03 May 2010, Posted by admin in OFW Blog, 0 Comments

OFW 2010 Launches with the Oxford Style Show!

Oxford Fashion Week 2010 kicked off in style on Saturday 1st May with the Oxford Style Show. The spectacular Oxford Town Hall played host to designers, models, stallholders, press and over 500 attendees.

The show’s producers, Rosie Pigott, Kirstie Scott and their dedicated team executed 9 catwalk shows, featuring the best of high street, independent and student fashion. With the queue stretching down the stairs, this first time event was hugely popular and attended by a mixture of fashion professionals, families, teens and everything in between.

Generously supported by the Clarendon Centre, the day also featured dozens of stalls around the Town Hall, including a highly popular Dermalogica facial bar. Oxford boutiques including Aspire, Booty and Annabelinda were well represented. Entertainment highlights between the runway shows included a mesmerizing steel drum performance, the melodious sounds of the Oxford Belles, and a crowd-pleasing break-dancing performance on the catwalk, with incredible displays of athleticism and rhythm from five male dancers.

Press and photographers from a wealth of different newspapers, magazines, websites and blogs covered the event. Media outlets including BBC Oxford, The Oxford Mail, Cotswold Life, the Oxford Journal, Fashion Insider, Cherwell and Isis all made appearances, interviewing designers backstage and getting to the heart of the action. International press included Cape Argus newspaper from South Africa and UT-1, the Ukraine’s main televison channel.

Young designers from the London College of Fashion and Oxford’s own Ruskin School were particularly excited to showcase their collections to a large audience, some for the first time. They were also pleased to be interviewed by BBC journalists, who were very impressed by their collections.

The breathtaking London College of Fashion pieces will also be on display at the OFW Closing Party: Argenteus Exhibition on Thursday 6^th May, along with the sketches, fabrics and mood boards used by the designers during the creative process. Make sure you get your tickets for this event to see how the London College of Fashion students’ pieces made it from idea to reality, alongside the work of established designers and photographers.

Cauliflower’s colourful collection formed a particularly exciting catwalk show, bringing the party atmosphere to the occasion. Models came out dressed in bin bags to strains of Bach’s ‘Cello Concerto No. 1, before the drumbeats kicked in and they danced their way out of them to the delight of the spectators.

The UK debut of the Sunlight collection by Ukrainian designer Zinaida Likhacheva formed the show’s grand finale. Cherwell’s Fashion Editors pronounced the signature headdresses show-stealing.

After six hours of fashion, complimentary food and drink at Bar Meze was just the ticket, before guests were invited to the official after-party at Kukui to dance the night away with the OFW team and models.

The Style Show had something for everyone, and showed off the creative reach of both Oxford and Oxford Fashion Week. The Style Show was a tremendous performance of runway shows marking a fantastic beginning for the second Oxford Fashion Week!

OXFORD STYLE SHOW CONTRIBUTORS

*           African Butterfly

*           Alicia Andrews

*           Amie

*           Ankur Schroff

*           Annabelinda

*           Aspire

*           Bag the Jewels

*           Bar Meze

*           Booty

*           Carmex

*           Cauli flower+++

*           Cedarlia

*           The Clarendon Centre

*           Crew

*           Dermalogica

*           Fifth Avenue Collection

*           Florien Klein (breakdancer)

*           French Connection

*           Gap

*           Guilzar Giuden

*           James Sciberras (breakdancer)

*           Jeremy Boon (steel drummer)

*           Joe Atkinson (breakdancer)

*           Kaliko

*           Katalin Nagy

*           Kapray Vaghera

*           Lapiz Lizard body art

*           Lipcote

*           Louise Trueman

*           Mahogany

*           Monsoon

*           Nora Reese

*           Next

*           Nora Deak

*           Oxford Belles

*           Oxford Town Hall

*           Phase eight

*           pigletskirts.co.uk

*           Qcumber

*           Qiang Yi (breakdancer)

*           Reiss

*           R magazine

*           Sarah Cooper

*           Saree

*           Shakyra Shakeena

*           Simpi Datta

*           Sim singhl

*           Sofia DeMille

*           SS20

*           StarTech Production

*           Terri Hughes

*           Zinaida Likhacheva

“Many thanks to all the contributors, production team, models and volunteers who made The Style Show possible.”

Rosie Pigott, Oxford Style Show Creative Producer

Images © Greg Blatchford