Hugo Boss: from student village to Bicester Village

(Disclaimer: it's taken me four months to write this.)

Reading's indoor shopping centre, one of the most successful and well advertised in the south of England recently opened it's doors to a new kind of client with the understated opening of the chic Hugo Boss.

A little out of your typical student budget, the store is set to open the way for many more higher priced retail outlets. Bumping the Oracle up from student village to Bicester Village.

It reminded me of New York's Fifth Avenue stores. Clean lines, empty store. Colour coordinated, little stock. Minimalistic and effective. You want to submurge yourself in glamour, throw your credit card at them and cry for the cheapest thing there as you're still a student with a card limited to 500GBP.

It currently only stocks menswear (talk about limiting your clientele) but I can't help but give the store an idealistic thumbs up. Alongside Pretty Green, The Oracle's menswear options are vastly expanding into higher budget and more middle-class customer based stores. I fully support this movement. It's time there was a wider range of options available for both men and women. Designer stores could very well be the cure to the "high street vs online" crisis. More options, less money.

Idealistic, aspirational and so, so tidy. Let's all cross our fingers and waste use our student loans to great effect and keep this bad boy with us.

A night out at the Oracle Reading

At 8:30PM on Tuesday the 16th of October 2012 the Oracle opened their doors to hoards of excited students.  Wallets bulging with ready-to-spend-cash, feet freezing from the hour long wait in the cold, the floods of teenagers fought the urge to sprint to their favourite stores but instead maintained a “we are British, the British do not sprint, the British walk, very briskly” attitude.

The atmosphere was instantly overwhelming.  Between the low lighting, blaring music and free drinks (courtesy of Lola Lo’s) it was as if the shopping centre had converted into a club for the night, but so much better.  The evening only got better thanks to the deliciously free food that was thrust at us; thank you Tampopo, you’re next on the Riverside list to eat at!

Diving into Topshop first was the best idea of the night.  The sale section was rampant with bargain hunters, tearing through the racks, picking up item after item; I’m sure I saw a fight break out over a cream chiffon top.  It was like feeding time but these shopping animals were not tame.

Half an hour into the Takeover, Topshop and Topman were one in one out, crazy by any standards, as both till points were queued round the store.  New Look received the same treatment not much later on into the evening.

Speaking of queues, hitting the kids section to purchase a super slick blazer from H&M cut a good portion of queuing time, making sure we didn’t miss out on Violet Class killing it in Republic.  The live indie music was a sweet contrast to the club feel of the other stores, Republic nailed its unique selling point for the night and drew a more alternative crowd.

The nifty little purple discount cards given to shoppers added to the ‘exclusive’ feel of the night, while acting as a cute (not to mention free) memento, replacing the space in our purses where our money used to be.

Overall, a successful night at introducing the freshers to the Oracle, getting plenty of new clothes unbelievably cheap and for Reading’s economy.  David Cameron will be so pleased.

First published by Spark* Newspaper: http://sparknewspaper.co.uk/fashion-beauty/a-night-out-at-the-oracle-reading/