High School Graduation Gown Colors
 

For as long as I can remember, DC Public School grads always have the boys and girls graduate in different color gowns. Maybe some schools did one color, but at most schools, the boys would wear one school color and the girls would wear either the other school color or white.

Where did this come from? I think it's dumb. And especially in an age where there are more transgender and genderqueer students, wouldn't it just be simpler to have everybody in one color?

And why do public schools insist on graduating in gowns, anyway? They seem dumb expensive to me. Most of the private school people I know had the girls in white dresses or something and the boys in suits. That seems perfectly acceptable to me for a high school graduation.

Not that I think caps and gowns should only be for college students (I kinda do think this) but my reasoning is more because dumb expenses are dumb and uniformity can be achieved in other ways.

Our schools use school colors- boys in blue, girls in white. To my knowledge, there haven't been any transgender or genderqueer students. I don't know how they would handle that.

Graduation gowns are significantly cheaper than a suit or (most) white dresses though. I think Hypo's was around $35. A lot of people donate theirs back to the school after graduation for kids who can't afford one in the future. And they don't have to deal with girls having inappropriate dresses (too low cut, too short, etc.). I'd really rather spend $35 on a gown than $200 for a cheap suit (plus $35 for a button down shirt and $$ for a tie) for a growing teen age boy!

Most of the high schools here have all students wear a gown in the school's main color. Here's what ticks me off. We now have 10 red gowns in this house because every year, our kids' high school's graduation advisor swears up and down that the gowns have changed and that we have to order a new one. Lies! They have been the same since 2000 and I wonder if the district is getting a kickback for each gown sold. For a couple of years, it was even a package with your diploma so you absolutely had to buy it.

Now they're a bit more relaxed about it and have even let our kids use their older siblings' honor cords and NHS stoles. This, at least, is saving us a boatload of money.

In the meantime, I'm wondering if there's a choir anywhere that wants 10 red gowns.

I went to private school and we did that. Girls in red, boys in blue. :rolleyes:
We didn't have to buy them though. The school held onto them. The public high schools and I know of at least two other private high schools had everyone in one color. They did use robes too.

Along with the questions: where did the idea of graduating, at any education level, in robes come from?

I also went to a private high school. We all wore blue. If someone wanted to wear a siblings gown, they could.

Everyone wore navy blue caps & gowns at my high school graduation. This was 20+ years ago, and to the best of my knowledge, that was how it had been done since the school started in the 70s. I dont believe, given the era that being sensitive to transgender issues was a consideration in making everyone the same. If I had to hazard a guess based on my knowledge of the administration and senior class faculty sponsors, it was because it was less expensive per gown to order the same for everyone.

I think it's a nice thing for everyone to look the same and get the cap & gown experience. Not everyone goes on to college. I always like when they move the tassel from one side to the other.

I graduated in 2005. Everyone in my class wore a Maroon cap and gown that we rented. They were very nice. Not like the cheap ones that you buy.

All the high schools around here wear gowns in the main school color. Boys and girls wear the same color, and have as long as I can remember (which is back to the 69s). My high school graduation gown was purple.

As for why -- it's tradition, it's formal looking and it's an equalizer. As AGDee says, the gowns aren't that expensive.

At my school the guys were in red and the girls in grey, our school colors. The school paid for our caps and gowns, and we got to keep them. I liked it because they bought them, though I am sure I actually paid for it at some point (taxes, fees, etc.)

At my school, the top ten graduates wore white gowns, the top 10% of the graduating class wore silver and the rest wore maroon gowns (our school color). We had to buy them (I think they were ~$35 in 2008) but we got to keep them.

My school's were also red (boys) and grey (girls). We were allowed to wear gowns that had been passed down but since my older sibling is my brother, I couldn't borrow. I bet my mom still has it in a closet.

Our HS was boys in black, girls in white. Our school colors were orange and black so those weren't happening. I think it's a leftover from the days of girls wearing white dresses and boys wearing dark suits underneath. My college gown was black...so I have the makings of either an angel or nun costume if I'm so inclined. Speaking of which...

I IMMEDIATELY thought of an awesome Halloween costume to incorporate these.

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instanc...x/34899576.jpg

I grew up in DC, but I went to private school, so we probably did it a little bit differently. We (all girls) wore white caps and gowns that the school owned; we had to give them back after the ceremony, although we did get to keep the tassel off the cap (it's hanging on my bedroom doorknob right now along with my college tassels).

At my high school, everyone wore the same color (green), but NHS/Leadership Academy/Top 10% wore different cords and sat in the front to differentiate from everyone else.

NHS members wore gold tassels at my high school, and the top students also wore gold stoles.

I'm fascinated that so many schools have boys and girls in different colors. I thought that had died out 60 years ago.

At my high school everyone wore royal blue and they were owned by the school. The top kid in every class was awarded in a speech by the teacher of that class.

When I graduated last year the girls wore white gowns and the boys wore black ones, but that was changed just this year to black gowns for everybody. We were not allowed to wear our NHS tassels as far as I know but I didn't want to anyways because they weren't nearly as nice-looking as the ones everyone got that had our school colors in them. The top ten got to sit on the stage but the rest of us were seated alphabetically. I'll see this Friday if anything else has changed because MY LITTLE BROTHER IS GRADUATING AND I AM NOT EMOTIONALLY PREPARED FOR THIS.

Good gosh, I'm not THAT old!!!! :p

We had the guys in gold, the girls in white. We had honor cords which weren't knotted for the 3.5 GPA, knotted once for 3.75, and knotted twice for 4.0 and above.

At my small public school, we rented our gowns - white for girls, maroon for boys. My husband wore black at his high school graduation, also at a public school.

