A friend of mine gave me a high school graduation picture of her daughter and it was lovely but you wouldn’t have known it was a graduation picture if it didn’t have that written at the bottom of the picture, and I was like, “Do they not wear fur coats in graduation pictures any more?” and then she looked at me like I was insane.
Is this not a thing any more? Was it ever a thing? Because every girl I knew in high school wore a fur stole in her graduation photo. And in retrospect it was a little weird because you’d have to take off your bra an hour before so you wouldn’t have any bra lines so all the senior girls would sit in the gym with their bras on their laps, waiting for their bra lines to fade and wearing the communal tube tops that made you feel even more glamorous.
I remember wanting to take a picture of each girl’s full body while they were posing for their graduation picture because their hair was always Texas-big and they’d be draped in a communal fake mink stole, but from the nipple down it was all tube tops and overall bottoms and short-shorts and flip flops and farmer tans. But none of us ever took pictures of it because that was before there were cameras in phones. Hell, we didn’t even have the technology to photoshop out bra lines.
Was it just my school where the senior portraits always looked like inexpensive glamour shots?
Your hair may have been small, but I’m sure the humor made up for it.
Nope. Not just yours…. I had mine retaken because I hated the first one. But I did have some American friends whose photos put ours to shame. But yes, I had fur 🙂
We’re only as old as we feel, right? Oh, wait…that may not be a good thing either. Never mind. xo
We could choose between pink and blue! I HATED IT! It was so so SEXIST!!! I have never ever ever ever gone sleeveless or anything like that before or since. I am a size 44 H and was back then, yes HELL THEY ARE BIG H! And braless is not something that is even remotely comfortable for me in private at home!
sorry this struck a nerve for me.
(In the 80’s the communal fur was blue at our school. Like TARDIS blue. I was very relieved when it was retired. At least the mandatory black fur was slightly less ridiculous. ~ Jenny)
That is such a cool trend! I wore a turtleneck. What was I thinking?
Our school was feather boa… I was probably the only one in my class who DIDN’T have the boa!
Oh holy shit. I forgot about that. It’s definitely not just you, but I’m in Texas as well.
This did not happen in my high school. However, Seniors always dressed up and had professional portraits made, so those photos were always glamour shots. Pretty embarrassing.
Ha! We didn’t have fur stoles (which I am now thankful for) but we did have to pose at a weird unnatural angle looking back across our shoulder, while caressing our face with a long stemmed rose. Come to think of it, I wonder what the guys posed with?? I’m guessing nothing. And they probably got to face front. Lucky bastards.
Never heard of fur in senior pictures (As we called them–not “graduation pictures”) before–let alone everyone wearing the same one. (What is that?!) But then, I’m even fucking older than you, so . . . .
….I didn’t even HAVE a formal graduation photo. I had the school picture and that was it.
Although, to be reassuring, this may not be an age thing, it may be a region thing. My school didn’t have homecoming mums either.
I am agog with the idea of the fur stole in the senior picture. Granted, it was probably never an option for my school because we were in Arizona. You don’t do fur in Arizona for your own survival. I did indeed have big hair because mine was the 80s and we did hair pretty big.
Did everyone have their own fur stole or did people share them? Was the fur stole handed down to the next generation making it an ancestral stole?
I’m fascinated by this.
(It was just one stole that each of us would use and pass to the next girl in line. It would be used for years until it started to fall apart and then someone would donate another one. It was the exact opposite of “fancy”. ~ Jenny)
On Long Island in the ’70s the girls didn’t wear the fake fur, but I’m sure we all were preoccupied in being collectively cool in our jeans that wouldn’t be seen, Bloggess. Our senior photo day was high 90s, heat and humidity. This I remember because my hair ended up being flat to my head, forever for posterity. Ugh.
We had a cloth drape, not fur, but we did the same thing.
I’ve never heard of such a thing. It may be a regional thing.
We had two taken: casual and drape. Both of mine were fab because I had a giant red scar down my chest courtesy of one of my cats. I looked like Frankenstein. No furs, though. That is new to me. Graduated in 1981-btw.
That is weird. Fur? Back in the late 50s my sister and her cohort all wore dark cashmere sweaters. Close, I guess. In the 70s, we wore whatever, man.
Yeah, no. We wore graduation gowns in our grad photos in Canada, but our hair was similarly big. Gotta love Texas!
No one in Connecticut EVER wore a fur stole for class portraits, although in our weather, it would perhaps make sense. Back in my day it was a little sweater over a white blouse that had a Peter Pan collar. Your photo is cuter than mine, so just goes to show. (It shows that “weird” really works for you… but you probably knew that.)
I never took a photo like that.
We had little black shrugs that were safety pinned in the back (or whatever you call it)that had the same shoulder baring effect. Ours were not fur though…that is quite awesome. I’ve never seen fur before!
2003 grad here and we had the atrocious black v-neck poncho-cape thing hanging off our shoulders.
You lost me at “communal tube tops.”
No fur, but in 1998 we got a formal and informal picture taken at school and the girls had to wear satin stoles in the formal ones. Same awkward problems with the bra straps, plus they took the pictures in August so most of us had some serious tan line issues.
You look Furiously Happy though
We just wore our own clothes. This was SoCal in 1989. I’very never seen one with the fur stoles before.
Stoles,boas,cap/gown/fake diploma, etc. provided by the photographer. Didn’t want you to think we’re all hanging out with our fur stoles at home in our room or something. 😉
No, we just wore whatever awful shit we wanted. I looked dreadful. Some people actually did a good job of it, but I definitely was not one of them. I would’ve looked better with the fur stole and awful tube top.
Wow, we didn’t have anything like that up here in Canada. I graduated in the late 90s and we had to wear a waist-length grad robe over a “white dress shirt with a collar” – that part was mandatory, and I had to borrow one off my dad, because I didn’t own anything white…or any dress shirts with collars. I remember half the backgrounds were really dark, which blended with my dark hair, and made me look bald.
My senior picture was taken in a graveyard. It was like a glamour shot with a headstone.
This was definitely not a thing up north. At all. I’ve never heard of this madness. The big hair we did, but everyone had their own photos done professionally. Not at school and wearing whatever Girbaud jeans and rugby shirt you thought looked best on you.
At my high school in WV, we had velvet drapes not fancy fur ones.
I don’t know. I just wore clothes, and they weren’t done at school. We had to go to a studio all on our lonesome.
Mine, too. Only we went to a “studio” and did a few different shots. But it was really weird because we had to take our shirts and bras off and then were given these weird wraps to wear: a black one, a white fur stole, something red if I remember correctly, and probably something else. I don’t know, it was weird. I remember thinking that this photographer guy had this thing all figured out and went home and took a shower after. I was also really glad I made my mom come with me. Oh, and I’m a 1992 grad.
ONE HUNDRED PERCENT YES!!! Except ours were white fur (because in 1997-98, all 18 y.o. girls in south Alabama were virginal?).
1999 here, from Ohio. Were these different from yearbook photos? For our senior pics, we could do pretty much whatever we wanted, then we had a separate photo for the yearbook that had a uniform background/pose, but we could wear whatever we liked (I think I wore a red sweater. Not a good choice, as it turned out.) Then there was the “graduation photo” that was actually in our cap & gown, but I don’t remember giving those to anyone…I think my mom has a 5×7, that’s it.
(These were our senior yearbook pictures. That’s picture is straight from my yearbook. They did do a cap and gown picture though if I remember correctly. ~ Jenny)
You are not alone…but we had options for fake fur colors (Red! White! Purple!) and glittery backgrounds to amp up that Glamour Shot vibe! Ahhh, to be young in the 1990s!
My stole wasn’t furry but it was velvety soft! LOL With my big Texas hair too!! LOL I’m so glad I never did glamour shots!!
I was 1980’s in MN, angora sweaters and feathered hair were all the rage. We had to pay big money soon after for your Glamour shot looks.
Not fur… Ours were a black velvet drapey thing. We did them before the start of school and I never thought of the bra strap lines! I think I just pushed the straps off my shoulders and didn’t full on take it off.
I graduated in 1991 and in one of my photos the photographer had me pull down the shoulders of my top and put this black wrap thing on that looks just like your photo (but no fur). Ha – I just thought he was being a little pervy!
I graduated from a HS in SoCal in 2005 and we totally had pics like that. I’m so ghostly pale and I have really dark brown hair, so the contrast just made me look half naked
We didn’t have a fur stole but we had a crimson velvet one. Other than that, the senior pics were about the same.
I graduated in 1979 in Maryland. All the girls had to wear a blue velvet drape (Tardis blue). You could opt to hold a rose but that picture never went in the yearbook.
We did not have that trend, 1984 Missouri, but it reminded me of a girl who every year submitted a glamour-type shot instead of the school photos that were taken. I always wondered why SHE got to do that and everyone else had to settle for the crappy school pics. PS My 90’s big hair looks hilarious in photos. I swear it looks like an eagle could pop out of that nest on my head any minute!
As I read the comments, I am absolutely amazed that so many people wore fur in their senior pics LOL. Ours were just a bit nicer than usual photos and we would get to take different poses and whatnot. But the yearbooks pics were all just headshots. Thats AZ in the class of 2000 🙂
Also, communal tube tops about killed me LMAO
Yep, we did it in Florida, too! Ours were light blue because it was our main school color. We had to go to a photography studio to get it done. Mine is straight across because I crossed my arms higher to not feel so naked in that thing. It was like wearing a Muppet!
I’ve never seen senior photos that all look the same. We all had to use the same photographer, and if they weren’t the one you were using for your actual senior pictures, it was like a $10 fee for just the yearbook pic.
When I graduated they started doing the professional pictures from the photographer. So if you didn’t have (or didn’t want to waste) hundreds of dollars on pictures you didn’t get any. Coincidentally I don’t have any. Musher do either of my girls, and my son won’t have any either.
In my sister’s graduation picture in 1966, the girls wore portrait neckline velvet tops that were provided by the photography studio. By the time I graduated in 1972, it was no longer a Thing. Pity …
It was the velvet drape in Maryland in the 1980s.
We had drapes, but they weren’t fur.
This cracks me up! You guys are in hot-as-hell Texas and you wear a fur stole for grad pics, we are in the frozen north and just wear grad gowns and caps (just like in college but with the high schools colours on the drapey collar thingy).How refreshingly different. I think other area’s customs are so interesting. Thanks for the glimpse into the teenaged Jenny!
I’m in Texas and graduated in 1980 from Austin High in Austin (Go Maroons!). We didn’t have fur stoles but we did all have to use the same black drape and communal tube tops. Must be a Texas thing from back then.
Ha! At my school, we were allowed to have our own photos taken. There was an “approved” photographer for the yearbook photo and an approved backdrop, but you could wear whatever you wanted. I graduated in ’98. I had never seen stole photos until I joined a sorority- our sorority photos were essentially your HS photo with flatter- Pennsylvania hair.
Ours were not fur, but velvet. Then we did several of the other “show your style” photos… the ones we had to pay a photographer tons of $$ when it was my daughter’s turn for pictures.
We didn’t even have graduation photos in PA in 1994. My senior picture, however, was all glam from the waist up and two-toned umbro shorts and keds from the waist down. Also, about 5 min after we were done, I had stripped off the mock turtleneck (only mom-approved top I wanted to wear in May) and was rocking the tank that was underneath. Probably with bra straps showing.
Yup, I have the same fur coat grad picture. I’m also in Texas, though, so it could be just a Texas thing… Mine was a little less furry than yours, though. 🙂
Also Maryland- Navy or dark blue drape- can’t tell- with the optional rose. Lovely. My mom and aunts all had the same thing.
Not fur for me, but my 1982 graduation in Silver Spring MD involved a drapey thing or graduation gown. Now girls have professional photo shoots for their yearbook photos.
I graduated in the 90s. We all wore graduation gowns-pretty flattering.
I think it was an 80’s/90’s thing. My school had white fur as I recall, the yearbook pictures themselves were in basic black gowns. I just remember lots of photos and thinking “OMG, is it over yet?”
