Caps and gowns across the Bay: Graduation fashion at Stanford vs. UC Berkeley

Graduation as a concept can feel distant to most of the student population until senior year arrives. Stanford and UC Berkeley seniors and recent graduates share some advice on planning graduation photos and participating in traditions.

Memories for generations

Faith Fernandez ’25, a pre-law Stanford student, recalled first seeing graduation outfits on Instagram as a frosh and internalizing how the soon-to-be graduates took their photos in hallmark white dresses. These thoughts about graduation outfits became more real last March when she bought her own for Stanford’s Senior Dinner on the Quad. 

In her search, Fernandez was looking for “something timeless, something classy, something that transcends time” that she could hopefully share with her daughter one day. The Stanford senior previously saved her high school prom dress and homecoming court dress for the same purpose.

Regarding her outfits for graduation photos, Fernandez has decided on either a white dress or white jumpsuit, noting the “classy chic wide leg pants” look as her style. She also plans to represent her club affiliations and Mexican heritage by embroidering her stole, a decorative sash to be worn over her graduation gown. The embellished stole will be added to Fernandez’s collection of mementos, which currently includes a custom Big Game jacket. 

Fernandez plans on taking graduation pictures with her close friends, a common Stanford tradition. 

“I really want to do something with the Stanford Women in Law (SWIL) seniors, just because this club is something that I have poured my heart into,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez hopes to take grad photos in the green pockets of Main Quad and in the Lane History Corner of Green Library because she’d entered this space many times throughout the years as a place to “really push through and focus” and wanted to commemorate all the effort she’d put in.

People over fashion

Berkeley graduate Tom Galetti was also first exposed to graduation outfits through social media, particularly because his first few semesters were online due to the pandemic. Galetti had done a lot of reflecting on graduating, as Cal was a place of significance to his mom and grandmother, who both attended UC Berkeley.

For attire, he wore the standard black cap and gown but made sure to embellish his stole with the graduation class and Berkeley seal to have a memento. Galetti recognized that his attire was “fairly simple” for graduates and prioritized the people over the fashion. 

“Recognizing the faces of the people who I asked to attend my ceremony made me more proud than anything I could have worn,” Galetti said. 

Rather than placing extra meaning on his attire, Galetti assigned greater meaning to his extra graduation ticket. When Berkeley sent out graduation ticket emails, he bought enough for family members — and an extra ticket for a seat to be kept empty. 

“In my mind, I reserved that one ticket for everyone I wanted there who couldn’t make it — my friends in school across the country, my family in Italy and my grandfather who had passed away,” Galetti said. “I knew there would be an empty seat somewhere in the auditorium, and in my head, that seat would be filled with all of them.” 

Galetti also threw a personal touch into his graduation photos. The recent Cal graduate wore a Tom Brady jersey on top of his button-up for graduation, having worn the jersey for every test he’s taken since freshman year in high school. 

As for photo locations, Galetti chose places that many Berkeley grads take theirs — Sather Gate, the Campanile, Doe Library, the Glade with Doe and the Campanile in the background. Galetti also posed in front of Lecture Hall 2050 in the Valley Life Sciences Building, where he frequented as a child with his mom and grandmother and where he had lectures every quarter on campus.

Traditions and barriers, broken and upheld

Graduation traditions are exciting for Ellen Yang ’25, who has written for The Daily. Yang wants to take photos with her good friends in the Chi Omega sorority, have senior photos in the Quad and participate in Wacky Walk. 

Similar to Fernandez, Yang wanted to wear something “elegant and timeless.” For high school graduation, Yang decorated her graduation cap with a pink Stanford logo and tree. Now, she plans to stick with the more traditional cap and gown and a white dress to not only highlight her step from college into adulthood, but also represent the “American dream” pursued by her immigrant family, who will see Yang on campus for the first time this spring. 

“I feel like there’s actually something really special in sticking to the traditional American college look for me, just because my parents are immigrants from China and I will be the first child to graduate from university,” Yang said. “I want those [graduation] pictures to be very recognizable so that I can cherish them with my family.” 

Not everyone was thrilled at the prospect of getting all dolled up for graduation. Shahar Schwartz graduated from Berkeley last spring and found “the whole thing to be a bit ridiculous, to be honest.” 

Schwartz chose to rent the bare minimum for a graduation package — the classic black robe, the graduation cap and tassel. The only graduation photos he ended up taking were at his college-specific graduation and the larger graduation ceremony, along with a few family photos. He recalled some of his peers decorating their caps for the ceremony, but really wasn’t aware of other trends or traditions of Cal graduates.