“I’m always left with a memory or a feeling of Hong Kong, rather than a reality of what a place is like today,” says Simone Rocha. “I have one very clear memory, but I think some of it is from a photograph. The whole city feels framed.” Born and raised in Dublin, the designer travelled back to her father John Rocha’s birthplace for part three of our series The Way We Dress, which she narrates today. 

“My family is full of very, very, strong women and very opinionated women,” says Rocha, whose grandmother and aunts inspired the street style portrait directed by Linda Brownlee. “They didn’t have much money, but they would always make themselves up so well to make the family proud. When I think of Hong Kong I think of them – and the electric energy.” 

The washed-out pastels and poised looks can be seen on a whole generation of women in the city (“There are many more women out and about than men,” says the designer), and have left an imprint on Rocha’s own aesthetic. Take Respect Your Elders, an early collection she made based on her grandmother’s “neatness,” or the flowers she picks up at Yuen Po Street Bird Market and later reappropriates for her modern romantic dresses. 

While Rocha enjoys the ritual of going back to Hong Kong every year, this trip was especially poignant. “With my granny recently passing, I felt more like an observer than a local. It feels like an ending of a generation.”

Part four of The Way We Dress premieres Wednesday July 29.