“My heritage is a huge part of everything I do; it is, after all, part of what has made me who I am.”
― John Rocha
“Dubai is a vibrant city: Big cars, big buildings… it reminds me of my home town, Hong Kong. People are always on the move here, and there’s a lot going on. There are some wonderful architecture and some not-so-wonderful.”
― John Rocha
“Beautiful fabrics last; synthetics don’t. Certain fabrics, such as linen or cotton, develop their own character over time.”
― John Rocha
“I think my love of form is especially informed by my background, whether this is creating a wonderful silhouette in a dress or finding the perfect shape for a bowl or the ‘just so’ angle of a table leg.”
― John Rocha
“Your 30s is the time to embrace bold, zingy colour patterns and to follow trends while taking time to get used to what really suits you.”
― John Rocha
“I used to play football, and then my wife bought me a fishing rod.”
― John Rocha
“During fashion week, I dream about fashion; afterwards, I dream about fishing. After fashion week, I always go fishing to wind down.”
― John Rocha
“It was a very, very happy childhood, but I always knew I wanted to see the world.”
― John Rocha
“My homes are similar in style because the same design principles run through all areas of my work.”
― John Rocha
“I love white walls because white reflects the light and is a great backdrop for art.”
― John Rocha
“My life is about family and friends as well as work.”
― John Rocha
“Fashion is like a four-legged table: you need a good designer, a very good business manager, a good manufacturer, and a very good distributor. Without all the legs, table collapses.”
― John Rocha
“I made my final collection in college in London using Irish handwoven wool. That is how I discovered Ireland first; I just fell in love with it, really.”
― John Rocha
“It is hard to have a fashion business in any country, but even more difficult in Ireland.”
― John Rocha
“As a heterosexual designer, it is really, really important to have a woman’s point of view.”
― John Rocha
“Fashion is instant – after six months, it disappears, and you have to start again. That’s the nature of it.”
― John Rocha
“I always challenge myself to do something better, and people in the industry appreciate that.”
― John Rocha
“Fabric is the foundation of a collection.”
― John Rocha
“Many women in their 40s make the mistake of wearing clothes that are too tight. Skimpy dresses and tight trousers can make you look older, so get the best fit you can find.”
― John Rocha
“As you get older, your skin tone will change, and that means the colours that suit you best change, too. Take a trip to a department store and ask for advice, or simply hold colours close to your face in the mirror, as this should give you a good idea of what works.”
― John Rocha
“Just because something is trendy doesn’t mean it will suit you.”
― John Rocha
“I have no idea why, but I find that men make more of an impact on me in films than women – even very beautiful ones.”
― John Rocha
“Guys want to be cool without appearing to be bothered about trends.”
― John Rocha
“I turned my hand to costume design a few years ago when I created the outfits for ‘This Is the Sea,’ with Richard Harris and Samantha Morton. It’s a very different discipline to being a fashion designer, though – you have to rein in your own vision and work to a tight brief.”
― John Rocha
“As I get older and older, people like my work more and more.”
― John Rocha
“I’m like a conductor. I come up with ideas, and I get all these people to make great music together. I have a team of really talented assistant designers. I have architects in my office. People I trained from the beginning in menswear, womenswear, and home. I have a great team who know what I want and feel and translate that into beautiful results.”
― John Rocha
“I am trained as a fashion designer and do not claim to be an expert architect or anything like that. I won’t do something unless I know I can do it.”
― John Rocha
“Fashion remains closest to my heart. I get genuinely excited by my collections – I never wanted to be a businessman.”
― John Rocha
“The most important part of my work on The Orion Building was the creation within the apartments of living space which inspires people and the way they live their lives, whether they have bought a one-bedroom apartment or the penthouse. This building is beautiful to see, sense, and experience.”
― John Rocha
“I’m interested in beauty more than anything else.”
― John Rocha
“A woman can look incredibly sexy in a black suit.”
― John Rocha
“I’m a British designer, and it’s great to show on your own ground.”
― John Rocha
“My family was quite poor, and the NHS was recruiting people from abroad to do psychiatric nursing. It was the only hope I had to leave Hong Kong.”
― John Rocha
“Design has always been at the heart of our business.”
― John Rocha
“We have achieved tremendous success in Ireland and internationally on the strength of our creativity and design skills.”
