Vintage SHORTS!

[Tomasso]

Great photo, TT.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Yes, British military shorts will form the next part of this thread. My grandfather was one of those chaps who didn't want to remember. ( Highway Decorators in Egypt and El Alamein, Libya, Sicily, Italy running a flamethrower, then France - after D-Day thankfully - Germany and BAOR did not make for overly wholesome memories or pride.) I suspect he burned all his stuff, or just left it when he demobbed.

This is in Egypt, I think. 3rd from left w/ slouch hat and inappropriate dagger:

 

[cookie]

Yes, British military shorts will form the next part of this thread. My grandfather was one of those chaps who didn't want to remember. ( Highway Decorators in Egypt and El Alamein, Libya, Sicily, Italy running a flamethrower, then France - after D-Day thankfully - Germany and BAOR did not make for overly wholesome memories or pride.) I suspect he burned all his stuff, or just left it when he demobbed.

This is in Egypt, I think. 3rd from left w/ slouch hat and inappropriate dagger:

Great shot. I know you have the Aussie connection but the slouch hat was it to keep off the sun or was he an Aussie?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

British desert regiments got a slouch hat too. He is 51st Highland, 6th (I think) Gordon Highlanders.

I have a very early slouch (prob Boer War era) made by Hobson & Son, the military outfitters, in deep forest green which I've never been able to identify, though it's clearly been pinned up with badges on both sides.

Judging by the lack of tan, I'd say these Scottish lads had just arrived in North Africa:

 

[Metatron]

Well, at least they are staying at the Ritz!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Tailor and Cutter, vol XLVI #3379, 24-7-1931

What not to Wear [on Holiday]

Another form of holiday which will attract many young people this year is hiking. The dress for such pastime has almost become prescribed. It consists of drill or other shorts, khaki twill cotton or flannel shirt with pockets, leather belt, golf stockings and absorbent underwear. The usual headgear is a beret which, so far as observation goes, suits very few.

If hiking consists of sticking to the high-road this outfit is all right; but if one anticipates rambling across country through woods and thickets, over hedges and among briars, trousers are preferable.

 

[simonc]

 

[Guttersnipe]

The mesh shirt is what really makes this ensemble . . .

 

[Dinerman]

 

[Tomasso]

View attachment 8224

The mesh shirt is what really makes this ensemble . . .

Makes it what?

 

[Two Types]

British army officer, off duty, in Germany, late 1940s:

My father in Spain, late 1950s:

(I suspect those are a pair of his old army shorts)

 

[Baron Kurtz]

With the double straps at the waistband and lack of field dressing pocket on the right thigh, it would suggest an immediate postwar pair of shorts, before the '52 pattern cross-over belts. Would that be right for his army service?

 

[Two Types]

Spot on: 1947 to 1949.

 

[Tomasso]

Reed Vreeland with wife Diana on the steps of the Southampton Bathing Corporation in the late forties.

 

[David Conwill]

This seems a good place to put this: Shorts, or the implication thereof, on Midway Island, 1935. From "Flying the Pacific," National Geographic, December 1936. Which is an account of a Martin M-130 flying from California, to Manila.

 

[timmbo]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I don't want to start an entirely separate one...

Any recommendations for brands that currently produce "vintage" style shorts? e.g. with a rise that sits at the true waist (which for me is a 12" ish rise).