Oxford Fashion

I have to say that I generally prefer the fashion I see here in Oxford over that I would be seeing at my school in America. At my American school, the majority of people dress in a more preppy-greek life style. This would be things like polos, Lily Pulitzer dresses and boat shoes. People do dress nicer there than on most American college campuses, but you will still see people going to class in sweatpants. I rarely see people in sweats in Britain and when I do, it is normally a track suit with matching pants and jacket so it was an obvious fashion choice (this was much more common in Dublin, Ireland than in Oxford).

Fun Fact: In Britain, "pants" means "underwear." The American type of "pants" would be "jeans" or "trousers" in the UK. 

Young people in Britain are overall better dressed than college students in the United States. If you are going out of your house, you wear actual clothing, not sweats, workout clothes or pajamas, unless you are actually working out. I do still see some fashion "don'ts" when I am out and about, though the worse is when girls wear leggings as pants. Girls do it all the time in the States too, and it just really bothers me because leggings are just thick tights, not pants. In order to wear leggings, your top must completely cover your rear end. You wouldn't go running around wearing just a pair of tights and a top, would you?

Some things that would be fashion "don'ts" in America, are actually quite common here, probably since they are several seasons ahead of us trend wise, and the weather is also different. For one, mixing prints is not unusual. Girls can wear a cheetah print scarf with a winter-themed sweater and not look strange. It is also quite common to see girls wearing tights with their shorts. This would be a pretty Hipster in the United States. Short's weather occurs for such a small amount of time here that they need to extend to use of them. Though, I think if it is cold enough that you have to wear leggings with your tights, then you should probably just put on a pants.

Girls wear a variety of shoes from flats to boots to wedges and heels. Actually, a surprising number of girls walk around in short-heeled boots and wedges which is unfathomable to me. It is pretty much guaranteed that you will have to walk a lot if you are going somewhere in Oxford and I definitely would not be able to do such a large amount on walking without my feet flat on the ground.

I was quite surprised how well young men dress here. At home, most of the time they are wearing sports shorts or jeans and a basic shirt, unless they have to dress nicer for a specific event. In Britain, it seems like guys more commonly wear nicer jeans or slacks, button-down shirts, and loafer type shoes.

Now, the shoes are a big deal to me. You can tell a lot about a man from the type of shoes he wears, whether he is a skater, prep, or more athletic type. Last year my friend and I would sit in our student center boy watching, but, you had to look at their feet first and determine how attractive they would be from their shoes. There was definitely an overabundance of tennis shoes, boat shoes and flip-flops. I rarely see men wearing tennis shoes in Oxford. Instead, they wear nicer sneakers in dark, solid colors, loafers, or brogues.

To the right is a picture I attempted to take discretely of a well dressed young man I saw waiting at the bus stop. Since Amy did not know what I was doing, her head kept popping up in the shots. ------------>

Thick knitted scarves and deep plum colored skinny jeans also seem quite popular for men right now. Many of them wear at least some gel in their hair to give it just a bit of spikiness. A pretty popular hairstyle is to have the hair cut shorter on the sides and longer on top. The top layer is then brushed to the side (similar to the man in the photo) or gelled up a bit.

I think that men dress nicer in the UK, and Europe in general, because dressing well is not stigmatized as being unmanly. Oxford just seems full of attractive young men, many more than I ever noticed at my American college. Their skills at dressing nicely probably is playing a large part in making them appear more attractive to me.

Many people are also wearing traditional clothing from their home countries. Muslim women wearing their headscarves (sometimes plain, other times brightly colored or decorated with sparkles) are an everyday sight, though women wearing niqab (a cloth, normally black, which covers the face and head leaving only the eyes visible) are rarely seen outside of major cities like London.

When I am back in the United States, I will miss all of the varieties of clothing I will get to see when I walk to class. People watching is much more interesting and culturally enriching here. It feels like I am learning a bit while wasting time.