Student overall

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Student overall from Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sweden (1998)

Particular boilersuits or "student overalls" are widely used at universities and polytechnics in Sweden and Finland. Typically, the overalls are procured by the student associations of faculties or programmes. At the major Swedish universities (like Lund or Uppsala) 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 are first and foremost identified with engineers but see extensive use in many institutions of higher learning, such as University of Helsinki and Helsinki University of Technology.

These overalls are not only seen in Europe. At McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, the McMaster Engineering faculty has had a group of representatives clad in red coveralls known as "redsuits" for decades. Likewise, Ottawa, Ontario's Carleton University has representatives in dark blue Air Force style flightsuits, aptly named the "flightsuits".

The colour of the overall is usually determined by the faculty or programme, and, the subjects being many and colours few, lead to quite spectacular ones such as purple, turquoise or pink. Student overalls have become one of the most conspicuous academic traditions at some educational institutions, despite its short history. Their use started in Swedish universities of technology in the late 1970's and spread quickly to Finland. The height of the use of the overall was reached in the late 1990's. Since then, the custom has been popular although perhaps in slight decline as the overalls are sometimes viewed to signal a lifestyle bordering on alcoholism.

Unlike overalls generally, the student overall isn't used only for work but also for parties. They are almost invariably decorated with badges and souvenirs. Occasionally an overall will tell of its owner's interests, political views, personal history and even military experience. There's also a practice of swapping a part of the overall with another person.