Dress of the Year Announced by Fashion Museum in Bath

Bath & North East Somerset Council?s Fashion Museum has announced that the Dress of the Year for 2014 is by Gareth Pugh, one of the most celebrated fashion designers working in Britain today.

Chosen for the museum by Katie Grand, Editor-in-Chief of LOVE magazine and a major name in fashion today, the 2014 Dress of the Year positions the Fashion Museum as a showcase for the most exciting and innovative contemporary fashion. 

Ms Grand’s choice as Dress of the Year 2014 is a super-sized structural ensemble made of plastic sheeting, shown at Gareth Pugh’s Autumn/Winter 2014 collection.  The look - called Look 41- is a plastic coat and wrap ensemble, tied with a kimono-style belt. It is completed with a pair of twisted cream calico trousers that morph into boots, and an elastic hair net.

Gareth Pugh (born 1981) graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2003 and is known for his experimentation with form and volume, creating sculptural clothes that playfully call into question the traditional notions of the body. Now backed by American fashion design Rick Owens, the winning voluminous and inflated ensemble formed a magnificent finale to the Autumn/Winter 2014 collection and chimes with finding and fashioning beauty in non-traditional and unlikely places. Pugh's collection, which also featured ensembles created from calico, interfacing and wadding, highlights fashion's current fascination with process and craft.

He said: “It's an honour that Katie Grand has selected one of my outfits to represent the Dress of the Year 2014. I'm particularly delighted that the look that she has chosen - the finale from my Autumn/Winter 2014 show - is emblematic of what was an incredibly important season to me personally. This look was created in a moment where I had decided to hit the reset button and re-examine what it was that inspired me when I was starting out, so the entire process was about stripping everything back to the bare necessities and simply celebrating the idea that you can create something from nothing. With this is mind, it's wonderful to see it being displayed at the Fashion Museum in Bath, included in a collection of such cultural significance.”

Katie Grand says: “I'm delighted to have been asked to select the Dress of the Year and to me Gareth's plastic dress sums up 2014.  I like the idea of how fancy and complex the dress is in structure, yet made of something so disposable.  I had a super time photographing this with David Sims for Love 12; it was so easy as it gives a couture silhouette yet is 'punk', it's Edwardian, forties, seventies and two thousands all at the same time.  It is familiar in its historical references yet utterly new in its execution.”

Fashion Museum Manager Rosemary Harden commented: “The Fashion Museum is a world-class museum collection located in a World Heritage City, and the 2014 Dress of the Year places us firmly in cutting edge fashion in Britain today. In a sense, we are doubly fortunate; both Gareth Pugh and Katie Grand are towering figures in the industry today, and we are thrilled and delighted that through their support and generosity the Fashion Museum is able to step up to the plate and present the very best of directional contemporary fashion - and fashion thinking - to the 90,000 plus visitors who come to the Fashion Museum in Bath every year.” 

The Dress of the Year is now on display at the Fashion Museum and will remain on display throughout 2015. The Fashion Museum is open daily from 10.30am to 5pm (exit 6pm).

For more information visit www.fashionmuseum.co.uk or call 01225 477789.