What do I wear under my grad gown?

June 7, 2009 6:24 PM

I'm graduating (university) Friday. What do I wear under my gown?

I've been given the head's up that I might be called out for something at convocation, so I'm feeling nervous about how I'll look in my gown-wearing photos. I don't get the gown ahead of time, and I don't even know the length of the thing. I'll be leaving and arriving gown-less, so I won't be going in my underpants. I feel like I should be wearing something nice, but not at the expense of looking like I'm stealing a couch under my gown. Advice? Female dress.

posted by tamarack to clothing, beauty, & fashion (22 comments total)

Don't do what I did, which was go naked under my gown. It turned out to be 55 degrees and windy. Really, though, business casual dress is perfectly appropriate. My main concern would be whether it's indoors or outdoors. Whatever you wear, it will feel 15 degrees warmer under your black gown. You don't want to take it off afterwards and be drenched in sweat.
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:29 PM on June 7

Go classy and classic. Knee length black skirt and a black shell or unadorned t-shirt, preferably in some kind of wicking fabric. A black pump with a small heel.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 6:32 PM on June 7

I wore a nice summer frock, as I was going out for celebratory drinks and dinner afterwards - but it was in a very hot place (Brisbane, Australia) and the hall was fully air-conditioned, so sweating (as mrmojoflying notes) wasn't an issue. But don't worry about what you'll look like if you get called for anything special - your gown will cover your clothes.
posted by goo at 6:35 PM on June 7

I just graduated from law school, and almost all of the women wore nice sundresses or other knee-length sleeveless dresses. This was in southern California, for what its worth regarding casualness. I wore this dress in a more tangerine-y color with brown wedges (we were on grass.) Do you have more specific questions, or are you just not sure about what people usually wear to graduate?
posted by wuzandfuzz at 6:36 PM on June 7

First, congratulations.

Second, maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, but, whatever you want to wear?

I'm trying to think back to my college graduation (and for that matter, to my upcoming one) and I cannot recall anyone wearing something under their gown that caused their graduation pictures to go wonky. The only thing that stands out is if you wear pants, but the guys are wearing pants for the most part, so even then you're fine.

I would suggest a skirt if you don't know the length of the gown (usually about mid-calf in my experience) and if you want to look more formal, paired with a nice shirt or blouse. If you are careful to wear a skirt that is fairly close to the body (note: in other words, one that is not poofy), then you shouldn't look "like [you're] stealing a couch."

You could also wear a cute sun-dress, or whatever your personal variation of "something nice" might be, including pants if you don't mind them sticking out beneath your gown.

Be cautious about wearing heels, as you'll be climbing stairs and possibly sitting in grassy areas that may cause heels to sink in or get dirty. Ballet flats were made for graduations.

Your hair may get mussed due to the cap, so be prepared with a small mirror if you have hair that gets messy easily. Bring bobby pins for the cap, which you may need to keep it in place.

Finally, enjoy!
posted by librarylis at 6:36 PM on June 7

All I remember is, I went barefoot, and my parents thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I stashed some Rainbows literally up my sleeve in case I needed them. Yes, I graduated from UC San Diego...who's asking?

It's very unlikely that you'll remember what you wore under your gown, in other words, unless you choose to make an issue of it.
posted by crinklebat at 6:43 PM on June 7

The gowns are usually pretty poofy themselves, so i think you'd have to be wearing something like a wedding gown for it to look really bad. All the other girls will be wearing a skirt or a dress under there too so don't worry about looking out of place. I would just choose a nice, flat skirt and a low-cut or v-neck top.
posted by amethysts at 6:46 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

amethysts: "The gowns are usually pretty poofy themselves, so i think you'd have to be wearing something like a wedding gown for it to look really bad. All the other girls will be wearing a skirt or a dress under there too so don't worry about looking out of place. I would just choose a nice, flat skirt and a low-cut or v-neck top."

Yes.

I found the gown to be very itchy (cheap polyester) , so I wore mid-length sleeves under mine.
posted by radioamy at 7:00 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Summer dress or nice skirt top is always a cute / nice look if you expect you will see any of it.

Do a search on flickr is you want to see some examples of women in various gowns / dress combos. (graduation gown was the phrase I used)
posted by bottlebrushtree at 7:03 PM on June 7

i agree with the suggestions for business casual. i also suggest thinking about collars. i just graduated myself last week and realized i looked pretty silly with a button-up blouse underneath the gown (although i had the advantage of being able to try on ahead of time). the guys look pretty sharp with their tie and collar showing up above the collar but my personal taste thinks women look nicer without anything showing at the neckline.

for footwear, totally seconding wearing comfortable footwear and something with traction. sometimes stages can be slippery.

and last, careful about the bobby-pin suggestion -- use one or two definitely if you need to, but you may need to remove the cap for the 'blessing' etc, so make it so that you can take the pins out and put back in quickly. have fun!
posted by Tandem Affinity at 7:09 PM on June 7

Gowns are cut to have clothes worn underneath them, and don't look bad at all, even with quite a lot of clothes. I did my doctoral work at a university where we wear gowns quite regularly (for meals, etc), and it was normal to take one's gown and transfer it to the outside of a winter coat when walking outside. This looked totally fine.

