Today, on Veterans Day, we take a moment to honor those who have served in the United States Armed Forces. The service and sacrifice of veterans and their families is something no civilian life can quite repay. For us at Samuel Baron Clothiers, this day is also an occasion to reflect on something that most men wearing tailored clothing never think about. A remarkable amount of what sits in a modern menswear wardrobe traces its origins to a military uniform.
The trench coat. The pea coat. The chino. The field jacket. The duffle coat. The Eisenhower jacket. Even the small details inside a civilian suit, the shoulder construction, the storm flap, the lapel roll, the vent at the back of the jacket, carry the fingerprints of garments originally designed for soldiers. The history of modern tailoring and the history of military uniforms are not two separate stories. They are the same story, with civilian life inheriting across the generations what was first developed for service.
This piece is a brief look at that heritage, offered with gratitude to the service members whose uniforms shaped so much of how we dress today.
The Garments That Came From the Battlefield
Several of the most familiar garments in a modern man's wardrobe are, in a direct and traceable way, descendants of military uniforms. Understanding their origins is a quiet way of noticing something that is otherwise invisible.
The Trench Coat
The trench coat is the most literal of these connections. Developed during the First World War for British officers serving in the trenches of Western Europe, the coat was engineered specifically for the conditions. The water-repellent gabardine cloth. The double-breasted front for extra warmth. The epaulets at the shoulder for attaching rank insignia and holding gloves. The storm flap at the right chest to shed rain from the shoulder. The belt. The D-rings at the waist, originally for attaching equipment like map cases, grenades, or a sword. Even the gun flap at the right shoulder, originally designed to prevent the recoil of a rifle from catching on the coat.
Every detail on a modern trench coat is a feature of a soldier's uniform, carried forward across more than a century of civilian wear. The men who first wore these coats were walking through the worst conditions imaginable. The coats they left behind, in both the trenches and the quartermaster's stores, became the foundation of a garment that civilians have been wearing ever since.
The Pea Coat
The pea coat traces to naval uniforms, specifically those of European and American sailors from the eighteenth century onward. The name itself may come from the Dutch pije, a coarse heavy cloth used in sailors' coats. The classic pea coat features a double-breasted front, large navy anchor buttons, broad lapels that can be turned up against the cold, and a length that falls just below the hip. These features were practical for men working on open decks in cold weather, and they have carried into civilian wear virtually unchanged.
The United States Navy issued pea coats as standard-issue outerwear for enlisted sailors throughout the twentieth century. Many of the pea coats worn by civilians through the second half of the twentieth century were surplus from Navy service. The coat on your rack today is a direct descendant of a garment designed for a sailor on watch in the North Atlantic.
The Field Jacket
The field jacket is a category of military outerwear that has produced some of the most influential casual garments in modern menswear. The American M-1943 field jacket, developed during the Second World War for ground troops, established the template. A hip-length jacket in cotton or cotton-nylon blend, with four large patch pockets, a drawstring waist, and a collar that could be closed against the weather.
The successor, the M-65 field jacket introduced during the Vietnam era, extended the design and became one of the most instantly recognizable garments of twentieth-century American life. The classical olive drab color. The epaulets. The concealed hood in the collar. The internal lining options for different climates. Civilians have been wearing these jackets, surplus and reissued, ever since.
The Bomber Jacket and the Flight Jacket
The bomber jacket in all its forms, from the A-2 of the Second World War through the MA-1 of the Cold War era, originated as flight jackets for pilots and air crew. The specific features that define the category, the ribbed cuffs and waistband, the knitted collar, the length cropped at the waist, were engineered for the specific demands of a cockpit. Short enough to not catch on controls. Insulated enough to handle unheated bomber compartments at altitude. Fitted enough to not interfere with equipment and parachute straps.
These jackets left military service and became part of civilian wardrobes almost immediately. By the 1950s, the leather A-2 was already an icon of American style. By the 1990s, the nylon MA-1 had become one of the signature pieces of contemporary casual dressing.
The Chino
The chino trouser is one of the quietest military inheritances in a modern wardrobe. The specific cotton twill cloth, in the tan or khaki color that gives the trouser its name, originated in British military uniforms in India in the mid-nineteenth century. The word khaki itself is Hindi, derived from the Urdu word for dust or dust-colored.
