<p>As a parent of a very recent college graduate, I thought I would report back on what people were wearing last Saturday at my son’s graduation. I looked for the old thread regarding this topic so I could just bump it up, but couldn’t find it.</p>
<p>We were surprised by how dressed up the majority of the people were. I wore a tank top with the same color pants for the Baccalaureate along with a flowy sort of jacket. I dressed it up with sparkly jewelry. This worked out well since we had a 6 hour drive and then lots of walking around. The baccalaureate was held in the gym and I was glad I had pants on for comfort and climbing/sitting in the bleachers.</p>
<p>Most of the younger girls in the crowd wore sundresses for both events and some of the Mom’s as well. Sandals that are easy to walk in over un-even surfaces were a must since there was a lot of walking on the grounds and through crowds of people. </p>
<p>All in all a beautiful day! Hope this helps and best wishes for similar good weather in the upcoming College graduations! One other tip - try to enlist one of your other kids to take pictures. It was so freeing to just watch and take in everything without worrying about capturing the moments with camera’s.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I may be rethinking my outfit now! I was planning on wearing capris, sandals, and a shirt, since we’ll be sitting in the bleachers. </p>
<p>I may have to contact my daughter and see if she remembers what people wore last year (she was singing so was dressed up herself), but knowing my daughter, she didn’t notice and will think my concerns are much ado about nothing!</p>
<p>mezzomom, when DS graduated in 2008, the crowd was dressed as kathiep described. I had bought a new sundress for the occasion but decided to wear a pant suit at the last moment due to temperature.</p>
<p>CA graduation…mid June, outdoors…I’m wearing a nice set of capris, a shirt, and a jacket…sort of like a capris “suit”. White COMFY sandals…tada.</p>
<p>For the liturgy and President’s reception the night before, I’m wearing a garnet colored sleeveless Ann Taylor Loft dress.</p>
<p>I might swap the outfits…depends on my mood.</p>
<p>Thanks for the report kathiep! Hey, this has come up on the “dressing young” thread and I’ve received some good advice from the “personal shopper” team there. The thread goes on FOREVER so it would be hard to find. </p>
<p>Both of my son’s ceremonies will be indoors. Of course, I have NO idea what the weather will be. For the first one, which is in a small venue , I will wear one of two black and white outfits I have. Either black and white swirly knee length skirt, crossover black top and turquoise jewelry or a nice b/w dress. For the second, which is large and in a big stadium, I think I’ll go with crisp white pants, a light aqua 3/4 sleeve cropped jacket - and probably go with black patent accents and silver jewelry. But I’ll have other options in case it rains! </p>
<p>I really think it depends on the venue, the weather, etc. I have a couple of sundresses I could break out I guess. But I need a fake tan!</p>
<p>My one goal is to stay away from black pants. I have about a dozen :)</p>
<p>I actually had another plan for Baccalaureate which included white pants to avoid my normal black pants but I just didn’t think white would make a 6 hour drive and a full days worth of activities so on Friday morning I went with black. I didn’t even get my dress until Thursday because I was paying close attention to the weather and then didn’t like my choices for warm weather! I did the fake tan on my legs and managed to do an interesting streak down one of them. I think it’s better to have some one else do the spraying if you go that route.</p>
<p>This thread is making me feel that the outfit I bought (the little capri outfit) is WAY underdressed for a graduation. How about if I get a nice straw hat…after all it IS outdoors in a stadium. I want to be comfortable AND look nice. Now I don’t know what to do.</p>
<p>No my white pants would not do well with a 6 hour drive. I do think black can be fine if you dress it up like you did.
