The Harvard Sweatshirt: Too Cool for School

Abstract

Princess Diana had an affection for sweatshirts. One of the most iconic was a cowl-neck Harvard sweatshirt she wore to the gym. This piece was so critical that the Ivy League university recreated it for season five of The Crown after the costume department reached out. In 1997, Princess Diana and her 2022 character launched and relaunched Crimson sweatshirt fashion that had nothing to do with university spirit and was all about style. Historically, university sports fans and students wear university-related clothing to connect with their institutions and sports teams, flaunting their identity and spirit. In addition, collegiate clothing plays a significant role in building university brands and reputations. During the twentieth century, these became part of the ‘All American’ vernacular, becoming a compelling component of the American fashion identity. Although it is customary to trope American Fashion to Hollywood and Seventh Avenue, college students have been key players in developing a casual style, the epitome of American Style. This article explores the Harvard sweatshirt’s road from school to cool by drawing on Bourdieu’s ideas of social space, acknowledging the impact of mass media in structuring the fashion field, and Marx’s ideas of commoditization and fashion fetishism. It will explain how and when the item transubstantiated from a signifier of class privilege and intelligence to a signifier of style and became part of the spectacle of fashion. It will also describe how the institution capitalized on this phenomenon and how it affected the inhabitants of Harvard’s social space.