Eisenhower jacket

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In its simplest distillment, the Eisenhower jacket, or "Ike" jacket, is a type of military uniform blouson, or shortened coat, terminating in a waistband. But by every measure and in every respect, the waist cropped, M-1944 Wool Field Jacket – better known then, as now, by its "Eisenhower" and "Ike Jacket" eponyms – is no ordinary jacket. Despite its supposed purpose as an every-warrior’s uniform, it was a politically charged fashion statement, born from vanity and inspired by jealous rivalry.

Broad shouldered and stylishly tailored, it ranks as the world’s first garment purposely designed for the dawning age of sound-bites and "press buzz," its birth sped on the heels of a mass-media revolution that, for the first time in history, shuttled televised news reels into the homes and theaters of everyday citizens, across America.

Until the late-1930s, the U.S. Army’s field uniform consisted of a wool shirt, mid-hip-length "All Purpose Service Coat" and Wool Overcoat. Save for its belted waist, the single-breasted Service Coat resembled a suit or sport coat more than a uniform. Little changed since World War I, it featured notched lapels and five metal buttons from its open collar to its belted waist. Made of heavy wool serge, it touted two flapped and button-through patch pockets at the breast and two identically styled patch pockets below its belted waist – its four pockets either box-pleated or bellows-styled-pleats.^[1]

Using civilian "windcheaters" as its ideal design objective, the Army began a four-year study in 1935 to develop a more practical and effective combat jacket to replace the Service Coat.

In 1940, it first adopted the M-38, then later, the M-41 Field Jacket, or "Parson’s Jacket," its name won from Major General J. K. Parsons who helmed its development. Simply designed and modeled after a civilian windcheater made by John Rissman & Sons of Chicago, it was a short, button-front weatherproof jacket with a tight fitting waist and two flapped and button-through front pockets.

In early 1943, front-line skirmishes in Europe and North Africa proved the long, mid hip-length Service Coat, as well as the shorter M-41 Parson’s Field Jacket, inappropriate for what was then, modern-era combat. The Service Coat was re-deployed to garrison and parade duty, exclusively, and the M-41 was replaced by a new and completely redesigned Field Jacket, the M-43.^[2]

Contents 1 M-43 Field Jacket – Multi-Environment Combat Uniform Building Block 2 M-44, a.k.a. "Ike Jacket," prototype development 3 Fashion and pop culture influences 4 Miscellaneous: The Ike Jacket’s disputed design provenance 5 Post-WW II Re-designs and adaptations 6 References

M-43 Field Jacket – Multi-Environment Combat Uniform Building Block

Built around the layering principle, the M-43 became the basic building block of a multi-environment, all-season combat uniform being developed by the Office of the Quartermaster General (OQMG) for worldwide combat.

In May 15, 1943, the Air Transport Command (ATC) recommended development of a short, waist cropped woolen field jacket that could be worn under the M-43 as an added insulator.

M-44, a.k.a. "Ike Jacket," prototype development

Six months later, in the fall of 1943, the Army Air Corps prototype jacket was sent to Chief Quartermaster of the European Theatre of Operations for review and possible adoption by ETO commanding general, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Eisenhower had already requested a waist-cropped style; his based on the English battle jacket, "but with more distinctive style." A no-nonsense military man, Ike was a partisan advocate of the British jacket’s functional sensibilities.

Frustrated by the Army’s slow-grinding bureaucracy, Eisenhower sent his Service Coat, along with a British battle jacket, to his longtime personal tailor, Arthur "Art" Ermilio, a Philadelphia-based, custom tailor. Eisenhower tasked Ermilio with creating a Field Jacket loosely modeled after the shorter, British battle jacket.

Like many of Savile Row’s earliest custom tailoring firms, Ermilio Custom Tailors & Clothiers had specialized in custom-bespoke military uniforms since its founding in 1897 and continued to cater to wealthy and high-ranking officers, Eisenhower included.

According to Ermilio’s son, Robert "Bob" Ermilio – the third generation Ermilio to head the 113-year-old and still-family owned firm that today ranks America’s oldest, custom-bespoke design and tailoring house – Eisenhower tasked Ermilio with designing a jacket that was "neater" than the British battle jacket. "A style that could be worn by itself or over a shirt" was among Eisenhower’s many, well-thought-out specifications, recalls the younger Ermilio.^[3]

Equally important, listed Eisenhower, is that it be "very short and very comfortable, even while raising a rifle or pistol." The practical-minded Eisenhower also insisted that it conserve on wool, then a war-rationed commodity. To Eisenhower’s delight, Ermilio’s design shaved away nearly one-and-a-half yards of wool.

