Date published: 2026-10-08 | Category: Heritage
Fashion Museum Bath and Bath & North East Somerset Council have revealed the Dress of the Year 2025 selections: a striking acid-yellow dress from Sarah Burton's debut for Givenchy and a softly tailored three-piece suit from Giorgio Armani's final collection.
Chosen by The Guardian's Associate Editor for Fashion, Jess Cartner-Morley, the two looks capture a significant moment in fashion history. One marks the beginning of a major new creative chapter for a historic couture house; the other celebrates the legacy of one of the most influential designers of the modern era.
Every year since Fashion Museum Bath was established in 1963, a leading figure from the fashion industry has been invited to select the outfit that best captures the mood, spirit and direction of fashion in the previous year. The chosen designs are then added to the Museum's internationally significant collection which Bath & North East Somerset Council cares for on behalf of residents and visitors alike. The collection forms part of the Council's wider commitment to preserving Bath's cultural heritage while investing in its future as a world-class cultural destination.
For 2025, Jess Cartner-Morley has selected work by French and Italian design houses.
The womenswear selection is Look 11 from Sarah Burton's debut Autumn/Winter 2025 ready-to-wear collection for Givenchy, unveiled during Paris Fashion Week in March 2025. The look features an acid-yellow knitted mesh dress worn over lingerie-inspired foundations and styled with sculptural crystal earrings and black patent leather boots.
Burton's arrival at Givenchy was one of the most anticipated fashion moments in 2025. After a career spent at Alexander McQueen, first working alongside founder Alexander ‘Lee’ McQueen and later leading the house as Creative Director, her appointment signalled an exciting new chapter for both designer and one of fashion’s most historic couture houses.
Drawing on the spirit of Hubert de Givenchy's iconic couture dresses, Burton reimagined the 1950s silhouette through experimental knit techniques that expose the foundations of the garment and place the female form at its centre. The look reflects the sheer and "naked dressing" trend that dominated catwalks and red carpets throughout 2025, while offering a distinctly modern perspective on femininity from one of the few women leading a major luxury fashion house.
The menswear selection is Look 6 from Giorgio Armani's Spring/Summer 2026 ready to wear collection, presented in Milan in June 2025. The look appeared on the catwalk again in September as part of the womenswear show held at the Pinacoteca di Brera museum. Consisting of a softly tailored navy jacket, waistcoat and trousers worn with a rope belt and suede sandals, the ensemble embodies the relaxed elegance that defined Armani's career.
The collection holds particular significance as the final body of work personally overseen by Armani before his death in September 2025, during the 50th anniversary year of the brand he founded in 1975.
For five decades, Armani reshaped modern tailoring, replacing rigid structures with fluid silhouettes that redefined ideas of elegance, power and masculinity. The selected look is a fitting reflection of that legacy: understated, effortless and meticulously refined.
Jess Cartner-Morley explained her selections:
“I am proud, honoured and excited to be this year’s selector. Dress of the Year is a fabulous tradition of smart, accessible visual storytelling and I jumped at the opportunity to contribute.
Making my selections has been a highlight of this year - and one of its most high-pressure assignments. How to choose just one or two looks from a year that saw incredible fashion everywhere from Naomi Osaka’s tennis looks to Charli XCX in McQueen at Glastonbury to the world’s catwalks and the Hollywood red carpets?
An obsession with bodily perfection pervades every aspect of contemporary life, from a media landscape that is shifting from words to video, to the mainstreaming of cosmetic surgery, to the ever more central role of sport in popular culture. Givenchy’s daffodil yellow mesh dress, with its focus on the body, speaks to this plotline in an elegant, joyful tone. Sarah Burton is an extraordinary talent and has given so much to British fashion, and I want to celebrate her.
The loss of Giorgio Armani in 2025 was a defining moment for fashion. Armani was one of the great innovators of modern design, with a distinctive relaxed, minimalist style that both not only read the zeitgeist, but also helped to shape it. This look, part of the last collection Armani designed, and seen on the catwalk just weeks after his death, has an understated but powerful presence that captures the Armani spirit.”
Elisabeth Murray, Senior Curator at Fashion Museum Bath, said:
"This year’s selection by Jess Cartner-Morley captures two significant and poignant moments in fashion in 2025: the highly anticipated debut collection of Sarah Burton at Givenchy, and the close of an era at Armani following the sad passing of Giorgio Armani. We’re delighted to welcome these looks into the Fashion Museum Bath’s Dress of the Year collection as records of these moments. Since 1963, Dress of the Year has provided a snapshot of the key fashion moments, ideas and conversations of its time, creating a unique record of fashion history as it unfolds.”
As Bath & North East Somerset Council progresses plans for the Fashion Museum's new home in Bath's Old Post Office, the Dress of the Year programme continues to ensure the collection remains a living record of contemporary fashion.
Councillor Paul Roper, Cabinet Member for Economic and Cultural Sustainable Development, said:
"The Dress of the Year programme highlights the international reach of the Fashion Museum Bath Collection and its unique role in documenting the story of fashion as it unfolds. Adding these significant designs by Sarah Burton for Givenchy and Giorgio Armani further strengthens a collection of global importance, ensuring that when the new Fashion Museum opens in 2030, visitors will be able to experience contemporary fashion alongside some of the finest historic dress collections in the world."
The Dress of the Year initiative was established by Fashion Museum Bath founder Doris Langley Moore to create a year-by-year record of contemporary fashion. Today, it is one of the world's longest-running records of changing tastes, styles and cultural moments, capturing the evolution of fashion from 1963 to the present day.
Among previous selections are designs by Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Donatella Versace, Gareth Pugh, Simone Rocha, Bianca Saunders, Gucci and UNDERCOVER. Over the decades, the Fashion Museum has invited some of fashion's most influential editors, stylists, designers and commentators to make the annual selection, creating a unique record of fashion history as it happens.
The Dress of the Year 2025 selections will join the Fashion Museum Bath Collection ahead of the museum's reopening in its new home at Bath's Old Post Office in 2030. Led by Bath & North East Somerset Council, with funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the West of England Combined Mayoral Authority, and the Clore Duffield Foundation the project will secure the future of the internationally significant collection and create a landmark cultural destination in the heart of the city, connecting new audiences with more than 400 years of fashion history.
The Dress of the Year 2025 can be viewed online at https://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/dress-year-2025