Even in 2015, a year in which gender fluidity and the respective arenas have gained prominence across the media and gender neutral dress has turned commercial within the fashion industry, that Craig Green has picked up ‘Dress of the Year’ is big news.
An annual event from the Fashion Museum in Bath, this is the first year menswear has picked up the prize: last year mega stylist Katie Grand chose Gareth Pugh AW14, in 2013 Susie Bubble tapped a summer look from Christopher Kane; this year Topman’s Creative Director Gordon Richardson selected Green.
“My choice of Craig Green as the designer of Dress of the Year 2015 was in some respects incredibly straightforward,” he explains. “Modern contemporary designs do not get any better than this. There’s a deliberately simple and somewhat austere element to his work that results in beautiful, sparse clothes that transcend gender so effortlessly.”
Awarded annually to an outfit that ‘encapsulates the prevailing mood of fashion, represents the past year and captures the zeitgeist or imagination’ (and chosen by an esteemed member of the industry), the winning look will be available for members of the public to glimpse throughout December up until 3rd January; in Green’s case this is two outfits from his SS15 collection, the designer’s solo debut that famously brought tears to several audience members at his show.
“It is an incredible honour to have been selected,” says Craig. “Many of the previous winners are design heroes of mine from a very young age, so to even be listed in the same list as them is surreal. To be named as the first menswear recipient is an amazing compliment.”
“(The strong blue colour),” he continues of the collection, “was reactionary to the seasons previous. The use of colour in those seasons was quite extreme, used within multi-tonal prints. For the SS15 season the focus was more on one single colour and the tone of the electric blue fitted the energy of the collection.”
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