On March 16, the Radisson-Slavyanskaya hotel played host to the 5th annual, "Dress of the Year" finals sponsored by the Modus VivendiS modeling agency.

"In judging the dresses we paid attention to how much they reflected modern fashion trends as well as the creators’s individual style," defile moderator Svetlana Komissarova said.

The contest is held annually and finals are preceded by preliminaries throughout Russia. More than 1,000 dresses were submitted to the contest this year from various Russian cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Omsk. Thirty dresses, including those by well-known fashion designers such as Alisa Tolkacheva and Maria Tsigal, were chosen for the finals.

The final show included four awards — "avant-garde dress," "evening dress" and "city dress" plus the main prize called the "golden hanger."

Each dress was presented individually. Dress number 14, a creation by fashion designer Galina Myznikova of Nizhni Novgorod, was presented as "absurd athletic style" and involved an ordinary basketball tied to the skirt as a decoration. The model who presented the dress did a spectacular basketball show while moving down the catwalk. The non-traditional solution impressed the jury so much that the dress was awarded a special prize.

The "evening dress" prize went to Muscovite Anna Polukhina, 26, who proved that denim may serve as an excellent material for a formal evening attire. However, her creation seemed more fit more for a stylish nightclub than for a formal French restaurant.

Muscovite Alyona Kalinina, 19, emerged as the winner for the "city dress" category. She presented a clamp-collar jersey dress with a functional apron and side pockets.