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WAVES labels on enlisted vs. officers'?


BigBrother
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Hot on the heels (totally unintended, but master-level pun) of my last post checking authenticity of some WAVES and SPARS items:

 

Someone there mentioned that the iconic lavender label would only be on enlisted as officer's were private purchase. This seemed off for me for a few reasons:

 

1. I swear I've seen the label on officer's uniforms.

2. I'm skeptical of the enlisted/officer issued vs. private purchase divide when it comes to WAVES. The (raw, unadorned) uniforms are extraordinarily similar (identical?) from what I've seen, very different than the men's uniforms in the various branches. The design was explicitly done by Mainbocher, as I'm sure those on here know, and I'd be really surprised if that design was executed both by cheaper enlisted-bound means and by private tailors, both coming out so similarly.

 

So, what's the scoop on these labels? The cap I showed in that thread is real but lacks the label. Maybe the labels' application was indeterminate and just another happenstance factor of the war (?) What sayest thou?

 

Thanks!

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You misinterpreted my comments. I have seen no difference between the WAVES and US Women’s Naval Reserve tags as sewn into officer’s or enlisted uniform items. Also, both tags are usually reserve blue in color. I have four officer’s and maybe ten enlisted WAVES jackets, but would need to pull them from storage to compare all of the labels.

 

I'm not sure what you are getting at with issue vs. private purchase. As I understand it private purchase just means the uniform was not issued, but purchased by the officer and paid for with the clothing allowance.

 

I checked my two WAVES SDB uniforms (one cotton and one wool) and both have blue US Women’s Naval Reserve tags. The wool uniform also has a civilian tailor label. Most likely the tailor that performed alterations.

 

Before you ask, both enlisted and officer’s uniforms have both types of tags, to my recollection.

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Re: issue vs. private purchase, I was referring to the fact that for men's uniforms, the private purchase didn't just mean the same goods as the enlisted but bought out of pocket. They had an entire class of superior uniforms purchasable only by officers. Pinks and greens are one salient example. With WAVES, however, from the examples I've handled, there doesn't appear to be this divide, so it seems as though the uniforms themselves were coming from the same source(s). Since you wrote, "All of the Navy issued caps will have either a WAVES or US Women's Naval Reserve label. There were also private purchase examples that may only have a maker's label," I was trying to determine if there were, in fact, private makers of the uniform pieces, and if those would not feature either of the standard labels. But then you wrote above, "both enlisted and officer’s uniforms have both types of tags, to my recollection." So I'm back to square one!

 

Ultimately I'm trying to determine what a completely tagless officer's cap means viz a viz its era. Does no tag = not WWII, essentially. And also trying to figure out if an officer's jacket would normally have the reserve blue label, for another project I'm working on.

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Also the way I wrote it, I think you might've thought I was referring to issued vs purchased items' labels being different. I meant the uniforms themselves being different, and what having a label or no label meant. All labels have looked the same to me :).

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