Miu Miu miniskirt wins Dress of the Year award

The micro-pleated, low-waisted skirt worn with a cropped sweater and shirt was popular in 2022

A micro miniskirt that went viral has been chosen as Fashion Museum Bath's Dress of the Year 2022.

An industry expert is asked to choose the standout outfit of the year in the annual competition.

Editor in chief of Elle UK, Kenya Hunt, selected Miu Miu's design as the 2022 winner for its "defining look of that unique post-pandemic period".

The dress will be added to the Fashion Museum's collection of more than 100,000 objects.

The collection is currently housed in Warminster, Wiltshire, while preparations for a new museum site take place. It is one of the world's greatest collections of historical and contemporary dress.

Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum manager, said the Dress of the Year event was important as it keeps the museum collection up to date and "connects with the fashion industry".

Fashion Museum manager Rosemary Harden said the competition is important as it keeps the collection up to date

Ms Hunt said: "The look was inescapable… a brilliant example of the way that fashion and social media worked together and how fashion could go viral".

She said it appealed as the world was reopening following the pandemic and people were "wrapping our heads around the prospect of socialising again and having occasions to dress up for".

She said the dress was "all the things we wanted to be after two years of confinement".

Editor in chief of Elle UK, Kenya Hunt, said the look was "inescapable"

The announcement comes as the museum prepares for the next chapter in its own history, with planning under way for its new home in the Old Post Office in Bath city centre.

Councillor Paul Roper, cabinet member for economic and cultural sustainable development, said the competition celebrates the positive role fashion plays in people's lives.

"As the collection's reputation has grown globally, alongside the team's expertise in restoring and presenting fashion, we have received donations from fashion houses and designers all over the world," he added.

The Dress of the Year competition was launched in 1963 by Doris Langley Moore, founder of the Fashion Museum.

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