Instead of men in blue and women in white, all Carmel graduates will wear blue gowns this year

By Michelle Hu
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From the Class of 2010 on, seniors will wear the exact same gowns at graduation. This is a change from the past couple decades, when men wore blue and women wore white gowns, but the purpose for wearing the different colors has been lost.

According to Principal John Williams, the tradition was for students to sit in alternating blue and white so that the crowd would see an organized mass of the two colors. However, he said the tradition ended more than a decade ago, before he began working at this school as principal seven years ago.

“The thought (of changing the gowns) came about from a complaint,” Williams said. A grandparent of a graduate voiced her opinion on the inherent sexism of the different colors, and told the administration that she thought it sent a message of women’s inferiority.

Though Williams said the e-mail started the discussion, the change did not result from the same reasons the grandmother had. Instead, he said the tradition was outdated and there was no point in having different colors, especially since white is not a school color.

“There really was no logic to it,” Williams said.

Although there are some senior girls who are upset about the change in gowns, Senior Elvira “Ella” Shreder said she likes the new idea better. 

“I didn’t really like the white gowns,” she said. “I think it was too plain, and the blue ones look cooler.”

Williams said that without a blue and white pattern, the graduates sat in only alphabetical order. “There’s no aesthetic value in (having blue and white gowns,” Williams said.

Shreder’s older sister, who graduated in 2008, was in the second-to-last class to feature both colors of gowns. Shreder said she didn’t her sister liked her white gowns very much. “She was telling me that she’d rather have blue,” she said.

In the past, women had to purchase light colored or white clothing to wear underneath their white gowns, which is a problem Assistant Principal Amy Skeens-Benton dealt with, according to Williams. 

Additionally, Williams said Herff Jones contacted the school independently of the color change and suggested a new blue gown with a special logo. 

“We probably could have gotten that in white,” Williams said, “but it just made sense. If we were to order a bunch of them, now would be the time to make the (color) change.