John Rocha Bio

John Rocha was born in Hong Kong, 23 August 1953. He is of chinese and portugese decent but moved to Ireland to be an Irish Fashion designer.

He did not start in Ireland, he moved to London to study fashion in the 1970’s at the Croydon School of Art. In his gradute collection he used Irish Linen. This inspired John Rocha to visit and eventually stay in Ireland. He has lived in Dublin ever since. John Rocha married Odette, who is also his bussiness partner. John has 3 children, two with Odette (Simone and Max), and one child (Zoe) from his previous marriage to Eily Doolan.

John Rocha is known for his hand-crafting, beading and apliquée to garments, he has developed and refined his own distinctive style, constantly experimenting with fabric, silhoutte and technique.

John Rocha first established a name with his Chinatown label in Dublin in the 1980’s and he has never looked back. Since then he opened a shop in Dublin (1995), and in 1997 he launched a range of contemporary crystal with Waterford Glass and in 1998 he opened a shop in London’s Sloane Avenue. He was awarded Britiain Designer of the Year in 1993, the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2002 Queen’s New Year honours List for his service to the fashion industry.

The john Rocha collecection is shown twice yearly in London and is stocked in profile stores throughout the world. Since 1997 John has expanded his prortfolio to include work in interiors, architecture, crystal and jewellery and he continues to explore and develop other creative fields.

In 2002 John Rocha’s contemporary collection of jewellery (Simply called ‘John Rocha Jewellery’) was launched. The collection of organic designs in gold, silver and semipressious stones inspired by nature and is made to be touched, worn and treasured. The pieces are organic shapes, clean and simple. The jewellery collections are contemporary and of a high quality.

John Rocha continues to explore and develop other cretive fields in Dublin today.