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Gown
Full-length woman's garment / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Gown (disambiguation).
A gown, from the Saxon word, gunna,[1] is a usually loose outer garment from knee-to-full-length worn by people of both sexes in Europe from the Early Middle Ages to the 17th century, and continuing today in certain professions; later, the term gown was applied to any full-length woman's garment consisting of a bodice and an attached skirt. A long, loosely fitted gown called a Banyan was worn by men in the 18th century as an informal coat.
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The gowns worn today by academics, judges, and some clergy derive directly from the everyday garments worn by their medieval predecessors, formalised into a uniform in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.