Mandated hats for first-years: A tradition lasting well into the 1940s mandated that all first-year students wear hats while outdoors. "You don’t have to do it," explained a reminder in a 1921 issue of College Topics. "Absolute freedom of thought and action is one of the boasts of this institution. But you are expected to do it, and it is well to enter into the spirit of any school you attend."

Tradition: Barbour jackets, North Face fleece and Hunter wellies have taken the place of first-year hats. Students are not required to wear them, but if they don’t, they run a serious fashion risk.

Guys in ties and girls in pearls: Fancy dress at football games is a tradition from the days when an exclusively male student body only got to see girls once a week. Dates met at pregame lawn picnics in jackets and floor-grazing skirts.

Sea of orange: When former head football coach Al Groh (Com ‘66) took the Hoos’ helm in 2003, he encouraged spectators to wear Cavalier gear, creating a unifying "sea of orange" at games. This change caused an uproar among sartorial traditionalists, who protested by forming a Facebook group called "Guys in Ties, Girls in Pearls" of more than 900 members.

Preppies: In the 1960s, while students at other schools were wearing bell bottoms and long hair, Virginia men continued to maintain U.Va. tradition by wearing jackets and ties to all events outside their dorm rooms. A Cavalier Daily article from 1967 describes a scandalous breed of student who "went out of [his] way to prove one [could] be grungy even when wearing a coat and tie (e.g., dirty shirt with frayed collar, rancid wheat jeans, and the usual nasty sneakers held together with once-white adhesive tape)." But these men were the exception rather than the rule.

Practiced casual: Students today wear leggings and gym shorts to class, flip-flops in the dead of winter and boat shoes without socks.

Mayhem over hemlines: The advent of the miniskirt coincided with a sharp increase in female enrollment at the University. Between 1967 and 1970, several editorials on the topic of hemlines appeared in the student paper. A writer who’d recently traveled to London gushed over a city filled with "the mini-est of skirts [and] the most exotic flower children." Another wondered whether women at U.Va. would shop for their school clothes at the local men’s shop, Eljo’s.

Stress-free sundresses: On warm weekend nights, Grounds becomes a spectrum of sensible sundresses. Styles tend toward the conservative, full-skirted and comfortable. Metallic Navajo sandals, heels or cowboy boots complete this classic, summery look.