The holiday season is upon us, and if you're a Harry Potter fan (and don't already own one) a Hogwarts robe in your house colors is probably somewhere on your list. While we cannot all afford to pay hundreds of dollars for the Wizarding World versions in Orlando, some less expensive Halloween versions exist online, and everyone deserves to wear something with house pride.
But, if you're a real fan, you may be looking for a particular style of robe. Did you know there are at least three distinct versions created for use in both the films and stage play? Here are a few details you may not already know and may want to consider as you shop or wish for a robe this season.
Robes Are Pulled Over The Head
When we talk about Harry Potter robes most everyone imagines the black bathrobe style that fastens near the neck. Why wouldn't we? All versions of the Harry Potter robes that have appeared on screen have in fact been designed in this manner. But, eagle-eyed readers will know this is not the way Hogwarts students dress in the pages of the book series. That's right, in the book, robes work more like t-shirts, in that students pull them on over the head, probably hiding any sort of clothes or uniforms that exist underneath.
House Colors Only Exist On Movie Robes
As mentioned above, student robes are pulled over the head in the Harry Potter books. Also of note, within the pages of the series, all student robes are black. Students are expected to own at least three each. All robes are purchased for first-year students before they are sorted into their respective houses. Nowhere in the pages of the novels does it ever mention that the robes later have house color detailing added. There's no red lining in a Gryffindor robe.
There's no Slytherin emblem on the chest. Only prefects, head boy and girl, and Quidditch captains wear badges with their position and house color.
The Colors Of Ravenclaw
Speaking of the colors that adorn the robes in the Harry Potter films, book readers again will notice that wise old Ravenclaw has different house colors in the movies than they do in the books. Their house crest, first of all, is decorated with an eagle in the books, not a raven as it is in the movies. In the books their house colors are blue and bronze, where in the film they are changed to blue and silver. A small change, but a rather noticeable detail to fan purists.
School Uniforms
In the Harry Potter books only pullover black robes are worn as school uniforms. Due to the open front redesign in the Harry Potter movies, a full school uniform was designed to go underneath the robes. This includes a tie in house color, a white shirt, navy skirt or slacks, and a gray sweater or sweater vest, also with house colors on the edges. Once again, this is in the films only. The uniforms are not quite so "uniform" from page to screen.
Pointed Hats
In the Harry Potter film universe, we don't see much of the pointed black hats, really only at the closing feast in film one, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. However, pointed black hats are on the required shopping list for all students and a required part of the uniform on the page and on the screen. We read the list when Harry goes shopping with Hagrid. In the novels, the hats are worn for most feasts and special occasions. It's certainly not the largest adjustment made to the Hogwarts uniforms when they jumped into the real life of movie-making.
Changes In The Third Movie
Even the uniforms within the movie world of Harry Potter have not remained consistent from film to film. In fact, the entire student outfit was given a makeover in the third movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The first film not helmed by director, Christopher Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron not only allowed the cast to wear more "muggle" attire, but also darkened the house colors and changed the striping pattern on scarves and ties. The house emblems on all robes also shrunk slightly.
Old Uniforms
A similar uniform to the Cuaron design was actually seen in the second movie, The Chamber of Secrets. This uniform, however, was an older style, warn by Tom Riddle back when he was a student. Riddle is seen wearing the outfit in flashbacks while Harry reads his diary, and again when he appears to Harry and Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets.
Riddle's tie is very similar in style to the new ones seen in the third movie. One wonders if Cuaron saw the second film and liked this single uniform set better than the general design already worn by Harry and his classmates.
Robes Or Blazers?
Tom Riddle is once again a fashion trend setter as he and his fellow Slytherins are seen wearing blazers over their uniforms, rather than robes, when they meet with Professor Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Whether they were an actual replacement for the usual black robes, or just a different option from the usual Hogwarts cardigan or sweater vest, we are never given enough information to decide. But it certainly makes the students stand out in their scene together.
Layering With The Marauders
In the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the audience is treated to Professor Severus Snape's worst memory, which stars Harry's father, James, and his best friends, Sirius, Remus, and Peter.
Here we do see blazers worn beneath robes rather than sweaters. So, it seems that blazers were once a part of Hogwarts dress code, from Tom Riddle's days all the way to the later period when the Marauders were at school. One wonders, at least in the movie universe, when they were discontinued.
From Page To Stage
Anyone who has been lucky enough to see the stage play of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, may have noticed that in the world of today, the uniforms at Hogwarts have once again been given a makeover. While blazers do not return as a mainstay of Hogwarts style, house sweaters and robes are given a major change. The sweaters, in particular, are given a lot more color. Rather than wearing gray sweaters with colorful stripes along the edges, students now wear colorful sweaters (green for Slytherin, red for Gryffindor, etc) with a gray, or yellow, or gray stripe along the edge.