High School Graduation Gown Colors

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

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)

My high school (public) colors are orange and navy blue. I have to say, the girls looked great in the orange. The guys looked great in the blue. The girls had white collars to attach to the gown. We bought ours. Since I actually graduated from summer school, all the kids wore white gowns with the tassel from their home school. It was a district wide graduation. So, I have two set of gowns.

The honor/CSF (California Scholarship Federation) students got to keep their cords and/or sashes.

For college, I wore black for my Jr. college graduation. We bought them. I know that City College of San Francisco has switched from red to black every now and then. School colors are red and white.

Since my current school (Academy of Art) uses black, I will re-use the one I have from CCSF since we have to buy them.

The universities I attended but transferred out of:
Grambling State: All wear black. School colors are Black and Gold.
SFSU: All wear purple. School colors are Purple and Gold.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by lilykkg

This thread is the first time I ever heard of renting graduation gowns. I wish those were options at the schools my brother and I attended. The only gown my parents didn't have to pay out of pocket for was my high school gown, that was included in our tuition.

I bought my high school gown but rented for college and law school graduation.

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

Academic hoods for professors are still made this way, with a pocket at the bottom. The interior colors indicate the school colors of the university where the doctorate was received, and the velvet signifies the subject area of the degree (light blue = education, kelly green = medicine, etc.)

The degree-granting school is actually indicated by the colors and the way those colors are arranged. For example one school may be indicated by red with one white chevron while another is indicated by red and two white chevrons, while yet another might be white with a red chevron. All 3 are red and white, but in different designs.

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

To the best of my knowledge, the reasons for the black gown and hoods was to recall the monastic origins of the education system.

Right; academic dress is derived from medieval clerical dress, since the faculty of European universities were clergy.

I've always preferred the British style of academic dress (and, to bring it back to clergy, the Scottish style of Geneva gown) to the American styles.