History of Academic Dress
In the Middle Ages, men and women wore a tunic (or toga), with a cloak and hood. The first university students sported the same fashions as everyone else, except for one small but significant difference – their outer cloak was closed with one or two openings for the hands (pictured) like those worn by parish clergy. This distinction was not yet a kind of uniform. Rather, it was a stipulation direct from the Catholic Church, as to be a student was to be a man of God.
In these pre-Renaissance times, scholarship and religion were inseparable. The first universities began life as religious schools around great cathedrals or monasteries. Their students were clerics – not necessarily priests, but certainly in minor holy orders. That meant they were subject to church law and discipline and were expected to dress soberly.
In 1222, Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, ordered all secular clergy to wear this closed cloak, or cappa clausa. This stipulation issued at the Council of Oxford was designed to bring the English clergy in line with those in the rest of Catholic Europe. While the parish clergy frequently ignored this order – and were often told off for their love of the latest fashions (pictured) - the universities held fast to the cappa clausa and it became standard academic dress at Bologna, Paris and Oxford.
Amazingly, this closed cloak has stood the test of time and still exists in some forms today. For example, the parliamentary robe worn by bishops at a State Opening or Coronation, or the cape worn by the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge when admitting students to degrees.
The second half of the 15th century saw the birth of the Renaissance and marked the beginnings of a seismic shift in philosophy, introducing new, radical ideas in learning and the arts. This shift was even reflected in people’s clothes. The trend in fashion moved towards shorter, more open costume that reflected the new openness to ideas. The heavy outer dress was increasingly abandoned, turning the undergarment – the tunic – into the new outer garment.
From 1470 onwards, outer clothing was worn open at the front, while sleeves increased in size and varied in style. From 1490 onwards, it became the style for linings or facings of silk or fur to be seen at the front of garments or in sleeves.
Fashions were rapidly changing, and academic dress wasn’t far behind.