What I find fascinating is that at the majority of the private schools here, the girls wear long white ball gowns, almost like debutante dresses. It is apparently a long standing tradition with the majority of schools.

We wore school colors, differentiated by boys and girls, and my kids' school does the same. They had a classmate who died right before sophomore year, and they draped an empty chair with an orange gown, which was his favorite color.

I know Southfield Public Schools has the genders wear the school's colors.

But when I graduated out of the Plano Independent School District (this applies to all 3 high schools btw), our robes were the school's primary color and we all wore the same color. So, I graduated in maroon with 1300 other people.

I wish it was black, though, to save the cost of buying a new college one!

Touches like that are what makes the day.

The principal asked those in our class who had scholarships to stand. We all looked around, no one wanted to be the first to stand. Then suddenly, the guy who was graduating LAST in the class of over 700 people stood up! I doubt that he'll ever hear so much applause again!

My HS did boys in red, girls in white. Everyone had the same tassels, stoles/cords/medals differentiated the other things. Mine is still in my closet at home

The thing about caps and gowns: is there a person alive who looks good in a mortar board?

LOL. No, it's just that while I've seen pictures of guys and girls in different color robes (with the guys usually in a darker color and girls in white), I've never seen it IRL. It seems to have died out around here the middle of the last century. I just didn't realize it was still common other places.

Now, I am used to seeing the girls wear collars, like this:

http://sav-cdn.com/sites/default/fil...rialDay4_0.jpg

I graduated from a public high school. Boys wore black gowns and girls wore white. Our tassels were red and black (school colors) and National Honor Society members wore gold cords. Graduation was held in the gym, but a few years later was moved outside to the football stadium. It's been there ever since.

Graduated in '96. Everyone wore blue gowns, the school's primary color. We rented the gowns and were glad to return them afterward. I remember that they were thick material, maybe nicer gowns than the one I had in college. NHS members had gold cords, valedictorian/salutatorians had special cords, as well.

We had a separate night for honoring awards, so no special recognition of scholarships, "scholars" awards or things of that nature during the ceremony itself.

Many of the schools in the Chicago area just do their school colors, usually all the same color, which is good cause I also hate the different color thing. WTF is the point of that? I went to an all girls private school and we did the same thing. Our school colors were red and white so we went all white--I thought we looked really nice.

A lot of the $$$$$$$$ private schools (not mine, lol) did the ball gown/tux thing though. I'm personally not a fan. It seems off to me.

I went to a private, Catholic high school. We all graduated in royal blue gowns. The girls wore gold collars like the ones in the picture MC posted. NHS wore a medallion on a gold ribbon. We returned the gowns, but got to keep the hats. I don't remember if we had to pay a rental fee. One of the other Catholic schools in the area is all-boys and they wore tuxedos with white dinner jackets and red roses on their lapels (I'm talking about Chaminade for those of you from NY - it's fairly well known). I think one of the all-girls schools did white gowns.

So true - they're awful!

We rented our gowns. Everyone wore blue. I'm really glad we didn't do "boys in one school color, girls in the other" because our other school color was orange and nobody looks good in orange. (Well, at least I don't. LOL)

I think they just do it to get both school colors represented.

In my day- cum laude wore a gold tassel, magna cum laude wore gold tassel and gold hood and summa cum laude wore gold tassel, gold hood, and a medal on a rope with our school colors (red, white and blue). Hypo had a gold tassel and a hood.

I think gowns in school colors are also a relatively recent thing. Everything I've seen seems to suggest that prior to the 50s or 60s, boys generally wore black and girls black or white. Though I guess I can see how girls wearing white and guys wearing a darker color translated to using both school colors when gowns in school colors became popular -- especially since one of the colors is typically white or gold.

We had the guys in purple, the girls in white (school colors). The tassels were a mix of the two colors.

We weren't called in alphabetical order at graduation - it was guys in one row, girls in the next, and it alternated back and forth, so it actually looked nice with the alternating purple and white rows. A couple weeks before graduation, a seating chart was put in the main office, and all seniors could go and select where they wanted to sit. First come, first serve, of course.


Question - for college graduation, did anyone NOT wear a black gown? All Penn State students wear blue, and as far as I can remember (from pictures of all my friends' ceremonies), it's the only school I've seen that doesn't have black gowns.

I wore a black gown, but Columbia wears their shade of blue.
http://www.nypost.com/r/nypost/2012/...3--525x350.jpg

http://news.columbia.edu/files_colum...12-milvets.jpg

We rented our gowns. Everyone wore green, except for those who graduated summa cum laude. They wore white.

Those receiving baccalaureate degrees at UNC-Chapel Hill have worn Carolina blue gowns since at least the early 70s, if not earlier.

http://cdn.madamenoire.com/wp-conten...duation-pf.jpg

At NC State, they wear red gowns, though I don't know how long they've been doing that. UNC-Greensboro used to wear black, but switched to navy blue sometime in the last 20 years or so.

I think at Duke and Wake Forest, they still wear black. (Of course, Wake's colors are black and gold.)

We wore blue in HS with the little white collars for the girls. In college, we wore black. In med school, we wore purple with gold piping (LSU's colors). Geaux Tigers!

In high school I had a black cap and gown with a maroon and grey (school colors) tassel. In college, I had a brown (one of the school colors) robe with a pull with the school logo on, and a brown cap that I decorated with fabric paint. My college tassel was white because I'm a bachelor of arts.

Another question for everyone - did your high school and/or college allow you to decorate your cap? I had my high school cap airbrushed, and didn't do anything with my college cap, although we were permitted to do so.