As high school seniors come closer to that long-awaited taste of freedom, one of our remaining concerns lingering beneath our agitation includes the decision of what attire should lay beneath our gowns. Considering the outfit may go unnoticed from a lower perspective of the audience, it’s difficult and almost feels irrational to drop a pretty penny on a nice piece of clothing to lay beneath our robes. However, regardless of the outfit possibly going unnoticed, what is traditionally worn beneath is often a given at almost every graduation ceremony: white.
I was in the midst of researching the roots of this ceremonial tradition, and I came across a column online that also raised the question: “Why is white the unofficial color of graduation?”
“… Many graduations take place in the spring or early summer, and as white is already a popular color for those seasons, that could be another contributing factor,” the Medium column reads, expanding on one of multiple reasons it lists. Another reason could be to prevent overheating in the sun’s heat by reflecting the sun’s rays rather than absorbing them — A.K.A. the albedo effect.
At first glance, we often associate the color white with purity and innocence, which is typically why the bride is dressed in white. However, in this case, many may interpret the color as a canvas for our future, awaiting its next brushstrokes as we begin to paint our lives and step into the threshold of new life.
Moving forward, I came across a few key points that kept me digging for further input. They circle back to politics, as fashion always does. In this case, wearing white dates back to the women’s suffrage movement. As defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary page, a suffragist is “one who advocates for women’s voting rights.” The color was associated with this movement throughout the late-19th and early-20th centuries, when it was carried through marches, public appearances and gatherings as a figure of unity.
Inherently, white subtly echoes through various ceremonies nowadays, if you haven’t already noticed. Within this academic rite of passage, the color carries its history and, unintentionally, mirrors the significance of each approach in the role through its symbolic association as we live on one of the final pages of adolescence.
We may be wearing the same thing and carrying out the same diploma, at the end of the day. Yet, as we light the candles for the next chapters of our lives, this unofficial graduation color carries the resilience, possibilities and the uncertainty of what next adventures await us.