7 minute read
Trench Coats and Top Gun
BY DR HARRIETTE RICHARDS
In October 2023, the Shrine will launch a special exhibition that uncovers the connections between modern fashion and military garments from times gone by.
Military garments have long influenced fashion, both on the catwalk and the high street. The politicised clothing of war, especially the uniforms worn by combatants, have fascinated designers and consumers alike.
Australian fashion scholar Jennifer Craik writes in the introduction to the 2014 book Fashion and War in Popular Culture, that military uniforms ‘offer fashion qualities
of spectacle, order, repetition and carefully contrived lines and silhouettes which evoking images of discipline, civility and heroism’.
Military garments and uniforms remind us of violent histories of colonialism and imperialism. Yet, appropriated by fashion, these garments also tell stories about globalisation and the movement of people and culture around the world.
The fact that these items have become iconic cultural signifiers alerts us to the significance of war and military conflict, not only as events of catastrophic social consequence but also of lasting cultural influence.
Aviator Sunglasses
Designed in the early twentieth century to combat issues of visibility when flying at high altitudes, Aviator style sunglasses—built with a thin metal frame, recognisable double bridge, and teardrop-shaped lens—first went on sale to the public as Ray-Ban Aviators in the late 1930s. It was during the Second World War that their popularity spread, especially among pilots in the US military, who wore the style both in the air and on the ground. Following the war, Aviators remained a stalwart of military garb. They were also gradually adopted by celebrities, from Elvis Presley and Freddie Mercury to Gloria Steinem and Bianca Jagger.
Adjusting his black beret and wearing Ray Ban sun glasses, is crew commander, 39113 Corporal Ian Donald Mathieson, A Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, Royal Australian Armoured Corps, (RAAC).
Reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (P07256.023)
Perhaps the most iconic portrayal of Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses in popular culture is the 1986 film Top Gun, in which Tom Cruise plays the enviably cool US Navy hero Lt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell. The inclusion of these sunglasses in the film catapulted demand for the style, with sales of Aviators reportedly increasing by almost 40 per cent in the seven months following the release of the film. Cruise’s 2022 reprisal of the role in Maverick: Top Gun has once again spurred sales of the style, with sunglasses retailers reporting that the RB3025 Aviator Classic is one of the top sellers of the 2022 summer.
Trench coats
The evolution of the trench coat begins as far back as the early 1820s, when rubberised cotton was first used in outerwear. Named after their inventor Charles Mackintosh, these ‘macks’ were effective in keeping the rain out, however, they also kept the sweat in. Thus, textile manufacturers continued to experiment with alternative waterproofing solutions.
In 1856, Thomas Burberry opened his eponymous menswear business, where he sold his innovative gabardine twill coats in muted tones, which quickly gained popularity with upper classes and adventurers. This new textile was also uniquely suited to changing military tactics, especially during the Crimean War of the 1850s when the bright colours previously used to distinguish troops were replaced with khaki uniforms that protected soldiers by allowing them to better blend into the landscape. The trench coat itself was invented in response to the wet and muddy trenches of the First World War and, as British fashion scholar Jane Tynan puts it in the 2012 book War and the Body: Militarism, practice and experience, ‘official concern for the soldier exposed to forbidding weather’.
Three Australian Army men fire 18 pound field gun at Port Stephens c 1938
Photographer G Short. Reproduced courtesy of the Stat Library Library Victoria (H98.105/3895)
The trench coat is a practical garment, but it is also stylish, flattering, and cool. The garment, and its association with high-ranking military officers, soon assumed a glamour that increased its popularity with civilians. This was further exacerbated by Hollywood, whereby actors such as Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn donned the garment in films including Casablanca (1942) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). Today, Burberry trench coats are symbolic of class status, associated with fashion pedigree as much as, if not more than, military history.
Bomber jackets
During the First World War, US military pilots were issued with flight jackets created by the US Army Aviation Clothing Board to keep them warm whilst flying in the open-air cockpits of early fighter planes. Following the development of closed cockpit jets, the US Army Type A-1 jacket, featuring neat knit waistband and cuffs, was introduced. Later versions of the functional leather jacket—including a zip rather than button fastening and featuring a fur collar—were worn by US military pilots in the Second World War. Like with trench coats and Aviator sunglasses, the association with military uniform imbued the so-called ‘bomber jacket’ with allure. The wearing of the garment by Hollywood-style icons such as Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) solidified its popularity as a fashion item.
Flight Sergeant R. C. Dunstan, 9 September 1943
Photographer unknown. Reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (UK0489)
Later, a version of the bomber jacket fabricated in coloured silk became popular with American soldiers during the military occupation of Japan after the Second World War. These embroidered souvenir jackets or sukajan, fashion historian Elizabeth Kramer writes, went on to be ‘worn as an act of defiance by members of subcultures both inside and outside Japan, developing connotations of rebellion’. Drawing on these associations with military history and rebellion, one of the most recent cinematic representations of the garment was in the film Drive (2011), in which Ryan Gosling wears a striking white satin jacket embroidered on the back with a large yellow scorpion.
Combat boots
The earliest iteration of the footwear we now think of as combat boots are perhaps caligae, hobnailed open-weave leather sandal boots worn by low-ranking Roman foot soldiers and cavalry. Much later, this hobnailed footwear evolved into a covered leather boot, with nails inserted into the sole and, often, a steel cap on the toe. During the First World War, US Army personnel were issued with trench or ‘Pershing’ boots designed for the wear in the cold, muddy trenches of Europe. The British Army used similar nail-studded boots, known as ‘Ammunition’ boots, until the late 1950s.
Private Steve Kyritsis and fellow members of B Company, 3RAR.
Reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (CRO/68/0244/VN)
While heavy-soled, lace-up leather boots had long been a mainstay of military attire, they only became an item of fashion and civilian wear in the 1960s and 1970s, thanks in large part to the rising popularity of Dr. Martens boots, which were first introduced in Britain in 1960. The boots became a defining feature of British punk aesthetics and spread, during the 1980s, to the US via bands such as the Sex Pistols. In the 1990s, heavy black combat-style boots became central to the grunge scene and adopted by designers such as Perry Ellis. Combat boots, which have now become more synonymous with countercultural movements than with their military origins, remain a fashion favourite, revisited frequently by both high and fast fashion brands.
