Fashion Design Commons^™

The Invention Of Tradition: The Cambridge Benefactors’ Gowns, Simon Morris

Transactions of the Burgon Society

This article examines the emergence of a new phenomenon in academic dress that has developed over the past twenty years—the awarding of special gowns by some colleges of the University of Cambridge to recognize individual donors and reward their munificence. This appears to be predominantly—albeit not exclusively—a Cambridge phenomenon, and for reasons advanced below not replicated at Oxford University. This article considers in turn whether benefactors’ gowns qualify as academic dress, the reasons for their institution and the criteria for their design. It then looks at the two types of design that have been used, paying particular attention to the …