It’s been a while since anything got my toes tingling in Oxford town, though Anna and Rosie have swept in with a flourish of creative energy and set up a website that brings together and shouts about all of the beautiful independent businesses in this glorious city of dreaming spires – nice one, Ladies! 

The website in question is… www.independentoxford.com

And to launch it they’re having a bit of a shebang in the most excellent Annie Sloan “home to the best paint in the world” shop on the Cowley Road (The Plain end) this Thursday, and everyone’s invited!

The super cool thing about Thursday night is that it’s offering up a bit of a taster of its cyber-self. By that I mean that Anna and Rosie have picked a beautiful little bunch of independents and invited them to bring along five items from their shops that they feel best represent their shops. These items will be available to buy and will be brought to you by: Kinship of Oxford, Love Your Plane, Shop at the Old Fire Station, Amy Surman Bead Shop, Darn it and Stitch… And of course the mother of indie Oxford – the chalk-tastic Ms Annie Sloan.

What else of Thursday night… There’ll be fizzy booze for your throat and tum, and live music for your ears and toes – winner! Oh, and Anna and Rosie will be a-minglin’ with winning smiles and brimming with enthusiasm on the subject of their exciting new venture  that will be Oxford’s one-stop online guide to all things independent from bakeries to bike shops, galleries to gerkhin-picklers (maybe). Of the launch of Independent Oxford, Rosie and Anna commented (in unison), 

“Oxford has so much to offer in terms of independent businesses and we think that’s part of what makes Oxford the city it is. You can’t beat walking into an independent shop and the owner remembering you from last time or knowing that by shopping there you’re supporting the local economy. There are interesting stories behind each of the indies and so much love and passion behind why and how they do it; that is what we want to share.

What we’re launching on Thursday is just the start; we see this as the beginning of an exciting and boundless quest that has so much potential to not only promote but to create a network for indies to work together.”

If the new Westgate Centre is going to offer Oxford the mass-produced, large-scale, homogenised shopping that the city (apparently) needs, then http://www.independentoxford.com is going to be doing its bit to make sure that Oxford stays unique – making Anna and Rosie the Musketeers of independent shopping in Oxford, I guess! I hope they’ll be wearing capes and feathers in their hats on Thursday – that’d be fun!

Almost forgot… They’re also on Facebook and tweeting away on Twitter @IndieOxford #independentoxford. Getting colourful on Instagram and Pinning on Pinterest