Why did I not graduate in Texas? Way cooler than than the 40 year-old grad gowns WE had to wear. They smelled like mothballs. Moth’s balls.
Graduated out of the small state of Delaware and we didn’t have fur, we had black velvet. Not sure if that’s better or worse, but very much yes with the bra line thing. sigh Guys got to wear a tux jacket.
We had a communal … fake off the shoulder dress… no fur… so you could look like you work a black dress, but the concept is the same. Other people would have their photos done by a separate photographer but the yearbook had these ones. Also we work communal cap and gown for photos…. how did we not all get lice? shudders
Ours was some velvet stole thing in the late 1990s. And yes, it was communal.
And not designed for women with shoulders like linebackers, they had someone behind me holding it on.
We were handed black satin wraps, which went around the shoulders but not up, over them. The only means of self-expression we had was the ability to choose our own necklace.
Hmph…these kids today….
I graduated in 1995 in SC, and we all had to wear this (Tardis) blue velvet drape that was held up in the back by a big, unglamorous clamp, to make it look like we were all wearing the same off-the-shoulder gown, I guess.
I have never heard of, or have seen such a thing…Thats crazy funny…lol
90s era WNY only had uniform school pictures like that at the private schools. I don’t think they used fur, though, but I never went to those schools so I can’t say for sure. For my school, we all went to a private photographer, most of us to the same one. We were able to bring multiple outfits and have a whole big photo shoot before picking out which headshot we wanted in the yearbook.
Navy lace drape!! So gross!! And hair was so big in some of my classmates that it went beyond the camera frame. Classic.
The stole tradition is still alive & well. My daughter graduated from a South Florida high school in 2014 and the girls yearbooks had to be a stole-wearing headshot, but instead of fur, it was black velvet (cue the music!).
In my small, private high school in south central Kansas, we did exactly this, but with a fake velvet stole. They might even still do this, I’m not sure.
Back in 1981, for our formal senior portraits, we had a choice of wearing cap & gown (in the hideous “gold” of our school’s red & gold colors, boys got to wear red), a black velvet drape, a black velvet drape with lace trip, white fake fur stole, red feather boa wrap, or blue feather boa wrap. All options, aside from the cap & gown, were shoulder baring, and there were tales that the some of the photographers at the chosen studio were, um, a little fresh, and would tug on the drapes/wraps/stoles to reveal more cleavage. We got to choose two options; I went with the plain black velvet and the blue feathers (to match my blue eyes). I never ordered prints, and didn’t select my own yearbook photo, so whomever did decided to punish me and use one of the blue feather shots. Oh, and did I mention that I had gotten my hair permed the night before? Yeah, I looked like a poodle…with very nice blue eyes!
My son graduated from high school last year, and the basic senior photo package only included one outfit, and it had to all be the same. The boys were in tuxedos (from the waist up) and the girls wore the black velvet off the shoulder drape. You could apparently pay for a session with more outfit choices, but only the tuxedo and black drape poses were allowed in the yearbook.
We got to pick our own senior photos for the yearbook:http://fcis.aisdhaka.org/tigertales/1996-7_Vol_23/pages/1996-7_yearbook_0073.htm. There was also a photographer at graduation for standard cap & gown photos. I went to the American Embassy School in Dhaka Bangladesh, so I don’t think it even occurred to us to do what anyone else was doing. I’m pretty sure that our yearbook’s main purpose was recruiting PR for parents considering moving their families.
The irony being that if you wore said fur stole sans bra and undershirt to school, you certainly would have been suspended, or at least sent home to change.
Heavens no! I am from up North (New England). Graduated in the 1980s. We had Senior Pictures where you wore whatever you wanted… just like regular picture day at school, but I think maybe they retouched them for the seniors. Also, they had a photographer snap a pic of each kid as they received their diploma. Girls sporting Gold caps and gowns, boys royal blue. Truth be told, I’m sitting here getting pretty darned creeped out by the idea of a sweaty communal stole getting passed around. It’s gonna take a few minutes for my shoulders to detach from my ears.
My kids wore graduation gowns (90’s). I remember just wearing regular clothes in the 70’s. This is on California.
Our communal black stole was velvet. I went to high school in Bangkok at an International School, Class of ’99. We each had to go downtown for an appointment with the official photographer with the official velvet stole. I don’t think there were communal tube tops. I don’t remember what I was wearing underneath it. Wish I had a picture of that. Our school colors were black and gold, so after reading other comments, I’m sure glad that thing wasn’t yellow. Boys just wore suits.
YES! Our yearbook photo was the traditional black drape for the girls and tux for boys, but the other shots were with fur and feather boas and that weird extremely unnatural posing with your hand under your chin!
I have a friend who is a photographer who advertises senior portraits – apparently it’s been a thing for a while to just have your own done. When I graduated in 1982 from Camp Springs, MD, we had a choice between I believe a dark blue and black velvet-y “drape” and I believe we also had a pic with our cap and gown. We weren’t in Texas but it was the 80s so there was plenty of big hair. OMG, what was 80s TEXAS hair like?
Never heard of such a thing. In 1991 KY, seniors had to arrange their senior photos themselves–it wasn’t even through the regular school photo day. No standard outfit, pose, photographer, or anything.
Not for my school — everyone just dressed up and wore something nice that they already owned. Or submitted a photo that fit the size requirements. This was rural Oregon though, so maybe we were just a bit more “hippy” about it.
In Virginia in 1988 it was navy blue velvet.
We didn’t even get fake fur, ours were just heavy, black fabric.
no… i graduated in 94. my Senior Photo was taken by a photographer of my choice. i had stupid stupid hair (my fault) and my awesome dog. though not for the yearbook shot. that was just me. in a purple shirt (what the actual fuck was i thinking)
basically my senior photo was horribad.
my son’s senior photo, however.. awesome 🙂
Our “drapes” were velvet in the school color–maroon. I remember wearing a high necked blouse to hide my grandmother’s pearl necklace so I could wear it in the “drape” pic. Mama would not have let me out the door with the pearls if she’d known. TARDIS blue sounds kind of geeky awesome but not especially flattering when used for non-time machine purposes. One of my favorite school pics was from 9th grade–we got to do extra poses if we wanted and I have a full length one of me and my 2 best friends. We are all wearing essentially the same thing (and we weren’t the only ones). Longish plaid wool skirts, white blouses and velvet blazers in gray/brown/black tones. Remember when we pretty much all wore whatever was in fashion? Neon colors, parachute pants, or wool plaid skirts with big gold tone safety pins where they overlapped (like kilts). Was in Dublin shopping with friends back in 2012 and it was a 1984 flashback–last time I saw that much fluorescent neon green, pink, yellow and blue clothing in a store!
Mine did too, but at a studio. We had some white shit that looked like a boa and black velvet drapes. Never these casual clothes/outdoor scenarios that my kids had the last few years (Iove those!). I graduated in 88, in northern CA.
We didn’t have fur, we had these horrible satin-ish looking wraps that we had to wear in the same fashion. They were so awkward. I’m in Texas, too!
Black velvet here in Jersey. What kind of fur was it that they made you wear? Bear fur? Did it itch? Fleas? Mange?? You look happy so it must not have been too bad.
1992 – “senior” pictures you did on your own (usually in the late summer/early fall) so they were whatever you wanted. You’d do a whole session so your family would have two dozen different shots to gather dust, and you’d pick 3-4 poses to get wallet-sized to hand out to everyone you were vaguely acquainted with (after you wrote something Personal & Heartfelt on the backs, of course). But you did have to have one black & white headshot for the yearbook, although there were no real criteria other than that.
We weren’t quite to fancy to have fake fur stokes but we did have itchy capes made of what I’d swear were old navy wool blankets but it was a similar silhouette (big hair and all being New Jersey circa 1989)
This is just so weird. I graduated in 1994/1995 (early graduation thing, it’s odd, just go with it). We all submitted the photo we wanted in the yearbook, so most of us went out and got professional shots taken. I even got mine done for free in exchange for bringing my book of photos to school and showing it around to try to get people to use that photo studio. In fact, I’ve still got that book in my house somewhere. So no, we did not wear fur, and no, we were not all dressed alike in any way, and no, we didn’t even get photos taken at the school. This was in Wisconsin.
You want to talk about a weird high school thing that happens in Texas and no where else? Homecoming mums. SOOOOO weird. I think I spent half a work day googling that when I lived in Austin and a coworker told me about working on her daughter’s mum.
(I was shocked when I learned that not everyone spent a week making a mum to wear to school. ~ Jenny)
Ours were satin-ish shawls that were safety pinned together, of our choice of jewel tones. With tube tops underneath. The thing I remember most is that I wore my great-grandmother’s necklace, and it was the perfect length to go with the shawl-thing’s neckline. So four other girls borrowed it! When you get to my last name, it is suddenly a burst of the same sliver moonstone victorian-era necklace matched with all sorts of different earrings.
I remember arguing against using the shawl-thing because I always hated looking like everyone else and was told Girls Wear This, Boys Wear That, There Are No Options. The capital letters were clearly enunciated.
Graduated in the early 90’s. My sister (’92) wore the black velvet drape, similar to what you are wearing. Two years later, our class council decided it was more sophisticated to have us in the gown part of grad gear.
I graduated from a Texas school in 2000… We all wore caps and gowns and relevant honor society regalia for our yearbook photos.
Blue turtlenecks in New York in 1978. Before Gap made them in every color. We all passed around the same turtleneck. Weird huh? My niece graduated this year and had “destination” pictures complete with make-up artist and hairdresser. My nerves couldn’t have stood THAT pressure! Jeeze!
At my high school in Ohio (1996), we individually had portraits done wherever we chose and wearing whatever we wanted. We submitted them to the yearbook. BUT, I did the black cloth drape thing for sorority composite photos the next four years at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
I’m with Stephanie- not a northern thing. You went and got professional photos done and wore a couple of your favorite outfits. Most girls had at least one with their prom dress, and if you played a sport one with your uniform. If you did an outdoor shot, you had a fun “casual” outfit. But damn, we did not have all the same pictures, and we DEFINITELY didn’t have a weird fur stole thing. I think I remember seeing a couple high school friends who pledged a sorority in college have the communal picture thing, but even then it was just the same style of black dress. Wow. This actually makes me feel bad for y’all.
There was no communal stole at my very small high school. I feel empty!!
I graduated in 1982 and we just booked pictures with a professional photographer and submitted a head shot to the school. If you didn’t choose that route, then they used your standard pictures day photo. Fur? Stole? Communal clothing? Taking off your BRA? That’s crazy talk!
I’m guessing that’s a southern thing. I’m from the PNW
We had cloth drapes. They didn’t make us take the bar off, ’cause they used the back strap to clothes-pin the drapes on — two triangles of black cloth, crisscrossing at the cleavage. You had to hold it there with your hand just out of camera range. I forgot, and briefly flashed the rest of the room before I remembered to hold the damn thing closed.
They did all sorts of poses. There was the less formal shot, in regular clothes and in a rattan peacock chair (well. Part of a peacock chair. There was no bottom to it. They put it the back onto the stool you were sitting on), the silly over-the-shoulder-with-rose-against-cheek thing, all sorts of other goofy stuff. Then we got proofs and picked what we wanted. The drape one went into the yearbook, we had no say about that, but you could make your own package with any of the shots they took. I wound up using the rattan chair for wallet-sized pictures, and there’s a Great Big One of the drape shot in Mom’s hallway, right next to a similar pose from my sister, 7 years later..
I think our high school graduation pictures were taken with one of those photo booths – 2500 kids is a lot to process. No, just kidding but yes there something like 2500 kids in my h.s. graduation class (1964). I think that the girls were supposed to wear black or white sweaters/shirts and the boys had to wear white shirts with collars, ties optional. Probably the pics were taken in the gym with some kind of basic backdrop – in and out, keep ’em rolling.
Your whole life is just a series of dead animals given new “life”, isn’t it? So to me, that stole is just so right for you. My HS Senior portrait was all “Fall” themed with the big 80’s hair (though not Texas big), turtleneck and chunky sweater with high waisted, PLEATED (you know, because that is always a super flattering look) pencil pants rolled up at the bottom with elf boots. Yup, I was the whole package.
