Flashes question

[cavscout]

Marine Corps Service Uniforms incorporate Black with Brown (Olive)



Sharp, when done right.

[MacWage]

Marine Corps Service Uniforms incorporate Black with Brown (Olive)



Sharp, when done right.

EXACTLY!!!

When done RIGHT!

If not, it looks mis-matched. There needs to be a SPECIFIC rhyme and reason, so there is coordination. Otherwise, it looks like someone either doesn't know better or can't see. Ex-> brown shoes with an otherwise black suit.

Done well-> a black wool fedora with a brown leather band.

[Nanook]

Marine Corps Service Uniforms incorporate Black with Brown (Olive)



Sharp, when done right.

The uniforms are not brown but olive green which is a green and not a brown tone. They are also called, if I'm not mistaken, "Greens". Green, even olive, and black can go together. That is, however, not the urban, dress or ceremonial uniform. The "service uniform" is day wear where also brown shoes can be worn. That's also why the tone of such working uniforms has in the last 100+ years been selected from among earthy colours ranging from olive green to khaki.

The Marine Corp dress uniforms are blue.

Dress uniforms tend to use clean whites, crimsons, blues and yellows but rarely (I'm trying to think of one but can't) browns. Clothing with the colours of dirt and excrement might have some practical advantage in battlefields but hardly convey the semantics of a noble or well mannered gentleman. Brown shoes are fine (and I own quite a few pairs) but only in their context.

The only modern brown uniforms that come to mind are the brown shirts of fascists. They were (are) neither well mannered nor gentlemen. They were historically paramilitary formations and the clothing was for battle and to spit in the face of civil manners.

Etiquette is, of course, a strange beast. Even among formal occasions there is much more than just "Prince Charlie". Morning affairs or even formal tea calls for quite a different attire (and not day wear) from evening (where there are loads of sub-categories among black and white tie events). And even day wear is not always just day wear...