When Stella McCartney chose Kate Moss to model a thigh-skimming version of her “optical illusion” dress at the launch of her one-off evening collection, unveiled during London Fashion Week last season, even she couldn't have predicted how successful it would become.
With a host of celebrity fans (Katherine Jenkins wore the full-length version to last night’s GQ Awards while Victoria Pendleton wore a style which was cut to the knee), the little black number is undoubtedly the dress of the season, if not the entire year.
Recognisable by its cutaway side panels - you’ll have to be in Olympian form to carry off this barely-there creation - the dress has suffered from a host of copycat attacks courtesy of the British High Street, which seems determined to make the dress, or a watered-down version of it, its own. Approach imitations at your peril.