At my school, it was black satin. Fur in Texas. Ffs!
Our school used the fur stoles in the 60s and early 70s. Thank God they were retired when I graduated in ’79. Big hair was out too. In the 60s everyone used empty orange juice cans for rollers and did the “flip” with their shoulder length hair. In the 70s it was center parted, and STRAIGHT as a pin. I wore goucho (sic) pants and a cowl neck sweater. LOL The big hair didn’t show up again until the 80s and 90s.
We wore off the shoulder drapes, but they weren’t fur. We also had cap and gown pictures and “casual” pictures.
Uh, silver and moonstone. The necklace was not made of slivers. That would be bad.
I took the exact same picture in 1999, but I’m also in Texas.
Guys didn’t get stoles. We were told to wear a white shirt and tie, and a dark-to-black jacket. No glamor. We were all braless, though.
I really think it was a regional thing. My school didn’t (graduated ’87), but others did. Generally the larger schools didn’t and the smaller schools did. I was in West Virginia.
+1 for ugly black drape in crushed velvet.
1995 Texas Graduate- we had a similar looking black velvet drape. Classy all the way.
Well, I guess you’re as fucking old as I am because I had senior pictures with the fur coat, the big Texas hair, the whole nine yards!
“TARDIS blue” Do you mean, like, a Cookie Monster pelt?!
I graduated in 1991 in North Carolina and we had a similar senior portrait, but it was with a black cloth drape that was clothes-pinnned in the back. No communal tube tops, but we had the same issues with bra lines. The guys had a fake tux shell they put on. I think the fur is waaaaay more classy than our cloth drapes!
At least the blue stole was for high school graduation! Imagine the tears of the girls convinced that someone had shot and skinned the Cookie Monster (after the dead squirrel puppet, that would have been totally within the realm of possibility!).
What. in. the. world. This is not at all what my graduation photo was like. I graduated in 2003 and my photo was much like your friend’s daughter’s picture. We hired a photographer and took pictures at several different outdoor locations, then I picked the one I liked best for the year book. No weird faux dead animals or anything. o.O
Our yearbook required the black shoulder drape for the ladies and fake tuxes for the dudes although there was no mass photo opp in the gym. Class of ’92. As a yearbook advisor today, ANYTHING goes. I’ve had to have the “you have such a nice smile maybe you can submit a photo that doesn’t show off most of your tits and make you look like a barely legal hooker” conversation.
I think it depends on your location & school. I graduated in ’88, and my cousin took my photos in her parent’s house & yard. Everyone had a different type of photo, but maybe a few chose to go “traditional” with the wrap. My husband chose to wear his Army dress greens for his. This is my oldest daughter’s from 3 years ago.. their school requires the drape for the yearbook. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/meg1970/Alex%20senior%20proofs/alex2.jpg[/IMG]
Or maybe this link will work better? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v458/meg1970/Alex%20senior%20proofs/alex2.jpg
Ha ha ha….. that looks exactly like mine….. except we could also choose from pink or blue feathers!!! Oh the hair! We all had the big huge hair – thank you aquanet!
I left home at sixteen to go to the nerd public boarding school in Louisiana in the very late eighties (Class of 89). I was so grateful for so many reasons that I did that, one being senior portraits. While my friends were wearing the stole (not sure if it was fur), we got a photographer who made us look really good. (You could get the stole if you wanted it, but I sure didn’t. Mom made sure to order one in the cap and gown, because I didn’t want that either. I wore a very cute dress that was too hot for a photo shoot at that time of year–burgundy faux turtle neck). Everyone’s picture was better looking than they were IRL, but heck! Everyone deserves that every now and again.
I was imagining naked teenagers in floor-length fur coats and rhinestones like Carmela f-ing Soprano LOL
My sister, in Houston in 1989, had a bright blue fur stole for her senior yearbook photo. I went to an arts high school, where we got to design our own senior yearbook quarter page so I used a picture of my kitten.
I went to high school in Dry Ridge, Ky. If our senior pictures didn’t involve a tractor or tobacco barns, they were considered edgy.
For sorority composite pix in college, we used a communal navy blue velvet wrap, and that was in Kansas.
Nope, no fur. I graduated in 1987, and we had our pictures taken by the professional of our choice. Most people had multiple options to choose from, and there were lots of glamour shots in my yearbook. Not me, though. I had enough money to pay for ONE picture. I had a severe case of poodle head and I inexplicably chose to wear a Pepto-pink waffle-knit sweater.
… yeah.
Maybe it’s a regional thing? We never had fur in our pictures (Colorado). Actually we had to go out on our own to a professional photographer and then submit the picture to the yearbook. My husband is from South Carolina, he had a senior picture with cap and gown. I think the school must have done those.
I’m from Texas and we had a purple fur stole–school color. I graduated in ’88
1987 Michigan – same hair, same stole, same waiting for bra lines
We didn’t have fur, we had a satin stole that was striped in our school colors. Black with a thick ribbon of orange. Everyone looked ready for halloween..
Amazing. Texas, you always give. I showed my kids Homecoming Mums and they were gobsmacked.
Delaware, 1985, we wore whatever horrid thing we got at Deb or Fashion Bug. I coveted the classic look of the velvet drape, but I didn’t even know furry stoles were an option.
Wait, can you please explain what this “mum” think that you made was? I’ve never heard of it. I thought a mum was a type of flower…
Wikipedia let me down…
Mum or Mums may also refer to:
Chrysanthemum, or Mum, a plant
Bamoun or Mum, a sultanate of present-day Cameroon
Mum, Burma, a village
Mum language, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea
Mum (deodorant)
múm, an experimental Icelandic musical group
Mum Jokmok, a Thai comedian
muMs da Schemer, actor and poet best known for his role on the television series Oz
Mums Records, a record label
(Homecoming week you’d wear a mum. Big fake white flower in the middle with ribbons and bells and glitter hanging down to your feet. The bigger the mum, the better. ~ Jenny)
Everyone in the 90’s had the dumb stoles and velvet wraps…hated them so bad!
I’m from California and my school had guidelines about what we could wear and we could choose anything that fit in those guidelines. They didn’t take the senior portraits at the school, though. We had to book an appointment with a professional photographer who did all of the senior portraits. Everyone got one included free for the yearbook and you would pay if you wanted prints for yourself or more poses or a second outfit. There was no uniform look to the yearbook at the end, but at least my pictures for the grandparents were of me wearing my own clothes. 🙂
Good lord I’ve NEVER seen fur in grad photos, I’m guessing it’s a regional thing. Probably some convoluted throwback to academic stoles which were presumably once fur. In 1995, we had roses and wore the same gown(no cap) that we would wear to commencement with the school colour stole. As of a few years ago, when my niece graduated they did a series of shots some with the gown and roses, then some with regular clothes, in a bunch of different poses but the basic gown and roses is the one to go in the year book.
Yep. Texas girl here. You are not alone! lol
In 1984 in Alabama we wore the blue velvet drape. Gross. Reeked of Estée Lauder perfume and cosmetics!
Mine was red. I think marabou feathers. Maybe fur? It took me 2 hours to do my hair. EVERY. DAY.
I graduated in 92. Our senior class opted out of the fur stole. It caused quite a stir at my school. To appease community we agreed to “dress professional” (from the waist up) and everyone had mandatory cap/gown photos. They used the “professional attire” and went back to stoles the following year. Those stoles looked like BAD roadkill.
Velvet stoles here. There was also an optional red rose involved.
Georgia, 1986, dark blue velvet drape, at the photographer’s studio. I remember feeling very awkward because it wasn’t, like, real clothes. Just a heavy drape closed in the back with a clothespin. Weird. The guys wore faux tuxes.
We were just talking about this! I live in Iowa and my cousin had her senior pictures taken about a week ago. It’s a big production – you hire a photographer, get your hair & makeup done, and then spend 4-5 hours taking pictures around different parts of the city (and changing outfits God knows how many times). Then you choose one of those for your yearbook photo (and spend an insane amount of money on prints of the rest). The photographer also has a beach house in New Jersey and was saying that senior photos are very much a regional thing. He said most people on the east coast all take the same picture like you’re talking about, and that’s it. I had no idea!
I AM that fucking old. Graduated in 1977. We just dressed in, well, 70’s kinda rags. Dudes with long hair and Saturday Night Fever costumes (unless you sported a major fro), and girls with long straigh hair parted down the middle. Everyone looked groovy. Even the nerds.
Ours were velvet, but yeah.
At my high school (central PA, 1986) we could do poses with a “drape,” which was this black velour thing, if we wanted to, but we didn’t have to. We got our senior portraits done in an actual photo studio, not at the school. I thought my photo looked a lot like my mom’s from 1953, in which she wore a very similar piece of fabric. Ahhh—traditions!
I graduated from high school in 1987, in Houston. I don’t remember if it was fur exactly, but it was definitely furry–maybe feathers? Ours were bright blue. I don’t remember taking my top and bra off per se, but I’m pretty sure all the photos had us with bare shoulders–so maybe I did. I’ll have to dig out my yearbook to refresh my memory. And I was a geek who never went to Homecoming so I never did the mum thing, but I remember it was a thing. I feel like the cheerleaders would make them for the football players, maybe?
1984/5 in Northern California: We had the communal, peach-colored boa. That and the black drape. I got static because I had (gasp!) TWO earrings in each ear. We also did our senior pictures the end of our junior year, so everyone could go away for the summer & come back looking completely different.
In the late 60s we all had to take off our tops and have a black drape put on us so if formed a wide V-neck. I don’t think they do that any more.
In northern Virginia in the mid-70s (see, you are so not old) we wore a “drape” that looked very much like your fur, just not fuzzy.
I have an old Glamour Shot with a feather boa. The kids saw it and thought I was trying to dress up like Big Bird.
Our’s were velour, but the same cut. Horrid things that weren’t big enough if you were big around.
YES!! My hometown does it only ours aren’t fur just black fabric. I’m from a ridiculously small town in Illinois called Salem. We also wear hoop dresses for prom and the whole town comes out to watch the girls get out of their limos, tractors, and various crazy transportation. Then everyone goes inside to watch the prom and corrination. I bet you think I’m joking. Here is a visual, you’re welcome ☺️ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbl0PQZEIdc
This is fantasticly amazing and makes me love you even more. Didn’t think that was possible…
No fur at at my school. Which was in Connecticut, so you’d think that fur would make more sense there (cold and full of snobby rich people) than Texas (hot and…I’ve only driven through Texas, twice, really fast, so I don’t know about the snobby rich person population there). Instead, for our graduation, we all had to wear white dresses (it was an all girls school). It was the early 90s, so the white dresses were big, poufy, crinoliney white dresses. So basically, our graduation looked like a mass virgin sacrifice/cult wedding/herd of sheep/cloud convention. Just awesome. I still flinch when I see the pictures.
What?!?!?!?!? I have never heard of this fur stole thing before today! For senior pictures, you went to a professional photographer and had them done. It was upto you what you wore, and you could do several outfits, backgrounds, whatever you wanted.
Obviously I’m the wrong gender to worry about bra lines but I skipped senior photos (and most of senior year) so I have no idea if we did this or not (in north Texas)
I do remember homecoming mums because I worked for a florist around that time and yeah, homecoming was like another valentines day for us.
04 grad here, we had the weird black drapey thing that was safety pinned in the back. A feather boa (bright neon color) and fake red rose (held at your shoulder) were some of the other shots we could buy, which I didn’t because ew.
Yep, Texas girl here and I had a fur stole & a pink feather stole. Oh how I miss the ’80’s!
My 1991 High School yearbook is just everyone’s Senior Pictures, which were taken by professional photographers outside of the school, in various outfits/poses. People posed with their 4H animals, band instruments, feather boas, acid washed jean jackets… It was weird then, in college, that my sorority* had us all draped in black velvet, and I felt like I was in the 1950s.
