Get the latest gossip

Bicester Village at 30: how a wet field in Oxfordshire defied the death of the shopping mall

With almost 100% occupancy and a waiting list for pop-up spaces, the Disneyland-inspired fashion mecca is bucking trends

Before a shopping centre selling past-season designer fashion at discounted prices opened its doors in April 1995, the site of Bicester Village had been “a wet field containing two old horses that looked ready for the knacker’s yard, and a fallen-down shed behind a small branch of Tesco”, remembers Colin Woodhead, a PR director who worked on the launch. While town centres struggle with environmental issues ranging from the cost of car ownership to refuse collection, the white picket fences and wide cobblestone avenues of Bicester Village – modelled on Disneyland – offer an environment akin to that of an all-inclusive holiday resort. Photograph: Gary Calton/The ObserverBut as the trend cycle has lost its stranglehold on the consumer psyche, and the rise of preloved and vintage has elevated the cachet of clothes that are not hot off the catwalk, the status of outlet shopping has risen.

Get the Android app