― John Rocha
“I want romance; I want people to be happy in their relationships.”
― John Rocha
“I think natural fibers look better over time. The more you wear them, they look even better.”
― John Rocha
“I love fashion, but fashion is not my whole life.”
― John Rocha
“I always promised myself that I wouldn’t do catwalk shows until the day I died.”
― John Rocha
“I want to challenge myself in new mediums; I want to leave myself open to different things.”
― John Rocha
“I went from fashion to glass in 1995, and I’m very interested in architecture.”
― John Rocha
“Men like clothes they can wear to work and afterwards. They don’t want things to be complicated.”
― John Rocha
“I believe that IT is the way forward. Every other industry utilises IT, and I feel that fashion needs to use it more extensively to move forward.”
― John Rocha
“At primary school, we would pick up plastic petals on the way home to make flowers. Now you might call it child labour, but we did it for pocket money.”
― John Rocha
“My most precious possession is a 13.5-feet-long fishing rod, made by an American firm called Loomis.”
― John Rocha
“There was the Cultural Revolution just over the border, and Hong Kong felt quite dodgy. My younger brother’s wife actually swam from China to Hong Kong to escape. I realised in the ’60s that I had to get out.”
― John Rocha
“My dream home would be a fishing lodge in New Zealand.”
― John Rocha
“I never set out to do interior design; I just do what I do, and some people come along and want me to work with them.”
― John Rocha
“I like to create a simple space and surround myself with things that I like to look at.”
― John Rocha
“It might be a selfish choice, but I find it quite difficult to design for individuals and prefer the distance of larger schemes. It’s the same reason why, as a designer, I don’t do wedding dresses.”
― John Rocha
“I dress pop stars, and I dress my doctor. It’s about attitude. I do what I love, and I’m lucky to do it. It’s a long way from Hong Kong.”
― John Rocha
“When I left college, nobody expected much of me – and nor did I.”
― John Rocha
“When I was young, we always went to our posh cousins at Christmas. My dad made sure we had new shoes and clean clothes – he was really proud – and that’s why I felt different from everyone living around me. We had the first television on the estate, the first fridge.”
― John Rocha
“I will never see myself as a businessman. I’m a designer. I have to be true to what I believe.”
― John Rocha
“Talent always shouts at you.”
― John Rocha
“I think, as a designer, what you have to do is challenge yourself to do what you do, but better.”
― John Rocha
“To create a beautiful thing with unlimited money is easy!”
― John Rocha
“We cater for fashion-conscious people.”
― John Rocha
“Unfortunately, I used to play in goal, and I broke my hand. Two fingers. The ball hit me and bent my fingers back. I used to play every Sunday. I was quite competitive.”
― John Rocha
“I always have a cigar when I catch a fish.”
― John Rocha
“I can speak Cantonese, but I can’t speak about fashion – I learnt all my fashion in Europe, so often, during interviews in Chinese I just don’t know the right word – it can be very hard to explain things.”
― John Rocha
“I love my black shirts; I have usually 14 of them at any one time.”
― John Rocha
“I still love Birkenstocks. I just think they are the most comfortable things; I even wear them in winter sometimes.”
― John Rocha
“I can tell you every element of every single look from each collection – one to 30 – without looking at a picture: my label is all done by me.”
― John Rocha
“I want to explore my design philosophy in different mediums, and I’m very interested in architecture.”
― John Rocha
“My Chinese grandmother was a dressmaker, so I always enjoyed dressing up and looking cool.”
― John Rocha
“I don’t want to be an elitist designer. It’s no fun just catering for a small group of people. It’s against my principles.”
― John Rocha
“The day I feel my clothes are no longer relevant, I will be happy to step down.”
― John Rocha
“Chinese people have that superstitious fix – people always do feng shui when they are opening a shop; even the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank pays people to do feng shui for them.”
― John Rocha
“If you ask me where do I belong, it would be somewhere in the Irish Sea almost – born in Hong Kong, Chinese mother, Portuguese father from Macao, lived in Europe most of my life.”
― John Rocha
“One thing I learned from all my years in business is you really have to work with the experts: you can launch something yourself, but unless you have the expertise and the marketing strategies and machinery behind you, you’ll never be successful.”
― John Rocha
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