The workshop aims to study and discuss selected issues related to the history of the modern military uniform. Uniforms are an important research area of military historians and an object of interest of numerous enthusiasts, including non-academic authors and researchers. Despite a large number of publications about army clothing, only a few of them employ the social perspective or deal with the cultural meaning of uniforms. Therefore, we would like to bring attention to those understudied research areas of military history, historical anthropology and sociology.

Argument

The rise of modern, national European armies was a process that involved the introduction of a new, more standardized, type of clothing. The result was the military uniform, which served both aesthetic, symbolic and practical purposes. As for the former, uniforms reflected the fashion of their time and were an instrument of social distinction. Until the end of the 18^th century and in many countries well beyond, although rank-and-file soldiers were usually commoners, officer corps was composed mostly of noblemen. Consequently, military clothing reflected hierarchies and internal divisions within armies, as well as the aristocratic taste of those who commanded them. Obviously, it also served as an instrument separating soldiers from the broader society, becoming an important component of disciplinary practices and a sign of professionalisation. They also expressed a a wide range of gender references – from being symbols of exclusively male identities, passing by symbolizing gender distinction within the military to demonstrating the supposed equality of men and women within the military society. Recently they have been designed to fit both male and female bodies. Of course, exactly as any other clothing, uniforms served practical purposes, which involved durability and some degree of usefulness.

A particularly interesting period in the history of uniform was the 19^th century, when most armies began admitting commoners, mostly members of the urban middle classes, into their officer corps. Newly developed ideas of individual hygiene and a new industrial technology, especially the advances in chemical and textile, influenced the design, production and usage of clothing. In the final decades of the century new weapons of a larger range and destructive ability, significantly transformed military tactics. All these processes cumulated during the First World War, engaging the soldiers wearing steel helmets and field uniforms in dull colours, in order to camouflage them, instead of serving as instruments of social difference, based on visual distinction between common soldiers, NCOs and commissioned officers.

The trend towards the practicability of a specialized field uniform – as well as the convergence between the military and the bourgeois taste – became more pronounced in the interwar period, during the Second World War and in the post-war period. In recent years, one may observe still another shift – the development and spread of the field gear made of printed camouflage cloth. These uniforms are sometimes worn even on formal occasions, reminiscent of how sports clothing has become more prevalent in civilian society. On the other hand, sport fashion and technologies influence the materials and design of military clothing.

Our workshop is an attempt to map out and connect the research areas of historical, anthropological and sociological studies of military uniforms. We are interested in the history of the modern uniform in the armed forces from the beginning of the standardized military clothing during the 17^th century to contemporary army gear. We invite scholars interested in the historical, anthropological and sociological study of military uniforms, whatever branch of social sciences and humanities they represent.

We would like to discuss four types of issues

• The first one relates to the very materiality of army clothing, including its journey from production, through the practical ways in which they were used, by whom and how they were worn, cleaned, washed and repaired, until it was replaced and discarded (or recycled). We welcome contributions that address formal and informal practices related to the design, production and usage of military gear, including the economic issues.
• The second field of interest are the cultural references and practices within military communities. The workshop’s aim is not only to study the ones approved, or even commended by military regulations, but also to examine the meanings and practices that remained unofficial, bypassing or even breaking regulations, yet reflected the values and attitudes of people who wore them. They sometimes used them as a means of social distinction, but in many cases the uniform became a stigma. Another interesting aspect is the creation of hybrid “uniforms” and their use during various insurrections, civil and guerrilla wars, from the American War of Independence, right up to the present day, including the Russo-Ukrainian War. 
• Another topic refers to the afterlife of military uniforms in civilian life, especially when used by ex-military personnel, as a remainder of their former military service. People who wore army clothing because they in some way aspired to the military status are also an interesting subject. One of those was the American writer William Faulkner, who bought officer uniforms to produce faux social identities of war veterans. Other examples concern members of militias, cadets and members of various army-related voluntary paramilitary organizations and contemporary historical reenactors.

• The last, but by no mean least exciting topic is the aesthetics of military uniforms and their social meaning, from the point of view of those who designed and issued them, but also from that of the broader civilian and military public. The key issue here is how the transformation of the military “fashion” reflects changes in political and symbolic power relations and within the military itself, particularly in the social makeup of the officer corps. We would like to trace and analyse the shift from the aristocratic patterns towards the tastes of urban middle classes, resulting in the uniform’s transformation, that over time resembled more and more civil outfits. Does the recent stylistic shift towards sport clothing and the wide usage of camouflage field uniforms reflect some fundamental social change, or does it just superficially correlate with a socially irrelevant change of the civilian fashion? Another important research subject is the history of social and political significance of the uniform design, as intended and perceived by the military and civilian public. This issue includes the role played by particular national symbolics and traditions. An interesting case are the new states of Central-Eastern Europe, which after 1918, and again after 1989, aimed to outfit their armies in a way that not only represented the contemporary military style, but also incorporated nationalist imagery. Besides national symbols, various special patterns, colours and clothing elements were considered part of the national tradition and recurred frequently, such as such as the grey colour of German uniforms or the Polish square cap.

Submission guidelines

Scholars interested in attending the workshop are kindly asked to send their abstracts (in English, separate files in docx or pdf format, up to 300 words) to the address j.kilias@uw.edu.pl or l.tatarenko@uw.edu.pl

before December 15, 2024

The workshop will take place on March 6-7, 2025 in Warsaw.

Organizers

• Centre de civilisation française et d’études francophones
• Faculty of Sociology, Warsaw University
• Společnost pro výzkum dějin vojenství

Organization committee

• Jarosław Kilias (Faculty of Sociology - Warsaw University)
• Laurent Tatarenko (CCFEF -Warsaw University / IHMC - CNRS)
• Petr Wohlmuth (Společnost pro výzkum dějin vojenství / Faculty of Humanities - Charles University, Prague)