What to Wear to a Graduation in Nigeria

Graduations are long. There is a ceremony that starts late and runs longer than scheduled, then photographs that take another two hours because everybody wants one with everybody.

Whether you are graduating or there to watch somebody, the dressing problem is the same, and most people solve it badly because they dress for the photographs and forget about the day.

If you are the one graduating

Remember that the gown covers most of what you are wearing for the main part of the day, and then comes off for the photographs afterwards.

So the dress needs to work both ways. Something that looks right peeking out from under a gown and then stands on its own when the gown comes off.

Avoid anything with a lot of volume, because it bunches under the gown and you will spend the ceremony aware of it. A cleaner silhouette sits properly underneath and then looks considered on its own.

Colour is worth thinking about against the gown as well, since most of the photographs that end up framed are taken with it on.

If you are there for somebody else

Your job is to look good in the pictures without being the subject of them, which is a familiar brief by now.

Dress properly. Nigerian graduations are formal family occasions and people make an effort, so turning up in something casual is more noticeable than you would think.

It will be hot and you will be outside

A lot of the day happens outdoors or in a hall that is too full for the air conditioning to cope with. Then the photographs happen in direct sun on a field.

Light fabric, nothing heavily lined, and a colour that does not show what the day is doing to you. This is not the occasion for pale grey.

Something over your shoulders is worth carrying, more for sun than for cold.

Shoes, seriously

You will stand far more than you sit, on grass, on gravel, and on whatever the campus has instead of pavement, for several hours.

Block heels or flats. Thin heels sink and you will spend the afternoon walking on your toes, which shows in the photographs.

The photographs last

These pictures get framed. They go on the wall at home and they stay there, which is a reason to lean slightly classic rather than fully current.

Deep jewel tones photograph beautifully in Nigerian daylight and look as good in ten years as they do now. Whatever is very much of this season will date, and you will notice it every time you walk past the frame.

Shop AMARAÉ for dresses that hold up through a long day outdoors. Delivery across Nigeria and worldwide.