We are driving out of our way to the hotel (40 minutes away) so I can change there…</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of sundresses…don’t do sleeveless unless absolutely necessary. I have a closet full of clothes…the capri outfit will work for something…it’s actually quite nice. The dress will work for something. I have tons of other nice shirts and light weight jackets…and slacks of every color imaginable. I also have a brown and white linen dress that is really great and could be used. I really LIKE the capri outfit…but I don’t want to look underdressed. We’ll see…I’m going to ask DD who has played in the orchestra for graduation for three years…but like others…my guess is she didn’t “notice” what others were wearing.</p>
<p>I was surprised at how many of the men were dressed up too. I thought there would be more polo (golf) shirts too and that’s what I had my younger son pack, but the majority of the adult males had on dress shirts and ties. </p>
<p>Thumper, I am also not a big fan of sleeveless because of my fifty year old arms being exposed, but found that the loose weave wrap was the perfect cover and sun protection too. There were a few women with big sunhats and I envied them - much better then using the program as a sun blinder as many people were doing.</p>
<p>My daughter suggested bringing hand held battery operated fans. We stocked up on them for next week’s graduation. And we won’t forget water bottles and sunglasses.</p>
Over in the “2013” thread (D is 2010, S is 2013) there were a bunch of posts about using the Jergens self-tanner. In anticipation of D’s graduation in 2 weeks, I’ve already started using it so I have the color right for the big event.</p>
<p>Thanks for starting this thread. I bought a dress last week (early for me) that should be just right for graduation itself. I’m OK with sleeveless – all those hours in the gym with the weight machines seem to be paying off! I’m a little up in the air about Baccalaureate – probably black pants + nice top.</p>
<p>At my son’s commencement at UNC most moms were in dresses or if sundresses accompanied by jackets or sweaters, even pant suits were on the dressy side. The dads for the most part were in suits w/ties or wore blazers, slacks and ties.</p>
<p>D is graduating this coming Saturday from South Carolina and we are planning to dress in a similar fashion though the temperature is scheduled to be in the mid 90s with lots of humidity…thank goodness it’s indoors.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for this thread! We will have a long day in two weeks starting with a department breakfast indoors, followed by the commencement in an outdoor stadium, then a college diploma ceremony in a museum. I wasn’t sure how dressy people get - there’s a gigapan photo of last year’s commencement but mostly all the women were in coats (must have been chilly). I have an good selection if it’s hot but at the moment the long-range forecast looks like it will be high 60’s/low 70’s sun unknown so will definitely layer. I now have an excuse to run out to Coldwater Creek! At least we’re arriving the day before (8 hours drive). My mom is already asking me what to wear and now I have some ideas. I don’t care so much about a tan (still got some left from Feb in Florida) as much as a way to look 50 pounds slimmer. :o</p>
<p>Kathiep -Where was this graduation?
Last year, Muhlenberg’s graduation was a much more casual affair. It was held outside and showers threatened at any minute, so people dressed for drizzles, which didn’t happen. </p>
<p>But, please, please tell your elderly relatives to dress comfortably,
especially with comfortable shoes. </p>
<p>My MIL, actually took a tumble down some slate stairs outside one of the buildings, a horrific moment/ Luckily she was mostly unhurt, with minor scratch and sore hand. Could have been tragic.</p>
<p>Son’s graduation was from Roanoke College in SW Virginia. The college does have a reputation for being “preppy”. Almost half of the students come from out of state, many from the mid-atlantic area’s. Three years ago when my daughter graduated from a private college in Illinois, people were dressed about the same. </p>
<p>For this graduation the ceremony was held on the lawn with a sea of folding chairs. Back-up plan for heavy rain was the civic center so I wanted the wrap for possible A/C chill too. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more casual dress at larger colleges but what got me was how alike most of us were dressed- as if there was a notice sent out telling us to wear dressy church clothes. When we’ve visited the college before the norm for the kids has always been t-shirts/sweatshirts and jeans or shorts so it was funny (but nice) seeing all of them all cleaned up and looking good.</p>
<p>Thumper - I am not a capri gal myself - they really look bad on me - but I think your choice of jewelry and accessories will determine how dressy you look. I attended a pretty formal reception last spring and a lot of women wore capris and they looked great - but the materials were very nice and some had very interesting or dramatic jewelry.</p>
<p>Well…my little capri outfit is actually the most expensive item in my closet. I do plan to wear a nice necklace with it…something to compliment the aqua/blue colors. My sandals are comfortable and somewhat dressy. The white jacket is very nice too. But I don’t want to look dumpy if everyone else is going to be in “go to meeting clothes”. ARGH.</p>
<p>These capris are actually longish…more like cropped pants.</p>