'When it comes to weddings and what you wear, I think one’s judgment can get a bit warped,' considers designer Molly Goddard. 'You maybe ask too many people's advice, or I guess too many people offer it… I feel like brides sometimes go with something that’s just not a silhouette or a shape they've ever worn before. And it’s kind of exciting for a moment, but the reality of it is that you just don't feel confident and comfortable.'
Well, if there’s one thing to be said for the brides one sees - whether on Instagram or at the alter - wearing Molly Goddard dresses to say ‘I do’, it’s that they always look the converse; confident and comfortable to the max.
The London-based label branched out into wedding-wear during the pandemic, catering to a bevvy of brides looking for something a little different. Known for large tulle confections in a full spectrum from powder pink to highlighter green hues to sparky electric blue, the bridal designs are just as striking in a traditional wedding white.
The ready-to-wear bridal offering at Molly Goddard is purposely limited; Goddard explains her curated approach shouldn’t overwhelm the customer base. Nonetheless, the brand is open to demi-couture (in-house amendments to designs or styles of the bride’s choosing), as well as the possibility of a bespoke creation.
At the Molly Goddard Studio in Bethnal Green - a space with light chartreuse floors the brand has hosted dinners, sample sales, shoots and even the occasional show at - there is a designated bridal area with a large mirror, racks of white dresses and diaphanous tulle veils.
It’s a distinctly personal task, choosing a wedding dress, and for a designer whose name is synonymous with their brand, working to design bespoke bridal is personal too. 'I am involved in every change that gets proposed,' Goddard explains, keen to be collaborative with brides who come to her, yet discerning in her design process. 'If I don't feel like it feels right for the dress, I'll make another suggestion.' Choosing a dress can also be daunting; the pressures of modern wedding culture affect bride’s ideas about dressing their bodies.
'When you look at the bridal offering out there, it's a very non-inclusive world, visually,' Goddard says. 'We offer clothes on our site from a UK 6 to an 18 and with bridal, we offer bigger sizes where we can accommodate. A big part of my clothes is that they aren't corseted and restricted. A lot of the bridal pieces are almost these shells you slip into. The fit is important - there's an ease to wearing them. You still feel very special, but you almost feel like you're wearing a T-shirt - of course, you don't look like you're in a T-shirt. That helps in terms of having a diverse offering for many body shapes.'
Shop Molly Goddard Bridal Now
Molly Goddard Saturnia Dress Ivory
£3,500.00
Molly Goddard Cumulus Dress Ivory
£4,000.00
Molly Goddard Violet Dress Ivory
£1,800.00
'It's not about squeezing into a corset or trying to conceal things you want to conceal. It's very much about wearing something that makes you feel special and comfortable and allows for movement and dancing and slouching and all those things,' the designer concludes.
Harriet Hall, Features Director at Cosmopolitan, agrees. 'Molly designs dresses that look fabulous on all body shapes. They don’t require anyone to go on a diet to fit into, to worry about certain body parts not being ‘toned’ or ‘skinny’ enough – they’re the ultimate body positive dresses, really,' she says. 'So often, brides spend the year before their weddings panicking about exercise and weight loss and it’s such a sad part of wedding culture. In this age of Ozempic and the alarming return of "skinny culture", Molly dresses celebrate fashion for all – something that is sadly still rare.'
For her own wedding, Hall wore a neon magenta dress she’d spotted on the catwalk at the brand’s AW19 show. 'I knew it was the one for me – and I wasn’t even engaged!' she says. 'The references to Elizabethan dress, the exaggerated leg-of-mutton sleeves, the verging on aggressive baby doll energy all imbue it with a feminist punk energy that really spoke to me, and of course the sheer electricity of the colour had me drooling.'
'I’ve always been conflicted by the virginal aesthetic of weddings,' she continues. 'I don’t think I’d have felt like myself in all white. I love the idea of more brides opting to eschew wearing white – you can still look bridal in a different colour. Plus, the joy of not wearing white is you’ve got a more sustainable gown in many ways. You just need to find an event big enough to accommodate the power of Molly.'
The power of Molly, as Hall calls it, is that the designs don’t beg for attention, they simply deserve it. 'There's so much built on the dress,' Goddard muses, 'the dress is the most tangible element of the day, in a way, it's the thing that comes early. I think you want to feel special. You do want to feel different, but equally, feeling totally different is never a great thing. So I think, getting that balance right, of feeling incredibly special, wearing something that you wouldn't wear every day, but not feeling like someone else is where it gets difficult and tricky.'
It’s exactly that ever-impossible desire - to be the best version of exactly who you are on that one day, your wedding day - that sends brides past, present and future into meltdown. For a lucky few, they try one dress on and know it’s right.
Artist and curator Dani Trew immediately knew Molly Goddard’s Angie dress was "the one". 'It felt like the perfect combination of romantic hyperfeminity and minimalist tailoring,' she says. 'I particularly loved how the dress took an ornamental frill that you might expect to see on an 18th Century gown, placed it on the silhouette of a 1920s robe de style, and combined it with a bodice that could have come straight from 1990s Prada. But above all, it felt sexy and fun, and it had pockets.'
It’s clear the appeal of Molly Goddard bridal is as much in the thinking behind the designs as it is in the fun of wearing them. Like Goddard herself riffs on historical techniques including smocking and shirring, updating them with fun fabrics and playful silhouettes, the brides who wear her dresses to get married in are intrigued by the tradition of marriage and bridalwear, but ready to subvert it for themselves. And what’s more fun than subverting expectation in layers of perfectly placed tulle?
Photo credits: Celia Burton photographed by Felix Cooper, Simone Barnes photographed by Nathan Appleyard, Alison Kuo photographed by Aaron Rice Photography, Olive Uniacke photographed by Tom Mitchell, Cassandra Walker photographed by Antonia Katerina and Alice Dennard photographed by Alissa Noelle Photography.
