Molly Goddard, the 29-year-old British designer best known for her over-the-top tulle pieces, just can't be stopped. On Wednesday evening, the Central Saint Martins graduate was named the winner of the 2018 BFC/British Vogue Designer Fashion Fund prize, the prestigious award that, similar to its American counterpart, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, "aims to discover new talent and accelerate growth over a twelve-month period through mentoring and awarding a cash prize of £200,000." Competition included Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida of Marques Almeida, Huishan Zhang, Rejina Pyo, Samantha McCoach of Le Kilt, and David Koma.
“Molly Goddard is an original, she has a singular vision that has propelled her label to an international level,” Edward Enninful, the editor-in-chief of British Vogue and chairman of the fund committee, said. “She is the definition of talent and what Britain does best in our creative industry.”
Goddard launched her namesake label in 2014; it was picked up almost immediately by Dover Street Market and quickly gained fans in Bjork, Rihanna, and Comme des Garçons' Rei Kawakubo. In 2016, Goddard won the British Emerging Talent award at the 2016 Fashion Awards, and was a finalist for the 2017 LVMH Prize, so it's no surprise she's (finally) taken home one of the UK's biggest fashion accolades.
Of her brand's aesthetic, Goddard told Interview magazine in 2015: "I’ve always liked being really girly, but I’ve always been a massive tomboy. I think that’s just something that comes quite naturally. My main thing is I like women to be comfortable. It was kind of lucky; I managed to make dresses that make you feel really special, but you don’t feel like you’re corseted up and constricted in any way. You can still move and be natural and free. I think that’s maybe what makes them feminine above everything else; you can totally be comfortable, rather than the dressmaking transforming you into something. It becomes part of what you wear because they’re often sold as just a sheer dress that you then have to choose what you wear underneath. I think that’s an important part of it. You still keep quite a lot of your character."
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