Rummbling around Bicester Village.

Last Thursday I revisited Bicester Village as part of a Social Web shopping experience and experiment, which was organised by Technokitten. I wasn’t too sure what to expect, as the last time I had been to Bicester village was 1995, as an impoverished student! On arrival to the outlet we were taken to the Bicester Village lounge, tucked away towards the very end of the village.

On the way to the lounge some of the cute designer boutiques I passed by included Dior, Myla, Agent Provocateur, Jimmy Choo, Hugo Boss, Mulberry, Celine, Versace, Matthew Williamson, DKNY, Paul & Joe, Bally and Alexander McQueen. I also passed by a lot of the High Street shops like Jigsaw, Whistles, French Connection and Karen Millen.
I was agreeably and pleasantly surprised, and anxious to get involved in some healthy retail therapy! None of your mad high street prices for me! After all, this is credit crunch time and belts need to be tightened!











At the Indian themed lounge Lolly and Anna - who is the marketing manager of the outlet greeted us. Laura told us that Bicester Village is now home to over 100 luxury Boutiques! Indeed the village, over the years, has had a complete makeover and is now a place of very chic designer boutiques- situated in wonderfully scenic surroundings and far from the madding crowds of the city. Bicester village is pretty and picturesque with a small market town atmosphere. Compare this with the hustle and bustle of central London on any day of the week! Shopping in the city can be horribly hectic, exhausting and sheer hard work!
Bicester village is a big contrast with Oxford Circus.

Laura also told us that Bicester Village is one of nine Chic Outlet Shopping villages, managed by Value Retail, in Europe, offering customers discounts and special shopping days out. Ideal for a holiday break if you wanted to go shopping for the weekend!
There is one in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan (which was rumoured to be the best one!), Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich and Kildare village in Dublin. What the outlet does is offer previous seasons’ collections from designers in both fashion and home ware at prices reduced by 60% all year around.

She also advised us of the places to go eat. There was Pret and Starbucks but for those who want to treat themselves there is Villandry, a London based French deli/restaurant. For those of you making it a serious weekend or wanting to spoil someone rotten, there is the Michelin starred restaurants of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and the Malmaison close by. Then if you really wanted to push the boat out there are a number of boutique hotels to go stay in nearby and for that touch of aristocratic luxury there is Waddeson Manor and Bleinheim Palace.
Additionally, Bicester Village is well situated for anyone visiting the region, being close to Shakespeare country and on the edge of the North Cotswold region.






Here I met the lovely Lilly and Saj.



I had seen them both earlier at Marylebone station in London. Now however they had lots and lots of shopping bags plus some wonderful smiles.



Saj organized her visit meticously and explained the advantage in this. With the departure of three trains an hour and at fifteen pounds return, she explained how she managed to get their return tickets from London for five pounds each way, by selecting cheap train seats. Tickets are much cheaper after 10 am. Otherwise the return rail trip to Bicester village could have ended up costing herself and Lilly between 50-70 pounds return, each, had they gone a little earlier that morning! Despite the train journey taking an hour, Saj explained that she still felt that they had more than ample shopping time, plus having time to relax and have a bite to eat.




So what did I think of the shopping?
In all honesty, I had a thoroughly enjoyable day!



Agent Provocateur had a rather limited selection, which for me was a little disappointing, as I am partial to this brand!

The Matthew Williamson store was yummy with a beautiful chandelier and a gorgeous pink dress on display . This was my favourite store by far it was bright and airy and full of beautiful colours. Not one bit of tat on sale here, for sure!




The Matthew Williamson girls Tanya & Anna.

All of the boutiques had their own unique brand design inside the stores and with no queues to pay for anything it felt seriously relaxed. In the All Saints boutique I could have sworn I was in the one in Spitalfields market. The boutique store here carries the same gothic theme and it had a really good selection to choose from too.



There was another good selection in Dolce and Gabbana and the Dior boutique was fantastic in all honesty. I saw lots of gorgeous knits in Nicole Farhi reduced with 50% off.The Burberry macs were seriously reduced. If you are shopping with the credit crunch in mind, well Bicester Village is definitely a place to keep in mind. The savings bring the customers and the choice of shops is truly impressive - from London high street to global designer brands. Mens, women and childrens clothes are on offer as well as shoes, household goods and electronics.




Plenty of reasons to get your spendorphins going!



There is an excellent selection of UK high street brands-L.K.Bennet, Reiss, Monsoon and Jaeger to name a few.

Myla had gorgeous pieces as did Wolford.



I bought a jacket in the Diesel store.



It had 50% off. Their men’s range I thought was better than the ladies.
The store more catering for the boys. However I did get plenty of assistance from their nice and friendly staff!


With Christmas coming up the village also offers a free gift wrapping service.





Matthew Williamson has designed the gift wrap paper. The lounge where they do the wrapping is currently Indian themed to support the Indian children’s charity Pratham which is highly commendable!









The Village has a free personal stylist service. This is an excellent service as the stylists take the time and make the effort with each individual. A bonus too, has to be that they also don’t work on commission! Shopping at Bicester Village is a unique and civilised shopping experience and one that I am definitely going to repeat. With a little planning you can have a really enjoyable, pleasant and extremely lucrative shopping experience.

Surely this is what shopping should be about?

If you've got an iPhone you can download the RummbleiPhone application that has just been released. You can use it for discovering all these places In Bicester and a lot more on your travels.