Designing in Circles, Conversing in Triangles, Dressing in Squares: Evolving the Academic Dress of the University of Sussex, 1958–1963

The University of Sussex was the first of seven Plateglass Universities created in England during a major expansion of higher education following the Second World War. Paradoxically, the determined modernist outlook of the foundation led to a reimagining of some of the oldest elements of academic costume. With this unorthodoxy came startling departures from the parameters then obtaining, notably an unmistakable bachelors’ hood with a lining of grey fur squares, the allocation of a pileus for officials and holders of higher doctorates, and the discarding of scarlet or claret robes in favour of innovative designs in vivid shades of yellow. This eccentricity attracted opprobrium, speculation, bewilderment, and several urban myths, although its indebtedness to older models was frequently asserted. Influences on Hargreaves-Mawdsley’s original scheme are here posited and discussed for the first time, especially his unique reinterpretation of heraldic furs, and the iconographic medieval glass in the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford. This complex gestation and development is explored through unpublished material held at the extensive archives of The Keep, Brighton, including many rare examples of animated correspondence in the notoriously challenging handwriting of Charles Franklyn. These have been deciphered as far as possible, and the majority presented in full.