Still, Eisenhower’s most emphatic instruction was the its design by "very natty looking."

The collaborative design created by Eisenhower and Ermilio was adopted, in principle, by the OQMG in early 1944 and integrated into its layering strategy for an all-season, combat uniform.

By mid-1944, the OQMG finalized the several layering components of its multi-environment combat uniform, anointing the M-43 Field Jacket its basic, universal building block. A dramatically revised version of the M-41, the M-43 touted a wind-proof, olive drab colored cotton poplin outer shell with internal layers that could be added or eliminated depending on local battle conditions. In cold environs, its notched lapels converted to a stand-up, storm-flap for added neck protections. A pile jacket liner and fur-edged hood could also be added.

Designed to be second, insulated layer, the Ike jacket, a.k.a. M-44, was created to be worn underneath the M-43. In extreme cold, a sweater, flannel shirt and wool-cotton T-shirt was worn under the Ike jacket.

In November, 1944, the M-44, or Ike jacket, was classified standard issued. The Ike jacket featured a roomy, bloused back with action pleats and oversized sleeves, its fit large and loose to accommodate the several added insulating underlays without compromising either comfort or freedom of movement.

Immediately after its issue the Eisenhower jacket was assigned double-duty. Beside a combat field jacket it was also appointed the Army’s dress and parade uniform.

Thanks to its dress uniform status, soldiers – officers, in particular – sought out their own tailors, adopting the snugly tailored design Ermilio had created for Eisenhower. Hence was born the Ike jacket.

"Modern fashion is borne from either sport or combat," tells G. Bruce Boyer, the world celebrated fashion author and noted American dandy. No greater confirmation to Boyer’s incisive comment than the Ike jacket. Unwittingly, the collaboration between Ermilio and Eisenhower created one of the world’s most enduring fashion icons, an Americana classic whose stature rivals Levi's 5-pocket, shrink-to-fit 501s, cowboy boots, and penny loafers, and the short-sleeved, white T-shirt.^[4]

Whether the standard issue, M-44 Field Jacket or its sveltely re-tailored, Ike jacket sibling, their shared common denominators are an olive drab, 18-ounce wool serge. Once turned up and buttoned over, its notched lapels became a convertible, "storm collar" that protected the neck and throat in chilly environs. Staggered cuffs buttons created adjustable cuffs that could be relaxed or cinched tight at the wrist.

To prevent equipment from catching on its buttons, a "fly front" flap concealed its button front, a shrewd design ploy that also prevented snagging in dense underbrush, whether walking or crawling. For the same reason, its flapped, bellows breast pockets touted hidden buttons.^[5]

Epaulets corralled shoulder hung equipment. Adjustable buckles at left and right sides cinched the waist-band tight at the hips, delivering added warmth and accentuating its masculine, broad-shouldered lines. "Action-back" pleats, one at each shoulder, extended to the waistband, assuring a slim and trim shape but generously providing ample room for unrestricted freedom of movement, even when firing a raised a rifle or pistol.

According to Paul Fussel’s Uniforms, "Eisenhower had a reputation among his troops as an eminently decent man, friendly and sympathetic," an admiration that Ike elevated even further, tells Fussel, by having the bravado to casually rest his hands inside his pocket and "violate the sacred Army injunction." That anecdote, tells Fussel, explains why Eisenhower refused to adorn his personal jacket with gilded buttons: He considered his jacket an every-warrior’s combat uniform.^[6]

But the true, unvarnished grist behind the Ike jacket’s development isn’t told by following a bureaucratic trail of U.S. Army minutia. Nor was it purposely created and functionally designed to be a utilitarian combat garment.

Just the opposite, in fact.

Instead, the Ike jacket is a Machiavellian victory of form over function. Born from jealous rivalry and a clash of vanities that pitted Eisenhower against Britain’s Field Marshall Bernard Law, its history chronicles the maneuverings of their political and media celebrity power struggles played out on a world stage at the brink of destruction.

When Eisenhower – then a four-star general and Supreme Allied Commander – arrived in England to strategize D-day's invasion in 1944, he was impressed by the cropped, short-waisted jacket worn by his swashbuckling English rival, the dashing General Bernard "Monty" Montgomery.

