Published April 2, 2010
“…Oxford still remains the most beautiful thing in England, and nowhere else are life and art so exquisitely blended, so perfectly made one.”
– Oscar Wilde
Oxford is a city enriched not only by its remarkable history and its aesthetic beauty, but by its synthesis of ‘life’ and ‘art’. Oxford has forever lured creative spirits and intellectual beings – individuals in pursuit of profound experiences, seeking to engage intensely in all and everything, those who collectively, characterize this unique location.
Fashion is a synthesis of ‘life’ and ‘art’. It is cultural, ideological, and personal expression. Oxford is a finely crafted centerpiece for a week which celebrates this synthesis of ‘life’ and ‘art’.
Oxford Fashion Week is a week-long celebration of fashion, not as an industry, but as this form of expression and each one of the week’s events embodies this understanding of fashion. OFW is not conceived of as a competitor to the fashion weeks set in intensely controlled urbanized locations, such as London, New York, or Paris but rather as a new, varied series of refined events which offer their attendees an experience entirely incomparable to any other.
Though each of the week’s events has its own defining features and celebrates a unique element or feature of fashion, the events are unified in this regard. Thus, they are prestigious in their own right; the events that constitute OFW only feature the finest, appeal to the finest, celebrate the finest – as it may be distinctively defined for each event.
OFW functions as a platform upon which innovative designs from around the world may be presented and explored, ideas may be exchanged, personal connections may be forged; simply, a platform upon which this artistic form of expression may be honored, celebrated, and advanced.
OFW offers sponsors, partners, designers, industry professionals, and all attendees a series of unique experiences, each designed to explore a particular element of fashion, to investigate the nature of this synthesis of ‘life’ and ‘art’ and celebrate its finest creations.
