Durham University

Durham

Dress code at college formals?

Daffodil

As the title suggests ..
what do people wear? Girls especially :p:

Thanks.

Reply 1

AATTMM

Basically girls can get away with anything from smart-casual to smart, i.e. not ball gowns or jeans =) Most guys wear shirt and tie.

Durham University

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Reply 2

Emjabr

I was wondering this... there's never a specific description for girls!

Reply 3

Stacy_T

I usually wear a cocktail dress of some description to formals, but I've worn less formal summer dresses before. I even wore trousers to a formal once.

Reply 4

MyNameIsDave

Most probably wear a dress of some description, not something over the top like a prom dress though. Some colleges (I think) are stricter on length - so it can't be too short - but others probably don't care.

I think formal suggests formalwear, which suggests the kind of stuff you'd wear to your prom or a wedding, but it doesn't have to be that formal (as far as I know).

Reply 5

Piggsil

What college is it for?

Reply 6

Eimky

Too fancy? I have a couple of dresses a bit like this, would they be suitable for formal dinners/balls? Do many people wear dresses above the knee?

Reply 7

pipsi

I would say a cocktail dress would be appropriate, although i have seen girls in pretty knee length skirts and blouses. But generally I'd say a cocktail dress would be the norm.

Reply 8

Sooz

The dress above may be slightly too formal I think.

Reply 9

Prudy

It is different dependant on college - you'll need a ball gown for summer balls, but wrt formals if you go to, say, castle you'd need smart clothing - skirt and shirt would suffice I suppose, wheras at Aidan's, for example, we have fancy dress formals.

Reply 10

Stacy_T

Eimky

Too fancy? I have a couple of dresses a bit like this, would they be suitable for formal dinners/balls? Do many people wear dresses above the knee?

Nobody would have a problem with you wearing a dress like that, but it's not massively practical for a formal, especially if you live out (which I appreciate won't be an issue for you as a Fresher). However, the trend with formals is usually that after a few glasses of wine during the meal, everyone tends to go out afterwards and to be perfectly honest, if you wore a long dress to Klute, you'd be throwing it away in the morning as it would be absolutely ruined. Obviously, there may be more special formals such as at Christmas, where you might dress up more.

Does your college require you to wear a gown over your formal attire? If so, they can be a life save at formals - when all I've had left in my room is a huge pile of dirty laundry, I've done the whole long-vest-with-a-belt thing at formals. I like how my gown keeps me nice and warm on the way to formals and then I 'accidentally' leave it at the College bar when I've got my beer jacket on and collect it the next day.

Reply 11

Aula

depends on the college and the formal really .

Reply 12

Eimky

Stacy_T

Well I've applied to St Aidans, and most of their formals are fancy dress so I don't have much of a problem heh, but I'll bring a long dress incase of any fancier do's!! Thanks for your reply :biggrin:

Reply 13

Aula

Eimky

yeah, long dress for christmas, summer, and any society balls, dresses like the one pictured above would be fine for that.

I think you'll probably have a proper (ie smart) formal in freshers week, but you'll be told about that at some point in September.

Reply 14

MyNameIsDave

Aula

The official Facebook group put this up the other day:

3rd October International Student Event
5th October Freshers Fair
6th October Freshers Fair
7th October Freshers' Bop
9th October Planet of Sound
10th October Revolver
11th October Poker Introduction
13th October 70's/80's UV Roller Disco
14th October Comedy Café
15th October Silent Disco
16th October Planet of Sound
17th October Revolver
18th October Poker
19th October Karaoke
21st October Freshers' Ball, Ramside Hall Hotel

Reply 15

Sooz

That looks like a list of DSU events so there'll be college ones too.

Reply 16

Aula

MyNameIsDave

I was referring to college stuff.

but freshers ball is a good point.

Reply 17

MyNameIsDave

Yep, it's the Uni wide list, was just noting it's been released. :P

Reply 18

Stacy_T

Eimky

At the end of the day, you can always reconvene on the wardrobe situ when you go home for Christmas. You'll probably have things like PGNs and Balls in the second and third term anyway, so you can probably make do with just one (or maybe two) smart dresses for first term, along with some regular ones. Accessories depending, of course. Bring lots of shoes.