Academic dress is a traditional form of clothing for academic settings, mainly tertiary (and sometimes secondary) education, worn mainly by those who have obtained a university degree (or similar), or hold a status that entitles them to assume them (e.g., undergraduate students at certain old universities).Shaw (1995), p. 3 It is also known as academical dress, academicals, or academic regalia.
Contemporarily, it is commonly seen only at graduation ceremonies, but formerly academic dress was, and to a lesser degree in many ancient universities still is, worn daily. Today, the ensembles are distinctive in some way to each institution, and generally consist of a gown (also known as a robe) with a separate hood, and usually a cap (generally a square academic cap, a tam, or a bonnet). Academic dress is also worn by members of certain learned societies and institutions as official dress.e.g. Burgon Society: Robes
Overview and history
The academic dress found in most universities in the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States is derived from that of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which was a development of academic and clerical dress common throughout the medieval universities of Europe. This overgarment had the practical purpose of keeping a scholar warm while they were sitting, immobile, or studying.
Formal or sober clothing is typically worn beneath the gown: for example, men would often wear a dark suit with a white shirt and a tie, or clerical clothing, military or civil uniform, or national dress, and women would wear equivalent attire. Some older universities, particularly Oxford and Cambridge, have a prescribed set of dress (known as subfusc) to be worn under the gown, though this sometimes refers only to requiring the proper wear of academic dress and not what is worn beneath it, if unseen. In the Commonwealth, gowns are worn open, while in the United States, with a few exceptions, it has become common for gowns to close at the front, as did the original roba.
Materials In general, the materials used for academic dress are heavily influenced by the climate where the academic institution is located, or the climate where the graduate will usually be wearing the costume (as a faculty member at another institution, for example). In either case, the American Council of Education (ACE) allows for the comfort of the wearer, and concedes that lighter materials be used in tropical climates, and heavier materials elsewhere.Sullivan. The Academic Costume Code, Gowns, Material In addition, it acknowledges cotton poplin, broadcloth, rayon, or silk as appropriate.Sullivan. The Academic Costume Code, Caps, Material
The materials used for academic dress vary and range from the extremely economical to the very expensive. In the United States, most bachelor's and master's degree candidates are often presented the "souvenir" version of regalia by their institutions or authorized vendor, which are generally intended for very few wearings and are comparatively very inexpensive. For some doctoral graduates, commencement will be the only time they wear academic regalia, and so they rent their gowns instead of buying them. These rented or hired gowns are often made of inexpensive polyester or other human-made synthetic fibre. In Britain, rented gowns are almost always polyester while Russell cord, silk, or artificial silk gowns are only available when bought. Undergraduate gowns are usually made from cotton or cotton and polyester mix and are relatively inexpensive to encourage students to own them.
People who choose to buy their dress may opt for finer fabrics, such as poplin, grosgrain, percale, cotton, wool, cassimere, broadcloth, Russell cord, or corded/ribbed material. For silk, there are a range of types including artificial silk/rayon, Ottoman (i.e. ribbed or corded silk), taffeta, satin, alpaca, true silk, shot silk, or a mixture. Pure Ottoman silk is rarely used except for official gowns, as it is very expensive.An Ede & Ravenscroft Oxford MA hood made of pure Ottoman silk will cost around £347. Source: Ede and Ravenscroft - Robe Makers (21 September 2007) Some gowns may be trimmed with gimp lace, cords, buttons, or other forms of decoration.
In the past, fur has been used to line certain hoods (especially those of the UK) which range from rabbit to ermine. In the past, sheepskin was widely used. Most now use imitation fur, instead, mainly because of cost and animal rights concerns. Some robe makers use fur if the customer requests and pays for it, as some feel that the quality and feel of artificial fur has yet to match that of real fur.The cost difference between artificial and real fur can be as much as a few hundred pounds.
Doctors' robes usually use wool flannel, panama wool (worsted), superfine cloth, damask, or brocade, and are brightly coloured (or black, but faced with a bright colour) to distinguish them from lower degrees. They tend to be the most expensive because they must be dyed in a specific colour and/or be trimmed in coloured silks. Many doctoral gowns have a special undress version, so adding to the cost of a full set.
Many institutions whose dress includes gowns of varying lengths prescribe the appropriate length of each gown with reference to parts of the wearer's body (undergraduate gowns at Cambridge, for example, must not reach the knees, whereas BA gowns should reach just beyond them, according to the university's statutes). As such, suppliers of academic dress produce gowns in many different sizes to fit persons of different heights.
