To walk through Simone Rocha’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection is akin to flipping through the tales of Tír na nÓg or the pages of Perry Ogden’s Pony Kids. 

Princess Niamh’s white horse seems to flicker in the sheer embroidered lace dress that opened the show. The season’s palette draws from the mossy greens and milky whites of Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats, who depicted the mythical land of Tír na nÓg. In the legend, Niamh of the Golden Hair rides across the sea on a white horse to find the warrior-poet Oisín, inviting him to the otherworldly realm. Those same tones drift through the collection, grounding Rocha’s romanticism in something distinctly Irish.

An exaggerated satin ribbon stretches boldly across the chest in deep olive green. Cheeky pink rose vines sprawl over a flowing white dress and pink skinny jeans, passing by a checkered grey suit trimmed with trailing white ribbons. Tiers of tulle and lace appear to come alive, braided into dresses that sculpt around the body. The prized rossete runs throughout as a unifying motif. In colorways of white, red, green, and black, they get pinned at the waist and chest or left dangling from handbags. 

Then, there’s Rocha’s collaboration with Adidas Originals, recalling how Dublin’s pony kids dressed in the 1990s. In Ogden’s seminal photo book Pony Kids (1999), the urban cowboys are captured in sportswear fused with modern clothing, adapted to their equestrian lifestyle. 

In this new collaborative collection, Rocha translates her singular world of subversive femininity into track jackets waisted with lace layers and ruffled-fronted track pants. Belts buckle unexpectedly around the calf over woolly knee socks. Chunky shearling peeks out across soft-shaped tote bags, at the tips of the loafers, and as mini capes, in what reads like a tactile nod to the outdoors. Even in sporty A-line jackets, jersey tops, and thigh-hugging mini track pants, Rocha’s youthful reverence flutters through. Bomber military jackets nipped at the waist carve sculptural silhouettes, while Adidas’s unmistakable three-striped track jacket swells with puffed sleeves. 

Staged against the hilltop sweep of Alexandra Palace, the collection felt like a gathering of references—myth, memory, youth—brought to the same table.