Epaulettes / Epaulette - Definition of Clothing presented byApparel Search
|
|
Epaulette,
a French word meaning "little shoulders" (epaule,
referring to "shoulder"), is an ornamental shoulder piece or decoration
used as insignia or rank by military or other organizations. The placement
of the epaulette, its color and the length and diameter of its buillion
fringe were used to siginify the wearer's rank. Although sometimes worn
in the field, epaulettes are more common on dress or ceremonial uniforms.
Epaulettes are also found on the
trench coat, the
safari jacket, and other garments.Before rank insignia were devised, the rank of an officer was determined by whether one epaulette was on the left shoulder, or the right shoulder, or both. Later a "counter-epaulette", with no fringe, was given to those who wore only one. Besides silver or gold for officers, epaulettes came in cloth for the enlisted men of various arms.
Officers of the United States Army at the time of the Civil War wore gold for artillery and silver for infantry. In Europe, some light infantry wore cloth counter-epaulettes. "Flying artillery" wore "wings," like an epaulette, but with only a bit of fringe on the outside, which matched the shoulder seam. Heavy artillery wore small balls representing ammunition on their shoulders.
Epaulettes have mostly been replaced by insignia pins and sleeve patches to denote rank. British uniform shirt cuffs were once decorated with buttons and colored patches to indicate the rank of officers.
Clothing Definitions| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/epaulette). 5/1/05 |
|
|
| Discussion boards are a great place to meet other members of the fashion industry, get advice, and share information. This forum was created to discuss the topic of this page. If you have questions, or information to improve this page, please join in the community discussion below. Please keep the communication on topic and for the purpose of education. |
|
|