What’s with all these tassels, caps and gowns? Learn more about the attire you see at K-State graduation
It’s officially graduation season, and that means parents, families and friends will
soon be watching a parade of caps and gowns crossing the stage at commencement ceremonies.
If you’ve attended a university graduation ceremony before, you may have found yourself
wondering about the meaning behind the different hats and gowns you see, or even tassels
of different colors. You also might be curious why students wear graduation gowns
to begin with. And where do those famous mortarboard hats come from, anyway?
There’s actually a long, rich history behind graduation attire, or, as it’s formally
known, “academic dress.” Kansas State University graduate Stephen Wolgast ’90 is an
expert in academic dress, and he loves digging deeper into the traditions surrounding
the tassels, caps and gowns you find at graduation ceremonies.
“This connection to the past — it has meaning more than just something fancy you wear,”
he said.
Note: This article in its original form previously appeared in the January 2019 issue
of our At K-State newsletter.
To understand the evolution of the modern-day graduation gown, we have to travel all
the way back in time to the medieval period.
Gowns were a popular style of dress at the time, and it’s no surprise that the scholars
of the day wore them too. Scholarly dress was influenced by the connection between
early universities and the church, and also by the simple fact that heavy gowns, hoods
and hats were needed to keep the wearer warm.
Wolgast said it’s also important to remember that in this era, the style and color
of clothing people wore was used to send social signals about rank — i.e. the more
fabric your clothing used, the wealthier you were.
Even the colors you wore mattered, and scholars were expected to follow certain rules
of dress. Dark, somber colors were encouraged — like today’s traditional black graduation
gowns, except the natural dyes used at the time would have looked more like dark brown
or gray to our modern eyes.
The use of scholarly gowns eventually carried over to the American colonies.
“Scholars kept wearing it because it became part of tradition,” Wolgast said. “It
turned into part of what the university experience was.”
Now, fast-forward to the late 1800s, where our modern view of academic dress in the
United States began to take shape. Two men — John McCook and Gardner Cotrell Leonard
— are credited with promoting the wide use of traditional black caps and gowns, which
today are mainly worn at graduation events.
Now that you know a little about where graduation gowns come from, why do they look
different?
Modern American bachelor’s degree graduation gowns have the plainest style, with straight
sleeves.
Wolgast said historians haven’t settled on exactly how the flat board in the famous
mortarboard hat came about. The cap’s history started in the church and existed with
a smaller square top by the time of the English Restoration in 1660, when the king
was restored to the throne and Anglican bishops were given back their seats in Parliament.
“To show their allegiance to King Charles II, many clergy and academics enlarged the
top of their caps,” Wolgast said. “With a larger square top, the cap needed stiffening,
and the mortarboard became the cap we recognize today.”
The tradition of moving the tassel on the mortarboard from right to left is an American
invention, so bachelor’s graduates would have something to do after graduation since
they don’t have a hood, like master’s and doctoral graduates do.
A master’s gown has what are known as “closed sleeves” with a hole for the arm to
go through and fabric hanging down.
A doctoral gown has three stripes on the sleeves and strips of velvet down the front.
Some doctoral holders wear a velvety-like, beret-style hat known as a “tam.”
The different colors on the graduates’ tassels and hoods and the faculty’s academic
dress represent the university they graduated from and what field they studied, Wolgast
said.
Ultimately, Wolgast said academic gowns serve as a symbol of pride for the graduate.
“You’ve finished it, you’ve passed, and this is the symbol you get to wear to show
you succeeded,” Wolgast said. “It connects the person wearing it with this long history.
It carries on the tradition going forward.”
Alumni Association honors graduates
Once you’ve put away that cap and gown after graduation, the K-State Alumni Association
is proud to help you stay connected to K-State.
The K-State Alumni Association partners with the colleges to provide all new graduates
with a complimentary one-year membership to the Alumni Association. The Alumni Association
also presents undergraduates with a business card holder and graduate students with
a lapel pin.
LEARN MORE about Alumni Association membership.