Oxford vs. London

Albeit London Fashion Week is celebrating its 25th anniversary, Oxford is taking up the challenge. The preparations for the inaugural Oxford Fashion Week are now in full swing and following the press launch the official list of designers includes names such as French Connection, L.K. Bennett and Zara.

In selecting contributors for the event, running from 3rd-8th May 2009, the Oxford Fashion Week team has relied on raw creativity as a judge of whether a designer should be included. This has meant that new designs from first time exhibitors such as Circuit Bored from Romania will be featured alongside the experimental creations by Piers Atkinson and Cecilia Mary Robson.

We are led to believe that designers are flying in from around the world including Liba Rubenyan from Russia to have its UK debut exhibition alongside collections from established names such as Alexander McQueen and Maria Grachvogel.

The week will start with the Launch Show featuring a catwalk with the influences from the decades of the 20th century that have permeated this season’s collections with the evening hosted by Channel 4’s Pete Nottage. Other designers and collections include Cult, Aspire, Superdry, Gaff, and Whittawer.

Image: Alexander McQueen (models.com)