Fashion Museum Bath holds one of the world’s greatest fashion collections. Each year the collection is kept up to date with the addition of the Dress of the Year: a standout outfit selected by an industry expert to capture the mood and trends of the past year in fashion. 2023 marks 60 years of Dress of the Year, making these selections especially significant.
Caroline Rush's selection of Bianca Saunders and Simone Rocha for the 2023 Dress of the Year highlights the exceptional creative talent emerging from the UK. As alumni of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN scheme, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023, their designs showcase the diversity and strength of British fashion.
Bianca Saunders’ bold menswear look of a colourful belted coat, shirt and twisted seam trousers was specially commissioned for The Missing Thread: Untold Stories of Black British Fashion exhibition at Somerset House in 2023. Inspired by the work of Trinidadian textile artist Althea McNish (1924-2020), one of the first designers of African-Caribbean descent to receive international recognition, Saunders created the three-piece ensemble using her own screen-printed design featuring the natural scenes and plants found near her home in southeast London.
Simone Rocha’s delicate silk and tulle gown, embroidered with large green sequinned daisies, stunned on the runway as part of her Spring/Summer 2023 collection. A reaction to ‘distress, digging deep, and digging the earth’, the collection was ‘very much harnessing a feeling’ and saw feminine ruffles juxtaposed with utility-style strapping and Rocha’s signature floral embroidery. Simone Rocha explains ‘Physically the collection had strapping and harnessing running through the garments to create a tension with the femininity which you can see in this look threaded through the gloves’.
Together the chosen designs encapsulate the innovation, creativity, and craftsmanship that define British fashion today.
Speaking of her choices, Caroline Rush CBE explains: “I am so honoured to have been tasked with choosing the Fashion Museum Bath Dress of The Year 2023, especially as it was the year that the British Fashion Council celebrated 30 years of NEWGEN, our world-renowned designer support scheme. We were delighted to select two female designers who have carved out distinct paths in the industry.
Bianca’s designs are deeply rooted in her personal British Caribbean identity with her work exploring nuances between traditional tailoring and modern design. With the look I’ve selected, Bianca recreates her own work in a unique and creative way. With Simone’s work you might expect something ultra feminine but actually it’s got a sense of punk-like darkness to it. As a woman, the dress I’ve selected instils a sense of attitude and confidence in you.”
Fashion Museum Bath’s collection includes over 100,000 objects, spanning 500 years of fashion, from the 1600s to today. The Dress of the Year initiative, conceived by Fashion Museum Bath’s founder Doris Langley Moore, has been a cornerstone of the Museum’s collection since 1963.
Over the past six decades, the Dress of the Year collection has grown into one of the most significant and unique collections of contemporary fashion, featuring names such as Ossie Clark, Jean Muir, Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace, Alexander McQueen, and Vivienne Westwood. As the Dress of the Year collection marks its 60th anniversary, the 2023 selections continue this legacy.
Elisabeth Murray, Senior Curator at Fashion Museum Bath, comments: “The Dress of the Year collection showcases some of the best of fashion from the last 60 years and is a foundational part of the Fashion Museum Bath’s collection.
We’re delighted to have worked with Caroline Rush on this year’s selection and excited to add new work by leading designers Simone Rocha and Bianca Saunders to the collection. Through their work and practice the designers exemplify innovative, cutting-edge contemporary fashion design, which will be an inspiration to future generations. Our ever-growing collection is at heart of the Fashion Museum Bath, and central to our development of the new Museum at the Old Post Office”
The announcement of Dress of the Year comes as Fashion Museum Bath prepares for the next chapter in its own history, with planning underway for a new fashion museum in Bath anticipated to reopen in 2030. The museum will explore the past, present and future of fashion, extending the reach and reputation of the internationally respected fashion collection, which is exhibited worldwide.
The collection is currently being housed in heritage glove maker Dents' headquarters in Warminster, with highlights from the vast collection – including the Dress of the Year – available to view online and on display on loan at other museums.
Councillor Paul Roper, Cabinet Member for Economic & Cultural Sustainable Development, said: “Fashion Museum Bath's extraordinary collection was originally gifted to the city in the 1950s and continues to grow today with the addition of these two exceptional outfits: working with such well-regarded designers and experts is testament to the museum’s importance within the industry. Promoting and supporting new fashion talent is an important part of our plans for the new Fashion Museum, which in turn is at the heart of our vision for Bath as a vibrant fashion focussed destination.”
