Oxford prepares for fashion week

Oxford Fashion Week is to debut this May, and the city is gearing up with a series of events, determined to not let the local academics and retail crisis overshadow the event.

"Oxford is bursting with fashion contrasts, influences from all over the world brush up against uncompromising Victorian sartorial traditions. What we wear and how we present ourselves constantly communicates who we are to the world. This year we are challenging one of the world's ancient academic strongholds to think about one of the oldest forms of communication,” says OFW co-ordinator Carl Anglim, a law graduate from Merton College, Oxford who is leading the project alongside Victoria Watson, a current undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford reading Physics and Philosophy.

”For the rest of us, it's about spectacular fashion. Designers, artists, and thinkers are clamouring for powerful new platforms for their creations. Oxford is a hotbed of adventurous fashion-hungry young people. We're doing Oxford Fashion Week to challenge ourselves to produce nothing short of a truly spectacular week of fashion."

To beat the recession in style, OFW relies on an enthusiastic team of approximately 80 volunteers to co-ordinate each individual event as well as manage photography, sponsorship, modelling, recruitment and press. It is estimated that a team of more than 250 people will be required for the week itself.

For further information go to www.oxfordfashionweek.org