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.

Highclere Castle and the Fashion of Downton Abbey

Within one week of arriving in the United Kingdom I found a new television show to add to my growing list of favorites. That show is BBC's Downton Abbey. Several people in the United States recommended the show to me and it is available on Netflix's instant streaming, but I just never got around to watching it.


I ended up watching it for the first time because one of the places we were visiting on our Heritage trips was the setting for Downton Abbey, Highclere Castle. Caitlin and Libby, both of whom were already fans of the show, insisted that Amy and I watch at least the first episode before our trip. So, that Sunday night, we moved our living room chairs into Amy's spacious bedroom to view the program. Let me tell you, Downton Abbey is an addicting show. From the first episode onwards you are enthralled by the characters and the complexities of their lives. Amy likes to describe it as a "classy soap opera" because it has all of the crazy drama of a modern soap opera, but it involves the lives of an upper class British family in the early years of the 20th century.


The television drama follows the lives of the Crawley family, the wealthy, titled owners of Downton Abbey, and all of their various servants. The family consists of Lord Robert, Earl of Grantham, his American wife Cora, and their three daughters, Mary, Edith and Sybil. It documents their lives through various catastrophes ranging from new heirs and illicit romances, to murder trials and the devastation of World War I. Many of the problems arise from the machinations of the very traditional Dowager Countess and the ambitious footman, Thomas.


The best part of Downtown Abbey for me is the fashion. Since the series covers nearly a decade in two series, you can see how the style of dress evolved and changed as time passed. During this time period, the dresses worn by women of wealth and status were beautiful and incredibly intricate. Their wardrobes often contained clothing in rich fabrics like silk, chiffon, brocade.


In the first series, set in the early 1910s, the silhouette is more fitted. The women wear corsets, the foundation piece of their undergarments, allow their gowns to fall properly on their hourglass figures. Several of the evening dresses, particularly those worn by Edith, feature the high empire waists found in the earlier Regency period. However, fashionable waistlines were inching lower towards the natural waist. Fancy dresses often featured short, gossamer sleeves which bared the arms and portions of the shoulders. To balance out the amount of exposed skin, all of the women wear silk gloves that reach to the elbow or higher.


Wealthy women of the time would employ a ladies maid to look after their clothing, help them to dress and undress, to do their hair. The hair is always worn pinned up in intricate braids and curls, and often accented with bejeweled hair ornaments.


Edith, Cora, Mary and Sybil Crawley

By watching Downton Abbey, we were able to get a sneak peek of the inside of Highclere Castle before we journeyed there on Monday, September 10, 2012 as the first stop on British Heritage and Culture tour of England.


Highclere Castle which is the country seat of the Earl of Carnarvon. The most famous inhabitant was George Herbert, Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen with Howard Carter in 1922. During World War I the castle was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers when they
returned from fighting the Germans in France.   


The coach departed at around 9:15 am, after we met our driver John, who was also our driver for all the other trips. I found him to be very nice with a humorous, playful personality. He liked teasing us about being cold, insisting that the weather was beautiful for Britain.


Highclere Castle is situated in a rural area about an hour south of Oxford. Driving on the roads closer to the castle was an interesting experience because it was only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. If someone came from the opposite direction, one vehicle has to pull off the road into the grass to make room for the other car. The speed limit also seems to be much higher on smaller roads here than they would be on a similar road at home. It is a little nerve-wracking riding in a coach that is driving on the going 50 miles per hour up and down steep hills, all while driving on the left side of the road.


When we finally arrived at Highclere Castle and passed through the front gates, this was the sight that greeted us.

Highclere Castle is an immense building laid out in a roughly square shape around the large central hall that is open the the second floor. The interior is full of ornate historic furniture in exquisitely decorated rooms. My personal favorite was the Lady's Drawing Room, probably because it was decorated in a very feminine style that I find appealing. It was also interesting to see the juxtaposition of modern family photographs next to painted portraits that are over a century old.


After slowly inching from room to room (It took forever because it was easiest to proceed in a queue), we went down the servants staircase, passed the Egyptian exhibit and finally made our way outside to visit the Ladies (restroom to my fellow Americans). I waited outside snapping pictures while Amy, Caitlin and Libby ventured into the incredibly crowded gift shop to buy postcards. When Amy joined me a little while later, our first English rain began sprinkling from the clouds. My raincoat kept me dry and surprisingly warm since it protected me from the rain. Poor Amy only had her light jacket, and not even an umbrella.


The rest of our stay at Highclere Castle involved huddling under a tree in an attempt to stay dry, followed by lots of picture-taking in front of the castle. At about 11:45 am our stay at Highclere came to an end as we piled back onto the coach to eat lunch. Next stop, Stonehenge!