Academic dress in the United Kingdom

The academic dress of the United Kingdom and Ireland has a long history and has influenced the academic dress of America and beyond. The academic square cap was invented in the UK as well as the hood which developed from the lay dress of the medieval period.

Irish academic dress is virtually the same as that in the United Kingdom given the common history and proximity of each other. Many other Commonwealth countries also follow British cuts and design of academic dress, most notably Australia and New Zealand though some are beginning to evolve away from British cuts such as Canada of which University of Toronto has slowly introduced American gowns that close at the front.

There is a distinction between different types of academic dress. Most recently, gowns, hoods and caps are categorised into their shape and patterns by what may be known as the Groves classification system, which is based on Nicholas Groves's document, Hood and Gown Patterns. This lists the various styles or patterns of academic dress and assigns them a code or a Groves Classification Number. For example, the Cambridge BA style gown is designated [b2] and a hood in the Cambridge full-shape is designated [f1], etc. Because the universities are free to design their own academicals using a wide range of available gown, hood and cap patterns, colours and materials at their and the robemaker's disposal, the academicals of two given universities rarely clash with each other.

The Burgon Society was founded in 2000 to promote the study of academic dress. It has publications and activities to do with academic dress and published an updated version of Shaw's book on British and Irish academical dress in 2012, with a second volume covering non-degree awarding bodies published in 2014.

The modern gown is derived from the roba worn under the cappa clausa, a garment resembling a long black cape. In early medieval times, all students at the universities were in at least minor orders, and were required to wear the cappa or other clerical dress, and restricted to clothes of black or other dark colour.

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