Simone Rocha brings lace, tulle, and her particular brand of romance to adidas Originals – and it looks like the start of something lasting
LONDON – The first hint arrived in February, mid-runway, between the bowed chiffons and the quiet grandeur of Simone Rocha’s Autumn/Winter 2026 show. There, in a lineup built on the Irish designer’s familiar vocabulary of strength and delicacy, sat an unmistakable flash of athletic branding: the Trefoil, the Three Stripes, reimagined with pearls and crystals. This week the full picture came into view. adidas Originals و سيمون روشا have unveiled the complete Fall/Winter 2026 collection behind that tease, a range spanning apparel, footwear and accessories that both houses describe as the opening chapter of an ongoing partnership.
For Rocha, whose London-based label has spent 16 years refining an identity rooted in femininity, craft and materiality, the move into sportswear is less a departure than a homecoming she has been quietly planning. “Sportswear is something I’ve wanted to explore for a long time,” said Rocha, the house’s founder and creative director. “What interested me about working with adidas Originals was the opportunity to bring my own design language to something with such a strong identity. It was never about changing what already exists, but about revealing another perspective. The collection feels very authentic to both of us.”
That perspective begins with the icons everyone recognizes, reworked just enough to feel like Rocha’s. The Firebird track top arrives in a cropped silhouette with exaggerated volume. The Beckenbauer, one of adidas Originals’ most storied styles, is transformed by a tulle underlay that softens its familiar shape. The Superstar gets puffed sleeves, a ballroom gesture on a street-corner staple. The same tension between utility and ornament runs through the rest of the apparel: a frilled dress, skirt and trousers recast sportswear codes through the house’s distinctive approach to silhouette and materiality; fitted leotards sit on the body like a second skin; classic T-shirts are left clean enough to do their job. Even the accessories join the exchange. A custom Trefoil brooch and hair clip reimagine the adidas Originals logo in diamanté and pearl-inspired embellishment, knee-high football socks carry the same detailing, and the classic adidas Airline bag gets a broderie anglaise makeover that turns a travel staple into something closer to lingerie.
Then there are the shoes, where the collaboration is at its most playful. The SR Taekwondo Ballerina swaps the martial-arts silhouette’s tough straps for ribbon lacing, finished with pearl-inspired and diamanté detailing at the toe. The SR Climacool reimagines a performance runner as a Mary Jane, pairing a leather upper with a cut-out tongue and a sculptural heel counter. The SR Japan Fuzzy Slip On, drawn from the archives, gets a pony hair-effect upper, an open heel, and Three Stripes rendered as pearl-like sculptural details. None of it reads as costume. The styling logic holds: these are wearable objects that happen to have been dreamed up by a designer who treats a running shoe the way she treats a wedding dress – as something worth adorning.
The campaign, photographed by Justine Kurland, extends the mood. Shot as a single tableau vivant, it gathers individual moments and gestures into one broader collective scene, echoing the dialogue between intimacy and community that runs through the collection. The accompanying film opens on quiet, closely observed portraits before pulling back to reveal the wider landscape of shared experience. It is a fitting visual metaphor for a partnership that began with one designer’s long-held ambition meeting a brand’s deep archive.
The pairing’s significance goes beyond the product. Rocha has become one of the most decorated designers of her generation, a two-time المجلس البريطاني للأزياء Designer of the Year winner (2016 and 2024), with standalone stores in London, New York and Taipei and her first standalone ملابس رجالية show this past June. adidas Originals, for its part, has made a habit of collaborating with creative provocateurs – Pharrell Williams, Bad Bunny, JENNIE, Willy Chavarria – filtering its sporting heritage through the lens of contemporary culture. Rocha’s addition to that roster signals something particular: a meeting between the label that built streetwear’s foundations and a designer whose work is defined by precisely the softness streetwear usually leaves out. Rocha’s framing is apt. This was never about changing what already exists. It is about revealing another perspective – one where a track top can be cropped, a runner can become a Mary Jane, and a Trefoil can sparkle like something borrowed, something blue.
The adidas Originals by Simone Rocha Fall/Winter 2026 collection launches globally Sept. 10 via the CONFIRMED app, adidas.com, adidas stores, Simone Rocha stores, simonerocha.com and select retailers.
Sometimes the boldest move in sportswear is not a new technology. Sometimes it is simply a pearl on a sneaker, placed there by someone who has always known exactly where it belongs.
Images Courtesy of adidas Originals
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