Clothes for graduation

[RuckAndRoll]

I found out last night I've passed my postgraduate masters after a horrible 2 years. Now comes the fun bit, deciding what to wear for graduation with academic robes.

DHs answer was black trousers with a white blouse but I'm thinking for a december graduation that could be a bit cold.

Do I go and buy a new suit, or go with something like This Dress? I like the dress but is black under black too boring?

Congratulations Ruck
What colour is your hood? It might be good to match the dress with the hood?
Whatever you do - you need something which fits closely across your norks, so you can firmly attach your hood. i wouldn't recommend a shirt unless you sew it to your knickers, as the weight of the hood will just pull it all around your neck. Stick to one layer - so I wouldn't do a jacket. It depends whether your robes are new polyester and quite light, or older ones which are thick and hot.

Silver with red and a little light yellow stripe for the hood.

Very good point about securing the hood, I'd forgotten about that, changes thoughts a little bit.

No idea how heavy the robes are, they're hired. I'm just thinking we have to line up and hang around for an hour before the ceremony starts and the last thing I want is to get cold.

Still in shock from the results last night!

if you don't have a button you will struggle to attach the hood as they are designed to clip to a button, Personally I don't think it would pull a shirt up too much if it was well tucked in (and belted)

I got mine hediously wrong both times, the first time I wore a dress which clashed terribly with the hood and couldn't get it stable and comfy, (and I had my hat on back to front!!)

I went for black the 2nd time (but a black and white patterned top which again looked awfull) But the main problem with my PhD graduation was having to wear a royal blue and gold pantomime dames outfit! and being 9 months pg at the time

should I ever do it again (unlikely as having dd has killed my brain cells!) I will wear a black shirt with a button with black trousers.

Oh and congratulations! [hgrin]

Thanks

I wore a blouse last time that wasn't tucked in and it rode up a lot, I suppose tucked in would be ok, along with a pile of safety pins to secure the hood!

The problem comes trying to get a shirt to fit me, I need pepperberry for my norks and long tall sally for my height.

Shame as I liked that dress, might get it anyway for smart days at work

Rock :) Me too re Pepperberry, although I can get away with tall clothing rather than LTS as my inside leg is only 34"! I'm short in the torso so pepperberry shirts fit Ok (or did before they downsized the sizing!) You can imagine the fun I had adding a huge bump to the mix can't you! and it was that record breaking hot summer and central London.

maybe you could pin your shirt to your skirt/trousers just for piece of mind

Hi again Ruck. I have done lots of graduation ceremonies so have had plenty of opportunities to try different stuff. In the end, my dh bought me a lovely brooch and I use that to secure the hood to a close fitting black shift dress. I just stab the brooch pin right through the point of the hood and then the dress. It needs to be a big brooch with a sharp pin for that to work. Doesn't shift though, apart from the inevitable dropping off your shoulders.
It will be sod's law that it is roasting in the venue when you get in. Do you know you get a different robe for Masters? It will have long sleeves, like a japanese kimono. Robes themselves are made of polyester if they are quite new and a kind of stiff flannelly stuff if they aren't new. Hoods weigh a ton, always. Sounds like you have quite a jazzy hood - maybe stick to a black dress? Sorry.

I'm thinking about this for my graduation next summer. I'm not the black trousers and white blouse type so I think I'll go for a plain black dress.

I wore a dress with a cardigan, that I buttoned up a little bit for my graduation - they attached the dress to the button on the cardigan for me. The ladies that dress you are really lovely, quite a few people had difficult to attach to outfits and they made it work :)

Argh it's all too complicated! Why can't I just wear jeans, trainers and a rugby shirt like normal?!
Taking my friend shopping this weekend so hopefully she can find something.
Thanks for all the help so far

Oh and I checked again, was wrong with the hood colour - got confused between the undergrad and postgrad masters. It's actually solid red at the back with a yellow 'border'...