Yesterday marked the quarterway point of Session 4, and students are already making their chosen subjects their own. Those studying Fashion and Textile Design are growing in confidence and creativity; after a trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum during the first class on Monday, they are eager to take in as much inspiration as they can from the world around them.

Under the sensitive and encouraging direction of Dr Manrutt Wongkaew, students are gaining skill and technique as they work up to their final projects. Yesterday, they were learning how to produce patterns― first, they must create a “block”, which then becomes the unit for the “repeat” that is reproduced over the whole garment. The end goal for yesterday was a patterned top for each team’s mannequin, to join the scarves they made on Tuesday. Also available for inspiration are the final projects from the Fashion class at Jowett Walk last session, which Dr Wongkaew led as well― students’ creations included dresses inspired by global warming, anti-terrorism, and LGBTQ rights.

In the evening, it was time to get to know those parts of Oxford history that we’ve all tried to forget, as students went on a ghost tour of Oxford: they heard from their guide about the martyrdoms of Ridley, Cranmer and Latimer on Broad Street in 1555, and the St Scholastica’s Day Riot of 1355, where bitter tension between town and gown (locals and university students) ―now more of a good-humoured rivalry acted out in charity runs and other sporting events― came to blows and bloody brawling. Locals from the wider countryside poured in, and shouts of “Havac! Havoc! Smyt fast, give gode knocks” could be heard in the streets; 63 scholars were killed, along with over 30 locals.

Happily, our students passed peacefully through the city, and returned to St Hugh’s to finish off their assignments in Homework Club, or play rugby in the grounds.