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Ironing Out the Issues of Graduation Attire

For generations, high school and college seniors rented caps and gowns for graduation days. Like rented formalwear, these garments were usually dry cleaned and returned to the rental shop or the school for return.

Unlike judicial robes, ministerial apparel, choir robes or traditional academic regalia, such as faculty members might wear for convocation or commencement, most modern-day graduation robes are considered practically disposable.

Many seniors will keep their mortarboard caps as souvenirs. Some will also retain the graduation robes. Virtually all will tuck away the tassels, perhaps placing them in keepsake boxes or scrapbooks with their graduation invitations and programs or even dangling the tassels from the rear-view mirrors of their cars.

Purchasing a Graduation Attire Package

Today's graduating senior (or his or her family) is usually expected to purchase a package including the graduation gown, the mortarboard cap and the graduation tassel. The graduation tassel usually comes with a little dangling charm, indicating the class year.

Most often, the entire graduating senior class will obtain matching graduation caps and gowns. In some cases, young men and young women will wear complementary colors. Usually, those who graduate with certain honors will also don gold cords, special commemorative sashes and other appropriate accoutrements.

Removing Wrinkles from Graduation Gown

Although manufacturers and retailers claim the graduation gown fabrics are crease-resistant, any senior knows otherwise. Because graduation attire is usually shrink-wrapped for shipping, either to graduates' homes or to schools for distribution, the robes usually arrive with fairly firm folds and creases.

Most graduation gowns are constructed of acetate or polyester in either a shiny or matte finish. These synthetic textiles are extremely flammable. In fact, they melt easily, so steam ironing is out of the question for graduation gowns.

The best solution for ensuring a graduation gown will be wrinkle-free in time for the big graduation ceremony is to hang it up neatly as soon as it arrives. A padded hanger is ideal, but a plastic or wooden hanger will also work well. Metal hangers may snag the touchy fabric, so these ought not to be used for a graduation gown.

Ideally, the graduation gown should be placed on hook in the family bathroom and left there for several steamy showers. The fabric should not get wet, as colors may run and streak. Still, a bit of atmospheric steam may loosen any wrinkles in the graduation gown.

Once the graduation gown looks presentable, it should be hung up on an open hook or in an open doorway, so that it will not be crowded or crunched by other garments. On graduation day, the robe should be transported to the commencement ceremony location on the hanger, suspended from an appropriate hook in the vehicle. This will keep the robe much neater and fresher than actual wearing will do.

After graduation, the robe may be folded or tucked away as a souvenir. Soon, the graduation ceremony itself will be a wrinkled memory, and a wrinkled keepsake robe will no longer be an issue.

Learn more about this author, Linda Ann Nickerson.
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