Dress of the Year 2009 announced at Bath’s Fashion Museum

Bath’s Fashion Museum has announced its Dress of the Year 2009 – selected annually by a top fashion expert every year since the museum opened in 1963.

Lucy Yeomans, editor of the glossy fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar, has chosen a dress designed by Antonio Berardi for the coveted title.

The dress, worn by Gwyneth Paltrow for the premiere of her film Two Lovers in Paris in November 2008, is a black and white trompe l’oeil corset dress featuring lace panelling.  The combination of the graphic monochromatic look and body conscious silhouette (two of the biggest trends of 2009) make it a front runner in the fashion stakes, but the dress also pre-empted the vogue for see-through, underwear-as-outerwear looks that have been paraded on the international catwalks for Spring/Summer 2010.

Born in the UK to Sicilian parents, Berardi originally began his career in the mid-1990s showing at London Fashion Week under the Cool Britannia banner. The talented Central Saint Martin’s graduate helped put London back on the fashion map as part of a triumvirate along with Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan. The trio rocked the world with their individual, flamboyant and fantastical fashion designs.

The Dress of the Year is currently on display at the Fashion Museum at the Assembly Rooms, Bath.  The museum is open daily 10.30am -4.00pm, exit 5pm.  For more information, visit www.fashionmuseum.co.uk