celebrity shopping

What Simone Rocha Can’t Live Without

Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photo: Jacob Lillis, Joe McKendry

If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts — like hair spray or an electric toothbrush. We asked designer Simone Rocha, who released her first book with Rizzoli last month, about the whitening mint toothpaste, ballet-pink satin ribbon, and Irish whiskey cubes she can’t live without. 

I’m in a ponytail most days — or today it’s in a bun. I go through different phases. Sometimes, I wear a huge, big black ribbon and it almost looks like part of my hair. At the moment, I’m very much in a pale-pink ribbon phase. There’s a nice shop in London called V V Rouleaux that sells all sorts of ribbons: satin ribbons, velvet ribbons. It’s been there forever on Marylebone Lane. I used to go there when I was an intern and had to pick up meters of ribbons. I’ll go and get a roll now. I cut until it’s gone. And what I’ll do is wrap it around my hair. I’ve just got a tape here, and I would say I use around 45 centimeters at a time.

Editor’s note: The brand lists its prices in pounds, so this is an approximation to dollars.

These are used as whiskey stones. What you do is you keep them in your freezer and put them in your whiskey instead of ice to cool your drink. You can wash them and put them back in the freezer. I was originally given them as a gift, and now I often like to give them as a gift. They’re made of Connemara marble. It’s this green stone. It’s a beautiful part of the west of Ireland, where the stone originates.

This comes in a beautiful, quite old-fashioned tube. It’s obviously something I have to do every day, morning and night. I find it’s a very important part of the day. I use a manual toothbrush, the classic Euthymol. I need a hard bristle. You really feel like you’re doing it that way. They go very well together.

I love being in my garden, and I love growing flowers. I have inherited some rose bushes that were there before, and then I have some that have been planted. For me, the biggest gift to oneself is taking the cuttings from your own garden to bring into the house. You just feel so smug. I like to do all the deadheading of my roses. It’s a very cathartic experience but incredibly enjoyable. And these secateurs are incredibly nice.

I prefer writing with mechanical pencils. I really like that you can rub them out. I think they’re really clean. I keep a lot of notebooks. I’ll always use different notebooks, but I’ll always do everything in a mechanical pencil. I purchase mine from Choosing Keeping. They do the most amazing stationery that’s sourced from all over the world: papers from Venice, envelopes from Japan, pencils from Germany. They almost feel like artifacts. They’re a little bit historical. They’re so practical and usable, too. It kind of influences a ceremonial way of pen to paper. I have to admit that I sometimes cheat and use mechanical pencils I buy in big multipacks. But those I go through quickly. These fancier ones I refill every few months.

In a really funny turn of events, my brother and I released books at the same time. I was joking in the family WhatsApp that it was the Barbenheimer of the book world, but I don’t know if the joke landed. (Mine’s pink, it’s perfect!) I always really admired Rizzoli’s books on Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester and Undercover. He always really admired Phaidon cookbooks, from How to Boil an Egg to Rose Bakery’s. I think it was very pivotal for him to be able to do a cookbook of his recipes,to go alongside his restaurant, which he opened a few years ago. It’s now become a big part of my library because the recipes are personal to me. A lot of them are influenced by our mother and the way she cooked, and our grandmother and the way she baked. The first thing I cooked from it was the poached trout. A staple would be the Guinness bread. It’s a recipe from my mum that he’s kind of manipulated. It became less cake, more bread.

I have quite a lot on my plate most days. I’m an avid acupuncture-goer. I get cupping. I try to go once a week. And ashwagandha every day kind of keeps it all topped up. It’s a natural herb that helps your nervous system. I find it really helps me sleep and really helps my stress levels. I’ve been taking it for around a year. I take two at night. I think it’s good for your body. I tried a few other ones, but this one is really good.

Editor’s note: The brand lists its prices in pounds, so this is an approximation to dollars.

I have cycled a bike ever since I was a teenager. I used to cycle to college every day in Dublin. Then when I moved to London, I cycled a bike. And when I was interning in New York, I cycled a bike. I always thought cycling an electric bike was cheating. But I did it last summer, and once you Lime, you just cannot go back. You pick up a Lime bike like an Uber, but it’s a bicycle. There’s a little basket in the front, and it’s very practical. That’s how I try to get around a lot now, with a rain jacket on as well most of the time.

I started the collaboration last year, and I just showed the third drop in the latest show. This is from our second drop. What I love about the collaboration is taking the unexpectedness of a Croc and juxtaposing that with my idea of adornment. There’s a contradiction between something ornate and something practical. I actually live in all of them, but I think I can’t live without the Siren. It’s the perfect height and level of comfort. They’re incredibly comfortable to walk in.

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What Simone Rocha Can’t Live Without