10 Items You Didn't Know Have A Military Heritage [0:00:00]
[Music] So, let’s start things off with a Cartier
Tank. The history on this watch the story behind it is awesome.
So, apparently during World War I, Louis Cartier spent some time on the western front observing
troops movements and actually seeing a little bit of the battles. One thing that impressed
him was the tank. Now, if you know your military history, you
probably remember that only Leonardo da Vinci actually had drawings of tanks, but it was
first introduced to the battle field during World War I. It was the British with the Mark
I that first got it out there. The idea with the tank was to break up the
stalemate that we had in trench warfare. You have the German on one side, the French and
the British on the other, and neither of them was moving. All of a sudden, these iron giants
hit the battlefield and caused soldiers to panic.
Now, Cartier being French, he was impressed by the Renault tanks which actually were the
first tanks to have the top turn and would inspire future tanks. But, he created a line
of watches to basically celebrate the design of the tank.
Now, the first Cartier tank prototype was made in 1917 and then, handed personally by
Cartier to John Pershing. He was the commander of American Expeditionary Forces in Europe
at the time. Amazing story, right? Well, gents, if you enjoy that you’re going
to love today’s video because I’m talking about ten menswear items that have a military
history that you probably don’t know about. Next up, we’ve got the desert boot. Now,
the company that made this very popular was a company called Clarks. But, what you may
not know is that Nathan Clark served in World War II. He was with the 8th army, he’s over
in Burma and that was the first time he saw this particular style. He saw it on South
African troops. He had seen the design. This is a chukka design,
been around for a while. But, what he didn’t had never seen was actually they put a sole
on it that had a lot of grip that was very lightweight. They also had reduced the number
of eyelets and so, all of a sudden we saw two to three eyelets right here. They’d
cut down the height of the chukka, so it was really only ankle support.
Why did they do all of these? Because they wanted a boot that was lightweight easy to
move around in the desert. So, these South African soldiers told him, “Hey, we have
these cobblers over in Cairo do this.” And all of a sudden he got the ideas, he took
it back home and made this particular style popular.
So, as we were talking about boots, let’s now talk about Wellington boots. So, when
you see these they are very recognizable. These are boots that you want to wear when
you’re riding a horse whenever you need something that’s going to rise and protect
your ankles, go up pasture mid calves. It’s not going to go the knees though. Why?
Because the Wellington was actually inspired by knee-high boots that the Hessians were
wearing. So, these guys in the 1790s, they see these Germans with this great looking
boots and – but they were a bit high, they had a little bit of, you know, just too many
like tassels on them and things. Wellington went and talk to these cobblers said, “I
want something like what they have, but let’s go a little bit lower and let’s go simple.”
And, it was really about these trousers, they have these particular type of trousers that
were in fashioned. He wanted it to work with them. People paid attention to these boots,
they’re like, “Hey, oh, I want some Wellingtons, I want some boots like that.” So, hence,
now we have the wellingtons. Now, let’s talk about another shoe design
that came out at about the same period, the blucher. So, we have to thank Field Marshall
Von Blucher. He was the one that came up with the design and he wanted to outfit his foot
soldiers with a simple shoe, so that they could move faster.
So, he came in and up to that point, shoes that have been designed they were very expensive,
he came up with this idea to take the back quarter of the shoe and to have a flap that
went over that would basically cover the front part which is the vamp. And that made a shoe
that actually stayed on your feet was less expensive and faster to manufacture.
Now, it was kind of ugly, but being a practical German, he said I don’t care. I want something
that my soldiers are going to be able to, you know, fight Napoleon. And he did actually
at the Battle of Waterloo, it was his soldiers wearing bluchers that delivered the killing
blow. Next up, let’s talk about the crewneck t-shirt.
Now, this refers to the collar to the neck part of the t-shirt. But, why is it called
a crewneck? Because it was originally worn by crews on a ship, and it was actually the
militaries around the world that started making this popular.
Why did they do this? Because you sweat a lot on a boat especially if you work underneath,
and these guys have expensive uniforms. So, the whole idea of wearing undergarments was
to protect your more expensive clothing on top. The militaries knew this they didn’t
want to be replacing hundreds of thousands of uniforms all the time, so they got undergarments.
