This Friday we headed off to the Ashmolean for a late night organised by Oxford Fashion week. There were models showing off designer dresses, with the chance to photograph or sketch if that was your thing (these are a couple of my favourites, there was a theme of clothing from different countries and different decades).
I just loved the shape and decoration on this.
Couldn’t get a very good shot of the front cause she was moving but this gives you an idea.
Fantastic high collar and dramatic skirt.
Loved the fact that the fabric on this looked like a pool of paint, had to be careful not to tread on her train though!
But it wasn’t just the pro models who were strutting their stuff, everyone in attendance was encouraged to dress up and there were some fabulous outfits including this great coat.
oh and another great coat (but this time on a man, only got a brief look at it but pretty sure it was blue velvet, really want to replicate this but either with a vampire type logo or a fox in the middle).
Also lurking in the shadows was this fabulous headpiece.
So pretty! The Ashmolean also had a room to show some of their treasures not usually on display to the public. The theme was oriental clothes made for the tourist market (East meets West). All the clothes were made using traditional methods and looked to the untrained eye (us) to be completely authentic. Once the modifications had been pointed out to us however you could see how they had been modified. This was one of my favourite pieces
So striking with the black and white, the giveaway that this is made for tourists is that symbols from Japan and China are mixed. This was also beautiful.
This was the top of a velvet suit made for a child, the giveaway? The quite far out rose lining fabric (it would have had some trousers but sadly the two pieces were separated). But my favourite favourite was this.
Not owned by the museum but one of the ladies who work there, it was designed to fit onto a dress as a decorative middle panel, the embroidery was superb although none of us could work out if the birds were pheasants or storks, maybe a bit of creative license???
An unexpected addition was some cloth dolls made by a local ladies craft group (yes I’ve got their flyer), this can only mean the construction of more dolls, hopefully ones that look as beautiful as this.
And last but not least the bloggers were out in force! I first of all ran into Arabella from this blog, who was giving a talk about fashion blogging (I think we can all agree this is a killer dress). 
And also my favourite lady of the evening Asha from The Oxford Owl (who remissly I didn’t take a photo of). I was pointed towards a post on the Oxford Owl a while ago and have really been enjoying its mix of fashion, beauty reviews and general lovely stuff. So imagine my surprise to see Asha recruited by Oxford Fashion week snapping away at the event! So there is only one thing to add, what did I wear? An hour before we left disaster struck, I found what looked to be tea stains on my outfit of choice, a reproduction 60s number, grrr.
I even had matching purple velvet boots, but what can you do when caffeine turns against you? I wore one of the dresses I inherited from my great aunt instead, crisis averted!
Very sixties! (Apologies its so blurry, David, my lovely friend took some photos of me in this but hasn’t sent them to me, naughty man!). So that wrapped up another fantastic late night Friday, we’ve been to a few now but still I keep seeing new things, like this
Worth a look no?
