My company ventured into military surplus in the 1970’s, when original sailor shirts, sailor pants and pea coats were just starting to become trendy. While my father and aunt were definitely ahead of the curve then, it wasn’t the first time that sailors uniforms influenced fashion.
So how did this all start? Turns out, in 1846, Queen Victoria dressed four-year-old Prince Albert in a sailor suit aboard the Royal Yacht in 1846, setting off a new trend among British children. By the beginning of the 20th century, women wore sailor dresses and sailor stripes were used in menswear design. Of course, no one popularized nautical fashion more than Coco Chanel, who set off a storm with her Breton shirt in 1917. One hundred years later, this simple navy and white vertical striped shirt is still popular.
Sailors in the Dutch and British navies wore pea coats more than 200 years ago. It is hard to find an original navy peacoat these days but the police reefer coat is a dead-ringer except we use gold buttons and it has the traditional police insignia. To this day, we still make this coat as part of the Class A police dress uniform. Over the years, I have had many a retired police officer ask us to remove the insignia and change the buttons back to black so they could use the coat for civilian life.
Another super popular item is bell bottoms pants. These originated with the US Navy as well. Sailors liked pants with a flaired, “bell” shaped pant leg because they were easy to roll up when they worked on deck. By the middle of the 19th century, the British Navy adopted bell-bottom pants for some of their uniforms. In the 30’s, sailor pants, sometimes paired with nautically themed tops, were en vogue among the rich and famous. Bell-bottom jeans exploded in the 60’s and stayed pretty trendy through the 70’s. Even though skinny jeans have been the thing for the last ten years, bell-bottoms have maintained their presence for the fashion conscious as retro chic.
One reason why nautical fashion has lasted over the years is because it is comfortable and pragmatic. Some of the classic nautical looks, such as children’s sailor suits and peacoats have never gone away. Sailor pants, shirts and dresses made a huge splash in 20’s, 30’s and 40’s but they keep coming back with new generations of designers creating their own renditions. Fashion is constantly borrowing from the past but it is pretty remarkable how the nautically influenced fashion has endured over time. There is something to be said for comfort meeting style.
