Retail Therapy
Eva Mendes & Carrie Underwood follow unlikely fashion designer Jay Godfrey — andyou should too
Jay Godfrey, designerPhoto by Marco Lau
Godfrey's fashion designs are a favorite of celebrities like Eva Mendes.Photo by Michael Thompson
Jay Godfrey's designs almost never happened though.
He set out to study finance, but found that while his peers were reading theWall Street Journal, he was checking out Women's Wear Daily.
Jay Godfrey’s celebrity clientele list reads like the Best Dressed issue of InStyle Magazine. Halle Berry, Eva Mendes, Carrie Underwood and Vanessa Hudgens are among his faithful fashion followers who look to him for their red carpet moments. It’s heady stuff for any designer, but for Godfrey, who was an investment banker in the not too distant past, the meteoric rise speaks to his talent and vision.
Full of Canadian charm and wit, Godfrey tore himself away from his six-week-old daughter Allegra to mix and mingle with women at the annual Women of Wardrobe event at Tootsies. He loves his celebrity clients, but he gets an extra creative boost from trips around the country.
“It’s almost like research, the feedback from clients. Tootsies stores are in the southern half of the U.S. and southern women like to be pretty with lots of color. They are very ladylike, which isn’t that surprising,” Godfrey says. “But the women of Miami like clothes that fit closer to the body.”
It’s ironic that Godfrey has such a clear picture of designing for women since he originally set out to be a menswear designer when he applied to Parsons New School of Design in New York. The fact Godfrey is a designer at all is also amusing, considering he studied finance and was encouraged by his parents to follow a more secure path. Godfrey admits his business acumen is a boost in a creative-heavy industry, but he always knew high finance wasn’t quite for him.
“Everybody was reading the Wall Street Journal and I was reading Women’s Wear Daily," he says. "I was wearing flare pants and had my top button undone. It just wasn’t my passion.”
His Tom Ford photo collage was good enough to get him in Parsons and at age 21 he took his “leap of faith.”
“I wasn’t married, didn’t have a baby and was ready for a life change,” Godfrey says. When he got the call from Eva Mendes (or more likely, her stylist) he was thrilled.
“To have someone of that caliber, it’s the most amazing feeling in the world. For someone to choose to wear my clothes and not be paid to do it, is a big deal these days,” Godfrey says.
Of course, the red carpet game is a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. When Amy Poehler wore his red, one-shouldered gown to the 2010 Golden Globe awards, he didn’t know it until three days before the show.
There’s likely another red carpet stunner in his Fall 2010 collection that is heavy on midnight blues, steely grays and black accents. He ardently follows fashion photography and drew inspiration from Ellen Von Unwerth and Jeanloup Sieff for his moody, color-blocked designs.
Sitting in the contemporary department of Tootsies for a chat, Godfrey looks every bit a designer in dark jeans, a cream tuxedo jacket and carefully mussed hair. The fun of talking with a fashion designer is, you never know where conversation will lead.
“I still idolize Tom Ford," Godfrey says. "I would love to have a dinner party with him and the late Halston. That would be a great dinner."
And then our time was up. Godfrey had more interviews. Such is the life of a talented new designer.
