The boy is back in town

Scoop Publishing | 07 Jan 2010

It’s the question that has the Australian fashion industry abuzz. Why has Timothy Godbold, the Perth-born former senior designer of Ralph Lauren’s exclusive women’s wear collections chosen to return to Australia to establish his own high-end fashion label? And why, for that matter, has he chosen to establish it in Perth?

But for Timothy who has notched up over 19 years designing for luxury American brands, it is the realisation of a life-long dream. “I’ve known since I was 14 that one day I needed to have my own brand,” says Timothy. “Australia is a beautiful country and I love Sydney and Melbourne, but there is just something I really love about Perth, I guess because it was always my home. I feel there is a complete rightness to establishing it here.”

There’s an unmistakable sense of “rightness”, too, to his elegant, understated, clothes. His inaugural summer collection, consisting of 14 flowing, almost fluid, looks shaped exclusively from jersey fabric in tones of ivory and oyster and indigo, is like a breath of cool fresh air on the local fashion scene and has already been championed by Vogue Australia. Timothy himself describes it as “a palate cleanser”.

“It’s like the sorbet before the next course. I needed to clear my palate of everything I had ever learned and start afresh. It’s about hope, a new horizon.” Indeed even as his summer designs hit select national outlets last month, his winter collection or “second course” was wooing buyers across the country with masterly uncluttered lines, and a level of seamsmanship and detailing second to none.

Driven by a desire to create timeless clothes and forge a global lifestyle brand of uncompromising quality and style, Timothy is clearly not a man for frills or clutter. He admits to being more inspired by architecture and the aesthetic of science fiction films than he is by current fashion trends.

“I just don’t want my clothes to age,” he says. He even prefers to avoid looking at fashion magazines because “fast fashion”, as he calls it, “just hits you over the heard with a hammer. If everyone else is doing it, why would I do it? To me pack mentality is extremely dangerous so I shy away from that.”

“Even as a child growing up in Kalamunda, Timothy insists he “was never part of the pack.” From an early age, he planned to follow his father into architecture. But at 14 he discovered new wave British fashion and his fate was sealed. After graduating from Bentley Tech with a BA in Fashion Design he bought a one-way ticket to London. He knocked on Ralph Lauren’s doors and within two hours was hired to sell on the floor. Within 24 hours knew what he wanted to do for the next part of his life. “I just said to myself I’m going to be a designer one day for Ralph Lauren. So I just worked my way up the ladder.”

It took him six years to work his way to the company’s flagship Madison Avenue store and a further two years to reach the design team. He was made associate designer and product manager of Lauren’s exclusive Black Label in 1997, then a year later became its senior designer before becoming senior designer of the company’s highest end Purple Label women’s collection.

But after 16 years with the company he felt stifled by the corporate culture. “It was a great experience, I can’t say enough good things about that company, but I needed more” A stint as design director of the St John luxury couture label helped complete the puzzle for him. “I discovered the world of knit, what it can do, and how perfect it is for the modern women, just the drape of it.”

But by the time the financial crisis hit last year, he had become fully disillusioned with the regimented corporate approach to design that typifies the big American brands. Having just turned 40 he decided to trade the northern winter for a break in the Perth summer with his family. A week later a girlfriend asked him to sketch a couple of designs for her to wear to a wedding. He not only sketched up eight designs, but drafted the patterns and sewed them in a jersey fabric he bought himself. Then the penny dropped. He realised he’d finally found the key to establishing his own label.

Never one to waste time or opportunities, in April this year he went back to New York to pack up and was back in Perth to present his inaugural summer collection in August. “From the very beginning,” he says, “things just fell into place. “I can sense the hope here in Australia that has evaporated in America.“I’m very excited about the future here, I see a lot of optimism and opportunity,” he adds. “I can see the horizon here.”

For stockists see timothygodbold.com.au.