History and use

Particular boilersuits or "student overalls" are widely used for specific events at universities

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 and polytechnics

Institute of technology

Institute of technology is a designation employed in a wide range of learning institutions awarding different types of degrees and operating often at variable levels of the educational system...

 in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. Typically, the overalls are procured by the student associations of faculties or programmes. At the major Swedish universities (like Lund

Lund University

Lund University , located in the city of Lund in the province of Scania, Sweden, is one of northern Europe's most prestigious universities and one of Scandinavia's largest institutions for education and research, frequently ranked among the world's top 100 universities...

 or Uppsala

Uppsala University

Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...

) the use of overalls is limited to engineering students, but their use has spread to students in other fields at some of the smaller university colleges. In Finland, overalls have been foremost identified with engineering students, but see extensive use in all of the student organizations of Finnish institutions of higher learning, such as University of Helsinki

University of Helsinki

The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...

 and Aalto University

Aalto University

Aalto University is a Finnish university established on January 1, 2010, by the merger of the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics, and the University of Art and Design Helsinki....

.

These overalls are not only seen in Europe. At McMaster University

McMaster University

McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...

 in Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

, the McMaster Engineering

McMaster Faculty of Engineering

The Faculty of Engineering of McMaster University was established in 1958 and was modeled after some of the leading institutions in the world...

 faculty has had a group of representatives clad in red coveralls known as "redsuits" for decades. At University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 in Toronto, Ontario, the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering has a distinct group of student who wear overalls to demonstrate their school spirit. Numerous people throughout the city and campus recognize students in these coverals as U of T engineers and members of Skule (TM). The University of Waterloo

University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...

 Engineering Students in Waterloo, Ontario

Waterloo, Ontario

Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....

, are also identified by their navy blue coveralls, often decorated with significant patches from various interests and activities the student has accomplished over their time at school.

Student overalls have become one of the most conspicuous academic traditions at some educational institutions, despite its short history. The use of overalls started in the Royal Institute of Technology

Royal Institute of Technology

The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...

 in the late 1970s, and spread quickly around Sweden and Finland. Apparently protective clothing was needed in excursions to companies, which soon led to use at parties as a way to identify students of different fields and organizations. The height of the use of the overall was reached in the late 1990s. Due to quick rise in popularity, most student organizations now offer the students a chance to purchase their own overalls during the freshman year. Since the 1990s, the custom has remained popular although perhaps in slight decline as the overalls are sometimes viewed to signal a lifestyle bordering on alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

 and drunken misbehavior, up to the point where some pubs and clubs even choose to ban the use of overall uniforms.

Design and appearance

Unlike overalls generally, the student overall isn't used for work, but mostly for parties. However, as the overalls are meant to endure years of abuse, the wearer often being under the influence of alcohol, the overalls are made of high quality fabric and usually at least somewhat waterproof. Practical additions such as zippered pockets of various sizes and belt loops are added by the manufacturer, and as a part of the manufacturing process the overalls are usually printed with the particular student organization's logo and ads of the various sponsoring companies, ranging from small local enterprises to national divisions of multinational corporations. Often, the large corporations choose to sponsor the overalls as a part of their recruitment campaign, ensuring that they have the attention of the graduating students when they enter the working life.

The colour of the overalls is usually determined by the faculty or programme, which — the subjects being many and colours few — leads to quite spectacular and even humorous ones such as purple, turquoise or pink. Multicolored variants exist, but typically the overalls are of one color. As it is customary to personalize the overalls, they are almost invariably decorated with various badges, souvenirs and inexpensive gadgets. Occasionally an overall will tell of its owner's interests, political views, personal history and even military experience. The time spent as a student can be seen from the amount of decorations one has added to his overalls, as all students start with blank overalls. There's also a practice of swapping a part of the overall with another person, typically with a partner. Also badges are readily swapped, especially amongst friends who are of different organizations. Rarity of a certain badge can be considered a bonus.

Traditions

Certain traditions relating to the use of overalls exist. Typically, a new student will be given permission to use his overalls during the later half of his first academic year, often after certain amount of "freshman points" have been collected by participating in various social events like parties and contests held by the organizations. During the first academic spring, the various engineering student organizations tend to host events during which the new students are officially taken as a members of their organization. During these events, the students often volunteer to go through a minor rite that often includes diving into a pool, lake or river with their newly issued overalls as a "student baptism". Typically in Finland these events are held around the largest student holiday of May 1st or Vappu, when thousands of students gather outdoors to celebrate. Lesser traditions can dictate that a student should sew his badges onto his overalls by hand, and that the overalls shouldn't be cleaned except either by swimming in the overalls or by hosing it down.

Naming

The overall is known by many names, at most universities in Sweden it 's known simply overall. In Finland Swedish the word for overall is halare, similar to the Finnish word haalari. Users of the student overall in Sweden generally refer to them as ovve, "overall" shortened. Being commonly used by wearers, this term is however not generally recognized by the common man.

External links

• 3m's overallproject