The Camp of Gameday Fashion

America has many pastimes. Although baseball and golf are uniquely American sports, nothing is as popular in the U.S. as football. A combination of soccer and rugby, the first ever college football game occurred on November 6, 1869, between Rutgers University and Princeton University. Ever since this day in American history, the sport has become a mainstay in American culture, with autumn television being flooded with football game after football game. And, just like any other form of entertainment, audiences would flock to games just to get to watch their favorite teams play their favorite game. However, the way that crowds interact with football has changed dramatically since its inception in the late 19th century. Where people used to view football like any other performance, now people treat it as an opportunity to dress to the nines. From Shein to Chanel, people from all walks of life dress in costume-like outfits to watch the game, or even just to tailgate. Football games are a spectacle, and fashion is one of the many ways that fans express their school spirit.

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Gameday fashion is the outlandish outfits worn by both students and fans of a specific school to their football games. It is mostly women who partake in this tradition, but men also have their fair share of gameday outfits, such as wearing striped overalls or painting their naked torsos in their school colors. Women’s game day outfits largely vary based on the school they go to, with SEC schools typically seeing the most put together outfits of any school. But, has gameday fashion always been this spectacular?

In the early history of the game, crowds would treat games like a formal event. They would dress in suits and long skirts, with the occasional team scarf or sweater. This would go on into the early 1970s. Although skirts and dresses had gotten shorter, the formality was still present. The late 70s and into the 1980s saw a shift in how people would dress for games. Of course you still had men in suits and women in dresses, but some women opted to wear pantsuits of the team colors. And, even more drastically different, with the rise of jeans as a closet staple, men and women alike would wear denim and T-shirts or sweaters to games. But, some still treated it as a formal event, with members of Greek life wearing dress pants, ties, and sundresses, or the occasional pantsuit. This culture of dressing in a specific way for football games still exists, but in a different form.

Traditionally, SEC schools have the most extravagant gameday outfits, with schools like University of Georgia being a large proponent of this trend. In 2016, Racked wrote an article entitled “Why SEC Fans Dress to the Nines for Football Games” in which they discussed the prevalence of gameday boutiques. Gameday boutiques are clothes curated to the specific styles and colors of the college the consumers attend. A walk through Clemson University’s downtown will expose you to many stores with mannequins decked out in almost exclusively purple and orange during football season, but why does this phenomenon exist?

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At an App State home game, a gold and black striped pair of overalls can be found on most male students while many of the women dress in a mix of sundress, denim shorts, and App State colored tops or a Mountaineer jersey. Cowboy hats are commonly worn, but so are ribbons in one's hair and tied to a pair of western-style boots.

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The main reason for extravagant gameday dressing can be tied to the rise of social media. Taking Instagram pictures at a tailgate or even the game itself is a pre-game ritual in itself. Showing off the outfit you have come up with to wear the game is expected to happen. It is an accomplishment to have a unique and extravagant gameday outfit that you want to show off. Football isn’t about the game for a lot of people, but about the tailgate and what is worn to the tailgate.

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Dressing in costume-like clothing for college football games is a rite of passage for college students and has been for many years. So get those ribbons, western boots, and chunky necklaces ready because gameday fashion is in full swing here at App State.