Rihanna rocked hers, Villanelle killed in hers… Molly Goddard takes dressing up to new levels with her dainty-not-dainty dresses
It really is no time to be a fashion designer. No catwalk shows, no front rows, no parties, no awards ceremonies, no red carpets, no shops. Nowhere to show off your fabulous clobber, nowhere to watch someone showing off theirs. Molly Goddard, one of British fashion’s most lauded and fun young designers of the past decade, can’t go to her beloved market at Portobello Road in west London, as she has done all her life, to examine, say, the underpinnings of a Victorian blouse or to check out the stylish punters. “I do rely quite a lot on people-watching,” she tells me. “And, you know, everyone’s in their gym gear now. Everyone’s in their walking gear. It’s so boring. Lockdown has made me look at those times when I had the opportunity to go out and think, why on earth wasn’t I wearing my favourite dresses all the time? Why would I ever have done a day in jeans and a T-shirt?”
One glance at Molly Goddard’s womenswear collections and you might ask yourself something similar: why am I sitting here in sweat pants and not wearing one of those delicious dresses? The price tags might be one reason – a pale yellow, hand-smocked ballet-inspired tulle dress is currently on Net-A-Porter for £3,800. But since launching her label in 2014, Goddard has been showered in awards by the British Fashion Council, was shortlisted for the LVMH prize in 2017 and scooped the 2018 Vogue Designer Fashion Fund. She doesn’t make ordinary clothes.
