Top 3 Tips to Care for Your Graduation Cap and Gown

You've received your cap and gown, ready to rock the hall at your commencement ceremony! Here are some tips to help you take care of your gown and look the absolute best on the graduation day.

1. Keep the Gown Wrinkle-free. 

Nobody looks great in crumpled clothes! There are several ways to unwrinkle graduation gowns:

• Hang the gown in the bathroom before a shower and overnight. This is a life hack for many without a steamer at home or are travelling. 
• Steam on a low/gentle setting, preferably with a piece of fabric covering the steamer head. Treat the gown gently with the lowest setting possible to steam. Covering the steamer head will prevent large drops of water getting to the gown and possibly make the steaming uneven. 
• Just leave it in the closet for at least 48 hours. Our collections of the graduation gown are all made with anti-wrinkle fabric and will flatten out if you just let it hang! We recommend taking it out of the package to hang for at least 48 hours.

2. Only Wash if You Have to. 

If you purchased your cap and gown from us, they should arrive to you in brand new condition. If you rented from your school, they should be freshly laundried before handed to you. Therefore, there is absolutely no need to wash them if you will only be wearing a couple times. However, if you are getting a second-hand gown or want to wash them due to dust and stains, here's what you can do: 

• Shiny Gown
• Hand wash: hand wash in cold water; Hang to dry
• Dry Clean
• Matte Gown
• Dry Clean only
• Matte or Shiny Caps
• Spot clean on the fabric part only- do not wet the mortarboard!
• Make Up Stains? If you need to clean the make-up stains on the front of the hat, an easy and safe way to remove it is to apply make-up removal water and rinse carefully and avoid wetting the rest of the cap. 

3. Complete Your Look with the Accessories! 

Many schools purchase blank or custom Stoles and V-stoles with their school logo and class year as a souvenir for the students. Some students also wear honor cords that stand for their achievements, or involvement in military, an honor society or Greek life. In addition, college graduates have hoods and shields as part of their regalia. Seems like quite a lot, right? Don't worry, we got you covered with care tips for every graduation accessory out there. 

• Honor Cord
  Honor cords are ready out of the bag and take minimum efforts to care. If you received multiple honor cords separately, you can tie a simple knot in the middle to make them one big strand of cords and much easier to keep them on when walking around. 
• Stole & V-stole
  Stoles are usually neatly folded when delivered to you. In order to diminish the creases, you can hang the stole for 24-48 hours on a cloth hanger before use. 
• Tassel
  It may seem obvious enough to wear the entire set to your ceremony, but tassels are quite small and sometimes students would leave it out unintentionally. Make sure you have the tassel, and it's the right color & year before the graduation day!
• Degree Hood & Shield (College only)
  Doctoral, Master, and Bachelor hoods or the Associate Shields could be given to you at the hooding ceremony or in advance. If you have them in advance, please also take them out of the bag and allow 24-48 hours of hanging on a cloth rack to make them look as nice as can be.
  Please note that hoods and shields are usually made with delicate fabric like velvet and satin, so you should never wash them with water. Get them taken care of at an experienced dry cleaner if you have to!

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That's it for how to care for your graduation cap and gown! If you have any questions, leave a comment below, or hit the Live Chat button on the bottom-right corner of our website to get in touch.