Oxford Fashion Week (OFW) passed off to mixed reviews following a crisis over ticket sales and controversy over expensively-priced events.
Organisers of the annual style extravaganza had massive concerns last week that the event could be in jeopardy as less than a quarter of tickets had been sold.
OFW staff members became increasingly worried after receiving an emergency Facebook message from team management leader Lucinda Fraser saying, “Right now we have less than a quarter tickets sold, so we are very much in THE SHIT! This really is CRISIS point.”
The message went on to encourage the team to sell as many tickets as possible and asked staff to post marketing tips on the group thread.
Carl Anglim, who also co-ordinates the show, downplayed the issue. Although she admitted that tensions were high in the run up to the shows, she said the message sent to OFW staff was meant to be a “motivational message.”
“We’re always apprehensive about ticket sales before events, and we have to reach a lot of team members. We wanted to sell as many tickets as possible.
“All of the previous fashion events in Oxford have been charity shows. This wasn’t for charity, so expectations were much higher.”
An OFW team member had said on Saturday that the team leaders were “pretty panicked” by the situation of ticket sales at the time.
But Carl insisted that ticket sales had subsequently improved: “The concept show sold out to the extent that we had to turn people away at the door.”
“All the seats sold out for the lingerie show, and we had people standing at the back.”
Zoe Savory, a St Peter’s student, praised the atmosphere of the concept show, “The outfits at the concept show were all very well put together, and they’d used models of all shapes and sizes. The show felt studenty, but in a way that wasn’t amateur – young and fun and edgy.
“It felt very arty, not feel completely slick and professional, but I don’t think that was the point.”
The lingerie show, however, has met with mixed reactions. One student who attended said it was “very slick, very corporate” but that the feel of it jarred with the rest of the show, “It wasn’t particularly imaginative.” But she conceded, “Lingerie is quite a difficult one to do well, because unless you’ve got really high fashion designers doing it, it won’t look worthy of being on the catwalk. They might have had a difficult time of it.”
However, some students criticised the ticket prices, with one Wadham student said, “Everyone who wants to go somewhere fancy will go to the ball instead of a fashion show. It’s too expensive.”
Katie Sunderland, the director of the swimwear and lingerie show, rejected claims that the show tickets were too costly.
She said, “I don’t think any of the shows are expensive for what you get. Mine is an extremely luxurious event, with real designers, the quality justifies the price.”
It remains to be seen how the remaining shows will go, but Anglim suggested that students often wait to buy tickets on the door. He explained, “On the morning of most of the events, we have only sold around 50% of the tickets based on online sales, but a lot of tickets sold throughout the day.”