In 1913, the US Navy actually basically started issuing them. Why? Because they didn’t want
chest hair coming out, so they started having these regulations. Yes, they do regulate,
you know, chest hair and things like that. And all of a sudden, we start seeing the militaries
pick this up. So, the crewneck t-shirt another item in your wardrobe made popular by the
military. Next up, let’s talk neckwear. So, neckwear
in general has been used to identify military units for well over a thousand years. We go
back to the Chinese. The terracotta soldiers, when you go in and look at them they actually
were wearing scarves and neckwear oftentimes with collars to symbolize what units they
were with. But, it was during the thirty years war that
Louis the XIII, I believe, he actually was very impressed by the [Croatan?] mercenaries
he had hired. They had this basically this decoration around their neck. This is what
we now called cravats were worn by them and he like made it official. He wanted to see
other people wearing it. [0:05:08]
Now, from the cravat we got various types of neckwear, but the necktie originated. Now,
what’s interesting is nowadays if you still go over to certain countries such as England,
there are symbols that you’ll see in regimental stripes. So, when you see a regimental stripe,
you actually see that’s with a military unit.
And, in fact, I had a little bit of fun with this one. I took Marine Corps colors and I
put the EGA right here. But, that’s what’s fun about neckwear is that you can use it
to send the message to send the signal. We eventually saw a number of clubs, different
colleges they all created different colors and different types of neckwear. Very interesting.
And, I just love how it’s still used today to send signals of who you’re with and who
you’re associated or where you’re from. Next up, we’ve got the wristwatch, in particular
the field watch. So, before World War I, it was the pocket watch that reigned supreme
for men. Yes, there were wristwatches out there, but only women wore wristwatches.
But, something happened in 1879, you saw Keiser Wilhelm I, he ordered 2,000 wristwatches for
his naval officers. They wanted a simple watch that would actually be able to deal with the
elements because they were out at sea and could quickly get in time because they understood
the importance of being able to time things, so the modern field watch.
And the field watch was separated from all the other watches out there because it was
all about simplicity of being able to tell time. So, we saw the hands, we saw that they
were very clear, they had, you know, they had a high contrast background and that was
the point is you just needed to know the time, you needed to know it precisely.
Nowadays, what are you going to find on the modern military guy? Yeah, there’s tons
of great watches out there, but you’re oftentimes going to see a simple G-SHOCK or something
like that. They want watches that are tough that are durable. You know oftentimes you
don’t need all the other information, you simply want to be able to accurately tell
the time and that’s what really a digital watch does.
Next up, we’ve got aviators. So, back in 1936, it was recognized that pilots needed
better eye protection because when you’re up at high altitudes, there’s a lot of things
the glare of the sun. You’ve got to be able to see what’s going on and you’ve got
to be able to protect the eyes. So, they developed a type of lens that actually
fit in right here if you look at how it covers this bottom part in here. This style came
out of simply practicality. It really just looks great on most people, different facial
shapes, and when it comes down to it, it does a great job of protecting your eyes from the
elements. Next up, we’ve got the classic field jacket.
This jacket as the name implies was used by the military in the field. So, we have the
M41, the M43, the M51, and the M65. Now, those last numbers, that’s when the jacket was
introduced. So, when you think about it, each of these jackets were introduced during a
war because you had to outfit a million soldiers. And I say soldiers because the Marine Corps
they have their own stuff, they were over in the Pacific taking care of business during
World War II. Now, why did this have such an effect on men’s
fashion? Just think about it, you make millions and millions of these jackets, guys, you know
they’re leaving the military you got not to do, they go to surplus stores or more likely
a lot of guys just keep their jackets and write, yeah, a note saying, “Oh, I lost
that thing. “ Of course, they kept them and they bring them back and they make their
way in the civilian wear. In summary, the field jacket has had a huge
effect on fashion because of its sheer numbers and the functionality of the piece.
