Was the WAVE long sleeved shirt stark white in color?

[WWIIWaveGal]

To all -

 

A very talented seamstress is helping me with a WAVE uniform (specifically the Service Dress, Blue, B ). Because of the unavailability of certain fabrics, she is reproducing the period correct long sleeved shirt as seen in below photograph which peeks out from the uniform and type II black tie. Here is the question we need verified - is this shirt stark white in color? Please do not bring up blitzkreig baby or the Uniform Regulations, Women's Reserve, United States Naval Reserve, of 1943 as i have checked both a gazillion times. Unfortunately, the regulations just say "white".

 

Sincerely yours,

Christine Albin

[sigsaye]

Ok,I'll take a swing at this. Having worn Navy white shirts, I can tell you that generally they start life stark white and then over time with wear, age and repeated washing, they "dinge". The color dulls and the texture of the fabric changes. I have 9 in my closet now and each one is slightly different in "shade" and texture.

[topdcnut]

May I ask how stark white differs from white as described in the regs ? As Steve has eluded to white is white, if your pattern is good and the cloth is close the color should be the easy part. As closely as the wave uniforms were regulated they in many cases were privately made in a way that was different than the male custom tailored blues. If you are confident in the cloth and cut I would not be overly concerned about the color.

 

JMO John

[sigsaye]

And to further cloud the subject, if you are talking about officer uniforms, they were all commercially "Private Purchase". Officers were not issued uniforms off the rack like enlisted. They were given a check and sent out with a list of what their minimum needs were and left to "Military Outfitters/ Tailors" to fill the list.

[Justin B.]

^ And especially for shirts. Before the "soft shoulder boards" the shirt for officer/chief blues was basically a commercial white dress shirt and nobody cared much about the details, which is why they weren't spelled out in the regulations. "White" for the shirt then would be in the same basic range as white business shirts today. In the WW2 period, there was all kinds of variation in shirts, especially khaki. If it's a "white" shirt and the collar looks right with the tie, it's fine.

 

Justin B.

[WWIIWaveGal]

Dear all - thank you for your responses. Between this and another forum, i received a lot of helpful information. Some of which, re-in-forced your thoughts. I hope that this project in the end will all be worth it.

 

Sincerely,

Christine Albin