Keep in mind that some places have gowns which are closed at the front, and some have open fronted gowns. If your gown is a closed kind, then all your finery will go unseen by the masses, so it's probably best to wear a loose shirt and a skirt or trousers. If you have an open fronted gown, light colours on top seem to work best: they contrast nicely with the black of the gown.

If you're a woman, keep in mind that gowns were designed to be worn by men, and that the gown industry (such as it is) doesn't seem to have figured out that women are wearing them more often than men nowadays. They tend, therefore, to be wider on the shoulders than is comfortable for the average female; on most guys they sit on the outside of the shoulder at any rate. Because they have a semi-rigid 'yoke' construction, it is difficult to pull the shoulders in, and women often find that open fronted gowns slip off the shoulder rather easily. For some reason which I don't quite understand, this tends to make people in shoulder-less dresses look rather small -- not in a dainty way, but rather like they're being somehow overpowered by their gown. Shirts with collars look better, or anything which squares up your frame and creates an impression of substance and dignity.

You might also want to think about the colour of your hood, if you have one. One wouldn't with to clash with a brightly coloured silk hood.
posted by Dreadnought at 7:09 PM on June 7

Oh, while we're on the subject, a medievalist friend of mine went to graduate from her master's wearing a suit of armour under her gown. Now that is classy.
posted by Dreadnought at 7:11 PM on June 7

No one has mentioned shoes -- make sure you wear a pair that you are comfortable walking across a stage in front of a few thousand people without concern of tripping! I wore some stupid dress shoes to my college graduation, but honestly I wish I would have just worn my dressy-casual sandals :) Wear whatever goes with your outfit, but isn't going to cause you angst while walking up that ramp!
posted by sararah at 7:25 PM on June 7

All you need is fabulous shoes as they're the only things people will actually see! Wear whatever you want under the actual gown -- probably a skirt or a dress if you want to show off said fabulous shoes.
posted by pised at 7:39 PM on June 7

Dress for comfort first, to impress second. All your pics will likely be taken with your gown on, so no need to worry about scandalizing. However, standard seems to be either a sundress or skirt/sleeveless shirt combo.

Depending on where you are and whether it's outside or inside, you can get really, really hot under those black robes. I remember many people unzipped their gowns to be cooler while listening to the speeches, so you'll want something that wouldn't be embarrassing - ie, no low-cut top or grubby T.

Second the comfy shoes. You'll probably be doing a lot of walking, and you don't want to be the girl that trips over your heels when walking up to get your diploma.
posted by lunasol at 7:47 PM on June 7

Thanks everyone :) I know it sounds like a really obvious question; I was more worried about the poofiness factor and general gown-fashion-don'ts. Lots of helpful pointers and advice, thank you.
and since I can't walk in heels, the sensible shoes are a moot point!
posted by tamarack at 7:48 PM on June 7

tamarack, congratulations!

i suggest you wear something that fits the following criteria:

- comfortable
- won't make you swear a lot (i.e. no sweaters or snowpants)
- you like (don't dress up "because it's graduation!")


i'm graduating on wednesday and will be wearing jeans and flip-flops. i had to dress up for 10 months of practice teaching, so i've decided to be as comfy as possible during the ceremony.

have fun!
posted by gursky at 7:54 PM on June 7

For women, a high necked shirt with a collar looks best, especially if the gown opens in the front. Low cut just draws too much attention to your neck, and looks strange under what is scholarly dress - even pretty women look a bit dumpy wearing a low necked dress under a gown. When I graduated, I wore a simple white dress shirt, and black slacks - and (to toot my own horn) I think I looked very smart and professional. This is the recommended or even required dress for men and women for graduation photos at some universities.

Basically, the gown is the star of your outfit on graduation - you should just let it shine.
posted by jb at 8:06 PM on June 7

Tandem - was it the nature of the collar? I wore a pointed dress-shirt style collar (similar to a man's, though I am a woman) without a tie in my photos and I thought that worked very well. That said, this was in Canada, and we had open gowns where the collars can sit overtop the gown, rather than the church choir style closed ones.
posted by jb at 8:12 PM on June 7

Your outfit under the gown won't be seen, so wear whatever's comfy. You only need to dress nice if you're planning on taking off the gown and going somewhere nice after commencement. Otherwise no one will see it. For my graduate commencement, I wore a Journey t-shirt, a pair of shorts and birkenstocks.
posted by JuiceBoxHero at 9:13 AM on June 8

jb, it was more of a rounded collar, i guess. and maybe the collar is also a bit person- and grad-gown specific --> we also had the church choir closed style gowns, so it just looked like i had a crazy amount of stuff going on at the neck.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 4:47 PM on June 9

we also had the church choir closed style gowns

I think fashion-wise that can make a big difference - some collar might look good, but a standing collar (maybe a short turtle neck) or collar tucked under would look better than a collar over. Wheras the pointed collar over looks good with the open style (which I think are more in British style - at least, I've seen them most often in Britain and Canada).
posted by jb at 4:59 PM on June 9