Next up, gentlemen, we’ve got the classic trench coat. I say classic because this item
still can be in a man’s wardrobe. Not very common, but it is a timeless piece that if
you decided to bring in – and I think it’s great for maybe a guy who lives in New York
City, you live in Chicago. You ride public transportation you’re taking buses you’re
taking subways, guess what? This is going to fully cover your body. It’s
going to protect your nice clothing. It does a great job with light rains even with a little
bit of light snow, and it’s something that I think a lot of guys should have especially
if you’re dealing with four seasons. Now, what is all of these for? So, when you
look at the epaulettes actually used to be for ranks, so that’s why this should be
here. You’ve also got straps right here and it wasn’t – a lot of people think,
oh, the D-rings, these are for putting grenades on. No, that’s not the history of World
War I. It was simply for being able to tighten up the sleeves, so that rain wouldn’t go
in to be able to bring this jacket in. And that is the key with this jacket. It was
functional for the trenches. World War I is where it’s made its name, but it actually
we go further back. It was the Boer War where we first saw these designs of this jacket.
We go even further back the Mackintosh back in 1823 was the first rain resistant jacket
that we saw out there. The issue with the Mac was that it’s rubber
and it’s not breathable, you’re sweating you’re almost dying in that thing, so what
we saw is gabardine was used. In the Boer War and during World War I this was on officer’s
jacket. It was expensive. And today, they’re still expensive, but officers knew that having
a great piece of clothing that could keep the water out and simply was a great jacket.
Now, you’ll notice the color here. This is not the classic color. The classic color
was tan, but I’ve decided to go with something darker, I wanted something different. This
was a custom made piece. And most trench jackets up to about seventy years ago were custom
made. [0:10:07]
That being said the trench coat is a classic piece. It’s timeless. It’s been around
for a hundred years. I will be around for another hundred years. So, if you decided
to add one to your wardrobe, I think it’s great. It’s functional and it looks great,
it will help you stand out from the crowd. Next up, we’ve got the classic nave pea
coat. Now, this goes back to the 1800s and it was the Dutch that actually made this popular
and gave it its name. So, the word pea coat comes from I believe pie coat which pije did
I – and some of guys are Dutch, am I doing this right? So, apparently, pije means wool
or is referred to as wool, and it was the wool heavy jacket that sailors would wear
whenever they had to stay warm up in the Arctic or be able to, you know, get wet.
Another great property in case you don’t know this about wool is it can absorb about
50% of its weight in water and it will still feel dry. It will still keep and you know
do a good job of insulating you from the cold even when it’s slightly wet.
Now, the Dutch gave the jacket its name, but it’s the British who made it popular and
then, the US Navy adopted it as well. So, we saw it just to be a great naval jacket,
one that was issued to millions of men and they, again, brought it back from the military
brought it into their daily use. I love the great looking pea coat. What I
really like about it though is it’s a higher cut. So, for those of you guys that want a
jacket that’s going to cover your backside basically your buttocks area at the same time
is not going to be cumbersome around the legs, the pea coat is great option and these are
warm, they’re just nice jackets. Now, speaking about awesome jackets, let’s
talk about flight jackets. They key indicators of a great flight jacket is insulation. And
it’s going to seal in and around the wrists, in and around the waist, up and around the
neck because when you’re flying at a high altitude and you’re in an open cockpit or
an unsealed maybe unpressurized cockpit, you can see the temperature drop down to like
-40 degrees. Yes, it can get that cold at 25,000 feet.
And so, what we saw in 1917 is that they came through with the Aviation Clothing Board.
The US Army put this out there. They wanted basically their pilots to have clothing and
they started developing this stuff. And we saw a wide range of different types of flight
jackets, but all of these flight jackets had to basically you need to be able to move around
especially in the bomber aircraft to be able to move around, so you needed something that
wasn’t going to get caught, hence why leather was so important.
Now, leather has made for great jackets throughout history. And, if you’re curious to learn
more about leather jackets, check out this video right here. I talk about the seven things
that every man needs to know when they’re buying a leather jacket. And, really, guys,
I go into details about the type of leather, all the details you want to look at. So, check
out this video right here, if you want to learn more about leather jackets.
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