*Don’t judge.. tiny Liberal Arts school in Ohio, dry town/campus, only way to have a sanctioned party with alcohol was to be Greek. 98% of us pledged for that very reason, and most were strictly local clubs, not national sororities. It still feels weird to say that I was ever in a “sorority”. It wasn’t what you’re thinking.
When I was in middle school we received a picture like that of my cousin. I remember thinking she looked so glamorous and mature. I couldn’t wait to have my picture in the fur. By the time I was a senior we had moved to Iowa. Iowa does not do this. Everyone I told about this tradition thought I was crazy.
I have never heard of this. But I wore a black sweater and a dog collar so who am I to judge?
My senior pics (class of 2002) were a combination. We took a bunch of pictures in our regular clothes (3 outfits I think) and then the cap and gown (with fake diploma and rose) and the drape. The one with the drape (we had communal tube tops too) went in the year book and it was also published in the newspaper when all the area graduations happened in June. Our drape was black velvet instead of fur. This was in Virginia. My brother had his pics taken at the school too and the guys had communal tuxedo shirt/tie/coats that they had to wear.
It wasn’t fur, but a communal velvet drape thing that kind of looked like the top to a formal dress. Still all black.
I graduated in NJ in 1987 and didn’t do the drape for senior pics-fur or otherwise.
Not until my sorority picture in Ohio 88-91 did I experience the magic of the
Blue Velvet drape!!
I’m familiar with the drapes, but fur? Um, am I the only one who sees you being slowly swallowed by a badly coiffed bear? Probably. Nice hair, though.
Louisiana does this, too, or at least when I was in school they did. There was one photographer in our podunk town, but he started branching out and I think my younger sister may have just had the black satin wrap in the mid-90s. Pretty sure my mom had black fur in hers in the mid-60s in a different podunk town – went great with her awesome cat-eye glasses and hideous bouffant.
Love the 80s
Love BIG FAT HAIR.
Love your photo!
But a fur stole? WTF?
I thought you liked Kitty Cats???
We wore full length white dresses– basically wedding dresses. It was leftover from when our school was a Catholic finishing school and graduation was more of a presentation to society. We had to do a full curtsy at graduation, too. I’ve never seen this fur trend, but I’m not a native born Texan.
You’d think that Plano, Texas would have stoles for senior pictures, but thank God no. My senior picture was spectacularly bad – I looked older then than I do now. Not that a fur would have helped how I looked, unless it was still alive and had claws and mauled me. That would have helped.
I’m in total disbelief…I also came from a school where you had your photos done professionally and wore whatever you wanted (or just had the school company take your photo, but you still chose what to wear). OF COURSE traditions like the fur stole have to exist… I’ve just been completely oblivious until now. This is all crazy and wildly entertaining.
We all had sweater sets. Mine was a lovely peach cable knit.
I graduated in N Texas in 94. We didn’t have fur, but all the girls had to wear this shiny (oh, so shiny) blue ruffle thing that was off the shoulder. They’d wrap it around us so tightly you couldn’t move your arms and then pouf up the ruffle until it looked like a 1980s balloon skirt. So fashionable. About half of the girls had this really angry expression in their photos because of the ridiculousness of the ruffle.
I too was a 90’s girl and even though I live in freezing ass Canada, I have never heard of the fur stole grad pic. So fancy!
I have never heard of this, and I graduated around the same time. Maybe it was just a Texas thing?
By 2007 in the Dallas suburbs, we left the fur stole behind, but instead had an awkward little black drapey communal garment. It seemed to serve the same purpose of showing as much neck and shoulder as possible. In my case, since it was the end of summer, it showed off my sunburn and tank top/swimsuit tan lines. Voila: https://flic.kr/p/wKtX8p
And this is why I was yearbook co-editor in chief my Junior and Senior years. Our school was small enough at the time that I persuaded the powers that be that they should let each senior have a full page in the yearbook (for a fee to cover the cost of extra pages) and people would group together and have like a mini photo book in their pages. I might have nearly failed Spanish because I skipped the class so much to make sure that our senior pages were spot on. The senior portraits were not required. For my pages with my best friend, we might have driven my car around the campus really late one night to take pictures…
Palm Springs High School, 1984, it was the black feather boa, holding a red rose. Was lovely with my purple punk rock dread locks. What were they thinking?!?!?
1984 Boise Idaho. We got to pick our own senior photos photographer, but the yearbook shot had to be a black drape for the girls (and a black jacket & bow tie for the boys). The professional photogs that year had a drape with 3-4 inch wide scallops along the entire neckline. We were poor, so didn’t have the several hundred dollars for a photo package, so I had a friend take my photos. The drape he had was straight edge with a little bit of lace on the edge. I had a heck of a time trying to safety-pin it the right way to not show my bra straps lol
I don’t have the fur wrap picture, but I do have….. the leaning against the fake tree/fence picture and the sitting in the hideous wicker chair pose from the mid 1980s. I had some nice big feathered hair myself! My children humored themselves during their own multiple outfit/location senior photo shoots that would rival most wedding photography with their own renditions of my senior photos!
Those drapes were big in the south in the 1960s and I guess they’re back. My mom taught seniors in 1970 (Klein ISD north of Houston), and one of her students was yelled at by her abusive dad about buying a new dress when he saw the pictures, before she explained that it was a drape. When I graduated in 1975 in Shreveport, we did the approved photog thing with nice clothes and maybe cap & gown. No drape. Fast forward to 2011 when my kid graduated in Lafayette, LA, pics at school with drape for girls and fake shirt/tie/jacket for boys. She refused the drape, we did a photo session with several outfit changes at a local park.
Not just you. Though my school used a communal blue satin drape/stole thing. And to add to the creepiness factor of worrying about bra lines and going braless, we did ours in a motel room. A parade of senior girls with hair and makeup in full glamor mode wearing shorts and whatever in and out of a motel room with the professional photographer. Yep.
Ours were made of velvet. Or a velvet like substance. Same shape and style but slightly less creepy.
Love your photo from the 80s. You were already almost as cute as you are now!!
We were using a communal black drape when I graduated in 72. Guess we didn’t rate the communal fur! And we all wanted long, straight, sleek hair, which only maybe 2% of us had. (I was not one of the 2%) No digital cameras, no do-overs, you just had to hope one of the proofs turned out good. God, that was awful.
Yes, we wore this fantastic ensemble too. I also graduated from a high school in Texas. It didn’t make sense to me either. I graduated in 2000. In the summer of 1999 I had to drive up to my high school in the middle of the day when the actual temp outside was 98 and the humidity was 100% so it felt like 110. So not only was it a communal tube top and fur/boa but, it was a little extra gross because everyone was all gross before we put it on.
It was 1984. My hair will never ever be that big again. Sigh.
We just had plain crepe v neck drapes.
Goodness, remember how Grown Up we felt?
No fur or drapes here (1986, Michigan). We all got sent to a certain local photographer who did everyone’s photos. We could wear whatever we wanted, but the actual yearbook photo had to be just a face shot. I had some lovely Flock of Seagulls hair going on 🙂
As a teacher, all I can think of when I hear “communal fur stole” is “Oh my God…the head lice!!”
Up in NY we all wore Black Velvet “Wraps” and the same thing applied…jeans and shorts from the waist down…hair and makeup from the neck up…and Don’t Forget you Pearls…Dahling!
My school had no clothing requirements/traditions for our grad photos, so I made the mistake of wearing my favorite strapless bustier in mine and ended up looking 100% like I had posed nude in the cropped version they ended up using for the framed class composite that went up on the wall.
Not quite the legacy I was intending to leave behind.
We never even graduated from high school in my day. You either left to have your second child or work in the mines….I mean local supermarket. And that was for those who didn’t die of typhoid.
WTF? A communal stole and tube top?!?
Class of ’86 in Ohio. That was NOT a thing here. We got our senior pics done at a studio and our yearbook photo was just a basic head & shoulders shot (also done in studio), but we wore whatever we wanted.
Honestly…it doesn’t look like fur so much as Feather Boa..:)
YES…Texas in the 80s/90s. These kids today have NO IDEA!!!
In 1993/94 Virginia, our senior drapes (that’s what they called them) were velvet in your choice of slate blue, bergundy, or black and picture day was always thehottest most humid day of August.
I think you’ve just illustrated one more way in which Texas is bizarre.
Oh my goodness no. Graduated in Maryland in the mid-80s and never heard of such a thing. Of course my high school required us to wear long fancy white dresses for graduation itself (as in wedding dresses). That was creepy enough.
The only time I had to wear one of these things was in college, and I was much more amused by the fake “diploma” they had us hold in our hand, which was a piece of white PVC pipe with some red tape on it.
We had a choice between lace or fur and there was more than one color. If you wanted your picture on the senior panel (that hangs in the hallway of the school), you either had to get your picture made or pay the sitting fee and use whatever picture you wanted. I refused to have one of those pictures made so I paid the fee and used one of my fabulous, casual senior pictures my parents had taken. We could also choose whatever picture we wanted for the yearbook.
The high school my daughters just graduated from forces all the students to have those awful pictures made. The guys have to wear a jacket and tie and I think everyone gets a picture made wearing a graduation gown.. It goes in the yearbook and on the panel. You can have custom pictures made (and a lot of people, including us, do) but the school won’t let you use them for anything official.
Ours were Satin. I always ended up helping the photographers (3 years on yearbook staff). It’s where I learned to cover a hickey, because I covered no less than 10 a year.
Ok I didn’t read all the comments so maybe somebody said this already, but why couldn’t you just slide your bra straps down your shoulder? Whyyyyy did you take your bras off?
(Teenage stupidity? Peer pressure? I suspect one girl took hers off and then it was a chain effect. ~ Jenny)
I graduated from an all-girls Catholic high school in New Orleans in 1987 & we totally did this, except ours was a lovely powder blue. That photo is one of the few things I’m grateful to Hurricane Katrina for destroying.
In Thrall, TX in 1992 it was big hair with a bang-pouf and a purple feather stole. Ditto the bra-strap issue and borrowed tube tops, so this must be a Texas in the 80’s and 90’s thing. the kind of awesomely awful you just have to smile at!
Yep, we wore a pretty blue velvet “drape” for ours (in 1979). And like Luka Beth, it was beastly hot and humid in GA in August. Nothing like having your carefully made up face sliding off in the humidity.
Let’s hear it for the Peter Pan collar. In my day (the fabulous 60’s), it was a mandatory plain black sweater with a fake PP collar that never looked right on anybody. The pix were done in a studio, by appointment, though.
I have looked thru my year books and both of my sister’s year books. No fur stoles. In fact MOST (1960s & 1970s) were all cashmere and pearls. My daughter’s era was a bit more relaxed – but still no fur
Definitely happened at my Texas school — a feather boa, I believe, was obligatory for the yearbook photo. They wanted consistency, dammit. And they got it, with the boa and the 80s big hair.
My sister had to wear a blue feather boa thingy, but by the time I graduated in ’91 we were allowed to wear any top we wanted. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t have to wear either a fake mink stole, or a feather boa…ugh
Oh maaannnnnnn, lucky you to have the fur! I just wore whatever I wanted! I wish we had a dress code so we all looked the same in some fancy mink. Thanks for sharing, this is awesome!
I wished we could have had black fur or the more elegant looking black velvet. In a high school in Austin TX, they gave us this really horrible color of blue. It was furry, but it looked like a bathroom floor rug. Cheap and ugly looking!
E
We wore feather boas in our senior pictures. But I’m also in Texas so this may still be a regional thing. 😉
Also, we had to go to a portrait studii to have our pictures made. Total pain in the butt but at least no one else saw me in my tube top and boa. LOL
I didn’t have a fur stole, but I did have a red satin one. I also had the ever so glamorous tube top. Good times, good times…
Mid-80’s Michigan, we dressed up and did a slightly fancier than usual photo, or went to a different photographer and turned it in.
1982 Michigan, you could wear whatever you wanted and have it taken on picture day, or you could submit a picture you had done elsewhere to the yearbook. I don’t remember anyone wearing anything like this in theirs.
Also, I just googled “homecoming mums” and I am absolutely in awe. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. Either Texas folks are seriously crafty, or there are a few homecoming mum manufacturers making bank off those things.
