1875 dress code (Consolidated Army)

The 1875 dress code (廿又亖年灋服, nis-gip-plis-ning-pap-pek; lit. "conforming attire of the 24th year") was a dress code published for members of the Hundred Companies in 1875, that is, the 24th year of Emperor Ngars's reign.

History

Themiclesia's small army was adjudged insufficient to defend against a possible Camian incursion in 1867 – 68 over the Meh Sea, causing the Government led by the Baron of Na-qrum to sue for peace well before any actual hostility began. Sensing public discontent, the following administration under the Earl of Sngraq pledged to raise 100 companies of soldiers, 60 infantry and 40 cavalry (later changed to 80 and 20, respectively), to ameliorate the unsatisfactory state of national defence. It then came to the government to decide what the new units would wear, as it had been thitherto the custom that every regiment (or comapny if not part of a regiment) to have a distinct colour and uniform design. Sngraq, breaking with tradition, agreed with his War Secretary Lord Tlang-men that it would simplify matters if all the new units had just one uniform design and wore only distinctive emblems.

The first units were stood up in 1875 under the policy, though by the end of Sngraq's administration only 58 comapnies had been raised. Nevertheless, this dress code was extended to virtually all units raised after 1875 and before 1936 even if they were not part of Sngraq's policy, making it the de facto standard uniform unless a specific unit was required to wear something else. There are also instances of individual units losing their original uniforms and adopting the 1875 code, sometimes with Parliamentary approval and other times without. In 1882, Parliament granted broad powers to the War Secretary to alter the appearances and equipment of troops in spite of statutory requirements, which were too numerous to be individually managed by Parliament as was the prior case.

Forms of dress

Frock coat

In Themiclesia as in much of Casaterra, the frock coat was a highly standardized formal coat for men in daytime by the mid-1850s. As it was widely worn and available, it was deemed appropriate for the army's use. The frock coat was a knee-length jacket consisting of a highly-tailored body and skirt joined by a waist seam. In principal it could be single- or double-breasted, though for the version stipulated in the dress coat it was always double-breasted. Buttons were usually faced with silk fabric, sometimes with intricate weaving work. The required colour of frock coats under the 1875 regulation was black.

The body of the frock coat was to project a heavily suppressed waist, proportionate to the shoulders, so that the wearer conformed to the hourglass figure then considered ideal for both men and women. Conventions required eight panels of fabric in the body, hence the coat's name "eight panel coat" (八幅表, pryat-pek-pru) in Shinasthana. Two more panels were used for the collar and skirt and six for two sleeves and their cuffs, giving a total of 16 panels. Contrast this to the 9 panels of fabric typical of a modern lounge jacket. While the additional panels created a fitted appearance, they also took more time to cut and assemble and caused more fabric waste. In 1875, a frock coat easily cost one to two months' pay for a private soldier, and so it was subject to numerous cost-saving measures by servicepeople responsible to procure them.

The most common way to procure an expensive jacket inexpensively was to purchase it second-hand. The second-hand clothing market was expansive in Themiclesia until the 1950s, and the chief issue was that the jacket would have been tailored to the body of its initial owner; alterations tailors or the soldier himself could resolve this issue, to varying degrees of effectiveness. The other way they met the regulation was to purchase an informal coat, dye it black, and then approximating seam lines with a thick, running thread. Thus, when reasonably well-done, a livery jacket costing as little as a quarter of a new frock coat could have the appearance of a frock coat when viewed from a distance. According to Sarah Peters in her book Non-uniform Uniforms, almost all the enlisted rates procured their uniforms in one of these two ways, but a tailored coat would have been de rigueur for officers.

See also

• Themiclesia