A talk with Graham Hunter

I arranged a trip over to the Britannia Panopticon to meet Graham Hunter. Graham has a wide range of knowledge within gents period garments and owns one of the largest collections of period garments in the UK. He has been very helpful with letting me in on some of his vast knowledge on Military Uniform, and seemed very keen himself to teach others about something that he has such a great passion for. I am very grateful for this visit because it has been interesting to hear information first hand from someone that can ultimately verify these facts.

The first thing that Graham mentioned was the company Gieves and Hawkes. This is a company that I have already come across during my previous research. As well as this, a good company for uniform embroidery is Hand and Lock. This is a company that I will have to research in to. He also mentioned Hainsworth, another company that I has already come across and ordered fabric from, which makes me think that the research that I have done previously has been quite successful if I consider it to be of a high standard from a practitioners point of view.

The pointed angle shape of the elbow is quite typical to find on a military jacket. you can also see how to chest on this tunic protrudes out, and as this is an officers outfits it has quite a bit of padding in this area.

silk lining

Uniforms copied civilian coats, and had a very similar cut. This is why you can apply period tailoring techniques to military uniform construction; it is all the same type of tailoring. Most uniforms would have been imported from Britain to around Europe. During the Victorian period, interlinings were more common than during the Regency period when there was less detail, and possibly only padding at the front. Chest canvas has been used for a long period of time as a structural piece to remove any hollows on the chest. Graham mentions ‘Kapok’ fabric, which is another things for me to investigate in to.  Most officers’ coats would be lined with silk, and facings where of wool, possibly doeskin. Graham mentions that with some of the coats that he has come across he has found leather, very similar to kid leather, behind the facings between the lining and the fabric. He says that this band of leather would be used to stop the edges from curling and keep everything flat and looking perfect.

I also noticed that at the bottom of this particular jacket there was a leather facing at the bottom, which is very interesting as I have no come across anything like this yet. I can imagine that this is definitely a dress uniform of an officer because of the quality of the fabrics, and also the leather facing gives it away. I asked about pocket lining and Graham said that it would have been either linen or basic cotton. I do believe that modern approaches use Holland linen to line the pocket, which is still similar.

Shoulders were always set back, this is a traditional style which isn’t used to the same extent in modern day suits. But some companies such as Gieves and Hawkes still like to keep they authentic look with their suits and still have set back shoulders.

Graham let me have a look at his samples from Hainsworth. Most of the samples were the same as mine however I did not receive doeskin samples, he mentions that if you want to be proper authentic, doeskin is the type of fabric you would go for, as it was used during the regency period as well as the Victorian. There are many different names for all the different types of wool that could be used when reconstructing a period garment such as melton, pilot cloth, however, twill is a modern type of fabric and is more unusual. It wouldn’t necessarily be used for a period tunic from the 18^th Century Napoleonic wars.

Here are some really interesting facts about uniforms:

Lapels in suit jackets came from Napoleonic military tunics. When the officers were too warm they would unfasten the top buttons on their tunics and would then fold the tunic tops open to create what we would call lapels today. This then became a popular fashion trend for men’s jackets ever since.

Another interesting bit of information, whether it is true of not, is that the reason you find buttons on cuffs is because when Napoleon found soldiers wiping their noses on their cuffs he decided to put buttons on them to prevent the men from doing so.

The reason men’s clothing fastens left over right, goes back to when soldiers used to draw their sword from their left side, therefore it was practical for their jacket to fasten left over right so as to prevent the jacket edge from catching as the sword was drawn. Also, because men used to have their servants dress them but the men would button up their own garments, where as women would have everything done for them including buttoning up their clothing. This meant that it would be easier for the servant who was buttoning up the garment if the buttons fastened right over left, hence why clothing for men and women are fastened in this way and still are!

I told Graham that I have been finding it difficult to differentiate between a costume piece and an authentic piece, and he mentions that the easiest way to tell the difference is that all the originals will have the original stamps on them.

In regards to the bottom half, the army wore pantaloons rather than breeches to differentiate themselves from the officers and the higher ranks. Officers wore buckskin leather breeches, commonly white, towards the end of the Napoleonic wars. More commonly worn after around 1815-20’s. Hussar trousers were a common type of fashion for civilians around 1815 with the braided details around the pockets being popular. As well as this, Hessian boots were very fashionable taken from the Hussar uniform.

As I have already said, during the Regency era there was less interlining materials used and generally only padding. However, it was mainly the officers that would have padding rather than the soldiers. A style of quilting used during the Victorian period Serpintine, which I have similarly seen on some of the tunics that are in stock at the Conservatoire. This answers my question as this must mean that these particular tunics that I have examined are probably authentic.

This 1880’s lieutenant tunic has no padding, has a basic thin canvas with a heavier canvas around the chest. It also has Russia braid around the cuffs. Graham mentions that ‘everyday’ uniform was not always padded, however full dress uniforms would definitely be padded to give the puffed out chest look.

This one is an 1890’s practical uniform. It is the simplest with no padding, no lining and no interlinings and interfacings. The reason for this would be because it is used as a practical garment that is worn everyday, there is no need to all the layers of interlinings as it would be too hot for the soldier to wear and very impractical. You can see as the years went on, how uniforms were developed for practicality purposes rather than for the look. Fabric went down in quality in the 1870’s due to the invention of the sewing machine, and uniforms were being mass-produced. The early sewing machine stitch is called the ‘chain stitch’ which is something that I didn’t know, and is what you would find on uniforms of that period.

Another interesting fact that I learnt is that only officers would have shoulder pads in their tunics/coats, and it was depending on the tailor whether he felt that his client needed shoulder pads. For example, if the officer had weak shoulders or even a shoulder that was significantly weaker than the other, the tailor would pad accordingly. This also applies to the general shaping of the uniform, depending on the specific build of the officer the tailor would judge the right amount of padding that would need to be used in order to create the traditional look.

Nowadays, uniforms as well as replicas are mass produced in India, as it is cheaper labour, as well as cheaper to do metalwork. One book in particular that Graham showed was a book called ‘Uniforms of the British Army, Naval and Court’ by T.H Holding. It had some very interesting picture of period style tunics, and he managed to photocopy some images for me. This will be a book that I will definitely want to research in to in future as it looked like it would be very informative for my research.

Graham mentions that my attempt to construct a Hussar tunic is very ambitious for a first attempt, and that it may be wise to start with a basic uniform first. I understand where he is coming from, as I have already felt that this particular type of tunic is becoming quite complicated to interpret, as well as very expensive to make. If I had known this information sooner I probably would have chosen a much simpler style to construct, however I have already started to make the pattern. It is just unfortunate timing which cant be helped. I suppose these are the types of issues that you can be faced with when not knowing much about a particular subject in the first place. If I could go back I would have waited before jumping ahead, but I suppose it was hard for me to know whether I was going in the right direction or not. It definitely has been a learning curve for me, and in future I will bare this thought in mind when I am constructing a garment that I do not have much knowledge on. I will start with the basics before anything else.

All in all this trip has been such a great help in regards to my research, Graham is a very interesting man and I do hope to keep in contact with him in the future. I am glad to have put myself out there because now I have made contact within the industry for me to source in the future if I choose to continue this project further,