In a week that included a royal wedding and the film ZULU (1964) airing on television, british military uniform has caught my attention. Now, I know that I said the Royal Wedding wouldn’t really feature on Good Clobber as we’re not that sort of blog, however there is always room for military dress here; as it influences so much of men’s fashion.

On Friday 29th April Prince William married Kate Middleton, just in case you missed it. Will’s best man was his brother, Harry Windsor. Both men came to the gig dressed in Military garb – William in the tunic of an Irish Guards officer and Harry in the uniform of a  captain of the Household Cavalry’s Blues and Royals.

In ZULU, set in 1897, a garrison of the Royal Engineers fight with native warriors over a mission station in South Africa. They too wore traditional British Military uniforms. Although the uniforms worn by the Royals this week and the Royal Engineers over a hundred years ago are different, they have a similarity that appeals to me; nice smart, dark trousers with a broad red stripe.

I’ve scoured the internet for some good images and information on these great trousers, but there’s not a lot out there. There’s loads of information on the uniforms of the Household Cavalry, but not specifically on the trousers. I have no military background or connections at all, so know almost nothing about ceremonial uniform.

They look like really smart, well cut comfortable trousers. The Windsors really pull them off well (is it likely they’d make a mistake?!). I think they are very dark blue, although they look black and it seems that the red or crimson stripe on the leg can be different widths.

As William and Harry are wearing very similar trousers, it looks as if the trousers aren’t specific to one uniform or tunic. In fact, a quick look at the uniforms of the Household Cavalry’s uniforms heralds a few uniforms that include the trousers.

If you know anything about these nice trousers, please get in touch – I’m interested to find out more about them; the significance of the their colour, the red strip down the leg and if it’s acceptable to wear something like this if you aren’t military personnel!

A little searching on this subject has bought up loads of interesting information on military ceremonial dress. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to cover this in the future, but for the mean time I’d recommend reading about the uniforms made for the royal wedding by Kashket & Partners, really interesting site with some great photos.

So, having said I’m not going to cover the Royal Wedding, I’ve gone back on my word and covered the Royal Wedding. Less posh stuff soon.

Thanks to the owners of the Royal Wedding photos (sorry, not sure who to credit), Paramount Pictures, HouseholdCavalry.info and Kashket & Partners.