The Academic Gown

[Indy Magnoli]

I teach part-time at a very traditional high school here in New Zealand. For the graduation and end of year prize-giving, all the staff wear traditional academic gowns. I, for one, love it... too bad we can't wear them year-round like in the old days. [huh]

I was even able to find a tie in my collection that had the same pink and blue coloring as my hood!

Kind regards,
Indy

 

[Hemingway Jones]

.

You look positively smashing, Ol' Boy.

But no mortar board cap?

 

[Julius Xavier]

Looks Great...

But from looking at the picture I can't help but want to put a little thought bubble over your head that says... "Now I wonder what that pesky Harry Potter is up too now..."

But it does look great I wasn't lying about that. Bravo!



-JX

 

[Harp]

Prof

Very impressive.

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Thanks for the kind words! There were times when the mortar board was worn as well, but this seems reserved now only for graduation ceremonies, but not here. I don't believe the hood on this particular gown is ever meant to be worn (though it is made functionally). The lining on the hood isn't present on the Phd version; according to legend, the higher professors had the seniority to sit closest to the fire during winter, so they didn't need the fur on their hoods. So the lack of fur, though in itself a sign of the upper class, actually denoted a higher status saying, "I am allowed to sit by the fire, so there!".

Kind regards,
Magnoli

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Cool. Are your ceremonies conducted in Latin? Or is that a little too trad?

We don't have high school graduation ceremonies in Scotland. This is all a little novel for me still.

bk

 

[PenMan]

Nice attire. I used to go to lectures in Cambridge where the old school types would put on black academic gowns to deliver their lectures. I also recall being in St Andrews on a Sunday, where many undergrads wear their red robes to church and then around town. Very nice.

I did a PhD at the University of Sheffield. Thus my robe is scarlet and my hood is crimson with green trim, sort of like a mismatched Santa Claus. Quality education; hideous combination. I wear it exactly once a year (for graduation). Also, I bought it in England from Edes and Ravencroft, meaning that it is 100 per cent wool--a bit heavy for the aussie climate.

 

[Charlie Huang]

Ah, but the Sheffield MA hood is, in the word of Charles AH Franklyn, "one of the most Beautiful and Dignified hoods in the World." Green lined crushed strawberry; very delicious.

The green of the PhD should be very dark green, almost black.

A thing about mortarboards, the best are the rigid skull type. The vintage ones are the best as the modern ones are not as good; the former has a twisted silk tassel and grosgrain covered button whilst the latter has a nasty polyester one that is limp and formless. Also, British squares (or trenchers, there's a lot of names) are the best in world since they are all sized properly and the tassel is the correct length (ending just above the brow). American squares have an oversized skull and a 'take-your-eye-out' lethal length (I've seen a vintage American rigid square which is very well made). Chinese squares are even worse; flimsy square board with a lace-up skull!

E&R vintage rigid skull square

E&R vintage folding skull square (note the tassel)

E&R modern folding square

E&R Bishop Andrewes cap (the ancient version of the mortarboard! Still used by Cambridge DDs/Doctor of Divinities)

Chinese 'lace-up' square (at least the tassel is not lethal...)

Finally, me wearing the rigid square in my Society's officer's gown

 

[Nick D]

Here's me on the left in the Leeds MA robes.

And another

I like the hats for the Leeds PhD, though I can't find a picture of it. It's a black velvet slouch hat with a wide stiff brim. I prefer it to the mortar boards and velvet bag hats.

 

[dhermann1]

When my mother and grandmother were in college, they had frequent convocations each year when they would wear the traditional garb.
The iriony is, of course, that this ouitfit is based on what Parisian students at the Sorbonne (and other universities) wore back in the 1300's as a regular informal, practical form of dress. The mortar board shape developed from the natural flattening of the hats they wore, and the gowns were meant to be WARM in those unheated medieval class buildings.
Someday they may make students, who will be wearing God knows what 200 years from now, wear formal jeans and army jackets for graduation. They may have traditional dress up formal jeans and tattered army jacket rental places.

 

[Queue]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I read somewhere that academic garb has/had to be worn when sitting for exams &c in English universities (e.g. Oxford).

 

[WildCelt]

I was even able to find a tie in my collection that had the same pink and blue coloring as my hood!

Pink? Are you a musician, then, or is there some other reason for that in NZ?

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Pink? Are you a musician, then, or is there some other reason for that in NZ?

