anotheranon | Adam Ant/Hussar jacket: progress report

(x-posted to

dressdiaries)

I've been doing what I promised myself I'd do - taking it slow and doing research. There's next to nothing out there about the 11th Hussars in particular, so I've been looking at books on military fashion in general and hussar uniform in particular - a trip to the local community college yielded some heavily illustrated books that I've been going through carefully, looking up every indexed reference to "hussar" from the index of each book and taking handwritten notes the likes of which I've not done since college :P

Discoveries: the hussars were probably the flashiest dressers in 19th century armies (I'm guessing the Adam-style jacket was probably dress uniform rather than for "on campaign"). All regiments in all countries were known for their spectrum of colors and piles of braid and other decoration. The 11th British Hussars in particular were criticized for their excessively tight uniforms (go Adam!), and according to an article in the March 2003 Fashion Theory, soldiers in dress uniform enjoyed a certain "peacock" sexual appeal among young ladies in 19th century France.

Though there was a lot of text, I only found a single detailed color photo of an Austrian hussar's dolman, in a book called Military Fashion. I have one left to go through and I'm hoping to find some line drawings in it that help me with placement/layout of trim. Wish me luck.

Regarding Adam Ant's particular jacket: I had assumed that it was a Vivienne Westwood design because Adam had worked so closely with her and her then partner Malcolm McLaren in the early '80s, but

ragdoll advised me that the jacket was worn by David Hemmings the movie The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968); she provided this source (do a "Find" for "david hemmings"), and the stills and additional reference at the movie link tend to bear this out.

So essentially I find myself trying to copy a movie costume that is a who-knows-how-historically accurate version of an 1854 11th Hussar's dolman. The idea that it probably doesn't have any delightful Westwood details and is a copy of a historical item leaves me less hot on making a button-for-button copy and more interested in making a variation off the historical originals.

Variations - obviously will have to be more girl-shaped, as most hussars weren't :P Maybe will used antiqued silver braid instead of gold (of course, trim will depend on what's available) and maybe another base color, though I'm reluctant as I don't want this to look like a marching band-cum-Sgt. Pepper's costume!

Next step - finding how/where all that damned braid was attached!