Saturday 28th June 2025

Culture

Cultural Fashion at the Queen’s Confluence Dinner

Not often do I get to break out the Middle Eastern kaftan hanging idle in my wardrobe; it is simply too lavish for a two-course second sitting, yet not...

Common threads: Historical fashion and its lessons for our time

When we think of historical fashion, images of towering wigs, tight-laced corsets, heavy brocades...

Food, fashion, and escapism in a cost of living crisis

Food costs have been front and centre in newsreels as of recent months, whether...

Oxford Fashion Gala’s ‘Metamorphosis’ reflects the beauty of change

The Oxford Fashion Gala was back and bigger than ever, with a larger venue,...

Cherwell Recommends: Bildungsroman

"Are we destined to become who we are as adults, or are we formed by our experiences on the way? It happens to all of us, but the process of growing up continues to fascinate writers, artists, and filmmakers, for it surrounds the struggle to forge an identity in a chaotic and often harsh environment."

Depop drama and tiny tennis skirts: the hidden problems with ‘sustainable’ fashion

There has never before been a time where alternatives to fast fashion have been so prevalent in debates about climate change and sustainability. Terrifying...

Archival fashion is having a renaissance – but is it here to stay?

And really, where else is there for a fashion enthusiast to turn other than to the past?

It was All a Dream: Escapism and Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

Dreams seem to straddle this boundary between fiction and reality, often informed by real life or perhaps made to help us cope with it.

Review: Simulacrum

Written and directed by Helena Aeberli and Riana Modi, Simulacrum is the first play on the Oxford drama scene specifically designed for online production,...

Who’s who: Ai Weiwei

But the deserted building in Chaoyang was no criminal lair—it was an art studio. And the man arrested at the airport, far from being a hardened felon, was Ai Weiwei: filmmaker, visual artist, and one of the most outspoken political dissidents in China.

All I Want for Oxmas…

When the crystal ball was dusted off in January 2020, The Atlantic predicted that the next decade would “look very different from what most people expect.” Little did we know how true that statement would be.

La vita davanti a sé: Sex, death and Sophia Loren

Long time, no see! Sophia Loren, Italian star of ‘60s classics such as 1963's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and 1964's Marriage Italian Style, commands...

The HAPPIEST SEASON to be queer

With Christmas comes family and with family comes movies. It’s that time to cuddle up cosy on the sofa and watch yet another Reese...

Making Queer Cinema history: Victim (1961)

"‘Victim’ illuminates an important moment in the history of LGBTQ+ rights, primarily in normalising the existence of homosexuality and encouraging empathy."

Smell The Damn Roses

It’s a cold November morning in Oxford, and due to the national lockdown, I, like many others, am desperately trying to find ways to...

Review: V-Card

"an immersive play of laughter, vulnerability and truth"

Benchmark

"The pattern starts from you to there And, breathless, starts again with me."

Sunday Boat Ride Funk

It’s Sunday church day. The Church’s on the water, no way to get there. Funky Sundays.

‘Because I’m His Daughter’: Fathers and Daughters in cinema

Lily Down traces depictions of the under-explored father/daughter relationship in film

A Vision of Autumn

"It was uncommonly sultry and dark when I arrived at the Winchester water meadows. The scene was a near stereotype, and it reminded me of those decrepit - far too embellished - landscapes you see in many royal palaces."

Petrichor

"in a quiet hollow on the far side of this field rain patters through the leaves like twinkling glass"

Cherwell Recommends: Memoir

"Memoir is an exploration of the complex layers of human memory: fallible, emotional and moulded by subsequent reflection. Like life itself, memoir is messy - but all the more enjoyable for it."

Fatima doesn’t want a job in cyber – and she knows it

"Fatima doesn’t need to retrain. She trained for decades and invested financially and personally to an arts industry that contributed £32.3 billion to the economy in 2018, according to the government's own report."

Atmospheric autumn reads: ‘Cemetery Boys’

"The novel shows us a utopian vision in which our ghosts can be cathartically released, in which rebirth and renewal is possible."

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