OXFORD KIMONO

Wearing Topshop kimono, Zara skater skirt, River Island chain sandals and felt hat and vintage broderie anglaise top from Armstrong's Vintage Emporium. Pearl rope necklace courtesy of Jersey Pearl.

Earlier this week Kate and I made the kind of spontaneous trip you can only make when you find yourself with a good friend, at a mischievous loose end with a shiny car that doesn't belong to you parked in the driveway outside. I had never been to Oxford before, and why not continue my tour of Brideshead Revisited  sets which began in May with my birthday at Castle Howard? A sunny afternoon in July is not the ideal time to visit the university town if you're looking for the genuine Oxford experience; thousands of foreign tourists on walking tours moved in swarms around the colleges, peering in through latticed glass window panes and up dusty staircases. Not that Oxford doesn't still bewitch in the late afternoon sun- my God is it beautiful - that perfect blend of classical and Georgian architecture in the warm sandstone pillars and domes rising above cobbled quadrangles or terrazzas. Too poor to punt or to lunch, we took to walking the streets with a bag of apple bonbons, dodging bicycles and mormon gangs (you get all sorts here, you see) and being chased by a shuffly old man round a rose garden.

Photographs by Kate Woods and myself