Fashion Museum Bath announces Dress of the Year 2022 selector

One of the UK’s top magazine editors will select the Fashion Museum Bath’s Dress of the Year 2022.

Each year, the Fashion Museum invites a respected expert from the fashion industry to select a Dress of the Year that encapsulates the prevailing mood of fashion, represents the past year and captures the imagination. The chosen design becomes part of the Museum’s world-class collection.

The Fashion Museum today announced that Kenya Hunt, Editor-in-Chief of ELLE UK, will select the winning outfit for 2022.

Kenya Hunt said: “It’s an honour to join a long list of admired editors and image-makers in selecting the Dress of the Year. And what a year to be asked to do it! 2022 proved to be a particularly pivotal one for all of us – culturally, socially and politically. It’s been a year in which fashion spoke volumes.”

Previous selectors have included a wide range of leaders in the fashion industry, from senior fashion editors to ground-breaking stylists, to those that have changed the face of fashion retail: Hamish Bowles (US Vogue), Susanna Lau (@susiebubble), Grace Coddington (Vogue), Suzy Menkes (The Times).

Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager, said: “We are thrilled that Kenya Hunt has accepted our invitation to select the Dress of the Year 2022. Kenya is a visionary fashion editor and a leading voice in fashion today, advocating for greater diversity within the industry. The Dress of the Year has always been about cutting-edge fashion, noting trends and picking up on the zeitgeist. We are so pleased therefore that Kenya’s choice will join the Dress of the Year collection, reflecting the mood of 2022.”

Kevin Guy, Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council, added: “As the Fashion Museum looks towards its future, and the Milsom Quarter Masterplan, it is key that the Museum keeps up to date with the mood of the moment in fashion. Kenya is an international authority on style and at the helm of a much more honest and expansive view of fashion and beauty. We are delighted that she has agreed to choose our Dress of the Year 2022 and are looking forward to a great selection!”

Hunt’s career spans working for some of the world's most influential women’s titles on both sides of the Atlantic. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Essence, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Refinery29, The Evening Standard and other publications. And she has made a number of appearances on BBC Woman’s Hour, Sky News and more.

As the founder of R.O.O.M. Mentoring, she advocates for greater diversity within the fashion industry by providing a supportive network for some of the many talented aspiring designers, journalists and image makers of colour London has to offer. In 2021, she was recognised by The British Fashion Council for her work and awarded a Global Leader Of Change Award. Her critically acclaimed book, Girl: Essays on Black Womanhood (HarperCollins/HQ), is out now. An American based in London, she lives south of the river with her husband and two sons. 

The Dress of the Year 2022 will be revealed this spring in an exciting digital announcement, and the chosen ensemble will be available to view online via the Fashion Museum website and social media channels.

The Fashion Museum recently left its home of 60 years in Bath’s Assembly Rooms, and will be reopening in the Old Post Office in the centre of Bath. A new Fashion Collection Archive is also being created in the west of the city to house the collection, in partnership with Bath Spa University. This ambitious new project will create a wonderful new home for this world-class collection of fashionable dress and will allow the Museum to tell more stories and engage with more people than ever before.

For more about the Fashion Museum’s relocation, visit www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/our-future. For more about the Milsom Quarter Masterplan, visit beta.bathnes.gov.uk/milsom-quarter.