Australian Army gets new service dress uniform
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The Australian Army is introducing a new service dress uniform.
CAPTION: Australian Army soldiers Sergeant Kevin Williams, Lieutenant Roger Fredrick, Lieutenant James Levchenko, Lieutenant Nicholas Bassett and Warrant Officer Class One Ken Bullman pose in the new Australian Army ceremonial uniform ahead of the French National Day parade in Paris. Photos by Sergeant Janine Fabre
Keen-eyed CONTACT fans spotted and commented on the previously unannounced uniform after seeing photos of the contingent of approximately 80 members from the Australian Army’s 2nd Division wearing the darker uniform at the French National Day Parade in Paris on 14 July 2016.
A Defence spokesman confirmed to CONTACT that a new uniform would be progressively rolled out from June this year.
“The new uniform is a darker shade of khaki to the previous service uniform,” Defence said.
“The colour more closely matches to that of the slouch hat.”
Designed to replace both the service dress uniform and the general duties dress, the new uniform includes jacket, trousers, slacks and skirts and some accoutrements.
Defence said the colour change was based on the results of an Army-wide survey.
Other changes include improved fabric quality, a more flexible fit, differentiated male and female sizings, and maternity slacks and skirts.
The new dress and general-duties uniform will retain the current in-service slouch hat, the existing long- and short-sleeve shirts, RM Williams parade boots and court shoes.
Accoutrements accompanying the new dress will be available in the new khaki colour, as will the tie and belt.
Tell us what you think of this new look, below…
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Are the feathers in the hat new and what do they represent?
They are emu plums that the Royal Australian Armoured Corps wear on their Slouch hats, So if you see someone with them that means they are apart of that Corps.
looks very smart, wish Canada stayed with something khaki.
I am curious to learn the reason why the Officers and WO 1’s wear black shoes with brown sam Browne…….
is there a story or is it just to keep everyone in the same colored dress foot wear??
cheers.
Yes, the new colour uniform is much better than the old design of the 80s-90s uniform. And for crying out loud, don’t ever go back to the old battle dress days, they were horrendous. I must say the humble black GP boot looks much better than the RM Williams boots, especially with the summer dress. And bloused, not un-bloused, it looks teribble.
In response to an earlier comment made, not any one can wear a service uniform. You must be a serving member of the ADF to wear such uniforms, even if you’re retired you can’t then wear your uniform to such an event.
You may wear parts of a service uniform, such as your hat or jacket but that’s about it.
And certainly no member of the public can go into a disposal store and purchase a uniform and wear it to such services as is is called stollen valour. There are such laws to stop this sort of noncence, it’s very big in the U.S and has happened here on a few occasions.
All service good should be Australian made in Australia.
At a Remembrance Day service at my local RSL I saw a bloke in the old style uniform without rank. He was old enough to have rank. When I say “old enough”, he looked about retirement age so he may have retired. That being the same, are retired soldiers allowed to keep and wear their uniform at ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day services?
I think you do keep your uniforms when you discharge (though I don’t know for sure, because I haven’t done that yet) – but officially you can’t wear them on ANZAC Day whether you are retired or not, unless you have official permission to be ‘on duty’.
That said, what’s to stop anyone going down to an Army disposals store and buying a uniform, even with rank, and wearing that? Who’s really going to police it?
Also, your assumption that ‘he was old enough to have rank is off too. There are plenty of blokes who go years deliberately avoiding promotion, because they want to be workers not managers. And there’s more than a few who enlisted in recent years in their 40s and even 50s.
Great idea. Good to see a return to dark khaki. Hopefully they can do a battledress style look in the same color for office/ course work.
Now greatcoats for ADFA & RMC cadets will really add to the marshal style and help them handle ACT winters.
I like the uniform, however why it could not be manufactured in Australia is beyond me! It should be completely made here using our cotton our wool and our workers.
Agreed, but in line with typical governmental parlance, “the lowest bidder wins.” Notwithstanding this, I like the new color scheme and how it all looks more… uniform.
and the Chinese will ALWAYS be the lowest bidder. For our Defence forces this shouldn’t apply. Tendering should only be by Australian companies.
Looks very similar (almost identical) to the New Zealand Army dress uniform. ANZACS forging closer ties perhaps?
This looks like a vast improvement in terms of colour and more in tune with our history, even if it is not a perfect match for the old battledress. I always thought the previous poly colour was too green and pretty awful, really.
