity is already central to Rocha’s work. With Adidas, it’s pushed further. “For me, it was really bringing it into a feminine space, but from the point of view that feminine didn’t mean soft or fragile,” she explains. “It was about bringingThis idea of strength—something grounded and versatile—brought into a more feminine space. Or, as she puts it elsewhere in our conversation: “It’s kind of like a hardcore femininity.”
“For me, it was really about bringing that into a feminine space, but from the point of view that feminine didn’t mean soft or fragile. It was about bringing this idea of strength, something very grounded and versatile.”
Simone Rocha
The collaboration has been years in the making, with serious talks starting around two years ago. Rocha spent time working with the adidas team in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and digging through their vast archive of prototypes and memorabilia. There, she became especially fascinated by the functional origins of items that have long since crossed over into fashion. “Everything has a point, everything has a reason,” she says. “Nearly everything comes from an athlete at some point in their career and a functionality they needed in a trainer or a sports bag. Then it evolves into lifestyle. They take their heritage very seriously, which I really admire.”
For this first chapter, she went straight to the Adidas classics: the Firebird, Superstar, Taekwondo, and Japan. The challenge was keeping both identities clear. “The first collection needed to feel very, very signature to myself and Adidas,” she says. “How do I bring that into SR?” The answer came through proportion: swelling a sleeve, shifting a jacket’s cut, and using familiar Adidas fabrics in a palette that’s unmistakably Rocha.
The resulting collection turns the Firebird into a cropped, voluminous track top; balloons the sleeves of the Superstar; and transforms the Beckenbauer by adding a tulle underlay beneath its familiar sporty shell. Elsewhere, frills touch pant hems, skirt hips, and dresses; fitted leotards act as second skins; and an Airline bag comes in broderie anglaise. A lace trim that looks traditional at first reveals tiny Trefoils woven into its embroidery, and ribbon wraps around the iconic Adidas motif to create a new collaborative badge. Rocha even reconsidered the humble zipper pull, developing a detachable teardrop pearl—which is basically like her own logo—that can be removed when the clothes go into the washing machine. “I’m not a big logo brand,” she says, “and this is new for Adidas too.”
If there’s one piece that best captures the exercise, Rocha picks the Beckenbauer track top with its built-in tulle tutu. “It just really represents their world and my world coming together,” she says. “That piece feels very iconic.”
Then there are the shoes. Three silhouettes—the SR Taekwondo Ballerina, SR Climacool, and SR Japan Fuzzy Slip On—take Adidas footwear somewhere considerably more coquettish. Ribbon laces and pearl-like embellishments cover the Taekwondo, while the technical Climacool becomes a Mary Jane, and the Japan is cut with a pony hair-effect upper and sculptural pearl-like Three Stripes. “I’m obsessed with the Japan slip-on,” Rocha says.
Footwear also provided one of the collaboration’s steepest learning curves. Making a trainer forced Rocha to consider a different kind of relationship between object and wearer, expanding her ideas on performance wear. Across the collection, the same questions kept coming up. How does it feel on the body? What can somebody do in it? Is a garment “a second skin,” or “an extra layer of protection?”
Photographed by Acielle/Style Du Monde
Photographed by Acielle/Style Du Monde
“You have to ask: what’s the reality of that material if it’s a trainer that someone has to wear every single day?” she says. Ironically, all that practicality hasn’t made her own collections more pragmatic. “Maybe, because I’ve done so much pragmatism with them, it’s made me want to make Simone Rocha almost more out of this world,” she laughs. “It’s pushed me in the other direction.”
There is an otherworldliness, too, to the campaign now being revealed alongside the collection. Rocha invited American pPhotographer Justine Kurland, whose iconic series Girl Pictures Rocha has long admired, was brought on to shoot a cast of 11 young women, mixing familiar faces from Rocha’s world with street casting. (We chat with Rocha, her expansive bookshelf behind her filled with Sarah Lucas compendiums and back issues of System magazine—many rescued from her even larger collection at home.) “I’ve always been very, very influenced by her work,” Rocha says of Kurland. “We wanted to capture this feeling of youth and realism, like they’re living in their own world. Her photos feel a bit displaced and slightly dystopian, so I liked the idea that it had its own sense of reality.” The photograph brings the group together in one scene, while a companion film shifts between individual girls and the larger collective.
Now those clothes are set to leave the more intimate space of a Simone Rocha runway and step into Adidas’s vast global network. “From Yohji Yamamoto to Raf Simons and Grace Wales Bonner—I’m really proud to be part of this amazing lineup,” she says. Adidas has a long history of pulling designers with strong individual visions into its orbit, and Rocha appreciates that “my space in that universe feels like its own little world.” She’s also curious about the people who might discover her work through Adidas for the first time. “I think it’ll be really interesting when it comes out,” she says, “because it may be a different crowd.”
And this world is just getting started. The fall 2026 collection marks the beginning of an ongoing collaboration, leaving Rocha already thinking about where she might go next—perhaps further into performance, or into different sports and categories. We toss around ideas like dancewear, volleyball gear, or dressing an Olympic team in a few years. (Meanwhile, fittings for her upcoming spring 2027 collection continue just outside the room.) “There’s so much technical skill in their world that I haven’t touched yet,” she says. “That’s what I’m really excited to explore.” But what seems to fascinate her most is sport as an emotional experience. “The emotion of watching sport, being around sport, that team feeling—it’s such an adrenaline, emotional, dopamine rush.” For a designer who has built her career around the emotional potential of getting dressed, there’s still plenty of new ground to cover.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about Simone Rochas longawaited Adidas collaboration written in a natural tone with clear direct answers
Simone Rocha x Adidas FAQs
1 What exactly is the Simone Rocha x Adidas collaboration
Its a fashion collection that combines Simone Rochas romantic feminine design style with Adidass sporty streetwear aesthetic
2 Why does Simone Rocha say shes been preparing for this since she was a teenager
Simone has been a huge fan of Adidas since her youth She grew up wearing their classic pieces and has always admired the brands iconic logo and sporty energy In interviews shes mentioned that she used to customize her own Adidas gear as a teen so this collaboration feels like a fullcircle moment for her
3 What kind of clothing and shoes can I expect in this collection
You can expect a mix of reimagined sportswear and footwear Think classic Adidas tracksuits and football shirts but reworked with Rochas signature details like sheer fabrics pearl embellishments and floral appliqués The sneakers are a big focus often featuring chunky soles and delicate feminine touches
4 Is this a onetime collection or an ongoing partnership
It started as a multipart collaboration Simone Rocha and Adidas have released several drops over a couple of years introducing new pieces and colorways each season Its a continued partnership rather than a single oneoff release
5 Will the clothes be practical for working out or are they just for fashion
While they are made with highquality sportswear materials this collection is definitely more fashionforward than performancefocused Youre more likely to see people wearing these pieces for street style festivals or everyday fashion than for a heavy gym session
6 What are the most iconic pieces from the collaboration
The standout items are definitely the pearladorned sneakers and the seethrough sheer dresses worn over sporty leggings or shorts The lacetrimmed football shirts are also incredibly popular