Crimson & Burgundy & Navy

Burgundy and Navy are two different darks from opposite sides of the color wheel — Burgundy is the darkest warm (near-black red), Navy is the darkest cool (near-black blue). Together they create a palette of extreme formal depth, with Crimson as the single vivid element that emerges between two depths of institutional darkness. The palette reads as the most formally serious of all red-and-blue combinations: not the patriotic vigor of bright red-and-blue, but the deep gravitas of two aged institutions (the wine tradition and the naval tradition) meeting across the vivid energy of Crimson.

The palette is the visual world of the Oxford University academic dress tradition (Oxford founded c. 1096-1167) — the oldest English-speaking university in the world, and the institution whose academic dress tradition most directly influenced all subsequent academic dress in the English-speaking world. Oxford University's academic gown (subfusc) uses the deep black-and-dark combination as its primary formal register, but the University's ceremonial occasions use the specific combination of deep burgundy-red (the Chancellor's gown at Encaenia, the University's main ceremonial occasion, and the distinctive deep-red trim of the most senior Oxford academic dress), crimson (the vivid ceremonial element in the most prestigious academic occasions), and deep navy (the formal dark blue of specific Oxford faculty robes). The Oxford palette of deep formal dark combining the warmest and coolest institutional darks with vivid ceremonial crimson is the origin of the entire English-language academic dress tradition.