Lily D in National Dress Shock!
I shall, all being well, be wearing a cap and gown this summer, which is obviously a grand occassion and, while it's a bit silly and pompous, I quite like dressing up in silly outfits (I'm a burlesque dancer, come on...) so I'm looking forward to it.
Reading the guidelines and so on for the day, I find out that graduands must wear, under their robes, smart dress ("shirt and tie or female equivalent") OR they can wear their national dress. National dress! That's double the dressing up fun! Can you imagine?! So I went to look up what I could, potentially, wear.
ENGLAND HAS NO NATIONAL DRESS.
The cheek! I'm not a particularly patriotic person (the English do have a rather shameful past or invasion, slavery, empire-building and general mean-ness) and I get a bit uncomfortable when the football is on and people have those little St George flags on their cars as it makes me think about the BNP and neo-nazis and stuff. But Scotland gets a national dress (even if pervs like princealbert make themselves rubber ones and stuff) as do the Welsh and Irish. I think we should have one, one that recognises the nice things england has done. It's a bit difficult as I prefer to be all inclusive and think of myself as British but I still think the English are missing out on a shitload of dressing up and that's just not fair.
All we have is the beefeater costume for the blokes and Brittannia for girls. And they don't really count. I WANT A NATIONAL DRESS. Something that honours the history but celebrates modern britain (as we'd be making it now). I think I'm going to go on a mission to get a national dress. It's a bit of a scary thought as I think a load of scary royalists and aryans might get on the bandwagon but... I want to wear a new outfit!
So. People. Suggest things. What should England's National Dress be? Different for women and men, variations on a theme? Should we go historic and kind of... rural pagany? I read something whilst trying to find out what our dress is that the problem was our class system as peasant stock would wear very different things to the middle classes... Maybe it should be made from fabric that's native to England? Or... coloured with natural English dyes? Or flattering to the English body-shape? I think there should be a head-dress or hat involved too.
Help me do this! I'm going to write some serious letters when my exams are done, I'm telling you right now...
Reading the guidelines and so on for the day, I find out that graduands must wear, under their robes, smart dress ("shirt and tie or female equivalent") OR they can wear their national dress. National dress! That's double the dressing up fun! Can you imagine?! So I went to look up what I could, potentially, wear.
ENGLAND HAS NO NATIONAL DRESS.
The cheek! I'm not a particularly patriotic person (the English do have a rather shameful past or invasion, slavery, empire-building and general mean-ness) and I get a bit uncomfortable when the football is on and people have those little St George flags on their cars as it makes me think about the BNP and neo-nazis and stuff. But Scotland gets a national dress (even if pervs like princealbert make themselves rubber ones and stuff) as do the Welsh and Irish. I think we should have one, one that recognises the nice things england has done. It's a bit difficult as I prefer to be all inclusive and think of myself as British but I still think the English are missing out on a shitload of dressing up and that's just not fair.
All we have is the beefeater costume for the blokes and Brittannia for girls. And they don't really count. I WANT A NATIONAL DRESS. Something that honours the history but celebrates modern britain (as we'd be making it now). I think I'm going to go on a mission to get a national dress. It's a bit of a scary thought as I think a load of scary royalists and aryans might get on the bandwagon but... I want to wear a new outfit!
So. People. Suggest things. What should England's National Dress be? Different for women and men, variations on a theme? Should we go historic and kind of... rural pagany? I read something whilst trying to find out what our dress is that the problem was our class system as peasant stock would wear very different things to the middle classes... Maybe it should be made from fabric that's native to England? Or... coloured with natural English dyes? Or flattering to the English body-shape? I think there should be a head-dress or hat involved too.
Help me do this! I'm going to write some serious letters when my exams are done, I'm telling you right now...