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| JAN./FEB. 2004 VOLUME 106 NUMBER 4 | Cornelliana |
Send in the Gowns | BEHIND THE FACULTY FASHION FOR ACADEMIC REGALIA
OUTSIDE OF YOUR LOCAL RENAISSANCE Faire, there’s nothing quite like ceremonial university events for massive public displays of High Medieval fashion. The multicolored regalia that otherwise temperate academicians don on festive occasions has its roots in the cowled clerical cloaks of thirteenthcentury scholars at the church-run universities of Europe.Over the centuries, this monkish garb evolved into a symbolic uniform of hoods and gowns that indicate the wearer’s academic credentials: the bachelor’s gown is basic black; the doctoral gown gets color and velvet bars. Depending on school and degree status, robes can be further accessorized with maces, medallions, honor cords, tassels, tippets, and liripipes of many shapes and shades, all topped off by either the classic mortarboard (a descendent of the medieval skullcap) or any manner of flamboyantly floppy substitute headgear.
Most American schools follow a dress code established by the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume in 1897, which set the color schemes of the various degree fields (purple for law, green for medicine, and so on) and attempted to impose an egalitarian spirit on the whole enterprise by eliminating “differences in dress arising from different tastes, fashions, and degrees of wealth.”Cornell’s carnelian dominated the Lehman inauguration, but sharp-eyed observers would have spotted the blues, browns, and oranges of visiting rivals amidst the red sea. Squint a bit at all the finery and the scene in Barton evoked a papal installation.
The endurance of such anachronistic Old Europe pageantry in dress-down America is something of a marvel. Yankee populism, after all, long ago unwigged our lawyers; since JFK, American presidents can’t even get away with an inaugural top hat. But even after 700 years, the gowns of the academy continue to thrive, reminding us of the ancient origins of the university.