Five new dresses of the year
Five New Dresses of the Year unveiled at the Fashion
Museum
May 09
New selections for Bath and North East
Somerset Council’s Fashion Museum’s famous Dress of the
Year scheme will be revealed on Saturday 2 May 2009.
“We have five fantastic new Dresses of the
Year to show to visitors this summer, and we are thrilled with
every single one. This is fashion heaven!” said Fashion Museum
Manager, Rosemary Harden.
The Dress of the Year collection at the Museum
features work by the great names of fashion in the last 40 years or
so, including Mary Quant, Jean Muir, John Galliano and Versace.
The Dress of the Year scheme began in 1963
when the then Museum of Costume opened in Bath. Each year the
Fashion Museum asks a fashion expert to choose their top fashion
outfit or look of the year for the collection. The Dress of the
Year collection now numbers over 50 pieces, along with
show-stopping accessories, and this summer the museum is presenting
a special edited display of previous selections to go alongside the
new choices.
The display includes the very first Dress of
the Year, a grey flannel button-through pinafore dress by Mary
Quant from 1963, chosen by The Fashion Writers’ Association.
But the first exhibit that visitors will see
when they come in to the Fashion Museum galleries is the selection
for Dress of the Year 2008, chosen by TV’s Paula Reed, who is also
Style Director of award-winning Grazia magazine. Paula has
made a special selection of two ‘linked’ dresses: a navy blue and
gold star trouser ensemble by KARL LAGERFELD for CHANEL, which was
worn by Kate Moss to her 34th birthday party in 2008;
and a button through polka dot dress with 1940s / 1970s shoulder
pads by KATE MOSS for TOPSHOP.
Paula commented: “I was absolutely thrilled to
be asked to nominate the Dress of the Year 2008 for the Museum of
Bath. I have such a special memory of that place. It was there that
I first met Karl Lagerfeld when he came in 1993 after Liz Tilberis,
then the editor of British Vogue, had chosen a Chanel suit for the
collection. It’s taken me 16 years to earn the honour, but I have
finally made it. And the fact that the collection is in it
45th year makes it even more special.
“So, for the latest inclusion, something
extremely special had to be found. And, for the first time the
museum has agreed to feature two pieces”.
”I have nominated these pieces in an effort to sum up the best of
2008 in all its mad, memorable, and eclectic brilliance”.
The Dress of the Year 2007 has been chosen by
fashion writer Hywel Davies. Hywel’s choice is GILES‘ Troubadour
Dress from Autumn / Winter 2007. It’s an orange double Duchesse
silk satin dress, with a huge orange scarf made of roving yarn and
stitched with huge knitting needles, similar to broomsticks! The
shoes that go with the ensemble are by Gina and are decorated with
dark green / black curled cock feathers.
Selector Hywel Davies commented, “The Giles
dress was a beacon for edgy and contemporary fashion in 2007. The
whole look encapsulated Giles’s directional use of layering and
experimentation with silhouette and proportion. The over-sized knit
wrap was also highly influential and fuelled a medley of copy-cat
incarnations”.
Dress of the Year 2006 is the choice of
eminent fashion journalist Sarah Mower, who has revolutionised
fashion reporting with her catwalk reports from the international
collections for http://www.style.com/. The selection
for 2006 is PRADA, an olive green urban-style coat with fur patch
pockets, worn with sensational platform stack brown leather
shoes.
Lucinda Chambers, Fashion Director of
Vogue has chosen the Dress of the Year 2003. The outfit by
MARNI combines print, colour and utilitarian style that
encapsulated the bohemian moment popularised by Sienna Miller.
All of the Dress of the Year mannequins since
1963 have been provided by Adel Rootstein Display Mannequins. The
mannequins for the display in summer 2009 have been styled by Iain
R Webb, who has acted as consultant on the show.
ENDS
For more information contact:
Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager on 01225 477282 oe email:
rosemary_harden@bathnes.gov.uk
For more images contact:
Maggie Bone, Museums Publicity Officer on 01225 477736, or email:
maggie_bone@bathnes.gov.uk
Iain R Webb is Professor
of Fashion at Central Saint Martin’s and an award-winning fashion
writer. His latest book is Bill Gibb: Fashion and Fantasy
and his forthcoming book on 1960s fashion designer Foale and Tuffin
will be published in autumn 2009. He works as a consultant at
the Fashion Museum in Bath.