I remember visiting Cambridge before I started my degree, and, by chance, turning up on graduation day, when the town was bustling with people dressed in black and white, each and every one wearing strange, furry hoods. Rather embarrassingly, I even remember wondering whether these students were all part of some explorers’ society, back from an Arctic expedition, something along those lines. Anyway, little did I know that they were exhibiting the staple of the Cambridge wardrobe: the gown.

Gowns have been part of academic dress in Cambridge since the Middle Ages, initially starting out as a sweeping floor-length clerical dress. As time went on, things were spiced up a little; hoods changed, the length changed, and even colour was allowed (though only for the most important university members). Today there is an impressive range of gowns, depending on college, subject, or academic level. Throughout its long history, the gown hasn’t survived just to provide warmth, shelter from rain, or to act as a cloak of invisibility, but its principal purpose is to show status.

It is odd to think that even in 1869, when women were first admitted to the University, they didn’t wear gowns. For so long, gowns have been part of a male-only world, often associated with snobbery, extravagance and a picturesque life straight out of Brideshead Revisited. What is essentially a frilly overcoat, seemingly used to be a ticket into the tiny Cambridge bubble and a pass to get you out of the real world. Thankfully, things have changed. There are many more people from many more backgrounds now with a gown slung over their shoulders, pairing it with brightly coloured suits and fabulous dresses.

But still, the gown poses problems. However much the university changes, the gown is still a symbol of status. People parade around the streets of Cambridge in formal dress by day and by night, and we can’t begin to imagine how alienating this could be for the local community. Despite this, walking or cycling through town in a gown is a bizarrely liberating and exhilarating experience. Perhaps because it is something you know you will never be able to do back at home, perhaps because it makes you feel more sophisticated than you did before you moved into college. It doesn’t feel all too bad dressing up for formal hall every other week.

After all, the gown is a sign of academic achievement, and it’s difficult not to feel a little bit proud when wearing one. It is another stitch in the tapestry of a very unique university lifestyle, one that sometimes doesn’t feel very far from being at Hogwarts. Academics have been dressed in gowns since the University was founded, and it is quite special to be able to carry on such a tradition. Like all fashion, all style choices and outfit decisions, the gown expresses part of your identity. The gown features in several photos of key events, from matriculation to graduation, and you will probably wear it with some of your favourite and smartest clothes while you fight your way through your degree. As a fashion item it is, therefore, just a tad important.

So I guess the gown is a tradition we can afford to keep. There are issues surrounding it, but I’m sure it will continue to evolve with the rest of fashion, just as it has already transformed from the plain, clerical dress it used to be. The gown makes any outfit instantly classier, goes great with anything (especially velvet dresses and white stilettos), and, while wearing one and sitting at a candle-lit dinner in hall, you can pretend, for a moment, that you are in a Harry Potter book.

Photographer
Nitin Sharma

Fashion Editor
Agustin Ferrari Braun

Writer
Miriam Balanescu

Models
Jade Cuttle
Renchun Ho
Stephanie Ashenden
Jasper Vardag-Hunter