Convinced the far heavier and much longer look of the U.S. Army's waist-belted Service Coat appeared clumsy and outdated, Eisenhower preferred the rakishly dashing but still polished verve of Montgomery's jacket. It was the savior faire fashion sensibilities of Montgomery's cropped, Bolero-like battle jacket that proved irresistible, if not seductively compelling, to the image savvy and politically minded Ike.

It's widely speculated that Ike's ego and his political rivalry with the highly popular, media savvy Montgomery – himself once Allied Supreme Commander until replaced by Eisenhower – played a significant role in his decision to adopt the British jacket as his own. Beside a far more timely and contemporary fashion statement, he considered it significantly more flattering – a visually potent weapon, realized Eisenhower, that could be discretely wielded to favorably shape, televised mass-opinion.

According to confidants, Ike lamented that Monty looked far more dashing and debonair – not to mention fit and svelte – in his short, cropped jacket. WWII's movie theater "news serial" shorts and the infant-age of TV ushered in mass media news journalism and introduced the dawning era of "sound bites," "buzz" and the importance of "visual presentations." Hence Eisenhower’s instructions to his tailor, Ermilio, that the Ike jacket be "very natty looking."

Eisenhower, like Montgomery, realized the sledge-hammer-like influence that an astutely managed "visual presentation" had on swaying public opinion. Early on, each exploited the dynamic relationship between "visual presentation" and the mass media image cachet it created; combat uniforms, included.

Fearing that his own image was at a disadvantage and being overshadowed by Montgomery's, Eisenhower tasked his tailor, Art Ermilio, to create a similar but more distinguished look – "a dashing design that would trump Monty’s". Shunning the rough and ugly, unfinished wool used in the British field jacket, Eisenhower and Ermilio upped the image ante and upstaged Montgomery by borrowing the smoothly finished wool used in the Service Jacket.

Therein is the "unofficial," flip-side history of the political machinations that created the Eisenhower jacket.

Mimicking Ike’s own style, Army officers typically wore their jacket with a khaki shirt, partnered to either a four-in-hand necktie or black silk scarf worn Ascot-like, topped-off by a garrison cap, rakishly tilted, every so slightly, to one-side.

A red-hot rage of the moment, both on and off the battlefield, the Ike jacket has reigned one of haute-fashion's chic-est and most influential designs, since. To this day, the visually powerful lines wrought by its minimalist design, broad shoulder silhouette and short, waist cropped styling continues to woo and sway the world’s top fashion designers, including haute couturier, Katie Ermilio, the designer’s granddaughter whose own collections, from time-to-time, coyly channel the design of her grandfather’s iconic jacket.^[7]

Returning GIs – Ike, included – made their "Eisenhower jacket" a golf course staple and country club essential, partly because of its relaxed style and unrivaled freedom of movement, but mostly because it had become an iconic symbol of America's conquest over the Nazis.

Fashion and pop culture influences

Thanks to its new found favor among GI golfers, the Ike jacket-look quickly acquired another identity and a new nom de guerre: "golf blouson." In the blink of an eye, the Eisenhower jacket had speed-shifted from WWII battle dress jacket to a golf blouson then into '50s fashion's hottest, rage-of-the-moment; each a true, grass roots fashion phenom.

Beside inspiring the original, early 1950s Windbreaker, thank the Ike jacket for pioneering an entirely new fashion phenomenon and outerwear category. Not to mention a new entry to both the English language and the world’s fashion vocabulary.

First called a "golf blouson", the "Windbreaker" name was both the brand and company name of the early 1950s fashion craze, its light-weight cotton shell a knock-off of Ike's wildly popular Eisenhower jacket. Thanks to mimicking the Ike jacket's wildly popular design, then adding a does of styling verve and a wide array of fashion colors, Windbreaker quickly replaced the authentic, GI issue as the de-rigueur golf uniform.

But like Kleenex and Xerox, "Windbreaker" soon became a catch-all, generic name for the entire category, its rivals, included. As its chic image cachet and brand identity continued to blur and erode, knock-offs and cheap imitations poached its sales and gnawed away at its once stylishly hip, gotta-have cachet. By the early 1960s, Windbreaker – both brand name and company – had vanished, a victim of its own success.

Coattailing on the Ike Jacket’s fashion hysteria, New York’s Schott Brothers re-designed their own Perfecto motorcycle jacket in its likeness, the Perfecto’s first make over since its 1928 debut. Dubbed the "613 Perfecto" and introduced in the late-1940s, the Ike-like facelift was best known by its "One Star" nickname, a sobriquet won from a single, chrome star that adorned each epaulette. In the early -1950s, Schott introduced still a second make over, its now legendary "618 Perfecto," a slightly tweaked, 613 noticeably absent the epaulettes’ chrome stars.

