Here’s why Molly Goddard wants you to put your phone away at fashion week

By Julia Hobbs13 September 2019

The designer behind some of LFW’s most Instagrammable catwalk moments celebrated her label’s fifth anniversary with a collection that was impossible for the FROW to photograph – because sometimes, soaking up the mood matters more than getting the shot

“I exist in a bit of a bubble in my studio,” Molly Goddard says, crossing the calm, white warehouse space to turn the music down a notch. Drogba (Joanna) by Afro B provides the soundtrack, while her young team, including her sister, stylist Alice Goddard, put the finishing touches to the S/S 2020 collection at her Bethnal Green studio. The designer’s London Fashion Week show is now less than three days away. As far as pre-fashion week scenes go, this HQ is a markedly peaceful affair – but Molly Goddard’s big dresses have had a busy year.

The ballsy fuschia Daria gown (composed of 90m of tulle), which commanded Molly Goddard’s autumn/winter 2019 show, was one of the star attractions of The Costume Institute's Camp: Notes On Fashion exhibition this year. While for the 2.6 million people who requested the Killing Eve series two box-set within the first 36 hours of its release, the marshmallow-pink-dress-moment in series one forever remains confirmation that Jodie Comer’s character Villanelle actually ‘gets’ fashion.

Goddard’s gaze, however, has never been fixed on celebrity endorsement. Remember how Rihanna’s era-defining Molly Goddard wardrobe came about because the music and fashion mogul happens to be a bit of a fan? For the 30-year-old British designer, the Insta-buzz has never mattered nearly as much as crafting clothes that women of all ages “want to wear forever”.

In an exclusive preview of her new collection, Molly Goddard tells Vogue why this season there isn’t an Instagramable finale dress and how, in 2019, a designer can engineer a runway show that compels their audience to set aside the smartphone.

What is your approach for the S/S 2020 show?

The show is quite pared back and the audience will be very close to the models. You might not see the full look, just a blur walking past. I like the idea that you want to know more about what the clothes are and how they’re made. It’s nice to get carried away and do a large, grand show when you want to do a large, grand show. But then I thought back to my first presentations and the things I most loved about those early shows – I’ve tried to bring those elements together this time. Just as I wanted everything in the collection to feel equally special, I wanted there to be no hierarchy in the seating at the show either. Theo Sion and Rory Gleeson are doing the music. They both know the collection inside out and have created something light, cheerful and ‘boomy’. I want people to enjoy it.

Was the plan to avoid an Instagram-friendly set up?

[Laughs]. It’s almost like you want to say to people – sit with your back straight, don’t lean forward and put your phones away. I’d love to ban phones at the show, but no-one will let me.

How did the significance of the label’s fifth anniversary impact the collection?

It’s quite nice to look back. Thinking sustainably, we wanted to create seasonless clothes that you want to wear forever. This is the first collection I’ve done that doesn’t have a theme, or a character that everything is based on. It’s about making the clothes we want to make, not what we thought would ‘fit in’. I’ve also reinvestigated my MA work, which was a failure at the time, and I’ve redone [those ideas] in a new way. This time around we had more time to execute the pieces, to make them exactly what I wanted. These are the clothes that I feel sum up what I’ve done over the last five years.

Has the Molly Goddard silhouette also shifted this season?

I think a lot about silhouettes. I love a big ‘bobble’ dress and I’m always saying: ‘I’m not going to make a large colourful tulle piece this season.’ Then at the last minute I’m like, ‘Oh, actually, I think we do need one’. This season, the focus is on volume and all the different ways of doing it; but there are slimmer silhouettes, too. It is very pretty, but there’s a kind of clunkiness. I don’t ever like using underpinnings or crinolines to make the volume, I like it to come purely from the construction, with nothing hidden. This collection is a bit wonky and the aim is that you should be able to do anything in these clothes.

The collection is a love letter to texture. What was the feeling behind this?

There’s lots of layering to create shape, but in a simple way; and lots of texture going on, creating quite a messy or blurry feel, which has informed the set-up of the show as well. This collection brings together quite raw elements: crunchy cottons and a fabric that looks like calico, so that some of the pieces feel like toiles. Because I always love my toiles and I’m sometimes sad that the final piece doesn’t look like a toile. We’ve also done quite a bit of knitwear – I wanted to create something that felt like a posh French kids’ jumpers in lambswool, and classic cardigans that don’t pull in.

The satchel-style bags are also new. Is this something you’ve always wanted to do?

I’ve created the bags that I’ve wanted to have everyday. We’ve always played around with little bags, but this was about making a style that I would keep forever.

When it comes to casting models that capture the enigma of the ‘London girl’ in your line-up, what’s your approach?

This season, Vogue’s Rosie Vogel is doing the casting. I like it when a model tries a piece on and engages with it. It feels like a little family backstage. When Edie [Campbell] was vaping in the line-up at the SS18 show, I thought ‘fuck it’ you can take it out if you want. And she had her champagne on the catwalk. None of that was meant to happen, but I didn’t care that it did.