Fashion inspired by her parents’ dodgy wardrobe

The trouble for a lot of new designers who shoot to fame for doing one thing really well is that they can struggle to expand their signature into a fully fledged fashion business.

Molly Goddard, who founded her label in 2015 with a range of 15 gathered tulle dresses, is an exception to the rule. On paper, you might think she would have struggled to convince many more women outside of her core customer bubble that an enormous bubblegum pink dress worthy of attendance at Villanelle’s birthday party (she famously costumed the assassin character in the first series of the BBC’s Killing Eve) was a timeless, versatile wardrobe proposition. Yet here she is, five years later, making it look almost as easy to wear and re-wear as a trench coat or a pair of jeans.

Goddard’s textural dresses still have the wow factor for autumn, but this time they were treated as tops and pinafores, layered over heritage check trousers and Fair Isle knits. On other items of clothing, Goddard proved that anything can be ruched into prettiness.

“I always want to expand into more and more [product] categories,” Goddard said after the show at Central Hall Westminster. The debut of menswear – a suit and a coat – in the collection was also a significant step.

Each look was styled with thicksoled black creeper shoes, natty knits and beanie hats, for contrast. It was, the 31-year-old designer said, an eclectic look inspired by her parents’ “strange” sense of style and her upbringing around Notting Hill in the Nineties.