Like Cinderella before the ball, when confronted with the issue of costuming ourselves for college bops in Oxford, many of us wish we had fairy godmothers of our own. Whatever the theme, wherever the place it’s held, the costume enthusiasm of those in attendance can make or break a bop.
As Fresher’s Week comes to a close, most colleges will be holding fresher’s bops – the induction for most first-years into the bop culture of Oxford. Every college with have its own theme – at some, freshers are paired up and told to come as famous couples. At others, they’re asked to dress up as anything which begins with one of the college’s initials, or even all of them if they can think of a costume which represents each letter.
And as the year goes on, bops will continue to proliferate, around holidays and randomly dropped into terms. Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day – all are fair game, and all come with their own sets of costuming rules. Some colleges have traditional themed bops, like Wadham’s “Queer Bop”, which are celebrated hallmarks of their cultures.
Every college may have different traditions in place, but the one common rule among all Oxford bops is the fancy dress requirement, firmly in place. With all of these opportunities before us, what are we to do when confronted with concocting yet another bop costume?
Some will choose to create one fabulously funny or eye-poppingly outrageous outfit, which they will then proceed to wear at every bop they attend in Oxford, with the costume they don becoming their hallmark, their symbol of sorts on the dance floors of clubs across the city.
But the rest of us will have to come up with a new idea every time. Inevitably we’ll spend a few minutes here and there in planning, coming up with ideas for individuals or groups of friends. And then we’ll get on with our lives and the urgency to find something to wear will be forgotten until approximately three hours prior to the event itself.
At this point, we’ll throw open our wardrobes and scour our shelves for something suitable to the theme in question. And though at this point we may on occasion wish that a fairy godmother would come along and wave her magic wand to give us bop-worthy garb, ultimately the fun of dressing for a bop is the last-minute mad dash, which can sometimes result in the creation of the most fame-worthy costumes, those which become part of college legend and are imitated by the next generation.
