Academic dress or academical dress is a traditional form of clothing for academic settings, primarily tertiary and sometimes secondary education, worn mainly by those that have been admitted to a university degree (or similar) or hold a status that entitles them to assume them (e.g. undergraduate students at certain old universities). It is also known as academicals and, in the United States, as 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 on a daily basis. Today the ensemble generally consists of a gown (also known as a robe) with a separate hood, and usually a cap (generally either a mortarboard, a tam, or a bonnet) which are distinctive to each institution. Academic dress is also worn by members of certain learned societies and institutions as official dress.
Overview
The academic dress found in most universities in the British Commonwealth 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.
Formal or sober clothing is typically worn beneath the gown so, for example, men would often wear a dark suit with a white shirt and 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 some universities are relaxed about what people wear under their gowns, it is nevertheless considered bad form to be in casual wear or the like during graduation, and a number of universities may bar finishing students from joining the procession or the ceremony itself if not appropriately dressed (though this sometimes refers only to requiring the proper wear of academic dress and not what is worn beneath it, if unseen).
British academic dress
There is a distinction between different types of academical dress. Most recently, gowns, hoods and caps are categorised into their shape and patterns by what may be known as the Groves Classification of Academic Dress , which is based on Nicholas Groves's document, Hood and Gown Patterns . This lists the various styles or patterns of academic dress and assigns them a code or a Groves Classification Number. For example, the Cambridge BA style gown is designated and a hood in the Cambridge full-shape is designated , etc.
The Burgon Society was founded in 2000 to promote the study of academic dress. It has publications and activities to do with academic dress and is currently in the process of updating Shaw's book on British and Irish academical dress for publication.
Gown
The modern gown is derived from the roba worn under the cappa clausa , a garment resembling a long black cape. In early medieval times, all students at the universities were in at least minor orders, and were required to wear the cappa or other clerical dress, and restricted to clothes of black or other dark colour.
The gowns most commonly worn, that of the clerical type gowns of Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Arts (MA), are substantially the same throughout the English-speaking world. Both are traditionally made of black cloth, (although occasionally the gown is dyed in one of the college's colours) and have the material at the back of the gown gathered into a yoke. The BA gown has bell-shaped sleeves, while the MA gown has long sleeves closed at the end, with the arm passing through a slit above the elbow.
There are two types of yokes which are used for gowns. The more traditional is the curved yoke, whilst the square or straight yoke is used more in modern times.
Another type of gown is called the lay type gown, which is similar to the MA gown in that it has long closed sleeves, but does not have a yoke. Instead, there is a flap collar with the gathers underneath it. Thus it is less voluminous than the clerical type gown. This gown is often used for the dress of officers and graduates of some degrees (especially at Oxford and Durham).
In the Commonwealth, gowns are worn open, while in the United States it has become common for gowns to close at the front, as did the original roba .
Some gowns may have 'strings' (i.e. grosgrain ribbons) attached to them behind the lapels. These in the past were tied together to hold the gown together but are now merely indicators of rank, such as in Cambridge where strings indicate one is a full member (i.e. BA or MA, etc), or just for decoration.
Dress and undress gowns
Since medieval times, doctors, like bishops and cardinals, have been authorised to wear garments of brighter colours such as scarlet, purple or red. In many older universities, doctors have scarlet dress gowns or robes (sometimes called "festal robes") which are worn on special occasions. There are two distinctive shapes used in the UK for doctor's gown; the Oxford doctor's shape and the Cambridge doctor's shape. The former has bell-shaped sleeves, the latter has long open sleeves. Another rarer form is the Cambridge MusD dress gown which is a pattern between the two.
The other form of doctor's gown is the undress gown. This is a black gown (which may or may not be distinct from the master's gown depending on the university; if it is, it usually is trimmed with lace, braid or other subtle indicators of rank) worn for less formal occasions such as lectures. This type of gown is rarely seen or worn nowadays as many wear the dress gown instead; there are fewer applications for the undress gown in normal university life. However, the undress gown still plays a part in the older universities where academic dress is usually worn. At Cambridge, each doctor has its own undress gown, each trimmed differently, meaning one can identify the degree of the wearer without the hood (the same is also for bachelors and masters gowns at Cambridge). St Andrews prescribes a cassock-like gown with a row of buttons running down the front, coloured according to the degree, and is meant to be worn closed. This gown is worn as the undress gown for higher doctorates, with a Cambridge-type gown for full dress. The two may be worn together or separately.
In the universities of the UK there are days called scarlet days or red letter days. On such days, doctors of the university may wear their scarlet 'festal' or full dress gowns instead of their undress ('black') gown. This is more significant for the ancient universities such as Oxford and Cambridge where academic dress is worn almost daily; the black undress gown being worn on normal occasions as opposed to the bright red gowns. Since most universities have abandoned academic dress to the graduation ceremony (where doctors wear always scarlet), the significance of scarlet days have all but disappeared.
Undergraduate gowns
See also: Undergraduate gownsSee also: Undergraduate gowns in ScotlandUndergraduates at many older universities also wear gowns; the most common essentially a smaller knee-length version of the BA gown, or the Oxford Commoners gown which is sleeveless lay type gown and has two streamers at the back at Oxford. At Cambridge, most colleges have their own distinctive design of gown. This is not the case at the Ancient Scottish universities, such as the University of St Andrews, where the undergraduate gown is scarlet and typically features a velveteen collar. Undergraduate gowns are seldom worn (even in institutions that prescribe them) nowadays except in the older universities. Most new universities do not prescribe them since academic dress has fallen out of daily use so students would hardly, if ever, wear them.
In the past, undergraduates wore gowns according to their rank; for noblemen they wore coloured gowns with gold gimp lace, buttons and other decorations whilst fellow-commoners, gentleman-commoners, scholars, commoners, pensioners, sizars, battelers and servitors wore black gowns of decreasing flamboyance based on their standing in the universities.
Habit
Another form of dress, now rarely seen, is the habit, which is worn over a black gown. Only Oxford and Cambridge (though Durham in theory also) use habits and mainly reserve their use for very formal ceremonial occasions and to a specific group of academics
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