Not long after, Johnny Strabbler, Marlon Brando’s motorcycle thug character in 1953's The Wild One, transformed the 618 Perfecto into an infamous, pop classic and iconic signature of bullies and hoodlums. Although Brando’s Strabbler wore the newer 618, a little known anecdote is that the actor stole a pair of 613 chrome stars, then added them to his 618's epaulettes. Although the movie’s director and its wardrobing team remained ignorant to the Brando-inspired ploy, his purpose was to send a visual signal to the movie's audience: The added stars symbolized his command of the Black Rebels gang.

Later, the Ike Jacket would inspire the equally famed, Levi Strauss & Co. 501 denim jacket. To this day, the design and styling details of the classic, Levi’s 501 jean jacket remains a near flawless mimic of the Ike Jacket.

Throughout the 1950s, James Dean and Marlon Brando would take turns using Levi’s 501 jean jacket and Schott’s black, 618 Perfecto to perfect their characters as outlaw villains and social outcasts, from Rebel Without a Cause, Giant' and The Wild One to A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront and others.

Like many other battlefield fashions, some centuries-old, the "Eisenhower jacket" joined Burberry's trench coat, safari jackets, regimental striped neckties, and the fleece-lined, WWII USAF B-17 "bomber jacket," along with khakis, as among the hundreds of once military and battlefield uniform elements that have since become influential and enduring fashion icons.

Miscellaneous: The Ike Jacket’s disputed design provenance

Like many of the world’s most celebrated design and style icons, the Eisenhower jacket’s creative provenance is disputed, its design claimed by at least three different challengers. Joseph Rapinett, who claims to have been Eisenhower’s personal tailor, is one. Joseph Rome, head of the Post Exchange at Washington state’s Ft. Lewis, is another. Art Ermilio, a Philadelphia-based custom-bespoke tailor whose still-family-owned and now fourth-generation, Ermilio Custom Tailors & Clothiers dates to 1897 and then, as now, ranks America’s oldest, custom-bespoke tailoring house, is the third and most legitimate of the three.

Joseph Rome, Post Exchange Director, Ft. Lewis, Washington

Owing to a number of historic and factual inaccuracies, Joseph Rome’s contention ranks the most suspect and easiest to dismiss. According to Rome’s account, he designed the Ike jacket at Eisenhower’s request while the then-Lt. Colonel Eisenhower was assigned to Washington state’s, Ft. Lewis, as "Chief of Staff of the 3rd Division. Rome’s dates, however, along with his historic account of both Eisenhower’s rank and assignment, contradict official military records.

Eisenhower was only briefly assigned to Ft. Lewis, his short, 18-month tenure lasting from February 1940 to June 1941. Therein is the first factual inaccuracy of Rome’s disputed claim to be the Ike jacket’s designer. Rome claims to have designed the jacket between 1940 and 1941. But according to official Army records, the initial prototype of the Ike jacket first appeared in 1943, two-years after Eisenhower had left Ft. Lewis, and not between 1940 and 1941 as Rome erroneously claims. In addition, it was the Army’s Office of the Quartermaster General (OQMG) - not Rome - that originated the initial design prototype in 1943.

Also, official military documents and Army records all agree that the Ike jacket’s design concept, along with development of its initial prototype through to its final, approved and adopted design, all occurred between 1942 and 1944 while Eisenhower was stationed in London, beginning in 1942.

Rome was not a tailor. Nor was he a fashion designer. Instead, he headed the Ft. Lewis Post Exchange. Highly unlikely that Eisenhower would have sought the design and tailoring consul of a novice for a jacket of such great importance.

Third flaw in Rome’s account is his reported contention that Eisenhower was Chief of Staff of the Army’s 3rd Division during his Ft. Lewis command. Again, official military records contradict Rome’s version: Eisenhower wasn’t promoted to the 3rd Division’s Chief of Staff until after leaving Ft. Lewis and arriving at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, in June, 1941. (According to a previous Wikipedia attribution profiling the Eisenhower jacket, "This information" regarding Joseph Rome's self-described account of his role in designing the Ike jacket "is taken from the obituary of Joseph Rome, published on the front page of the Tacoma News Tribune, January 11, 1971.")

Joseph Rapinett

Joseph Rapinett, a self-professed tailor, who also claims to have been Eisenhower’s personal tailor, is a second Ike JACKET design challenger. Historically, there is no public or official record of Rapinett’s role as Eisenhower’s personal tailor, despite its high-profile position. Nor are there any historic accounts – from period newspaper reports to public record – that can confirm his association with Eisenhower or support his contention that he was responsible for the Ike jacket’s design.

