Up-and-coming dress designer Molly Goddard recently decided to drop out of her studies at Central Saint Martins and instead throw a school disco in a churchyard during London Fashion Week. There were bowls of homemade punch and buckets of supermarket own-brand beer for everyone there, a Portuguese wedding singer playing his heart out over ’80s pop classics, and 21 of Molly’s oversized prom dresses modelled by her friends and family – including herself and her stylist sister Alice – thus twisting the usual fashion presentation format into something else entirely.
‘We cast mine and my sister’s friends for the show, and wanted them all to feel as comfortable as possible,’ Molly explained to us afterwards. ‘So lots of rum punch and no instructions other than to have fun! It was about the 21 dresses as a whole, at this awkward teenage party.’ On the night, the models were mingling with the mums who were also chatting happily away to the fashion editors; although, in the spirit of youthful awkwardness, there were also groups of boys stood under the white plastic roses not talking to the groups of girls swaying amongst the brown and pink balloons.
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However, enjoyable as all the drunken dancing and maladroit flirting was, it was really the designs and the styling that made this a night to remember. The party dresses that comprise all of Molly’s SS15 collection were overblown confections of lots and lots of heavily gathered tulle in slightly unsavoury shades, such as mustard, plum and ash, playfully paired with black ninja sandals and socks, and sometimes even pulled on over ripped jeans and grungy T-shirts for a super laid-back look. Take it from two young sisters with a fresh take on fashion: sporty shoes, extreme layering and a massive floaty frock are the ideal attire for a fun night out.
We asked Molly for her three secrets of party dressing without looking too prissy, and she suggested ‘something you can dance in, flat shoes, and no handbag’. At her house-leaving party a few months ago, she recalled, she changed three times throughout the night. (‘First floor-length gold sequins, then floor-length bright pink polo neck, then an old pink frilled apron dress, all worn with Nike Cortez. It was so much fun!’) So, one more tip might be to just throw an amazing house party at yours, where your wardrobe’s always close to hand and you can change looks more times than an octopus in Harvey Nicks.
‘Quite a few of the girls in my dresses said the weight and structure of the dresses felt protective and held you in in the right places, which is also a very good thing for a party,’ concluded Molly. However, before she disappeared into the night, we asked her to share one more secret for hostesses who want to have fun… it’s Molly’s Goddard’s rum punch recipe:
1 bottle J Wray & Nephew
1 carton orange juice.
1 carton pineapple juice.
A bit of grenadine.
A good splash of bitters.
Mix everything together and enjoy!
Great dresses and an easy-to-make cocktail. We told you this girl was great.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.