[HPforGrownups] Re: Wizard clothing

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 21902

Susanne Schmid wrote:

> I've always imagined the robes as rather loose- to put
> it in Muggle terms,very A-line- and if you don't wear
> stockings underneath, but have naked legs, they are
> not likely to cling at your legs. BTW, which material
> are they made of (not the legs, the robes!)? JKR
> refers to the Beauxbatons students as freezing because
> of their thin silk robes, but nothing comes to my mind
> about the material English robes are made of. Perhaps
> it's really magical- warming when it's cold and cool
> when it's hot.

My guess is that English wizards wear wool robes.  Wool comes in
a lot of different weights, from light to heavy, and being a
natural fiber, it "breathes" (and thus doesn't become stifling
even in summer).

Personally I envision the use of robes at Hogwarts being rather
like the (former, probably) use of gowns at the English
universities like Oxford.  From what I can make out from reading
fiction set there, gowns were worn over one's regular clothes,
were mandatory for certain activities (such as attending
lectures), but not worn all the time.  Though if robes are also
traditional garb for wizards in general, Hogwarts students
probably wear theirs more consistently than Oxford
undergraduates.


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>