Nothing wrong with the last one.Has nobody heard of the rule; ” If it isn’t broken don’t fix it.” Too many overpaid public servants running around with jolly good Ideas and politically correct ones at that! J
The old version had no elastic in the waist of the pants or skirt, was a stiff material that had no give for moving arms or legs properly when marching, would irreversibly stain with sweat and show really large wet patches of sweat when on parade making us look like we had wet ourselves due to the light colour of the pants and jacket. They were hard to iron, easy to burn with an iron and all round, shaped horribly, especially for women whos pants were designed for ‘wide’ hips, of which i don’t have. A survey went out, conducted by Army HQ, to everyone in Army, asking for our opinions and obviously we voted yes to the change and let me tell you, i am so much happier for it. My uniform is comfortable, practical, easy to care for and clean and looks a thousand times better, well fitting and professional. It was broken, it got fixed and it was a jolly good idea.
That’s some nice feedback.
Sorry Jim – I have to agree with R.
Yes the 80s mooted one remember that, this looks very very BRITISH, still if people want it hen it is up to them. I have seen the new accoutrements and they have slide and sew bits,
Having worn the garbage we had in the late 70s and 80’s and having to wear a “Battle Dress” was not fun, and yes pity the Air Force does not look as sharp
Yes! Like it very much, very distinguished 🙂 New matching tie looks excellent. 🙂
looks good ,dont know why they still have pockets tho,never allowed to put anything in them
Very simliar to the WO/OFFR pattern Service Dress issued during the 70s/80s, I like it; good move we changed from the current issue uniform . it looked very untidy when worn as ceremonial dress.
Hi Brian,
I spotted the different uniform color the minute I saw the troops on parade. It really looks good and shows up all the assorted accoutrements that they are wearing and makes it a much better dress uniform. I just wish now the RAAF could be dragged in the the new millennium with a new dress uniform one that adds color to there very old dated dark blues.
Hi Brian..I recall the intent to issue a new uniform back around 1980 when I was serving in Perth.. believe that it was to be a darker colour (dacron??) and that the winter and summer uniforms looked alike colour wise… guess what I’m asking is..is there possibly an intention to change the existing summer polyester as well
Hi Arthur. I thought the story was fairly clear on this… the polly shirt is retained. That means the new summer dress is the same short-sleeve shirt as before, above the new pants, with new belt.
Brian
The three LT’s have their Sam Browne shoulder belts back to front. The WO1 is correct. !!
Well spotted that man.
You must be visually dyslexic. Cuffs are too short. Boots could do with a polish too.
WO1 is perfect.
The SGT, needs to see a tailor to reduce cuff length by about 2-3cm.
Overall colour is OK, but better tapering of the jacket would be good.
Too bad Mr Bullman didn’t point out to the subalterns that they were out of dress ; they could have corrected their ‘ Sams’ before the camera started clicking.
This actually looks akin to the original Sevice Dress that was replaced by the now ‘old’ one. A much better look by the way…
As someone who is not in the army I’d love to see a side-by-side comparison of the old and new uniforms so I can see the difference in colour more clearly.
Good call Macca – I’ve added a pic to the story.
Brian Hartigan
CONTACT Editor
I like the colour, but it perhaps is a shame the style of the jacket wasn’t changed to perhaps a “Bomber” style which may prevent pulling etc when worn with belts etc.
I agree that the new uniform looks smarter in that the darker colour brings out the accroutments a lot better than the ‘pea souper’ of the previous uniform. It is appropriate also in this case as it tips a hat to the older WW1 uniforms and battledress of old. There are at least two females in the France contingent that I know of, LT Griffiths from 3/9 LH and LT Melanie Fuller from 3 Fd Eng, both from 10/27 RSAR contingent.
I hope the soldiers that were on duty at the Pozieres cemetery on Saturday were not in the new uniforms. Their trousers were badly fitting, which is not a smart dressed look for soldiers representing our country.
Hi Ruth. Were you there or is your comment based on photos?
I’ve had another look at the photos and, yes, those soldiers were wearing the new uniform.
Through my eyes and only from the photos, I can see little difference between the old and new in terms of form and fit. Obviously the colour is the big difference.
Perhaps you’d care to elaborate on the specifics of what you saw or what you found disappointing?
I feel your comment is perhaps a little too derogatory to go unchallenged.
Brian Hartigan
CONTACT Editor
I just wished they had done this years ago…I always thought the old colour to wishy washy…This makes the uniform more bold…well done
And the female uniform looks like?
Hi Lianne. The female uniform is the same only different 🙂
Jokes aside, there is “differentiated male and female sizings, and maternity slacks and skirts”.
I’ve added a photo of a female in Paris (the only one I could find), to the story above.
Brian Hartigan
Editor
I like it. Matching the colour to the slouchhat is a stroke of genius (as long as all slouchhats are the same colour 🙂 )