The latest in Bath & North East Somerset Council’s long line of up- to-the minute fashions chosen for its Fashion Museum’s prestigious Dress of the Year award has been unveiled in Bath. In 2013 the museum asked celebrated fashion blogger Susanna Lau of http://www.stylebubble.com to make the selection.
Susanna’s choice as Dress of the Year 2013 is a sugar pink silk organza dress from leading British designer Christopher Kane’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection. The on-the-knee sleeveless dress is embellished with cut-out white machine-made lace panels to which are affixed jewelled roundels, made up of hundreds of tiny pink diamantes. Strips of black duct tape are attached all over the front of the garment – a bold heavy detail against the delicacy, lightness, and brightness of the dress.
Susanna has completed the Dress of the Year ensemble with a pair of hot pink and black ‘Liquorice Allsorts’ striped stiletto heel sandals by Sophia Webster, and a cartoon character pink canvas cap by Nasir Mazhar.
Susannah Lau said: “I chose Christopher Kane’s dress because, to me, he is one of the most exciting and brilliant designers to have emerged from London Fashion Week. He manages to take the most unexpected elements and make them work in collections that then define seasons. The Spring/Summer 2013 season saw Kane take on Frankenstein – crystals, black gaffer tape and white lace shouldn’t sit well with one another but the juxtaposition somehow come off as harmonious.
“To accompany the dress I have also chosen young accessories designers who have also contributed to London ‘s rise – unconventional milliner Nasir Mazhar who has segued into street-inspired ready to wear and quirky shoe designer Sophia Webster.”
Councillor Ben Stevens (Lib-Dem, Widcombe), Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, said: “Fashion journalism is changing, with on-line content and images as important nowadays as print media, and Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Fashion Museum is keen to reflect this in the Dress of Year award.
“We are thrilled that Susanna agreed to make the selection – she is one of the UK’s leading fashion bloggers, with over a quarter of a million followers on Twitter @susiebubble, and as such is both up to the minute and in tune not only with fashion, but also with the way that style and changing fashions are communicated to a global readership.The Dress of the Year award relies on this insider knowledge and expertise, and we are grateful to Susanna for the careful thought with which she has approached the selection for posterity for the Fashion Museum.”
Scottish-born Christopher Kane, who picked up the Designer of the Year award in 2013 at the recent British Fashion Awards said: “It’s a huge honour to be selected for the Dress of the Year award at the Fashion Museum in Bath, the dress means so much to me. It’s a really good mixture of both tough and sweet. It’s a remarkable dress chosen by a remarkable woman.”
When his Spring/Summer 2013 collection was unveiled at London Fashion Week an exhibition dedicated to Punk was being assembled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The original punk aesthetic showcased a mix of synthetic fabrics including plastic, PVC and rubber and purposefully damaged and destroyed finishing. And Kane is a designer who likes to question the notion of what is considered chic and push fashion forward.
Fashion Museum Manager Rosemary Harden commented: “This choice is all about personal styling and the way that a fashion look could be put together in 2013. No-one shows this better than Susanna on her blog, where she posts self-styled images of herself wearing the clothes that she’s writing about. Therefore we’re displaying this ensemble on a mannequin which has been especially donated, and styled to look like Susannah, by leading manufacturer Rootstein Display Mannequins.”
The Fashion Museum is grateful to Susanna Lau, Christopher Kane, Sophia Webber, Nasir Mazhar, and Rootstein Display Mannequins for their generous support.
The Dress of the Year is on display at the Fashion Museum throughout 2014. The Fashion Museum is open daily from 10.30am to 4pm (exit 5pm). For more information visit http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk or call 01225 477789.
