Graduation ears, in your colours

The cap problem, which nobody talks about

Here's the practical issue with graduation ears, and it's the reason most people give up on the idea: a mortarboard sits flat on the crown of your head. That is precisely where a headband wants to sit. Put both on without thinking about it and one of them is coming off in every photograph.

It's solvable, but only by designing for it from the start:

• Seat the ears further back than usual, behind the crown, so the cap has its flat plane to sit on.
• Keep the bow low-profile. A tall statement bow and a mortarboard cannot occupy the same space. A wide, flatter bow reads just as well in photographs and doesn't fight the cap.
• Consider the tassel side. It swings. An intricate ear on that side will catch it all afternoon.
• Or split the day. Plenty of people wear the cap for the ceremony and the ears for everything after — the photos, the meal, the trip. If that's the plan, we can design without any compromise at all.

Tell us on the form whether a cap is involved. It genuinely changes the design.

Colours and the year

School colours are among the easier things to match — send two or three, or just photograph the gown. Where it gets interesting is the year, which can be worked in several ways:

• Across the bow in felt or appliqué — the clearest, reads from a distance
• In hand-set crystals — subtler, and it catches the light in photographs
• On the inside of one ear — a private version, for people who want the ears to outlive the occasion

That last one is worth considering. A pair covered in "CLASS OF 2027" is a pair you wear once. The same pair with the year tucked somewhere only you know about is one you keep wearing.

Groups

The best graduation order is a set. Four or five friends, same school colours, each pair slightly different — made together so the colours actually match rather than nearly match, and photographed as a group before they ship.

More on group sets →

Timing, and why it matters more here

Graduation is the one deadline that cannot move. Every ceremony in the country happens across the same handful of weeks, which means the studio queue fills faster than at any point in the year except October.

Six weeks. Three at the absolute minimum for a single pair, and that assumes we're free. Ordering in early spring for a May ceremony is the comfortable version of this.

Start a graduation pair →