Art Ermilio, Custom-Bespoke Tailor of Business-Dress and Military Uniforms

Of the three challengers, it’s the now deceased, Arthur "Art" Ermilio, a Philadelphia-based custom-bespoke tailor and designer who then helmed Ermilio Custom Clothing and Design, that stands the only legitimate claimant.

Founded in 1897 by Louis Ermilio, Art Emilio’s father, Ermilio Custom Clothing and Design then, as it does now, ranked America’s oldest fashion and design tailoring house. The long and well documented relationship between Eisenhower and the Ermilios dates to WW I when the then-Captain Eisenhower was stationed in Philadelphia.

Despite their significant costs, the image and career-conscious Eisenhower – like his career rivals, Douglas MacArthur and George Patton -- chose the far more flattering fit and masculine styling of custom-tailored uniforms over the military’s ill-fitting, "general issue."

Like the majority of Savile Row’s custom-bespoke dynasties, Ermilio Custom Clothing & Design originated as a custom-bespoke maker of military uniforms. Now helmed by Robert "Bob" Ermilio—its third-generation Ermilio and, like his grandfather and father before him, a custom-bespoke designer and tailor – the now 113-year-old couture design and tailoring house continues to specialize in bespoke military uniforms.

Eisenhower, who was stationed near Philadelphia during WW I, began a long association with Louis Ermilio, Ermilio Custom Clothing & Design’s founder, then continued it with his son, Art Ermilio. The Eisenhower–Ermilio partnership would later prove responsible for not only the iconic Ike jacket but the equally renowned, U.S. Masters Jacket.

From the early 1930s to mid-1950, the U.S. military enjoyed its greatest growth spurt, which included a large clique of well-to-do, promotion-conscious officers. The swelling ranks of promotion hungry officers – most stationed between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. – propelled Ermilio Custom Clothing and Design into the premier and most sought after maker of custom-bespoke military uniforms in America.

Like Eisenhower and Patton, a majority of Ermilio’s military clients were calvary officers. For many, horses and military equestrian events were their on- and off-duty passions. By the early 1920s, Ermilio Custom Clothing & Design had earned an added a reputation as America’s premier maker of custom-bespoke equestrian fashions. To this day, it continues to wardrobe the vast majority of the world’s top Olympic equestrians.

Beside an influential design role in creating the Ike jacket, Art Ermilio would later design the now-fabled, grass-green-colored U.S. Masters Tournament sportcoat in 1949 – his design commission won via Eisenhower’s membership at Augusta National Golf Club and the soon-to-be-president’s political sway among golf’s top movers-and-shakers.^[8]

In addition to crafting Eisenhower’s military uniforms, Art Ermilio continued to tailor Ike’s suits throughout his presidency and into his retirement. Ermilio would add the then Vice President, Richard M. Nixon, and later, President Nixon, to his client roster, and other top politicos and business moguls. At his retirement, Ermilio boasted four presidents, a bevy of corporate and financial moguls, along with several top entertainment celebrities and world celebrated socialites among his clients, Grace Kelly and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, the later Jacqueline Kennedy, then "Jackie O," included.^[9]

Post-WW II Re-designs and adaptations

Thanks to its comfort and the unobstructed ease it offered while operating a vehicle or brandishing a side-arm, the Ike jacket design became a popular, post-WW-II uniform staple among Federal and state law enforcement agencies as well as with countless numbers of municipal and civilian police departments throughout America.

In 1947, the Army introduced a shorter and better tailored version of the M-44. Designated the MQ-1 and designed solely as a dress and parade uniform, the jacket was again refined in 1950 and re-introduced as the M-1950, but without button cuffs. With the later introduction of the "Army Green", U.S. Army Service Uniform in 1957, the Ike jacket gradually began to disappear domestically but was still a uniform option for troops stationed in international theaters.

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) adopted a variant of the Ike jacket in 1945 and retained it through 1960. In 1947, The United States Air Force (USAF) added still another Ike jacket design iteration, the M-47, and continued its use for the next two-years, before changing its color to "Air Force blue" in 1949, where it remained a signature of the USAF, until being retired in 1964.^[10]

To this day, uniforms of the U.S. Border Patrol, along with most allied agencies within its broader, umbrella department, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (USCBPA) boast a dress jacket that’s near identical to the Ike jacket original.

References