All graduands participating in the ceremonies must wear the appropriate academic dress, which we recommend to be bought or hired from the School's official supplier Ede and Ravenscroft.

Graduands can only order gowns if they have booked to attend the ceremony and have received confirmation of their booking. If you have not booked a place, you will not be able to book academic dress.

Information about academic dress hire for the December 2025 ceremonies will be published in the coming months. Please check back in September for further information.

You will need to know the following information when ordering your gown:

• Your LSE ID number
• Height
• Head circumference
• Chest size measurements
• Day of your ceremony

All queries relating to gown hire should be directed to Ede and Ravenscroft customer services:

Contact form: Graduation Services Contact Form | Ede & Ravenscroft (edeandravenscroft.com)

Search: Graduation Services | Ede & Ravenscroft (edeandravenscroft.com)

Collecting your academic dress

Academic dress will be available to collect from the Student Services Centre Atrium on the day of your ceremony during collection opening times. Please check back for December 2025 opening times.

Please note, you can only collect your academic dress once you have collected your graduation tickets from the Student Services Centre ticket desk.

Returning your academic dress

Academic dress should be returned to Ede and Ravenscroft at the Student Services Centre Atrium during academic dress collection opening hours.

Please ensure that you bring your Ede and Ravenscroft booking reference number with you. You will receive this when you place your booking.

Graduands should wear business attire, smart national dress or other formal clothing under their gowns. We would also highly recommend that students wear a shirt or blouse with buttons, as this will ensure that the hood of the academic dress stays in place. 

Alternatively, you may bring hair or safety pins with you to help keep the gown and hood in place.

Since the granting of its own degree awarding powers in July 2008, students have worn LSE-specific gowns. However, if you are eligible and have chosen to receive a University of London degree you should still book an LSE gown and exchange it for a University of London gown on the day.

To see what the LSE gowns look like, please click on the relevant link below:

• Bachelors
• Certificate
• Diploma
• Masters
• MPhil
• PhD

Please note that, although you will receive a hat as part of your academic dress, it is an LSE tradition that hats are not worn on stage. Please leave your hat on your seat.

If you are experiencing financial hardship, you may be interested in exploring the Graduation Gown Support Fund (GGSF) which is managed and monitored independently by the LSESU Advice Service. The GGSF could help by waiving the full gown hire fee. Please visit the LSESU GGSF webpage for full information about the fund, eligibility criteria, and how to apply:

https://www.lsesu.com/support/funding/graduation/

As the fund is managed by the LSESU, should you have any queries relating to the fund, please contact the LSESU directly.