We had a giant fake graduation gown. It was this 6 layer gown that opened in back, so you slid your arms in the front, and they binder-clipped it in the back before taking the photo. Everyone looked equally bad in it, but the real interesting bit is after getting your photo taken in this huge heavy linen contraption, you filled out the paperwork to buy your actual gown for graduation. The actual gown I graduated in was white, see-through (as in, everyone knew what color clothes you wore underneath and we all had to wear clothes underneath because of how thin they were), super-cheap fabric that was probably very flammable. Totally the opposite of the thick heavy real fabric thing we were all photographed in!!
We had black velvet stoles here in Michigan.
This reminds me of my sorority’s composite pics each year. In fact, they recently tore down my old sorority house. A group of my former sisters “stole” our old composite from the house before it was torn down, knowing it would probably otherwise end up in the trash. We all wear blue velvet stoles and have ’80s big hair. Ever so lovely in my friend’s basement:). Preserved for freakin’ ever . . .
I graduated in 2011 from a school in rural Alabama. Definitely wearing the exact same thing in my photo.
We didn’t do the fur thing in Philly, but we all went through the big hair stage. Go Aqua Net!
At my first HS (9-11 in VA) every girl wore a velvet stole, black or dark red, with a similar neck line as your photo; guys wore a tux shirt, tie, and jacket. I have no idea how either worked since I knew we were moving and skipped my picture appointment (end of 11 grade, make ups in the fall). This applied at least from class of 1990 (my brother) to 1994 (me). At the other school (in AL) you were suppose to go to a professional and get it done. I didn’t know and so I was not in my senior year book; didn’t buy one either. I’m not sure how I could have, since you ordered them at the end of the previous school year.
I graduated in the ’90s in the Pacific Northwest and we didn’t use the wraps. (Lots of flannel in the yearbooks – thank you, grunge!) It does look like the wraps my mom and aunts wore in the ’60s and ’70s in California, so I’m thinking Texas just didn’t get the memo to phase it out. 😉
Memphis, TN, 1983 – We had a white lace drape thing. Just like every class in the previous 20 years. didn’t have to take off the bra an hour before, but we did have to go to the photography studio rather than having them done in school. It was about a month before school started.
Class of ’83 here from down SE Texas way. Pictures for our graduation invitations where in cap and gown taken in January or February. We took our yearbook pictures in the library in front of a green screen (or the 1983 equivalent) and then the photographer would later touch up your zits and then insert the background he thought looked best with your outfit. Thankfully I was one of the fortunate ones who was posed looking forward, with arms crossed on a fur-draped chest-high table. Some girls have one hand stroking their cheek while others are literally hugging a fake tree trunk he brought with him. Now, why I’m in front of a forest of autumn leaves is still a mystery.
We had the “drape” – a black polyester thing safely-pinned in place at much the same angle as your fur thing. northern NJ 1984
Jenny, I need to know more about this Homecoming Mum thing. I have never, ever heard of this before. Please, tell us more!
I graduated in ’95 (PA) and we had the velvet wrap. We had a little rack with a few different colors to choose from. If memory serves I went with either a very dark royal blue or a very dark forest green. Everyone had to go to the same photographer and thankfully we just had to nudge our bra straps over our shoulders and then have the thing pinned in place. There may have been a rose involved, but it was laughably fake.
I’m still having trouble with the communal tube top thing. This may cause nightmares.
~Kelly
It wasn’t until I moved to Montana and worked at a high school here that I found out that the stoles and drapes were no longer the norm for senior pictures. I was floored when I was given my first graduation announcement of the new millennium! I refer to these pictures, not as graduation pictures, but “come fuck me by the river” invitations. Scantily clad girls coming of age, provocatively posing in the shallows of the river, bosom ever so lightly beaded with water, dress hiked up to expose the inner thigh…
I moved to small town Montana from Vegas.where the only time I would see pictures like this was when I inadvertently accepted a handout from a guy as I walked along The Strip.
Graduated in ’98. Canadians are soooo boring. We just wore a gown and sash…plus goth makeup of course. I WISH we had faux fur glamour shots!
class of 1994 here. And no it wasn’t just you. Mine were ….are ya sitting down…..done at Sears. Yep, cheap and yet glamour shot looking, Sears portrait studios. Good times.
And now I feel old too, so thanks for that. 😉
We didn’t do that for high school, but we did for Job’s Daughters. Each Honored Queen got her photo taken with a white furry thing. And they were all taken in black and white. Oh, this was in Manhattan, KS. Mine was in 1981 — my sister in 1971. All of the pictures were framed and on the hallway leading to the meeting room, or “bethel” room, and they went back to the 1940’s.
We had something similar, I think it was fake-feather, but the really fine feathery look. Cornflower blue – but I’m older, that was in 1979 Houston, so I suppose the fake-feather instead of real feathers was groundbreaking anti-cruelty. And yes, tube tops, but we had to wear our own., we didn’t have to share. And yes, I remember the homecoming mums that almost required a harness to support it, with streamers past my knee. Ahh, good times!!
In my high school in 1984, it was a blue velvet drape. And eighties hair, but I was a sixties throwback and had long straight locks. I am less ashamed of my high school graduation photo than many.
I went to a private high school(and worked on the yearbook.) No shared clothes, but again private girls school…..in Connecticut. But even the public schools did photos this way.
We wore our own stuff. We DID have a class graduation photo in our gowns. But that was on graduation day.
There was a lot of big hair. But I suspect that was because of the time. 1980’s and 90’s liked big hair.
I graduated in 1978. We had fluffy blue feathered stoles. Horrible!
I teach at a Texas hill country high school and our senior girls get black satiny drapes. Looks really nice.
I’ve never ever heard of this, so it’s definitely not a new york thing, but it seems fun.
I am from just north of Dallas, and this is similar to our YEARBOOK senior photos. Our “senior” photos involved an entire photo shoot with costume and location changes, both of which needed to reflect you personality and extracurricular interests. Which is why there is a backlit soft-focus photo of me in a band uniform that I now think is hilarious.
As soon as the 2000’s the communal stole thing was a thing. We didn’t have “fur” but just a nice, itchy, black drape. You could either wear a tube top or a strapless bra underneath your button up shirt (like you’re getting ready for prom). I thought I’d class it up with a strand of pearls, because no one had ever thought of that before…..
I was on the east coast of Florida, and we pictures taken both in the black one (which was used in the yearbook) or white (and they’d add some filter to blur you slightly, so you looked angelic).
No fur ever in h.s. pix in MN.
You haven’t lived until you’ve posed for your senior picture perched on top of a wooden platform in the middle of K-Mart at their “portrait studio”…yup, that was me with the feathered hair, rocking a maroon faux-suede dress with massive shoulder pads, circa summer of 89 in the great state of NH
We all had blue graduation gowns. The only thing we could do to stand out from the rest was to outline out lips and pencil our eyebrows on in unique ways. At the time I made a lot of chola-friend influenced decisions.
Northern Virginia girls in the ’80s and ’90s wore velvet drapes for “formal” senior photos, in the darker of their school colors. Ours were navy blue, but there were no communal tube tops (shudder); we just lowered our straps. I also don’t remember sitting around waiting for my bra strap lines to disappear.
We were allowed to go to a studio and have our senior portraits done, or just use regular school pictures, but I don’t remember anyone having to wear specific matching clothes THANK CAKE.
I find this tradition so fascinating. Count me in the go to the studio for faux-glamour shots crowd. Your photo got soft lighting and air brushing added to it so the senior class always was zit-free and slightly out of focus. I didn’t have mine done because of the go to the studio thing. I made up all sorts of stories and excuses when the studio kept calling me to come in. I should have just gone with the truth: my parents would have made a big deal out of having to take time out of their precious lives to drive their kid somewhere and I would have heard the bitching about it for MONTHS afterward. Having just done the 30th HS reunion I can say it is way cool to not be in the year book!
Black velvet drape for the girls and tuxedos for the boys (Only from the waist up, of course). This was 2005 in North Florida. Those were the only options for senior yearbook photos. They had a professional photographer set up shop in the school’s library. The drape covered our shoulders though, so, thankfully there was no need to undress! 🙂
First, you were (and still are, since I think you pretty much look the same except for the hair) beautiful!
And we DID NOT DO THIS in Sothern Indiana! We took your standard photo for the yearbook, with real clothes on and all.
Ours had feather stoles (1981). My mom and I were anti-stoles so she took me to Joskes and I portraits done there in a regular dress and in my cap and gown.
Mine was more like a feather boa – and it was in Texas, class of 1980. We also took one in cap & gown, but the pic with the feather boa was in the yearbook. And yes, we had the big hair! Now I think a lot of the schools in our area use a cloth drape, still baring the shoulders.
We did them in Arkansas with the fur stole, but I moved to Oklahoma for my senior year. Here, we did standard senior portraits in regular clothes.
I’m a fellow Texas girl that graduated in the 80s. No furs for us. We had to wear feather boas. It was supposed to be glamorous, but we looked like Wild West saloon girls!
I was a rebel. I wore my leather hippie hat in my college sorority photo. I like to think that new sisters still wonder “Who the hell was that?”
sorry for the second post, but I jsut read through the comments regarding mums. We just relocated to Texas and both of my daughters are in high school. Is this something they still do here?? Should I prepare myself now to create an extravant mum??
We did graduation robes at the local Olan Mills.
23 and also from SoCal! Went to a private school, and definitely wore velvet stoles. I also happened to get a second degree sunburn on my torso and shoulders the day before, complete with inch long blisters but they wouldn’t let me reschedule the photo!!! Worst graduation picture ever 🙁
Graduated in 2000 in KY, and we had something similar, but instead of fur it was a silky polyester blend type of drape that would make it look like all the girls had the same fancy black v-neck dress on. I was horrified by the lack of sanitary thought around the whole thing, but complied with wearing the thing even though I was privately shuddering and thinking about all the ick that was probably on it from all the other users.
We didn’t have fur, but we did have a black drape that did the same thing in a slightly less fluffy fashion. This was Texas in 2011.
My ex-girlfriend’s high school in Virginia was still doing this when she graduated in 2006. Which is still FOREVER AGO, it seems.
Um, no, I have never heard of that! The common thing in my area was the “black shirt and pearls” (’03 – NJ), but I think I just wore something nice and did my hair for once. School photos were taken one day instead of gym class. There was an option to have them photoshopped to be zit free, but it was an extra $150 if I remember rightly. You could have professional ones done if you really wanted, but most people didn’t. But seniors also had a 1/2 page to do whatever they wanted and there were casual photos taken throughout the year in there as well.
Ours were the same shape, but black… maybe velvet? … in 2008.
You had a black fur stole??? Wowsers. I had a white one. I don’t remember removing my bra entirely .. just slipped the straps down. I don’t seem to remember having any strap lines either … ::shrug:: Dunno. The fur stole was the “fancy” glamour shot for handing out to family and friends. The shot that was put in the yearbook for every girl was the black velvet drape. So,we had two photo sessions.
I’m thinking that was a Texas thing. In Pennsylvania, we just wore something black and tried to look a little less miserable than we really were. For example: http://nerdygirlguide.blogspot.com/2008/12/getting-ready-for-2009.html
I graduated in Dallas 1978 and all the girls in my graduating class had the style of stole but I think ours were blue. We didn’t worry about bra straps. It was the 70’s and we all wore halter tops; no bras. And yes, big hair was essential. It’s Texas, afterall. Yeehaw!!
Not just you. We had three options: the basic black drape, the white stole, and the black/sable stole. Then, in Marin County, you also had the “private” senior photos taken where you got the more casual, outside, doing your favorite thing photos. It’s gotten even more over the top now though. My hair was just as big in the mid-80s and I was in California. It was a goal to get your hair as floofy as possible.
1966 in Eastern Washington, yup, except it was white fur. Even at the time, I thought it was pretty weird. And like Shelley, we also had the black velvet drape.