Pink is the color (or should I say colour) here to denote an Arts degree. I really should get my correct school colors, as the blue/pink combo is really for local universities. One day I may splurge and get an authentic UNM hood. [huh]

Kind regards,
Indy

 

[Charlie Huang]

The British version of academic dress (AD) is different from the American system. The faculty colours are fixed for most American unis but in the UK, each university is a law unto itself and can prescribe whatever faculty colour it likes (as long as the whole ensemble doesn't clash with another uni). Currently, I am helping a colleague updating a book by the late George Shaw on the whole AD specifications of all the unis in the UK up to present.

Oxford still has the tradition of gown wearing in exams. A vote by the student body in recent years secured its continued practice. I don't think any other unis still wear gowns during exams but I imagine there is nothing stopping you from wearing one (provided that your uni prescribes an undergraduate gown for you to wear).

More information can be obtained here: http://www.burgon.org.uk and the AD yahoo group.

 

[Queue]

The British version of academic dress (AD) is different from the American system. The faculty colours are fixed for most American unis but in the UK, each university is a law unto itself and can prescribe whatever faculty colour it likes (as long as the whole ensemble doesn't clash with another uni). Currently, I am helping a colleague updating a book by the late George Shaw on the whole AD specifications of all the unis in the UK up to present.

Oxford still has the tradition of gown wearing in exams. A vote by the student body in recent years secured its continued practice. I don't think any other unis still wear gowns during exams but I imagine there is nothing stopping you from wearing one (provided that your uni prescribes an undergraduate gown for you to wear).

More information can be obtained here: http://www.burgon.org.uk and the AD yahoo group.

Haha, I appreciate the thought but I'll save my AD for graduation and perhaps one day commencement and other events where the faculty need regalia. I just thought someone here would know, and I was right. Thanks!

 

[Max Flash]

Oxford still has the tradition of gown wearing in exams. A vote by the student body in recent years secured its continued practice. I don't think any other unis still wear gowns during exams but I imagine there is nothing stopping you from wearing one (provided that your uni prescribes an undergraduate gown for you to wear).

At Oxford, it is not just gowns for exams. For college exams (known as "collections") one wears one's gown over normal clothes. For university exams (usually at the end of the first year of undergraduate study and for finals), one must wear "sub fusc" which is a very strict dresscode consisting of a charcoal or black two-piece suit, white bowtie, white shirt (what Americans would usually call a "dress shirt" - i.e. one you would wear to an office, not what one would wear with black tie), black shoes and gown. Women wear a black two-piece suit with a white shirt and a black string tie, tied in a bow.

As an undergraduate, one would carry one's mortarboard - it is strictly forbidden to wear the mortarboard as an undergraduate; this is only permitted on graduation. Women can also opt for a type of velvet soft cap instead of a mortarboard. It is usual to wear a red carnation in your buttonhole for the last day of finals.

Legend has it that it is also permissible to wear armour to one's exams, and to have a pork pie during the exam, but I can't vouch for the accuracy of this!

 

[donCarlos]

I love these british traditions.

We don´t have a traditional robe for students, but the teachers do. They don´t wear them for exams, only for the most formal occassions, like the official matriculation, or when they are on some official presidential action.

They are extremely traditional, the style hasn´t changed much since the 14th century. Each university and college has its own set of these symbols and gowns. I´m including a picture from inauguration of the current president of the Charles University in Prague. (507th)

 

[Edward]

As faculty staff, I generally process at graduation either once or twice per year. I have mixed feelings about what will happen when I complete my PhD, though - I'll miss my Belfast LLM hood, but on the other hand, I will not miss that mortar board. Every year, I end up sat in the front row, right under a spotlight. By about half-way through the proceedings, the metal button on the top of the 'board reaches a very high temperature, which is extremely uncomfortable on my head. The first time it happened, it took me a few minutes to figure out what was gonig on - at first I thought I was having an aneurysm.

 

[H.Johnson]

Many years ago, I signed up to do a part-time PhD at Southampton University, having been told by a professor that their gown and hood colours were red and white - the beloved colours of my local football team. You can imagine my chagrin when after seven years of hard work I ordered my regalia and found that they were in reality claret and sky blue. The colours of West Ham, Aston Villa and (I can scarcely bring myself to say this) Burnley.

I will never, ever, believe a university professor again...

 

[lazydaisyltd]

I am enjoying this thread...my husband teaches math in an academic gown every day, it is a tradition at Sewanee: The University of the South, located in Tennessee. Here, it is called a "teaching robe," and his formal academic regalia is saved for fall & spring convocations and commencement ceremonies. He likes it because it keeps the chalk dust off of his clothes!