Example fashion dissertation topic 5:

An investigation into the wearing of academic dress amongst Britain’s public school teachers: A traditional dress code in danger?

That the third edition of Shaw’s Academical Dress of Great Britain and Ireland had to be privately printed, rather than, as had hitherto been the case, printed by Phillimore, underlines the extent to which the wearing of academic dress within the teaching community has become side-lined in recent years. Though academic powerhouses such as Eton still require masters to wear white tie, it would appear that, to many in the staffrooms of Britain’s public and independent schools, the wearing of gowns is no longer deemed fashionable or necessary. Instead its wear is relegated to prize evenings and parents’ evenings (for which it may be hired). Interviewing a selection of staff, pupils and parents, from within four leading public schools in the West Midlands, this dissertation seeks to evaluate present-day perceptions of academic gowns in the classroom.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Groves, N. (ed.) (2011). Shaw’s academical dress of Great Britain and Ireland (3rd edn). London: The Burgon Society.
• Hargreaves-Mawdsley, W.N. (1963). A history of academical dress in Europe until the end of the eighteenth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Shaw, G.W. (1995). Academical dress of British and Irish universities (2nd edn). Chichester: Phillimore.