Molly Goddard took a look back to her early collections, and riffed on vintage children’s wear once again, sending out models in smocked trapeze tops, ruffles and short, bouncy tiered dresses. It was a natural move: the designer had her first child in April, a boy, and so now she lives in the land of tiny clothes. They’re in her archive, in her head and hanging in the baby’s closet.
Goddard said she started designing this collection while she was eight months pregnant, “and blew up baby dresses I wore as a child to adult size, tracing the pattern, and making it 10 or 20 times bigger,” the designer said. “I imagined the clothes my child would wear, and I was fixated on smocked dresses, tracksuit bottoms and ballet pumps.”
This collection itself didn’t have the overblown proportions, or flourish, of past seasons, and she toned down the tulle, too. Still, this spring outing still had its charms in the form of a cropped, frothy pink top with sheer sleeves that Goddard paired with wide-leg jeans; a short, tiered dress with a full skirt and a T-shirt top; and lots of bright, clashing “Cat in the Hat”-style knits.
While this collection wasn’t as noisy as past ones, Goddard is certainly entitled to at least one low-key season every now and then. After all, she’s the designer who helped spark the current rage for smocked, ruched and ruffled day wear, and those loose, cozy wrap-me-up-warm knits that feel as uplifting as a mama’s hug.