I graduated in 2004 from high school in Vancouver BC. We all had to have our pictures taken professionally the place downtown which is a pain in the ass to get to and the picture that went into the yearbook we all had the actual graduation gown on. They also took many pictures of us in different outfits that are more glamour shot they also took many pictures of us in different outfits that are more glamour shottey that you could order if you wanted. It’s no communal fur stole, but we were all dressed the same
I’m from the UK and am sat reading this with an amused and somewhat horrified look on my face. Particularly reading the comments that this ordered photo shit still goes on – with feather boas – I am genuinely amazed! I come from a ‘Billy Elliot’ kind of town in northern England and leaving school in the 1980s involved walking out the door and then a piss up with the teachers in the local pub.
PS You should have piled those bras up and set fire to them right there and then.
PPS am now feeling slightly sad that I don’t have a yearbook with lots of hideous pictures of my old friends, but then I had really, really bad hair in those days!
My high school did not do that, but my husband’s did, and he grew up in the west part of Houston. It was very common. The girls had a slip-on thing that was supposed to look like a semi-formal dress, and the boys had a tux.
Mine was a white fur stole and my hair was at least that big. Rock that fur! (Southeast Texas back in early ninties though.). They hazed the picture to give it that soft look too.
FUR? I’m dying. I would not believe it if it weren’t for the picture. We wore some sort of wrap, but it definitely was not fucking fur. Omg. I’m seriously laughing my ass off. I have tears.
Graduated in 1991 in Pennsylvania and we wore what we wanted. Big hair was the thing too though. Only goes to show how diverse the US is.
Yup. In Florida, we had a black fur stole with weird hand inserts like for hand puppets to hold it in place. We were expected to twist our heads to angles that rivaled The Exorcist to complete the look. Then we had “extra” ones taken that we could buy (to keep in picture frames at home? Gaah!) with…wait for it… a pink feather stole/sparkly pink background and a bright green feather stole/sparkly green background. Tomboy me went along with it but failed to really see the point. I bet it was a 90s thing that portrait photographers cooked up.
Class of 95. Washington state. Seniors just wore whatever they wanted and had professional pics taken.
You all blew my mind with this one.
I’m a yearbook adviser and I’ve judged yearbooks from all over the US for competition. I think fur may have been traded in for velvet drapes. This seems to be something primarily southern. I’ve yet to judge a west coast yearbook with senior formals like we have in the southern states.
This was a fixture in central New Mexico high schools up until the mid 90’s. We had class graduation photos (all graduates on a large poster) and it changed to wear what you want as long as it’s nice just before my older sister graduated in 97. My brother wore a grey jacket and blue bowtie like all the other guys and the girls wore silver drapes in 87.
For the love of all that is holy. Communal tube tops? A shared fur stole? This seems like the kind of scenario that ends with a panel van and a whole bunch of Kool-aid. I graduated in 1994, and we had to find our own photographer, but we could wear whatever we wanted.
Texas was fur stoles…1987 in Alabama was the era of feathers. The room where the photographer was set up (the old lunch room) looked like there had been chicken fights the night before…I’m talking feathers everywhere. You can even see mine here…http://psb1969.blogspot.com/2014/07/letting-go-of-past.html
My senior portrait…not my chicken
I graduated in the 70’s from a high school in San Antonio. There were no stoles or drapes–we wore what we wanted. My hair, however was Texas big (the bigger the hair the closer to God). We also had cap and gown pictures with our rented caps and gowns. my hair was not big for that photo (the cap would not fit), but instead was hanging down my shoulders. The photographer decided to put one side in the front and one tucked behind my ear, making it look like I only had one ear. Great memories.
Donna
Did plain black drapes with the same kind of shoulder bearing a fact. The senior portraits were done in June though, so tan lines are less of a problem because we were in Buffalo New York. Most schools did not do this. We were a private Catholic girls school So that actually explains so much …
Ours wasn’t fur, but it was CRUSHED VELVET. And always on that hideous stonewashed denim marble background. It did numbers for turning my already blonde and pale complexion to greenish hues.
We didn’t have fur stoles–I went to public school. I assume you went to a fancy-schmancy school with all that fur flying around.
But we did wear stoles. Made out of black felt. And we were forced to wear a strand of fake pearls. I was a stoner “rebel.” You can imagine how much I loved the taking of that picture.
In the 80’s I actually worked at the photography studio that took the senior yearbook pics (and pretty much all school pics) for most of Oklahoma and many schools in Texas. They mught have taken yours. For all the seniors who lived within driving distance of a studio, they’d come in and get pics taken, boys in coat and tie (and usually gym shorts), and girls wearing the fur drape. We had tons of colors! We used to comment that the royal blue one kind of looked like the girl was being devoured by Cookie Monster. I cannot recall the communal tube tops ever being washed. Ew. Some small schools would take their “senior trip” to Oklahoma City, drop by the studio and get all the pics taken, then go to the mall. Schools that were farther away would have a photographer come out, bearing a limited selection of fur drapes and tube tops. It was a fun HS job!
Communal Tube Tops is the name of my Pussy Riot cover band.
Sadly still prevalent. My daughter has her senior picture scheduled for next week here in lovely SoCal and the girls will wear what they call a “wrap” and the boys will have tuxedos. I’m so sad. When I graduated in 1985 (30yr high school reunion this year!!) we got to wear what we wanted, which is strange because it was a Catholic school and we wore uniforms.
People talking about mums is confusing: in British English we call our mother “mum” (not “mom”).
We had to pay our own professional photographer and then submit our picture. Everyone’s photo was very unique. I think we are similar in age..but I grew up in Iowa. Had the big hair..it was the 80’s.
Class of 1988 – Houston, TX – Yup we had some form of faux fur stole 🙂 Definitely a southern thing 🙂
Fake fur was an option? We just wore regular clothes. I’m a bit jealous.
In the 70’s (I know…ANCIENT history) our official picture was taken in a black crew neck sweater with a pearl necklace…all communal and blech. We then had the option of have more photos taken with a variety of things…most – including me – chose the power blue feather stole complete with bra strap indentations. Hilarious.
Why did this ever start…in Texas?
We had white fur stoles in 2005 in Georgia. I was recovering from mono at the time so the backdrop, my skin, and the fur were literally the same color because I hadn’t seen the sun in a month. It looks like a portrait of a pair of disembodied eyes with a bad dyed-blonde wig. Unfortunately, the yearbook picture had to be with the black nylon stole so the effect wasn’t quite the same.
In Arkansas you had two senior yearbook pics…. One in a cap & gown and one in a similar item to yours, except ours was furless. Big hair was required. Mine was via a spiral perm. Good times.
We had a choice of stoles, plain fabric or maribou. I wore the fluffy white feathers to go with my fluffy 80s perm.
I was class of ’82 in Idaho, and we had the choice- feather boa (pink or blue) or your own clothes. I always did my own clothes, because none of the cool kids did the boas. Plus, they seemed kinda weird to me.
Communal drapes in black; no fur; provide your own strapless bra (which I did not know if I remember correctly. It was…an experience. (1992 grad)
No, wait. That was college grad in ’96. High school was pick something nice looking and get pictures taken. Obviously my
Mind is going already.
In the year 2000 in Wall Township, New Jersey, we had black drape things for the girls, and black suit jackets & ties for the guys.
Haha!! Yes…mine was blue. They only had a couple-so weird. San Angelo Central-right next to you! 🙂
I graduated in 2002 and we had to wear a communal black stole too, it wasn’t fur though, just some scratchy nylon thing.
I’ve only ever seen this is in family members yearbooks. I graduated in 2004 and was just relieved they had given up making seniors pose with giant numbers. I hadn’t even considered the possibility of having to partially disrobe and wear used furs. We were just told to dress nice. (Graduated in Edinburg, Texas.)
In NY in the 80 we had communal black velvet drape but we just pushed our bra straps down. My mom graduated the same high school in the 60’s, all the girls had black cardigan sweaters buttoned all the way with a white collar
Indiana in 96. We could do the black velvet drape and pearls (provided by the photographer) or another shot. So… At least we had options? The bad thing was if you didn’t have the time or money to go to the photographer, you weren’t included in the yearbook. Btw, I did not opt for the drape and pearls.
We had a lame black drop cloth pinned into a v keck line. Other years had boas and caps and faux gowns.
I just realized I’m slightly older than you. Damn.
You’re welcome.
here in Staten Island New York we wore a communal black velvet …thing. ew
I just googled “Texas homecoming mum”. All I can say is Wow! Or maybe Yikes!
As a male high school senior in Texas, I just want to say I had no idea that was ever a thing. It certainly shouldn’t be. I mean, seriously, that is really demeaning for a freaking graduation.
I’m I’m from New England. We didn’t have graduation photos in our yearbooks. As part of being a senior in the mid-80s, we went to a photographer’s studio. Nothing fancy except for the professional retouching which, back in the dark ages pre-digital, was pretty labor intensive. We all wore nice clothes, nothing too glitzy or glamourish.
We must definitely did not have communal stoles. Just ew. I’m going to take a shower.
Before I do… I had the strangest reaction to the beginning of this post thinking, “Oh, my God, is Jenny flash back to a previous life? Like Like the 20s or 40s or something??” Then my brain snapped seeing the yearbook photos. Of every girl in the same thing. The exact same thing. Over and over. Yikes.
I love your 80s hair.
What. The. Actual. Heck. ? I can’t even begin to frame the myriad of questions running through my brain. I’m from NZ, this is just bizarre to me….a communal fur? I have to go lay down now.
I graduated in 95 from a school in VA. We had the stole thing, but we had the option of what fabric, all in black. There was a fur one, but I didn’t choose that one. The sessions were scheduled independently, though. No communal tube tops. They had us slide bra straps off our shoulders. We also had casual portraits done outside. I distinctly remember how uncomfortable it was posing like I was leaning on a tree.
Cloth drape,yes. Fur – not in nj. But, why the heck would u take ur bra off? Everyone just pulled straps down onto shoulder. I’d investigate that!
My senior pictures (class of 98) were normal clothes, communal black drape (I don’t recall what we did with our bra straps, but I have a vague memory of intense awkwardness), and cap & gown. The photographer clothespinned the cap to my hair and told me I had a weird-shaped head (then quickly apologized profusely). I occasionally tell people that’s the only reason I’ve never shaved my head.
We had the fur option, it wasn’t mandatory. I believe it was white (I didn’t choose to have my pic taken with it, so my memories are a bit vague). This was in SC, class of ’89.
These stories are amazing. As is the series of bare-shouldered fake mink stole photos.
I can’t wait to get my hands on my high school yearbook so I can send you my photos. Graduated in 1995 from a very conservative prep school in CT. We were allowed to submit our own photos. One was of me looking about as hippie-ish as I possibly could, another was of my best high school pal and me straddling a log over a creek, and the best one is of five of us – theater kids/total weirdos all – wearing costumes and holding random props from our theater department. I don’t remember exactly, but I think someone was wielding a hoe, and someone else presented a rubber chicken.
I think that should be the new standard for all yearbook photos.
No fur. Cape and gown. Could be almost naked under that gown and no one would know…lol.
Flashing. Flashing back. Ugh.
We all had to go to the same photographer and had 2 photos, one in a fake cap and gown not even same color as the real one, and one with a teal velvet drape. Our school colors were green and gold. Go figure. But the photos all looked great.
In Bastrop, TX we had maroon fake fur AND big hair!
Just had the same realization talking to a younger coworker. Apparently fur, drapes and feather boas are passé.
Tennessee, ’98…We had the velvet ones or feather boas, and an extra cap and gown pic from the company that took all the school pictures. Bra straps were neatly tucked into the bra for a makeshift strapless at least an hour beforehand. I modeled for a photographer a few towns over who did two sets of great senior photos, but the other company had a contract with the school, so no outside photos were allowed in the yearbook. My hair wasn’t quite that big. I think I had a Rachel cut at the time. As we all did.
We did not do that. We went to a professional photographer (which sort of sucked, because it was expensive and lots of us — myself included — didn’t have much money), but we could do or wear whatever we wanted. Oh the crazy freedom.
