10/11/2013
Oxford Fashion Week Blog
Welcome to the official blog for Oxford Fashion Week 2012! For all enquiries, please email: hello@oxfordfashionweek.com Website / Twitter / Facebook
New York Fashion Week SS14; Hair and Beauty Katherine McNeil, assistant to Carl Anglim, Oxford Fashion Week Director, and stylist extraordinaire shares some of her favourite beauty looks from New York Fashion Week SS14. I’ve always had a passion for hair and beauty from the simple and chic to couture – creating the perfect hair and beauty is essential. New York Fashion Week is packed with some of the finest examples of hair and beauty artistry, here are some of my highlights from the SS14 shows. I am loving the middle parting look and it seems to be all over the shows this season. Rebecca Taylor’s show features that great textured look a little 90’s grunge with a 2013 update.
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Oxford Fashion Week Blog
The runway show, without a doubt, the crowning glory of what was a truly spectacular evening of fabulous fashion!
Review: Dress Up LiveFriday with Oxford Fashion Week On Friday 30 August, the giant blue doors of Oxford’s iconic Ashmolean Museum opened to a fashion hungry crowd. On the last Friday night of each month, the museumhosts special evenings curated by different organisations held amongst its exquisite ancient artefacts and art. blog.oxfordfashionweek.com
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Oxford Fashion Week Blog
Dress Up Live Friday was organised by the Oxford FashionWeek team to bring a fantastic variety of fashion features to the floor. From fashion bloggers to magnificent millinery, fashion debate and discussion to live sketching and upcycling activities there was a whole host of thought provoking exploration segregated across the different floors of the building.
Upon entrance, looking down you could see the beginnings of the live fashion sketching workshop with Dee Andrews whilst taking your gaze upwards you were greeted by the fantastic Window Installation by Exclusive Roots.
So, from floor to floor, this is what Dress Up Live had in store. As you sauntered down the stairs to the lower ground floor, the crowd was gathered around the Live Fashion Sketching with local fashion illustrator Dee Andrews where a queue of elegantly adorned models were lined up to be drawn on a podium in the centre of the floor. There was paper and pencils available for any fashionistas feeling particularly arty. blog.oxfordfashionweek.com
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Oxford Fashion Week Blog
Visitors could join in the discussion at the Ethical Fashion Symposiumin the Lecture Theatre which was then followed by Democracy and Dancing – Dressing up in the 20th Centurywith historian Rae Ritchie. This floor’s other activities and displays included Vogue! Concept Fashion Designs, a live photoshoot with Pheonix Magazine and a journey ‘Around the world with textiles for all’. This fantastic fashion feast was complimented throughout the evening with a range of music in the cafe. Performances from Echo Boomer, The April Maze and The Busketeers were followed by the ticketed Late Night Lock-In gig by Piney Girl.
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Oxford Fashion Week Blog
Making your way back up to the Ground Floor, and there were more treats in store. In the Greek and Roman Sculpture room Louise Pocock displayed her fantastic millinery creations in 'Get a head, Get a hat' with 1920s inspired cloches to trilbies and fascinators. As the constant crowd would agree, this was a popular dress up and photo opportunity location.
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Oxford Fashion Week Blog
Louise uses traditional techniques and textiles to create her magnificent headwear with each piece taking at least a day to build they are priced at around £100-£200 with a priceless amount of love and care included. “I love working with felt and leather using the old methods, traditional methods and vintage styles feels like I’m keeping the art alive.” My favourite was a fuchsia hat with tiny butterflies and flowers attached on delicate wires. There were a number of pieces which had also incorporated fresh flowers from Fabulous Flowers. Oxford University Historian Rae Ritchie, shared a fraction of her collection of vintage magazines, including a Women’s Institute publication, for ‘Advice and Aspiration: Getting Dresses with Women’s Magazines’. This was a particular delight for me with a background in magazines and a love of old editions.
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Oxford Fashion Week Blog
Other features on this floor included Mannequinsa photography display by Rory Carneigie, Clare Farrell from Traid transformed fabrics and old garments into new garments plus clothes and textile recycling with 'Bag It Up' and a showcase of 'Grecian inspired Goddess Dress' by Julian Mallaby. On the first floor you after I was greeted by the Exclusive Roots and Indigo window display of super stylish models posing and dancing. I headed to the Style Blogger Showcase. The 'What's Hot?' showcase presented by gorgeous fashion bloggers Arabella Golby, Ami Venney, Lexie Vukoman, and Cristina Lopez. They chose three outfits – a Save, Spend and Splurge ensemble which were beautifully modelled by theirmodels. Here’s Arabella in a beautifully embellished, Grecian gown whilst her models Sophie and Jess were styled in her Spend and Save outfit choices.
Ami wore this Lipsy dress and her models Elspeth and Claudia showed of her Splurge and Save outfit.
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Oxford Fashion Week Blog
Cristina sported a fab playsuit and even managed to incorporate jelly shoes into her model Abby’s outfit whilst Sian rocked the Splurge look with a £265 Karen Millen dress.
Lexie wore her Splurge outfit choice and models Esther and Holly wore a mix of high street brands in the Save and Spend ensembles.
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Oxford Fashion Week Blog
This was a great insight into the hottest pieces on the high street today and there were some top styling tips, particularly the shoes! The Fashion Bloggers also selected the best dressed visitors from the event at regular intervals across the evening and it’s fair to say there were plenty of stylish people to choose from. This floor also exhibited a workshop of fashion design inspired by East and West, The Pinwoks, 'No-see Drape Dress' a display of classic, bespoke tailoring from Clements & Church and a further showcase from Pimernel Clothing. Making your way up to the second floor you were greeted with exhibits such as ‘A shirty pair of knickers’ by Maria Skoyles of Make Do Mend and a historical venture through the influences on the ‘Kashamir Scarf in the 19th Century’ wit the Ashmolean’s Textile Conservator Sue Stanton. Smock and Drawers with Barbara Allison explored Oxford’s fashion way back in the 17th Century. The finale of the show was the Catwalk show, curated by Gem Latimer and produced by Erin Moss this spectacular event included designers and brands such as Aspire Style, Next, Clements and Church, Melanie J Austin, Little Mistress, Leanne Blenkhorn and Bel’s King-Harman. This highly anticipated show was full to capacity even half an hour before it started. Dress Up #LiveFriday with Oxford Fashion Week was a fantastic evening of fashion based entertainment and, with so much to absorb, I left the Ashmolean with my style appetite well and truly satisfied. Thanks to Oxford Fashion Week and The Ashmolean Museum for a wonderful time and keep an eye out for events coming in the very near future! Helen Archard, House of Helen
You can read more from Helen by reading her blog, House of Helen. You can keep up to date with all the news and alerts from Dress Up LiveFriday by following Oxford Fashion Week on Twitter and Facebook. Are you an aspiring fashion blogger? If you are interested in getting more involved with our blog please email hello@oxfordfashionweek.com for more details. blog.oxfordfashionweek.com
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