FIVE new dresses have been added to Bath and North Somerset Council’s Fashion Museum as part of its famous Dress of the Year scheme.
Launched in 1963 to coincide with the then Museum of Costume’s opening, each year a fashion expert is asked to choose their top fashion outfit or look of the year to add to the collection. And this time round, we’ll get to see them as part of a newly opened exhbition.
"We have five fantastic new dresses of the year to show visitors this summer and we are thrilled with every single one. This is fashion heaven," explains the Fashion Museum’s manager Rosemary Harden of the new additions; for 2008, a double fashion whammy with Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel gold star and navy blue trouser ensemble (worn by Kate Moss for her 34th birthday) and a button-through polka dot dress with Forties sculpted shoulder pads by Kate Moss for Topshop (picked by Paula Reed); for 2007, Giles’ orange autumn/winter 2007-8 Troubador dress with accompanying orange scarf (picked by Hywel Davies); for 2006, a Prada olive green coat with fur patch pockets (picked by Sarah Mower); and for 2003, a colourful printed number by Marni – picked by Vogue fashion director Lucinda Chambers.
"This collection seemed really fresh and easy at the time, almost spontaneous as if nothing had been particularly thought out and was layered together in a haphazard way. It seemed so effortless," explains Chambers of her choice, adding: "That is perhaps Marni’s greatest strength: one season never negates the other, it always feels like an evolution."
Styled by Iain R Webb, award-winning fashion writer, consultant to the museum and a professor at Central Saint Martins, the exhibition also features an edited selection from the rest of Dress of the Year collection including the very first Dress of the Year – a grey flannel button-through pinafore dress by Mary Quant chosen by The Fashion Writers’ Association.
"This is a great chance for visitors to the Fashion Museum to see some of the real treasures of the museum collection," adds Harden. The exhibition runs until September 20.