Things with Molly Goddard have always been a family affair. Her sister Alice has been the long-time stylist, cousin Saffron Goddard is the lead manicurist for the runway show and childhood best friend Tessa Griffith serves as managing director, helping her steer the business. And, at her most recent show at Seymour Leisure Centre for AW22, a new addition made his debut: Goddard’s newborn son, Frank. Dressed in a miniature red and navy blue-striped cardigan on his father (and Goddard’s partner) Tom Shickle’s lap, Frank sat in what looked like wide-eyed wonderment as his mum’s artful display of fishtail taffeta dresses, oversized traditional knits and flourishes of her signature tulle came down the runway in bolts of magenta and electric blue. ‘That show was all about what I was going to wear down the market on a bank holiday weekend. It felt really familiar, in that way,’ she says, describing the collection to me over Zoom from her new Ladbroke Grove flat.
It was a resplendent return post-Covid for one of the UK’s most exciting and enduring designers. It was also a triumphant transition back to work after time away on maternity leave – though not at all a surprise. Since making her debut during London Fashion Week in 2014, Goddard’s gone from strength to strength by bucking trends and sticking to what she knows: clothing with quality, creativity and pieces that put the wearer’s comfort first. Her signature handspun tulle dresses took on a life of their own, and quickly gained legions of fans such as Rihanna, Beyoncé and Harry Styles (more on him later). In 2016, she won the Emerging Talent award at The Fashion Awards and, in 2018, she won the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund. Yet, while her designs might be the epitome of frou-frou femininity, her girls tend to have the sort of edge that can carry a dress from day to night, from high heels to high tops – the Molly Goddard wearers feel united in a mindset of freedom and confidence.
Evidence of her loyal fanbase is clear when I ask the 33-year-old how she and the business weathered the pandemic. ‘In the beginning, it was so hard,’ she says. ‘We shut the studio. And I feel like I cried most days, because it was just one thing after the other. It felt sh*t and terrifying.’ Instead of letting an uneasy retail landscape and global supply chain in flux get the best of her, Goddard quickly turned her attention to designing, styling and fitting collections virtually with her team of 10. ‘We didn’t furlough anyone, which I was really proud of. It was important to keep chugging on as a business. I didn’t want to have my staff sat at home, not doing anything. Maybe they would’ve loved that, but it just didn’t feel right. I could have probably retained more profit but I’d rather invest in doing things than sitting on a pile of money.’ Goddard and her team prioritised their direct-to-consumer business and saw things grow – and at the same time, she juggled being pregnant with her first child. ‘It was a really scary year to be pregnant in. Tom couldn’t come to any appointments with me and I couldn’t see anyone. But I’m also the only designer, so we had to adapt how we worked. I’d fill my sketchbooks with designs, and then the team would translate what I wanted in construction or pattern work.’
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The starting point of her AW22 collection was the bustling markets of London, namely Camden and Portobello, the latter of which she visited many times as a child. ‘I was fixated on this book, Street, about Eighties and Nineties street style. Early in the process, a friend of my mum’s came to mind. She was a big part of my life growing up. I remember her as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Mick Jones – big, bleach-blonde hair with a flower in it, red lipstick, a Fifties dress worn with an army jacket and trainers. I became aware of my own sense of style through her.’ While the collection played into Goddard’s signatures, it felt decidedly more focused on utility; if she normally provided a dress for the Saturday night party, now we had snuggly sweaters and overcoats for the Sunday morning strolls. ‘I like to go back and visit things we’ve done before,’ she explains. ‘I like to push them further and do something totally different.’
If AW22 is about her formative years, then her SS22 collection was focused on her present. Eight months pregnant, Goddard would spend hours fantasising about what Frank would wear. ‘I’ve been obsessed with baby clothes and that was quite a fun way of approaching the collection. I blew up the baby dresses I wore as child to adult size, tracing out the patterns and making them 10 or 20 times bigger, so all the proportions were weird.’
Goddard has yet to feel the need to spend money on classic advertising; instead, she’s relying on viral moments in culture for a more organic kind of promotion. There’s been Rihanna in that cobalt tulle look, and Villanelle, Jodie Comer’s kick-ass assassin in Killing Eve, roaming the streets of Paris in a powder-pink SS17 Jack dress from Goddard’s first runway show. And then, more recently, one Harry Styles popped up on Instagram, announcing his new album, Harry’s House. His outfit of choice for the cover art was a smocked white and pink top, worn with wide-leg jeans, all from Molly Goddard’s SS22 collection. ‘Oh, it all came through Harry’s stylist [Harry Lambert],’ Goddard says, coolly. ‘All those things just happen. It’s never been forced! We’ll send them the look, then you just never quite know… We only got a little heads-up about a few days before,’ she says with a grin.
As Goddard approaches 10 years at her label, having just launched a bridal collection, how will she evolve her business for the next decade? ‘It’s been important to invest into different categories. Shoes we’ve dabbled with, but I would love to see that go further. I want to keep doing bags, because I like that we don’t use leather. Jewellery is something I’m thinking about, while our knitwear will continue to be a big thing. Figuring out new ways of doing is always the exciting bit, for me.’
Not that Goddard has masses of free time on her hands. Frank, who recently turned one, is not content with sitting still. ‘I tried to take him on a two-hour flight and it was hard work. This summer will look very different because Europe is all I am going to be able to muster’.
But instead of lamenting over lost long lunches at Rochelle Canteen and travels around the world, Goddard is embracing home life and looking forward to the future with optimism. ‘We moved in February to the other side of Ladbroke Grove – we have a garden now. I’m still a terrible cook, but I’ve got used to not going out four nights a week,’ she says. ‘I love Frank more than anything in the whole wide world. I’ve become a lot more empathetic to my parents and now understand having this love and fear for this other person. He’s exhausting, exhilarating… Well, much like fashion really.’
This article appeared in the July/August issue of ELLE UK.
