Clothing in the Magical World

Mrs. Rowling insists that wizards wear robes.¹ The problem is that she claims that this is because Wizarding fashion is intentionally frozen in the 17th century. While academics, clerics, and scholars wore robes in the 17th century, these gowns were already quite varied, and rarely intended to be the sum total of one’s clothing. While many of these robes have their origins in the clerical dress, since students at a university would typically be admitted to at least minor orders, some do date back further, and there are widespread traditions of wizards (like Merlin) wearing robes that clearly are not clerical in origin. These wizarding robes, do not, however, really fit in with her explanation. She specifically mentions that robes are prevalent because fashion froze in the 17th century, and not because Merlin (or any other historical figure) wore them. The problem is, as I was alluding to, that the gowns seen in 17th-century British universities might have replaced a jacket, they certainly weren’t the entirety of a student’s uniform, despite what the supply list in the first book implies. One definitely wouldn’t wear a robe as their sole item of clothing —- bar underpants —- as suggested by the Snape’s Worst Memory encounter Harry witnesses in the pensieve. Worse, this is not just a problem of academic dress, apparently wizards wear robes all the time, – again supposedly because of 17th century fashion.

Even if we dismiss the problems of robes as an academic fashion choice, 17th century male fashion varied considerably for those in other occupations. This is very much part of the era of doublets and hose.² Sometimes guys wore “over-gowns” other decades they did not. Sometimes the doublets were more or less “skirted.” Some decades codpieces were in evidence. For the Hogwarts uniform to be robe based is one thing, but wizards seem to come from every strata of society. It is highly unlikely that they all view themselves as court scholars; surely some of them would have preferred a more lordly self-image, others a more martial self-image. The styles of the century she cites allow for both. Some may well have wanted to deliberately invoke that Merlin image, but some may have wanted to mask their status as a witch or wizard, and have used magic in more covert ways.

Mrs. Rowling then contradicts her earlier insistence on robes, saying that “Day to day, however, even those who detest Muggles wear a version of Muggle clothing, which is undeniably practical compared with robes.”³ This makes sense, the working classes and farming families would have wanted something more practical, even if they did use magic in place of manual labour as much as possible and even when somewhat unreasonable. Still, who seriously wears robes with little or nothing under them to do such classic Wizarding things like flying a broom (Quidditch robes‽) or duelling?

The real question then is how the girls dress. She says that “Women’s dresses tend to be long,”⁴ but do they always wear either robes or dresses? For that matter, do they wear robes, dresses, or more historically accurate open robes over their dresses? Magic allows for greater gender equality, and the society described in the books mostly supports that, though it hints that there may be some severe social limitations on married witches, and what is “proper” versus what is “allowed.” To what extent have the girls followed the non-magical trends of their youth, and to what extent (if different) have they also adopt activity appropriate garb? If only the Quidditch players adopt activity appropriate garments, that might well be why girls playing Quidditch is not “proper.”

Looking at Hogwarts, Ron asks Hermione to leave so that he and Harry can change on the train in the first book,⁵ the third book has no mention of changing clothing, and while the fourth⁶ and fifth⁷ books do, it is one line that just says it happens. It is almost as if they just pull on their robes over their clothing in the fourth and fifth book, except that you would not use the word “change” for that. It would also contradict the scene from Snape’s memory where after being flipped upside down, James threatens to remove his underpants.⁸ In book six, Harry does not change, and loses points for his “muggle” clothing,⁹ again refuting the movies and the many fan fictions with school uniforms that are essentially standard non-magical school uniforms with an open robe.

Again note this is not just a simple matter of Hogwarts using a version of traditional academic dress. Every description of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley’s clothing across the books has them wearing robes except when attempting to appear deliberately non-magical (which it says Mr. Weasley does badly). If “standard” wizarding clothing is in fact based on academic dress, then I can see that Mr. Weasley might well wear something more formal, and thus, per this logic, robes, to work. Why though do we not hear about Mrs. Weasley in the “long dresses” that Mrs. Rowling says that women tend to wear? She does not work, and one would think that academic dress, being synonymous with formal wear, would be more expensive than the essentially non-magical clothing that she says magical folk tend to wear “day to day.”¹⁰