I have been around the block. I have lived a very interesting life. I have seen a lot of high school graduation photos, and never, ever, ever until today, EVER have I even HEARD of this ridiculous practice. High school photos were taken. In the school. One professional photographer came on a scheduled day, we wore whatever we wanted within the guidelines stated (dark colors look best, no t-shirts) and that is it. I think this fur stole thing is lunacy.
Hmmm…it’s been a long time since I had my senior yearbook picture taken (1979, to be exact, although the pics themselves may have been done in ’78). I think we may have had a professional yearbook photographer come to the school, and I suspect suggestions were offered as to what might be good to wear/not wear (the same sort of thing they included when letting our parents know when Picture Day was happening when we were much younger), but judging by my yearbooks, we pretty much wore what we wanted–lots of sweaters w/shirts underneath, some rugby shirts (the wide striped/white-collared kind), blouses, etc. I wore a pink & white teeny gingham lino weave blouse w/long puffed sleeves and a big Peter Pan collar that my mom made–the pink looked good on me, and damn, I loved that shirt. (I had several blouses of that same style courtesy of my mom; I believe we were both inspired by some of Louise Lasser’s outfits as the title character in [i]Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman[/i]…yep, I’m old. So no, no borrowed fur/feathers/whatnot in upstate New Hampshire in ’70s…
Graduated in 98 in TN. We had a velvet stole, not fur, but it was cut the same way. So classy.
Not fur, but my Texas senior pics involved a velvet communal stole. I think we were also required to wear pantyhose, for some unknown reason. And my casual pic was backlit in a way that made me look like I had a beard. Yay.
I graduated in 1981, and we had black velour drapes, not fuzzy ones. Thankfully it was before the Big Giant Hair era. Sadly, it was during the Royal Blue Eyeshadow era.
We didnt have fur stoles (thats a new one on me) but the classes before mine had a fad for those off the shoulder drapes, the way yours does, but it was cloth, not fur. I dont think more than one kid in our class went that route, it was considered a bit over the top for a small class, I suspect.
Ours was ’62, the days of ‘flips’ and hair that looked glued in place with hairspray. When you slept on brush rollers every night of your life, and had semi permanent welts in your scalp where the rollers went.
Damn, Robin, we’re practically neighbors, here. I was central NH but way before that…
Holy crap we were just talking about this at work yesterday! I graduated in 1987 and all the girls wore what we called a “drape”. They looked just like yours but were velvet. This was in Kentucky so we also had the giant hair!
Wow, I’m boggled. In Maine in the mid 80s we just wore nice “dress-up clothes”, nice but not formal. And we usually changed outfits several times. I think I ended up with something involving a prairie skirt.
I grew up in Maine, graduated in ’85 and had 2 senior pictures, one was a professional portrait and one was a “casual” picture. My fashion sense was impeccable.
I wore a V-neck, pink and white striped Lacoste sweater with a white Oxford underneath. For the casual shot I wore a V-neck, pastel blue and yellow argyle sweater with a white Oxford.
Levis, boat shoes, Lacoste shirts ( I had about a dozen) and Oxfords were THE SHIT.
I have never ever heard of sharing fur for a picture. That sounds really dirty but I’m just going to leave it here.
This may be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen you post about. And yes, I thought about that sentence before I typed it. No fur stoles up here in Minnesota but I did have one of my 3 senior shots taken with me wearing one of those 90’s Baja hoodie shirt thingies… which seems like maybe MN and TX have things backwards?
A fur stole…really…no we didn’t do that..must have been a Texas thing..but funny just the same..
Maybe it is a southern thing because we all lined up in the bathrooms for the communal tube tops and then waited in line for the horrid picture. But this is Tennessee so we did black velvet. P.S. I graduated in 2002 and I am pretty sure they are still doing this. But most people get good graduation pics taken by a private photographer.
We didn’t have the fur collar thing but we did have to wear a burgandy v-neck drapey polyester thing so we would all match. We also had big hair but it was 1985 and I think all the girls had big hair in Virginia.
I graduated in 2002 (feeling older yet? :-P) and we did a communal graduation gown that was not the same color as our ACTUAL graduation gowns (which we didn’t get to keep anyway, so why not use a legit one?) as well as one with a rose in our hand. Which was posed with you sitting on a wobbly stool, leaning precariously backwards (I swear I felt like I was going to fall off) and holding the rose up by your shoulder… from behind. Most awkward pose ever and I don’t think anyone EVER purchased that picture. AND, they were taken the end of Jr year.
I graduated in 1987 & was so Dan excited to get to wear the “glamorous” stole. Wouldn’t you know it? Our year they changed it & we had new blue & white satin stoles (is it still a stole if it isn’t furry?) that matched our school colors.
Huge letdown.
Dan=damn
Thanks, autocorrect.
2001, in KY–we had the velvet stole, although I think we had two or three to make it quicker. There was an official photographer, but we had to schedule an appointment. We also got more normal photos taken, but the one with the stole was for the yearbook. For bonus awkward points it was at this old hotel halfway across town. I’ll never forget sitting there with that thing barely safety pinned on (with every movement it slipped lower, and we had not been informed to be prepared with a tube top or strapless bra, so I had nothing on top under it) while the photographer kept trying to get the angle of my head right (glasses require the most awkward and unnatural poses possible to prevent glare). It was amongst the more sketchy experiences I’ve had.
Okay, I’ve never heard of anything like this, and I graduated in Chicago in 1990. But my questions is this: What did the boys do? Did they have to wear the fur too?
We didn’t have that in Massachusetts but I went to college in Georgia and discovered quite a few of my friends had the white fur high school graduation photo. My high school graduation photo was the first time they did them in color and I took it to my advantage with the dusty rose turtleneck I wore. And my hair was shockingly similar to yours but with a slightly more metal hair band lead singer shape to it. Ugh, the late 80s.
I vaguely remember my SILs having a white fur stole in their graduation pictures. They went to HS in East Texas; I’m thinking it is a Texas thing.
when I was hired to be a photographer’s assistant that was my job: to help the girls put the fake fluffy thing around their chest before the photo. The one we did the girls could choose their color and they were made of dyed feathers. But yeah, a boa-type thing wrapped around the chest for everybody. You aren’t crazy. This was 1988 in PHiladelphia.
At my Seattle high school in 1984, the girls wore drapes (choice of 3 colors) and the boys wore the tuxes (but only the top half). No one told me in advance that certain necklaces would be better than others — and definitely better than none — so I look like a sad dork, lacking a necklace and fearful that the drape would fall off during the picture.
Your school was better than mine!
I’m pretty sure it was always a black velvet drape when I was in high school.
Class of 1994, Texas. Thankful we could wear whatever we wanted. But why, oh why didn’t anyone introduce me to eyebrow waxing when I was a teen?? That’s the only thing I hate about my senior pic.
Class of 1995, Mt Airy NC. Birthplace of Andy Griffith. Yes, I grew up in Mayberry. Yes it sucked. And we had a black velvet drape, in the slow, southern style.
Yeah, they didn’t do this for our high school pictures, even though it would have made more sense up north here where it gets much colder. Though maybe it was an option and most people rejected it, or something. (I’d have to look at my senior yearbook again. Which is not something I was planning to do any time soon.) I wish I could have had my senior pic two years later, after my braces were off. =T
My sister’s graduation picture (’97) looks a lot like this, except…not fur. Pretty sure that’s just a weird Texas thing. And we didn’t have group senior pictures like that. We all got them done on our own and turned in the one we wanted to school.
I graduated in 1991 in Texas. We had a choice between a cloth drape or a fur stole. The guys wore tuxes. However, I went to an arts high school, so sometimes people would change it up just to be different. One guy in my class did the girls pose with the fur, and the yearbook committee agreed to publish it! That was one of our favorite photos of the year. He went on to become a famous extreme sports athlete.
We had a “drape” but no fur or boa. This was in Anchorage, Alaska in the 80s.
1993 here, from northern California. Oddly enough, my mom’s high school graduation photo — and my aunts’ as well — were in white fake fur stoles. (Mom graduated in ’68.) Our yearbook people actually worked with the school so we didn’t have to do something uniform. Instead, we all had to go to this creepy photographer dude’s house for our shots. My friend Amy purposely wore a tube top so it looked like she was naked in the photo. The school made her retake it. Ah, good times! Man I’m glad high school was over 20 years ago.
For me, in ’79 in Florida, a drape (not fur). For my daughter, in ’13 in Maryland, a drape (not fur).
Ohhh I am so jealous. That is just ripe for comedy and I feel like my school jipped us by making us wear some black drapey-thing. But Pennsylvania is lame, people used to laugh when I’d wear my fake fur hat with the earflaps in winter
I’m from Minnesota and have never seen the fur stole thing. However, have seen something similar: the black drape. Fur stoles and gymnasium photos must be a Texas thing. Everyone here stands by a tree or rock or creek now. Nicer, but it makes me think of JCPENNEY Portait Studio.
I’m a little older…(an 80’s girl…) and no fur was involved in our graduation pictures. However–my best friend and I went to this photographer for our senior pictures, who then tried to persuade us to come back later to pose nude for him…yeah, good times….(for the record, we didn’t…)
I grew up in Texas and we used a communal feather boa-like drape. However, I am MUCH older than you so the photographer didn’t take color photos – he took black and white and afterwards did that weird color tinting thing that you’ve probably seen in old professional portraits. I had to fill out a form to say what color my hair and eyes were, pick the color I wanted the feather stole to be tinted, and describe the color of the jewelry I had on. I decided to be honest about my brown eyes and hair (although I toyed with the idea of claiming green eyes and auburn hair), but I had them make my cheap blue stone necklace look like diamonds.
I just finished the galley version of you book. and It is totally awesome. People are going to love it. As a librarian I feel lucky to have gotten this sneak peak. Thanks!!!!
PS Your tour will not be complete unless you come to Kansas City. So when you get done with the tour and you have a nagging feeling that it’s still not over you will know why. I am sure Rainy Day Books would sponsor you and could talk at Unity Temple again.
Fading bra lines? I had no idea.
Mid-70’s GA. Black velveteen drape, no fur, feathers, etc. We were told to wear something with buttons or v-neck so it pull off the shoulder under the drape. Worst. Pictures. Ever.
Graduated 1994 – no fur. Just the drape that was supposed to look like a black gown. My daughters graduated last year and the year before and had the same exact pictures as me (minus the enormous hair.)
Fur stole for senior photos?!! Never heard of such a thing. That is just plain weird. An annual college sorority photo where we all wore a blue drape-thingy and the same set of pearls is not weird though.
Really jealous of the fur. In “who needs a house out in Hackensack”, NJ, we wore our regular clothes for the yearbook, (I for some reason am wearing a cowboy type shirt? The style in Jersey in the early 80s?). We got a cap and gown photo for our parents to proudly display on (insert-piano, mantle, dresser) at an additional charge!
We had a crushed velvet shawl thing. But I don’t remember a special tube top. Maybe I blocked it out. 😉
1973, velvet stoles. We could choose the color but it made no difference because all the photos in the yearbook were sepia toned.
Class of 1992 in Texas. We didn’t have a fur. We did one pose where we dressed up in our “nice” clothes and one where we wore a cap and gown in the school color. The second set of photos was used for the yearbook. But I was in middle of the big city. My future cousin-in-law in the suburbs was totally in a stole. He photo looked a lot like yours. I think it just depended on what the photography studio was offering.
I’ve never seen fur. We had mock graduation gown tops and casual. Maybe the difference between early 90’s versus late 90’s?
I was in an angora sweater on a hot August day in 1981, outside in a nearby park. My mother, on the other hand, graduated in 1951 down in Illinois and was “draped” in some black crepe, off the shoulder. I would not have liked it but she looked freaking awesome, as do you.
You are fucking kidding me, thank you so much. Fur stoles for grad pictures are a first for me.