By country Canada
In Canada, academic regalia are worn by university officials, faculty, students, and honoured guests during Graduation exercises (commonly referred to as Convocation), installations of their presiding officers, and special convocations, such as the inauguration of newly endowed professorial chairs and inductions to some of the honour and professional societies with university chapters. Academic regalia typically consist of a headgear (mortarboard, Tudor bonnet, or John Knox cap), robe, and hood. Until the 1930s, Canadian universities customarily prescribed academic robes for its professors and students at classes and lectures. At the University of Trinity College in the University of Toronto, academic gowns are still required for all students and faculty at Wednesday dinners, most college meetings, debates, and certain special college events.
Most Canadian universities follow or adopted either the British University academic dress at Oxford or Cambridge universities,Gibson, William (2004). The Regulation of Undergraduate Dress at Oxford and Cambridge, 1660–1832. Burgon Society Annual.Hargreaves-Mawdsley, W.N. (1963). A History of Academical Dress in Europe until the End of the Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press. or the Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume ratified by most American universities in the late 1890s.Armagost, Robert (2009). University Uniforms: The Standardization of Academic Dress in the United States. Transactions of the Burgon Society, 9, p. 140. Other universities contain elements of the British and American patterns for some or all of their academic costumes. A classic example is the academic dress of McGill University, whose British origins are evident in the regalia of its degree holders. The distinctive ceremonial regalia of McGill University officials, though, are closer to the American pattern for the master's robe with above-the-elbow, square, slit-cut sleeves. The scarlet, doctor of philosophy (PhD) regalia of McGill can now be worn closed-front, unlike the open-front only gown of the University of Cambridge higher doctoral full dress, from which it evolved. Gold strand tassels used in American doctoral regalia are wrapped around McGill's otherwise Tudor-style bonnet or tam.
France
In France, academic dress, also called the (from the word toga, an ancient Roman garment), is similar to French judges' court dress, except for its colour, which depends on the academic field in which the wearer graduated. It is nowadays little worn, except by doctors during the opening of the university year or the ceremony for a doctorate honoris causa. For doctors, it consists of: A long gown (a bit similar to a cassock) with a long row of buttons (traditionally, 25, but nowadays usually fewer) in front and a train at the back (which in the current costume is not visible but attached with a button in the inner side of the gown). The gown is in two colours: black and the standard colour of the academic field in which the wearer graduated (see below), with simars (two vertical bands in the front of the gown). An (epitoga): A piece of cloth with white fur stripes (three for doctors) attached by a button on the left shoulder, with a rectangular, long, thin tail in the front and a triangular, shorter, broad tail in the back (both tails carry the fur stripes); its colour is that of the relevant academic field. The epitoga has evolved from the academic hood, which explains why the French academic dress does not include a hood. A long, wide belt or sash, either black or of the colour of the relevant academic field, ended by fringes (which may be golden or of the same colour as the belt), and attached with a broad, ornamental knot. A white (jabot), over which a white tie may be worn for ceremonial occasions: It is made of lace for the dean of the faculty, the president of the university, and a few other officials, of plain cotton for others. Traditionally only for men, a mortarboard of the colour of the relevant academic field with a golden stripe, which is usually not worn but carried (since the academic dress in France is rarely worn outdoors, and men are not supposed to wear hats indoors), and often even omitted. Nowadays the practice is more relaxed, and the mortarboard is sometimes seen worn by women or worn indoors by men. In principle, a white bow tie (for men only; quite rarely seen) and white gloves (nowadays never used).
The colours of the various academic fields are jonquille (yellow) for literature and arts, amaranth (purplish red) for science, redcurrant (reddish pink) for medicine, scarlet red for law, and violet (purple) for theology. University rectors, chancellors or presidents wear also specific costumes, which are violet regardless of the academic field in which they graduated.
Field of graduation Colour name Colour aspectRef Divinity (and all high officials regardless of the field) (Purple, specifically the Royal Purple shade) Law (colour also worn by high magistrates) (Scarlet) Medicine (and health-related fields) (Redcurrant, a reddish shade of pink) Science (exact and experimental) (Amaranth) Arts, literature, philosophy, humanities (Daffodil, a shade of yellow)
The dress exists in two versions: the ("small costume") and the ("great costume"). Both are identical in form, and differ only in the presence or absence of the mortarboard and the repartition of colours on the gown and sash (the other elements of the dress, especially the epitoga, being identical for both): for the , the gown is all black, except the simarras which are of the colour of the academic field; the buttons are black; the sash and its fringes moiré black; the mortarboard is usually not worn. for the , the gown is black between the simarras, which are moiré black, and of the colour of the academic field on the sides and on the sleeves, except their turn-ups, which are black; the buttons are of the colour of the academic field; the sash is of the colour of the academic field, its fringes may be either the same colour or gold.
Germany