Kate's dress has designs on prize

Kate Middleton's wedding dress, the Olympic torch and a pop-up cinema under a motorway in Hackney are among contenders for the Design of the Year announced today.

Nearly 90 nominations for the annual contest organised by the Design Museum have been submitted.

Fashion writer Sarah Mower, who nominated the Duchess of Cambridge's dress, said it caused "a global intake of breath - and an exhalation of dazzled approval".

"Sarah Burton's dress was the best-kept secret in fashion history and a perfectly judged piece of work," she added. The dress will not feature in a Design of the Year exhibition but talks are under way with Clarence House about representing it with an original sketch or samples of the fabric.

Designer Sebastian Conran nominated both the velodrome, by Hopkins Architects, and the Olympic torch by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, which he said was a "stylish honeycomb" which "represents traditional values executed in a modern manner".

The pop-up cinema, Folly for a Fly-over, was constructed last summer in the cavernous undercroft where the A12 crosses the Lea navigational canal.

Other nominations include a new cycling jacket by Brompton Bicycles and Vivienne Westwood's ethical fashion collection, Africa, made from recycled materials by women in Kenya.

An exhibition of contenders runs from February 8 until July 15 and the winner will be announced at a gala night on April 24.

Last year's winner was the Plumen low-energy lightbulb.