O — Do you ever sort of get pushback or any criticism from “using the term “girly””?
MG — I don’t know, I think I use it very lightly if at all. I don’t want to be too closely associated to that because I think it has the kind of connotations that aren’t completely positive. But I think it’s a useful, descriptive word. I don’t think it’s a bad word. I don’t know, I guess I’m always keen to not be put into that bracket of pretty, girly clothes. My clothes are a bit more than that. I’d like to think so anyway. [laughs] And I’m not very girly.
O — I read you’re inspired by kids’ clothes—what were you wearing as a kid? Was it the kind of stuff you’re making right now? Or are you making what you always dreamed of wearing as a kid?
MG — I wore a real mix of things, like a really pretty white cotton smock dress, and then another day I’d be wearing a tracksuit and a T-shirt and a hat. I was mainly mistaken for a boy. So I think the kind of combination of the two is where it all comes from, I suppose. It's two kind of extremes brought together. But I was never dressed up to be on display, it was always me having as much fun as I wanted with what I was wearing. And you could see my mom had some fun dressing me up.
O — Did you come up with the idea for the NOW Gallery exhibit? [London’s NOW Gallery recently featured an interactive exhibit of Goddard’s dresses in which the public was invited to embroider the pieces on display.]
MG — Yeah, I worked on that with my mom. She realized the exhibition and did all the production and set design for it. But I guess I came up with the idea. When I saw the space— it’s such a big, glass, modern space. I kind of wanted there to be something tangible and a bit crude in it. Also it didn’t feel like it was right to do an exhibition about just what I’ve done. It was better to do an exhibition that was interactive, where people could engage with and hopefully learn something from it, or be interested in doing rather than just a kind of standard looking show.
O — Is the idea of people embroidering your dresses— or people sort of having a go at it—something that would normally drive you crazy?
MG — I guess it probably is, but I don’t feel protective over those dresses, really. I mean, as long as you don’t swing from them, I think people can kind of do what they want. And I think that’s a nice thing. Because so often you have to be so precious with what you do. It’s nice to have a bit of a change and it’s much more free. It’s fun to see what people do.
O — Have you gone and looked at the embroideries yet? Were there any in particular that caught your eye?
MG — Yeah, I’ve been to see it. On the opening night it was people embroidering so that was amazing. I didn’t expect anyone to, and there were loads of people doing embroidering so that was kind of exciting. There are quite a lot of penises and vaginas. Quite a lot of swear words. But I’ve seen people do faces which I think is really beautiful, kind of line drawing faces and I think that works really well.
O — You’ve said how much you like the fashion scene in London. Do you feel that it’s better than New York or Paris? How do you think they compare?
MG — I think they’ve all got their own pros and cons. I think Paris is amazing because it’s so over-the-top and grand—it’s kind of the finale, I suppose. But for me, I grew up in London so it’s very much home, and I don’t know, at the moment I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. It’s exciting doing something professionally in the city that you grew up in. And being able to show at the places that you could never even dream of a few years ago. You know, we did a show at Tate Britain and that was amazing because I’ve always loved that as a gallery space, and I never imagined I would do anything there. It was amazing to have my own stuff in there, even if it was only for a night. It was so exciting. So for me that’s what I love so much.
O — What’s the most interesting or inspiring way you’ve seen someone style your clothes?
MG — There was a Beauty Papers thing someone did and I thought that was really lovely because it was about skin, and skin through the tulle which was really amazing. I think Tim Walker and Jacob K did a Vogue issue that I loved. They used my stuff in a few things and it was really transformed. There were two shoots—one with Kate Moss which was really romantic and another one which was a bit weirder and darker. And it was nice to see the two in the same issue. Then also my sister Alice Goddard, she’s a stylist and she always uses my things. I always like seeing what she picks because often what I don’t imagine she’d like is what she ends up picking. So I think that’s interesting to see. And we work closely together on the collection.
O — Is there something you’ve always dreamed of doing with your clothes that you haven’t been able to do yet, whether it’s designing costumes for the ballet, or for a movie, or something like that?
MG — I would love to do a ballet, because I think you do have to think about things so differently, I’d imagine. I would hope to do something very unexpected. I’d probably do something as far removed from ballet clothes as I could. I’ve only been to the ballet once but it was so amazing. Apart from that, I’d love to do more leather accessories, bags—I think that would be fun. We are going to do it but it’s just quite hard.
