Square Academic Cap - Traditional Wear - Mourning Cap

Mourning Cap

There is a version of the mortarboard that is worn during mourning. Instead of a tassel and button on top of the board there are two wide black ribbons that are attached from corner to corner of the board forming a cross. At the centre where the two ribbons intersect a black ribbon rosette is attached. The ribbon for the wide ribbons is grosgrain ribbon whilst the rosette can be made of either the same grosgrain or satin. This mourning cap can be worn when mourning a personal friend or a family relative.

Another version has nine ribbon bows called "butterflies" attached to the back of the skull cap (three running vertically down the back seam, two vertically eitherside further towards the sides and one eitherside at the sides of the skull) in addition to the above. This cap is worn during the mourning of the monarch, a member of the royal family or the university chancellor.

The mourning cap is worn with mourning bands (normal bands but with a pleat running down each band) and a mourning gown which is either a Cambridge DD undress gown with "pudding-sleeves" but in black stuff rather than silk as worn in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries or a plain black stuff gown. Hoods are not worn, as they are considered festal items. However, Cambridge proctors in the past wore their MA hoods squared, so as to conceal the lining; since the lining was white it did not clash with the black and white colour scheme of mourning.

• Personalized doctoral cap.