Bush Jackets

[BellyTank]

Aha- so, they are actually pre-loved shirts then.


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[H.Johnson]

Very! B&B (Mark) had a crate at Malvern and they were mainly rusted and folded - not insurmountable, but all much too big for me!

BTW, on sourcing 'vintage style' Aertex fabric, I was talking to a guy I know in military supply about this and he asked if I had seen the new British Army tropical/desert 'base layer'. As a matter of fact, I hadn't. Perhaps the opportunities for examining the underwear of members of HM armed forces are not what they were. Anyway, I have managed to obtain a tee-shirt and it's moderately close to my sample of WW2 Aertex, but no cigar. Too light and too 'high-tech', really. A really practical garment, though, to be fair.

Let's keep looking, eh?

 

[Creeping Past]

I never stop looking at/for the right fabrics.

I've just returned from Paris, where the bush jacket — in linen and cotton drill and in all styles, from military style field jacket to classic 1930s-looking ones with pleated pockets — is much in evidence on gentlemen of a certain age.

Many elegantly dressed men were wearing cotton summer-weight scarves. Call them desert scarves and you'd have a hype right there. But in Paris they just wear them because they're comfortable and look good.

I was especially intrigued by a jacket worn by an elderly English chap. It was made from what looked like a cellular weave fabric in a mid-blue. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to ask him about it — I was standing behind him on an escalator, so the urge to grasp him by the lapels and interrogate him had to be checked — but it had the look of Aertex.

 

[H.Johnson]

Good observations, CP. Don't hesitate to interrogate! Seize the day, seize the lapels, identify the fabric. I once persuaded a young lady to let me examine the label on the inside of her jeans. It can be interesting...

 

[BellyTank]

Euphemism.


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[Mike K.]

Good observations, CP. Don't hesitate to interrogate! Seize the day, seize the lapels, identify the fabric. I once persuaded a young lady to let me examine the label on the inside of her jeans. It can be interesting...

I have never tried that pick-up approach before! lol

 

[Edward]

Good observations, CP. Don't hesitate to interrogate! Seize the day, seize the lapels, identify the fabric. I once persuaded a young lady to let me examine the label on the inside of her jeans. It can be interesting...

Oh, my, now there's a line I've never tried!

Thanks for the info on Silverman's, I'll be sure to check those out. Some light but (reasonably) dressy green canvas trousers would be very welcome. Much as I love tan and khaki, I wouldn't care to cause my Summer wardrobe to become too repetitive!

 

[H.Johnson]

They were Denime Taku, by the way. Very rare in England, so it was worth it.

 

[BellyTank]

Ah, well that's very understandable and not so strange.


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[BellyTank]

The Sahariana

Oh, right anyway, Bush Jackets.

I like mine Italian.
Giacca, Giubba, Camiciotta... I like all Sahariane.

I need more.


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[H.Johnson]

So now you understand...

Ah, well that's very understandable and not so strange.


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[Creeping Past]

Oh, right anyway, Bush Jackets.

I like mine Italian.
Giacca, Giubba, Camiciotta... I like all Sahariane.

I need more.


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This chap calls his a 'Safariana'. You could always expand your horizons and embrace this coinage.

I'm a camiciotta sort of chap. But I don't own one yet. Opportunities to wear them in England are few.

 

[BellyTank]

I call it something else.

No Sir- don't like it.

I have expansive horizons... , almost.
In the Psychiatric sense.


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[H.Johnson]

Drakes of London may call it a 'Desert Cloth', but the British Army calls what he is wearing around his neck - it is on the label of the official army issue version - a Rag, Sweat, Desert . Says it all really.

 

[H.Johnson]

I wouldn't call 'P Company' trousers 'reasonably dressy', Edward.
They are what the Parachute Regiments used to make their applicants wear for the (very hard) selection tests. They have the cross-belts and a side thigh pocket (like 1950 pattern Army KDs).

Oh, my, now there's a line I've never tried!

Thanks for the info on Silverman's, I'll be sure to check those out. Some light but (reasonably) dressy green canvas trousers would be very welcome. Much as I love tan and khaki, I wouldn't care to cause my Summer wardrobe to become too repetitive!

 

[donCarlos]

The Czech Aertex-style shirts are very good. I've been wearing mine non-stop for a couple of months and it's wearing well, despite being hard-worn in its previous life and having had an extended period in storage, judging from the folds ingrained in it.

In an attempt to remain on-topic, did the Czechs produce a bush jacket or a field jacket for warmer weather?

I don´t think so. I´ve never seen anything like that. There was no use for it, since the last time the czech army was in hot weather was in Tobruk. For the next 50 years, there was no need for a hot weather uniform. And now, in Afghanistan and Iraq, they use standard modern uniforms.

 

[H.Johnson]

There we have it, on good local authority. The shirts are sourced through Solomon Adler, which is a Czech company, I think. I suppose we have to take them at their word that the Aertex-like shirts are ex-Czech(oslovakian) army.

 

[Edward]

I wouldn't call 'P Company' trousers 'reasonably dressy', Edward.
They are what the Parachute Regiments used to make their applicants wear for the (very hard) selection tests. They have the cross-belts and a side thigh pocket (like 1950 pattern Army KDs).

Sorry, yeah - speaking by modern standards, meaning 'not denim' and 'not pre-distressed' or any of the other joys we see on contemporary casuals!

 

[Creeping Past]

There we have it, on good local authority. The shirts are sourced through Solomon Adler, which is a Czech company, I think. I suppose we have to take them at their word that the Aertex-like shirts are ex-Czech(oslovakian) army.

I've may have been kit-hyped! But I don't mind. I was aiming for a wearable, affordable Aertex-like shirt... and I got one.

The Czech hype is bearable. At least I wasn't got by the vintage special forces hype or semi-plausible heritage hype.

 

[donCarlos]

There we have it, on good local authority. The shirts are sourced through Solomon Adler, which is a Czech company, I think. I suppose we have to take them at their word that the Aertex-like shirts are ex-Czech(oslovakian) army.

Just out of interest, what year are the shirts meant to be from?