Even if you hadn't seen that photo at the top of this article, it's likely that you would have been able to picture Meghan Markle's dress from her Oprah interview last year.
Even if you didn't watch the interview itself, it was all over the news for weeks—and even months—after it aired, such a departure was it from the way things are usually handled in the Royal Family.
Now, big names in fashion are recognizing the impact the segment had on the culture at large, by selecting the Duchess of Sussex' dress from the sit-down chat as "Dress of the Year 2021."
Every year, the Fashion Museum Bath designates someone from the fashion industry to select a dress that they feel encapsulates the moment. This year, it was two people's turn to pick a garment: Dazed magazine’s Ibrahim Kamara and Gareth Wrighton.
They picked the duchess' silk Armani wrap dress, a black number with a floral pattern over one shoulder, because of its... meme-worthiness?
"In today’s hyper-stylised pop culture, the Dress of the Year now has the potential to also be 'meme of the year' and we both latched upon Meghan and Harry’s now iconic interview with Oprah as the definitive anti-establishment moment that will forever endure in the British collective consciousness," the fashion pair said in a press release.
"Meghan’s wrap dress by Armani, worn to showcase a divine pregnancy, framed the Duchess in black against the bountiful landscaping of Tyler Perry’s Hollywood garden. This look now, through sheer association with a viral television moment, is firmly engrained in our pop culture psyche."
The dress—not, like, plucked from the royal's closet, but the same design—will be exhibited in Fashion Museum Bath as part of the exhibition A History of Fashion in 100 Objects.
"This is a fabulous addition to the Fashion Museum collection," Rosemary Harden, the museum's manager, said. "There are moments in history that are all about the dress and Meghan’s interview with Oprah was just such an occasion. The softly structured Armani dress with beautiful appliquéd lotus flower motif was part of a carefully curated look, guaranteed to send messages, and to imprint itself in our consciousness time and time again. Thank you to Ibrahim and Gareth for this landmark selection for the Dress of the Year Collection, and to Armani for most generously gifting the dress to the Museum."
