Ewha students are smiling brightly wearing the new graduation gowndesigned by professor Park Sun-hee. Photo provided by Park Sun-hee.
Ewha students are smiling brightly wearing the new graduation gowndesigned by professor Park Sun-hee. Photo provided by Park Sun-hee.

 

So much has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the world and also at Ewha. The school’s February graduation ceremony was cancelled and postponed which came as a disappointment to the students.In the August graduation ceremony, students were able to wear the newly designed graduation gown for the first time.


This was the first renewal of a graduation gown ever since Ewha was founded and Professor Park Sun-hee from the Department of Fashion Design played a key role in the gown’s renewed design and style.


“I wanted to have a unique beginning of the whole project, as Ewha has always been special. Also, as students are the stars of the graduation ceremony, we decided to accept their opinions by running an investigation,” Park said.


Park’s ‘investigation’ was held in May 2018 on campus during the Ewha festival. During the investigation, students could freely put on three types of gowns that were cape-shaped, jacket-formed, and a combination of both. All three types of gowns were also designed in black and Ewha Green. Students could vote on the shape and color of the graduation gown.


After this probe into what students would like to see, the graduation gown changed from the typical black gown and adopted a combination of cape and jacket shapes while sporting the Ewha Green color.


“The slimmer and simple outline of the cape-jacket gives a future-oriented impression to compliment the new graduates who march their bright minds into times ahead,” Park commented.


Also, the new graduation cap became hexagon shaped from quadrilateral in order to fit on all head shapes and make it easier for students to put on by distributing the center of mass.


“The new graduation gown has identity, efficiency, function and aesthetic impression in specific ways,” Park said.


The gown has several unique features: the velvet collar is detachable from the cape that is now easier to wash; the dimensional pattern of the gown provides ventilation for the wearer; the angular shoulders present the wearer with an aesthetically pleasing yet commanding impression. With a final touch of delicacy, the Ewha symbol sewed in Ewha’s unique font on the V-shaped collar solidifies the school’s identity.


“The cape-shaped gown also makes it easy to fit all body types. The wearer can adjust the size of the gown which is not seen externally. This feature makes our new graduation gown even more efficient,” Park said.


While designing the new gown, Park said that thermals and ventilation was what she pondered the most. Creating a graduation gown that is warm in winter and cool in summer was not an easy task. As a result, Park designed the gown that allowed students to wear thick clothes under the gown in winter and allowed ample ventilation of air inside the gown that cooled down the students in summer.


Changes were also made for the master and doctoral degree students, but as each college has a symbolic color it was difficult to unite them under the Ewha Green. These new gowns for masters and doctoral degree students stayed black, but differentiated the college by attaching a hood using the color of the college. Design changes were also made. The master’s degree gown sports a black tassel on the hat while the new gown for the doctoral degree sports yellow tassel and three satin lines on the back of the gown.


Park envisioned the design changes to represent the victory for the students on their forward marching and world impacting paths.


“When students spread their arms with their new graduation gown on,” Park said. “The gown looks like a pair of wings. I hope that students who wear the new graduation gown and leave Ewha can achieve victory in the bigger world.”

저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지