Dress for Graduation

Salty

Hey everyone!

I'm graduating from UCC next month and I've been looking around for a dress for the occasion. I'm finding it a little hard to know what is appropriate.

Obviously anything too short is a no-go, however I find it hard to pull off longer styles as I'm quite petite. I'm 5'2" and a size 8 and feel like longer dresses tend to swamp me!

So I'm looking for a bit of advice really about finding something that is appropriate for the occasion and which will suit my stature. I would love to see examples of what others wore to their graduations just to get some inspiration. I'm trying to avoid black if I can as I'd like to be able to see the dress under the black gown in pictures.

Thanks in advance!!

miss-p

Here are some pictures from graduation in DCU last year.

In general your graduation gown is going to cover up what you're wearing so you'll only see a sliver at the front. You don't have to wear a really long dress, a skirt that hits above the knee is completely fine. I think some of these would be fine for example. I'd personally wear a block colour over a pattern dress too.
One thing I was concious of was heel height for walking up to collect your degree. Just make sure you're comfortable walking in them.

Salty

Thanks for the reply!

I agree a block colour is preferable to a pattern. I know a girl who actually had a change of flat shoes for walking up to receive her degree she was so afraid of tripping up in high heels!

dudara

For my first graduation, I wore a green dress with a floral pattern. In hindsight, it was too "floaty" and not smart enough. Oh, make sure to have plenty of bobby pins to hold the mortarboard onto your hair.

For my second, I wore a black lace, sleeveless shift dress, that sat on my knees. It was a really classic shift shape and I wore a decorative black cardigan after the ceremony. I paired it with moderately low-heeled black pumps. I was wearing red robes on the day, so the black looked good underneath. The cap was optional this time, and I didnt bother with it.

The wooden floors in the DeVere hall can be treachourous (I was there for both of mine), so don't go too crazy on the shoe height.

Lia_lia

I graduated last year and wore this dress. Great choice actually, got loads of wear out of it in the winter on nights out! And will wear it this winter too.

I am tall (about 5'9") and didn't wear heels. Wore tights also. Was the end of October and was freezing. Didn't really matter because it was covered with the gown thing anyway. Didn't really take any notice of what others were wearing...and I was the only girl in my class

Choose something that you will get wear out of I guess!