Post XX - Fashion Design

France's Academic Dress - Science Field

Most people think that graduation ceremony is an original tradition from the Anglo-Saxons, but it was actually in France, University of Paris, where students established this tradition in the early Renaissance. The academics caps and gowns were first used by students and teachers of the universities to keep them warm in unheated buildings. This practice disappeared in May 1968 but has been now brought back to many schools and universities, combining tradition and modernity, to celebrate graduation, exalting:

- Completion of several years of effort, the transition into the professional world and thus immense pride for the student and for his relatives 

- brand image and prestige of a school. 

The full costume is:

• a dress: rather like a cassock , she runs in front of a row of buttons (black or specific color) and lagging behind
• a robe: two vertical strips of fabric on either side of the buttons or the specific color or black moire;
• an epitoge: a strip of cloth from the specific color attached by a button at the left shoulder, with a wide and triangular end (in the rear) and a longer, narrow end (the front), each end with one to three rows of ermine according to the rank of the wearer;
• a belt identical to that of the Roman Catholic church: long and wide, it is finished in fringes (gold or the specific color), and features a large ornamental knot and a long end hanging down in front of the costume on the left ;
• a flap white: it is a kind of Baptist jabot or lace according to the rank of the wearer, over which men can wear a white bow tie for very formal occasions;
• a toque (normally reserved only for men, and never worn on the head but hand held) with stripes and loops depend on the rank of the wearer;
• white gloves

In the French academic dress system, the five traditional fields of study (Arts, Science, Medicine, Law and Divinity) are each symbolized by a distinctive color, which appears in the academic dress of the people who graduated in this field. Amaranth is the distinctive color for Science. University rectors, chancellors or presidents wear also specific costumes, which are violet regardless of the academic field in which they graduated.

Field of graduation	Colour name	Colour aspect
Divinity (and all high officials regardless of the field)	Violet (Purple, specifically the Royal Purple shade)
Law (colour also worn by high magistrates)	Écarlate (Scarlet)
Medicine (and health-related fields)	Groseille (Redcurrant, a reddish shade of pink)
Science (exact and experimental)	Amaranthe (Amaranth)
Arts, literature, philosophy, humanities	Jonquille (Daffodil, a shade of yellow)

For science faculties: amaranth silk dress, gown in black silk flap batiste, silk shoes in amaranth with three rows of ermine, ribbon belt with fringed amaranth and amaranth cables in silk hat in amaranth silk with a lace Golden;

• Small suit: black muslin dress with lapel crimson silk gown and black silk.