Topman Director to choose Dress of the Year.

Gordon Richardson, Creative Director at Topman, is to select the Fashion Museum’s Dress of the Year for 2015.

Gordon Richardson.

Each year, the Fashion Museum Bath invites a fashion luminary to select an outfit that they feel encapsulates the prevailing mood of fashion, represents the past year and captures the zeitgeist or imagination. The outfit then goes on display at the museum and becomes part of its world-class collection. The Dress of the Year 2015 will be unveiled on December 3.

“We are excited that Gordon has agreed to select the Dress of the Year 2015,” said Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager. “The choice of this year’s selector recognises that this is such an important moment for menswear.

“With his involvement in MAN and ‘London Collections Men’ Gordon has been instrumental in kick-starting the careers of many of Britain’s most directional menswear designers, who are acclaimed the world over. We are intrigued to see what he’s going to choose.”

Gordon Richardson said: “I am so honoured to have been asked to select the next Dress of the Year. With so many talented young designers producing exciting, challenging clothes it was no easy task to select one to represent the best of international fashion design right now.”

The Fashion Museum is run by Bath & North East Somerset Council. Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones (Conservative, Lansdown), the Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said: “It’s great news that such an influential name from the fashion world has agreed to select this year’s Dress of the Year. Local residents will be able to see his selection for free at the Fashion Museum when they show a Discovery Card.”

For Your Information:

Look 41 – By Gareth Pugh – 2014 Dress of the Year.

The Dress of the Year Collection was launched in 1963 by Doris Langley Moore, founder of the Fashion Museum Bath. Dress of the Year 1963, chosen by the Fashion Writers’ Association, was a grey wool dress and cream blouse by Mary Quant. Other feted designers featured include Ossie Clark, Kenzo Takada, Missoni, Calvin Klein, Muiccia Prada, Karl Lagerfeld (for Chloe and Chanel), Alexander McQueen, Tom Ford and Raf Simons. Dress of the Year 2014 was a plastic three-piece ensemble by Gareth Pugh, selected by LOVE editor Katie Grand.

While the selector of the Dress of the Year is for the most part a journalist or stylist, Richardson is not the first retail expert to select the Dress of the Year. In 1990 Joan Burstein, owner of Browns luxury boutique, chose a glamorous velvet trouser suit by Italian designer Romeo Gigli, while in 2010 milliner Stephen Jones selected a raw-edged silk gown by Vivienne Westwood. The roll call of selectors provides a fascinating picture of the wider, ever-changing fashion industry. A full listing of the Dress of the Year collection can be viewed at http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/galleries/dress-year.

The Dress of the Year 2015 will be on display from 3 December 2015 to 3 January 2016. It will then be showcased in a new exhibition at the Fashion Museum from spring 2016.
Tickets for the Fashion Museum cost £8.25 adults/£7.25 concessions/£6.25 children/£24 families. Entry is free for local Discovery Card holders.

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