The WAVES Newsletter announcement of a new WAVES garrison cap, effective January 15, 1945.
Tag Archives: fashion
New Uniforms, Part 3
October, 1943 saw another uniform addition for the WAVES. Dorothea Jameson models the working smock for pharmacists, laboratory technicians, parachute riggers, and other technical specialists. It would only be worn by enlisted officers.
The photographs come from the National Archives.
New Uniforms, Part 2
Here’s another view of the new Mainbocher-designed summer uniform for the WAVES, released in October 1943. This view shows the uniform without the jacket. It’s modeled by yeoman Marion Pearson
The photo comes from the National Archives.
New Uniforms, Part 1
In October, 1943, the WAVES debuted new Mainbocher-designed uniforms, to be used in summer and at warm weather locales.
Above, WAVE officer Mary C. Broughton (left) and yeoman Marion Pearson (right) model the new seersucker uniforms.
Broughton posed solo as well (left). The only difference between her officer uniform and that of the enlisted women is the officer’s hat, the band on the sleeve of the jacket, and the bar on the collar of her dress.
On yeoman Pearson’s uniform (below), her hat has a removable cover that matches the seesucker of the dress.
Officer’s Hat
The WAVES officer’s hat. The WAVE uniform was designed by the couture designer Main Bocher. The photo comes from the National Archives.
April 1946
This is the second-to-last edition of the WAVES newsletter. The WAVE on the cover is wearing the dress blue uniform and the “overseas” regulation uniform hat.
The newsletter comes from The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
Costs
What you might need – and what it will cost – in the post-war years.
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
“Your ‘Separates'”
The Navy booklet women received upon leaving the service offers suggestions for dressing in skirts and tops, suggesting soft blouses or turtlenecks for the top half of the body, and the following for the bottom:
The skirt – a heavy woolen, gathered, dirndl-fashion, into a belt. May be tweed, plain, check, stripe.
The skirt is the smooth wool jersey with high turtle neck.
An important wide belt gives a put-together look to these newest of the “separates.”
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
“What About Your Uniform?”
Remove the insignia and sex on plain blue buttons.
Don’t cut it, decorate it, remodel it, or otherwise change it. It was designed by a fine designer. If you are tired of it, hang it up in the closet after you have changed the buttons. Don’t look at it again until next season. Then treat it as your smart tailored suit, and do any of these things with it:
- Wear a gay hat and a bright checked or striped scarf.
- Wear a bright green or lemon yellow blouse, or a shocking pink or frilly white dickey. Add the most feminine of hats.
- With your white uniform, wear your Navy blue shirt and a blue hat. Or a black blouse and black accessories. Or wear deep, bright colors with it.
- Wear luggage tan accessories with either uniform, and remember that they are both perfect neutrals, and foils for any other color harmonies that you want to use.
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
“Good Grooming and Hair-Dos”
The Navy offered women a selection of fashionable hat choices for the post-war world, but also this reminder:
The most important personal lesson your Navy training can leave with you is the value of perfect grooming at all times. Brushed hair, neat hands, perfectly ordered clothing make any woman look right in her simplest costume. An no-one can be smart who is unpressed, untidy, not well put together.
From the booklet “Back to Civvies,” held by the The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Hinges of History 