American soldiers in the Spanish-American War adopted the same cloth and color scheme, and over the twentieth century, the chino moved from military service to civilian daily wear. The trouser that defines American casual tailoring, worn with sport coats, with knitwear, with white shirts, with boots and loafers, carries its name and its color from a colonial military uniform of nearly two centuries ago.
The Duffle Coat
The duffle coat, with its distinctive wooden toggle fastenings and its heavy wool construction, was a British Royal Navy issue garment during the Second World War. The toggles were designed to be easily fastened with gloves on. The hood was large enough to be worn over a naval officer's cap. The heavy wool was warm enough for the North Atlantic. After the war, surplus duffle coats flooded the civilian market, and the garment became one of the signatures of British civilian dressing in the postwar decades. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery wore one so often that the garment was briefly called the Monty.
The Smaller Details
Beyond the specific garments, dozens of smaller details in modern tailoring carry military origins. Noticing them is a way of appreciating the depth of the connection.
Epaulets
The shoulder straps on a trench coat, a field jacket, or a safari-style jacket are called epaulets. They originated as marks of rank for military officers, with specific designs indicating position and service. Today they persist as a design feature even in civilian coats where there is no rank to display.
Vents
The vents on a jacket, which we have written about elsewhere, originated as a feature of English riding coats worn by cavalry officers. The split in the back of the jacket allowed the coat to drape cleanly on either side of a horse. The feature carried into civilian tailoring and remains with us today, long after most of us have ceased riding.
D-Rings and Hardware
The D-rings on a trench coat belt, the metal buckles on a field jacket, and the brass or horn buttons on a pea coat all originated as practical military hardware. They have survived into civilian wear as design features, carrying the character of the military garments they came from even when the specific functions have faded.
The Officer's Drape and Military Tailors
The soft, slightly draped cut favored by English tailors like Anderson and Sheppard, which has shaped the Italian tradition and the current moment in tailoring, has its roots in the tailoring of English military officers' uniforms. The specific allowance of room through the chest, the slight suppression at the waist, the way the garment accommodates movement, were all developed to serve officers whose uniforms needed to look correct while allowing them to perform their duties.
Several of the most storied houses on Savile Row have long served the British military and still do. Gieves and Hawkes, Dege and Skinner, Henry Poole, and others have tailored uniforms for officers across generations. The civilian tailoring they produce today is informed by that heritage, and the standards they bring to a bespoke business suit are the same standards they bring to a dress uniform.
Why the Heritage Still Matters
For civilians building bespoke wardrobes, the military heritage of modern menswear is more than a historical curiosity. It is a reminder that the garments we take for granted were designed for serious use. The trench coat was engineered to perform in combat. The chino was built for military service. The field jacket was intended for soldiers in the field. These are serious garments with serious origins, and that seriousness still shows up in how they are made and how they wear.
For clients who appreciate the depth of the tradition, knowing where these garments came from adds a dimension to the wardrobe that pure fashion cannot provide. The pea coat you own was designed for sailors on watch. The trench coat you wear in the rain was engineered for officers in the trenches of France. The chino trouser is named for the dust of a colonial military post. These connections do not announce themselves, but they are there, running beneath every well-made garment in the tradition.
A Note of Gratitude
On this Veterans Day, we at Samuel Baron Clothiers extend our deepest gratitude to all who have served in the United States Armed Forces, and to the families who have supported them. The sacrifices made in service are something no essay about clothing can adequately honor. But the clothes themselves, in a small and quiet way, carry the memory of that service forward across the generations.
When we commission a bespoke overcoat today, or when a client zips up a field jacket to walk the dog, or when a sailor's grandson pulls on a pea coat for the first cold evening of November, the connection is there. The traditions of service live on in the clothes we wear. For that, and for the men and women who created them, we are grateful.
Samuel Baron Clothiers is a bespoke men's clothier located at 201 South Highland Avenue in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, PA. Appointments are required. Call (412) 441-1144 or visit samuelbaronclothiers.com to book.
