Molly for Life – Style Bubble

>> I’m still trundling through my Port Eliot pictures but I thought I’d start with the last thing I saw on Sunday before I departed what is still a haven of a festival down in St Germans, Cornwall. Molly Goddard made her Port Eliot debut inside the newly added Theatre of Fashion – an extension to the existing Wardrobe Department in the gardens, to recreate her AW15 life drawing session. Instead of drawing a naked fat George, we were invited to go wild in pastels and charcoals, to try to capture a coterie of Molly’s friends and festival goers in her work – a mix of her past collections going back to her BA work. Unsurprisingly in a crowd as creative as the one that Port Eliot attracts, the results of the life drawing sessions were really quite brilliant. I attempted to reignite my A-level art skills with not much success. It was lovely to see people like Sarah Mower – Port Eliot’s Wardrobe Mistress who was responsible for bringing Molly to the festival – show off her illustration skills.

The brilliant thing about Molly’s dresses is that they magically transform whatever mundane outfit that is going on underneath. Harnessing the transformative properties of tulle, they seem to work better when incorporated with the spirit of the wearer be it their own jewellery, a random t-shirt or a pair of jeans. Hence why Molly also invited people passing by to try on the dresses from a rail, should they wish. Port Eliot provided to most idyllic setting for Molly to showcase what she has been expressing with her offbeat presentations so far – that anyone can wear her clothes and feel special – and that whilst they’re dresses of giant volumes, oodles of handiwork and often in bright hues of pink or coral – you can wear them in a completely unprecious way. As a constantly rotating cast of girls moved in and out of the hay bale set-up, you could see that tomboys, princesses and everyone in between can have their Molly moment in the sun.