So, I graduated high school 10 years ago, and we had the crushed velvet version. This was after we all went to a portrait studio over the summer to have a simple picture taken for the yearbook, wearing our own clothes. The same photographer took our homecoming pictures, then very mysteriously left town suddenly. Never got our homecoming pictures, never got the yearbook ones. So they took our pictures in the school hallway, between the gym and locker rooms, wearing those ridiculous tops, of which they only had one size of each, S, M, L, for 50 girls to share and only 30 minutes- that was an experience.
We all looked pretty terrible, but all the girls who had fake tans looked like they were covered on Cheetos dust. Coincidentally, I didn’t really like any of those girls, so I found that part hilarious. And our school has all past senior pictures on display. My class was the only ones with those tops and the construction-cone-colored skin, so we are terrifyingly easy to spot from far away. Another reason to avoid my high school…
In 1987, our photos featured drapes just like those, but not of fur. They were velvet, and were the same as the velvet off-the-shoulder drapes our high school girls had worn since before my mother had graduated from the same school in the 1960’s. So to me, I think it’s weird that graduation photos are done in jeans and T-shirts with their dog and gun and maybe a 4H goat.
I know that I did not wear a fur stole, and I did not have big hair back in 1981. We wore crushed velvet and had a choice of blue, green or burgundy. I chose the burgundy. Pretty sure I wore my bra. Here it is: Jenny Lawson in fur Texas-style vs. Kitt O’Malley in crushed velvet Manhattan Beach-style. Who’s more glamorous? Jenny, no doubt. Still, it’s on.
For our Senior pictures they gave us vouchers for a series of photos at Olan Mills and we wore whatever we wanted (something nice for girls, suits for boys). I wore a black cowl-neck (hey, it was the early 80’s), and my hairstyle is actually pretty much exactly the same as it is now (parted on the side, Mike-Nesmith-wave of bangs, not-quite-pageboy). And I believe I’m actually older than you, youngster. I chose the slightly relaxed, tilted-head glamour shot for the yearbook, and Mom kept the one with me smiling like an idiot because she “loved my beautiful smile!”
Not only yours. In mine, I have black cloth draped around me and a fake rose lying on my shoulder. WHY.
Not fake fur, but it was a black cloth drape in that style. We also did pix in normal clothes, but it was the draped pix that went in the yearbook.
OMG! I can’t believe Texas! They’re still doing the same thing since I graduated from Rider High in Wichita Falls, TX in…..1965?! Lawdy, lawdy lawdy.
When I graduated in the mid-80s, we had to dress “semi-formal” (guys in suits/ties or sweaters/ties; gals in dresses or nice blouses) and shlep across town to the photography studios where they had us sit on a really uncomfortable stool with our head at a neck-breakingly unnatural angle. Basically, we all ended up looking stoned (even the ones of us who weren’t actually stoned during the shoot, which wasn’t very many).
The school where I teach now has the guys in nice (whatever the hell that means) clothes and “young ladies” have to wear the communal black off-the-shoulder cowl thingie — one size DOESN’T fit all. I yearn to see the boys in feather boas or fake-fur stoles!
No fur, but we had this black drapey thing. No shoulder exposed though it was catholic school. I always thought it looked strange. However, like you I had nice big curly 1990’s Jersey hair. I found a stack of wallet size photos from sr pictures a while back. I kept hiding them in my husband’s wallet, nightstand, drawers. He finally told me to stop because it was likely creepy he had pictures of a teenage girl in his underwear drawer. That made me laugh for weeks.
Ours were taken the summer before graduation so we were all overly tanned/sunburnt and their over photoshopping of us couldn’t hide it. As others have said, the girls had a piece of cloth that vaguely looked like the top of a dress while the guys had a tuxedo bib. Those were the required photos, you could sign up for just about any other ‘traditional’ photo sets you might want, but you had to pay out of pocket just for those shots.
High-5 on the big hair and faux fur. I graduated in Arkansas in ’92. The height of fashion!
Not in Arizona. Maybe it’s a Texas thing?
Surely you could have ditched the “community fur” (gag) and been all – Can I drape a bear over me? Or a mountain lion? Or a fucking cougar? Because you had your dad as a hook-up.
Go big or go home type thing. You would have had the most awesome picture. You may even have been able to peer out from the taxidermied (made up word?) mouth of the animal of your choice. Hell, You wore a deer once, this should’ve been cake compared to that. *Note: this doesn’t take into account any therapy which would’ve been required later to over come the picture.
But, I wish I could’ve had my senior picture looking out the mouth of a velociraptor or something.
Wow. Leftovers from your dad’s taxidermy business?
North Carolina, 1978. We could wear our own “dress up” clothes. So my mom sewed me a sad little white ruffled floor length dress, apparently not understanding the “waist up” concept. We had our choice of several fake-o backgrounds: beach sunset, dappled woods, garden, etc. Because standing in front of shiny 2-D trees looked so natural. “Oh! You caught me just as I was traipsing off to grandma’s house with my basket.” Also, many if us appeared to be looking off in the distance — with a slightly puzzled expression — at Mrs. Trahan in the corner, with her fingers pulling the corners of her mouth up in a grisly grin that I guess was supposed to be encouraging. Like a parent with a toddler. “Sparkle, Cindy!”
We could wear what we wanted in ’82, but the styles at the time were giant cowl neck sweaters that made you look like you had no neck, with a necklace dangling off it. And the big hair, I wear glasses, and glasses back then were ginormous, of course no one wore their glasses in Senior Pictures.
The fur stole or satin stole (which was what I’ve seen more of) seems to be a Texas thing. I grew up in Idaho and we just get nice pictures done for senior portraits and pick one to get put in the yearbook. They aren’t done by the school like regular school pictures. I went to a TX University, though, and all my friends from TX had senior pics similar to yours (no fur, but it looked like they all had on the same off the shoulder black satin dress). That was almost 15 years ago now, but it was still a thing in Texas then at least.
We took those same stole-draped photos for our Fraternity portraits in college, but ours were satin instead of fur. Our senior portraits were done by one local photographer who had managed to corner the market–we were literally required to get our pictures taken my him. Lots of holding things like instruments and sports implements in front of ladders draped in letter jackets and laying on mirrored floors surrounded by Murray High School swag. Not really any less weird.
I wonder was your face cramping as I sure did when I was taking my graduation photos.
I went to a private school in NYC and we all had to wear our graduating gowns. This was back in ’73 and we all had shag haircuts. My daughter graduated high school in ’98 she attended in a suburb west of Boston, MA. Girls wore white gowns, boy’s had black. So it was pretty much the same for her as for me in two different states.
Say NO to perms!! T:)
I graduated in 1984. For the yearbook, the senior girls wore satin-graduation gowns with the v-neck pushed off our shoulders (these were communal and the female assistant helped us take our shirts off behind a screen and then pushed our bra staps down to be hidden by the gown) and the senior guys wore just the graduation gown but they had to wear a collared shirt and tie (their own shirts and ties). And yes the collared shirt had to be explained that it did not mean t-shirts. The communial gown thing and the unknown woman touching me just about sent me out of my damn mind. And then the photographer getting snippy because I wouldn’t smile all big teeth because I had braces on my teeth. I had just gotten them two weeks before.
Just a few weeks before we graduated, we had the hold the communal cap-with- graduation-year-tassel-over-your-hand and communal gown pictures. They pulled a few from the lines who were not going to be graduating. No graduating-no photo.
Junior photos in the yearbook had guys and girls wearing button down shirts, either light blue or white. Our school colors were Crimson, light blue and white.
A rural Virginia high school on the hottest day of August, 1984 was a sea of black drapes (velvet, I believe) and big hair. I was in a panic because my hair was not cooperating and it was Not Big Enough. The photographer had come to the high school and set up shop in the French classroom which was nearest the bathrooms. He had several drapes for the ladies and several black tux jackets/white shirts/black tie sets for the guys to keep things moving. We didn’t take our bras off, but instead pulled the straps down. The drape/tux photos became your yearbook photo, no choice there. We also took photos in one additional outfit of our choice (cap & gown pics were in the spring, I think). I was on yearbook staff, and got to help out along with the other yearbook geeks: among the many fabulous jobs that day was ferrying the drapes from one girl to the next, so I got to touch those gross things a million (ok, fine, a hundred) times. And it’s entirely possible that they were the same drapes used in 1955 when my mother graduated from the same high school. In 1955, though, pearls seemed to be a required accessory for every stylish graduating girl, while in 1984 they appear to have been optional.
Mine was just as bad… taken is what was referred to as the “smoking pit”.. a courtyard with some half dead trees and a bench. I would have much rather had the fur.
I loved making homecoming mums. I wish they did those here in New England, I could make SO MUCH MONEY!
I have never heard of this-graduated in KS.
so i think what threw your friend off was the “fur coat” thing, because that’s just either regional and i’m ignorant, or as weird as i’m pretty sure as it is. granted there haven’t been many, but all female in senior school pictures wore fake tops-of-dresses. mine had to be duck-taped on my back, because my bosom heaved too devastatingly for cheap velcro.
if they don’t do this anymore, it’s because people don’t know how to raise their children. but i don’t blame parents. they’re just following the traditions, too, because it’s hard to know what to do. i blame it on….no. too many tedtalks for blaming to be allowed anymore. but like, that’s not gonna stop me from being a hypocrite and doing it anyway.
We didn’t have a communal fur, but we did have a velvet faux-poncho at the photographer HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by the school. Every other year the school portraits for the yearbook were in the library, with you wearing whatever the heck you wanted, but Seniors went to some farm and were told to pretend it was a photobooth, and then strip their torso so they could delight in the one-size-fits-all velvet poncho drapery.
South Carolina. High school class of 2011.
My sister’s graduating class (class of 1990) was the last one from my high school to use the fake fur stoles, I think. Yes, in Texas. Only ours were electric blue.
If I’d had to wear one of those for senior pictures, my mother and I might have been on speaking terms that day. I remember clearly that I was in a TERRIBLE mood (it was raining and I have curly hair that I do not like which will not stay straight when there is any moisture in the air) and I blamed my mom for the weather and my outfit and for pretty much everything else.
I graduated in 1982 and we could choose from the black drape, white furry drape or cap and gown. My oldest is a senior this year and her choices were black drape, white feather-boa drape or cap and gown. The yearbook pic (for both of us) had to be the black drape per school standards
Yep. Mine was a bright, Tardis blue fur. And not only did you have to take off your bra, once you had the dead alien fur on, there were little pockets underneath where you had to put your hands in to cup your boobs.
Fur…?!
In the great white north we wore one of those grad gown things (over our regular clothes) in our pictures. Hat and fake diploma optional.
We wore the grad gown, with the colour chosen for that year (black for me, blue for my sister) with the option of the hat (I wore the hat, my sister didn’t), and the girls held a bouquet of fake roses. I think the guys held a diploma.
Small hair, big humour haha xo
That’s almost identical to mine from Western New York in 1999. Only ours weren’t fur. Just a plain black drape.
It…. was just your school.
For regular senior photos, we were just given a dress code. Had to be slightly dressy, like you were going to a job interview. That’s it. Then we went in later in the year to do cap and gown photos.
Or maybe it was just Texas?
We didn’t have fur, but we had that stiff kind of velvet like some curtains are made of as a drape. Everyone else chose the demure light blue, but rebel that I am, I chose harlot red. It didn’t help matters that I decided to cut my own hair into some quasi punk cut the night before pictures were shot. I ended up with a spiky mullet. It was the 80s; I was new wave edgy..NOT.
I have never heard of this. Ever. I would never have guessed that this practice was the norm anywhere, but especially not in Texas. I mean, if someone had told me that all the girls wore fur stoles for their graduation pictures, it would have been more plausible if it were in an area that had a long tradition in the fur trade, you know, like Quebec. But Texas? TEXAS!?
sigh Our school pics were so BORING in comparison!
We wore feather boas for our graduation pictures in the early 90’s. The whole yearbook looks like burlesque mug shots. So wrong! Everyone had perms and the bigger the bangs, the better. Hilarious to look at now.
I am actually a little jealous of your fur, as weird as that sounds. We had this communal strip of fabric that basically looked the same, but minus the fur, and plus the very real risk of uninvited nipple.
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We had a cloth drape, not fur, but we did the same thing.