DRESS of the YEAR 2012
15 April 2013
Celebrating 50 years of the
Fashion Museum in Bath 1963 - 2013
The 50th Dress of the Year,
which has been selected by Vanessa Friedman, Fashion Editor of
The Financial Times, is a colourful embroidered and
appliqued silk cut-off ballgown worn with black slim trousers from
the House of Dior in Paris.
This haute couture ensemble was created by
Dior’s new head designer Raf Simons, who took over
at the world’s oldest established fashion house last year to much
acclaim. His debut was the most anticipated fashion moment of
2012.
The silk strapless cut-off ballgown is
covered with a layer of fine tulle onto which is embroidered and
appliqued bunches of pale blue and pink blooms, highlighting
Christian Dior’s own obsession with flowers. The embroideries
feature tiny silk petals, pearls, gemstones and metallic thread,
all sewn by hand in the couture workroom.
The dress has an integral corset and
bustier along with a silk tulle mini-petticoat, which can be seen
through a split at the front. The flared hip silhouette of the
dress has been taken from an original pattern of a ballgown in the
Dior Archive; the original silhouette is sliced to form a short
dress or top to be worn over the simple black cigarette pants.
The look is accessorised with a pair of
kitten heel black pointed sandals and a net veil designed by
milliner Stephen Jones.
Selector - Vanessa Friedman said: “This dress,
or rather [this] evolution of the dress, from Raf Simons's first
couture show for Christian Dior, represents not just a generational
shift in fashion – the moment when a new designer took over at the
ultimate French couture house – but also an aesthetic new
direction. It signals a move away from the most escapist, extreme
garments of the fin de siecle and toward a new 21st century,
post-recession balance that blends functionality with fantasy,
while at the same time returning to the essential values of the
couture: making women's lives easier.”
View a full press release
here.
Dress of the Year choices from
1963 to 2012 can be seen
here.
Dress of the Year 2012. By Raf Simons, House of
Dior
Dress of the Year collection in the Fashion
Museum galleries
Mary Quant, Dress of the Year 1963