Monday, February 24, 2025

Culture

5 top tips to stay toasty and trendy this winter

As frosty winter winds swept through Oxford at the start of term, you would imagine that we’d spot more students nestling their necks into fluffy scarves and fending off...

Doubts on Banksy

What is so enticing – and infuriating – about this mystery man’s slapdash approach to political commentary?

Medieval Revival… Again?

From Chappell Roan and Zendaya’s Joan of Arc red carpet chic to Dior’s Cruise...

How the latest bag trend is all about you (or not)

A bag, Birkinified: clad in charms, keychains and ribbons, a young woman flaunts her...

Teen Dramas: Winx Saga Doesn’t Fly

Whilst Winx Saga is tripping over itself to scream 2020s at us, some of the most successful teen-based Netflix shows – Stranger Things and Sex Education for example – are both doing the opposite

In Truth

'Everything I told you Came out untrue'

Cherwell Recommends: YA Guilty Pleasures

In an already unusual term, this 5th Week, giving its name to '5th week blues,' might be more difficult than most. Whether after an...

Cherwell Recommends: Love of all kinds

As Valentine's Day looms, it's not hard to find examples of romantic love. But literature celebrates the expanse of human emotion, so our books editors have picked out two moving illustrations of the other forms love takes.

Narratives of Grief: Creating ‘Opera for One’

This is a strength of the performance: with a range of experiences of grief explored by a variety of composers and librettists, no one singular experience is presented, but instead the performance looks at the nuances of the emotions of grieving.

Ten Days Troilus Waits for Cressida

"Above me, the Milky wheel turns round and round"

Where Winx went wrong

I’m sure that Winx Fate: The Winx Saga is probably a perfectly acceptable generic action series. But in ignoring the fashion of Winx Club, the creators did not even attempt to understand what fans loved and what made it special.

Depop photo-op: #y2k edition

Photographer: Laetitia Dewavrin Models: Rebeka Shipkolye and Jess Curry

Seen and not heard: the film industry’s troubled relationship with female directors

Scarlett Colquitt responds to the claim that "women directed films have a softer tone" with an examination of role of female directors in today's film industry.

Dip your toe into Schitt’s Creek

Schitt’s Creek is a show where the main character talks to her many, many wigs. It is a show which manages to make a...

Emma Chamberlain and the changing face of fashion

By embracing the fun in fashion, she inspires her viewers to do the same.

Making “Magic”: A Revival of an Edwardian Fantasy-Genre Play

Magic lends itself well to the online format. It is a play of voices, of witty exchanges and mystifying, unseen events. The audience is called on to construct the setting from their imagination, inspired by the actors and the sound effects, resulting in a final product which is a collaboration between players and listeners.

Literary Loves: What fictional romance has taught me about real-life relationships

For the first 17 years of my life, I felt like everything I knew about love I learned from books. Sure, as a self-conscious...

Fun Home?

CW: sexual assault, child abuse, suicide, homophobia. 2015 was a great year in the history of musical theatre, possibly the greatest year of this century...

Alice Phoebe Lou: A Listener’s Guide

"What kind of living is this? I don't wanna simply exist. I wanna punch with my fists…grab life by her wrists…and say I want this". After lockdown number three was announced, the lyrics hit me in a completely new way, as if I was listening to the song for the first time again.

Review: ‘Breaking and Mending’ by Joanna Cannon

For me, it is Cannon’s complete honesty and authenticity which make this an astounding read ... 'Breaking and Mending' is the perfect book to read as a medical student, a doctor, or anyone who wants to have their heart warmed by tales of genuine compassion and kindness.

10 Things Blair Waldorf taught Us About Fashion

Let’s remember the icon that is Blair Waldorf and everything she taught us about fashion over the five years she blessed our screens

Zoom cuppers – a new sub-genre of theatre?

This was an entirely new experience, a mode of art barely explored before 2020 and something that I believed would benefit me to be a part of.

The comedy bug

No sympathy laughs from your mate when the joke doesn’t quite land; no in-jokes to fall back on; no new haircut to make fun of. Comedy is a savage mistress.

Pandemic Projects: Oxford and Beyond

For many of us students, this term will happen from home and from behind our screens. In most cases, this means less social interaction,...

Follow us