Wearing ex military issue and items

[DCampbell16B]

Not to hijack the thread, but I've had a related question for a while. I have had an old Canadian forces khaki tam for years, which I only picked up because it fit me. If there were a civilian cap badge or nothing on it would it raise eyebrows? It sounds like maybe not, but I'm most likely to run Canadians if I was wearing it.

I also have one of those BW SD. I wore it for awhile until I found out what it was and quit that. I had others.

[piperalpha]

Not to hijack the thread, but I've had a related question for a while. I have had an old Canadian forces khaki tam for years, which I only picked up because it fit me. If there were a civilian cap badge or nothing on it would it raise eyebrows? It sounds like maybe not, but I'm most likely to run Canadians if I was wearing it.

I also have one of those BW SD. I wore it for awhile until I found out what it was and quit that. I had others.

Not hijacking it at all. I've never served so I cannot say whether it's appropriate or not.

[Father Bill]

I’m a priest. I’m not going to be impressed if a layman wears a black shirt with a white square at the collar. Parallel?

[Jock Scot]

There are other aspects to wearing badges, insignia and tartans that one does not have a real individual connection too. To some it matters not, to others, it matters quite a bit. Personally, if one wears a “ MacKarrot” tartan then I would like ———expect actually——- the wearer to have a connection to it. Likewise, those wearing a “ Gin and Tonics” Regimental tartan or badge, then I would like the wearer to have a connection to it. We then get to the grey areas where the justifications are rather more woolly, with distant family connections and sometimes those distant connections to a tartan or badge or whatever are, for me, not justifiable.

We then move on to piper’s attire and pipe band attire , which has a completely different pedigree to civilian kilt attire and then we head into a maze of tartan, badge and uniform justifications that muddy the waters even more. Particularly, particularly for those who do not understand that there are differences, some very small and some glaringly large, between.............I hesitate to use the term but it actually does apply........THCD( Traditional Highland Civilian Dress) and piping attire. And then......

And then, unfortunately, we get the thorny but, absolutely perfectly legitimate.....but not always.... reasoning of those who wear tartans and badges that they have absolutely no connection whatsoever to it. They wear it “ Because they like it”. Fair enough , but for me and others that reasoning is rather too tenuous and shallow to justify wearing tartans and badges that one is not connected to. But hey-ho such is life.

[Troglodyte]

This is a tricky one...

The British Army has never had a problem with civilians wearing ex-army issue clothing, as they have for generations sold off their surplus. The likes of eBay is full of both used and un-issued surplus items, and the range of clothing and footwear available is impressive.

The likes of ex-navy duffle-coats, or army greatcoats, did great service among those civilians (students and sixth-formers particularly, I seem to remember) who valued them in the '60s and '70s, but the glut of ex-cold war era gear swamped supply with very cheap alternatives about 30 years ago.

The difficulty is the insignia (as Jock has implied) that has particular value in regimental terms - both to the regiments now gone, and to the men who served. 'Remove the buttons. You're not serving...' was said more than once to surplus gear wearers who had left on Service buttons, or (even worse) NCO stripes or officers' pips on the epaulettes.

Single items such as a kilt which has had regimental or rank-specific detailing removed is not going to greatly offend anyone - as long as you avoid the 'cosplay' dressing-up look. Army kilts are well-made and durable, and can serve civilian duty well if other military items are left off. The plain leather HB-style sporran might be the tollerated exception.

You are fooling no-one (not even yourself) if you dress up in some kind of military parody, and declare it is 'to honour' the old soldiers. Much better to make a donation to an exserviceman's benevolent fund, than to misappropriate his glory.

Any mixing and matching of military items to make them look 'uniform' will only win you scorn, so the less, the better.

[OC Richard]

You are fooling no-one (not even yourself) if you dress up in some kind of military parody...mixing and matching of military items to make them look 'uniform' will only win you scorn...

Interestingly, there are ex-army members marching in the Pipe Band I mentioned above, as can be seen by the medals some are wearing. These people appear to be untroubled by the quasi-military uniform and the mixing of civilian items with military items from various regiments past and present.

This band marches in a March Past including actual military Pipes & Drums and are reviewed by Royals every year.

I would think if Royals or serving military men took umbrage something would have been done about it decades ago.

Of course it's one thing to be a member of a Pipe Band and be seen wearing the kit that band issues its members, and another thing to show up at a Games and walk around wearing a mix of military and civilian items that you yourself have cobbled together.

Even here in the USA it's going to look like what it is, to anyone familiar with Highland Dress.

[Father Bill]

So here’s a specific: I see black-cock feathers on civilian dress from time to time. Do they not have a military meaning of some sort?