The mess jacket is a type of formal jacket that ends at the waist. It features either a non-fastening double breast cut or a single-breasted version that fastens.
Accessed August 4, 2012]. The jackets have shawl or peak

lapel A lapel ( ) is a folded flap of cloth on the front of a jacket or coat below the collar. It is most commonly found on formal clothing and suit jackets. Usually it is formed by folding over the front edge of the jacket or coat and sewing it to t ...

s. Used in military

mess dress Mess dress uniform is the most formal (or semi-formal wear, semi-formal, depending on the country) type of evening-wear uniform used by military personnel, Police officer, police personnel, and other uniformed services members. It frequently ...

, during the 1930s it became a popular alternative to the white dinner jacket in hot and tropical weather for

black tie Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and North American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal ...

occasions. It also was prominently used, in single-breasted form, as part of the uniform for underclassmen at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

, leading to the alternative name Eton jacket. Its origin was a spencer, a tail-less adaptation of the

tailcoat A tailcoat is a knee-length coat (clothing), coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt (known as the ''tails''), with the front of the skirt cut away. The tailcoat shares its historical origins in clothes cut for convenient horse-riding ...

worn by both men and women during the Regency period.

History

St John Ambulance of Canada officers in mess dress

The waist-length style of jacket first appeared in the 1790s when

George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, (1 September 1758 – 10 November 1834), styled Viscount Althorp from 1765 to 1783, was a British Whig politician. He served as Home Secretary from 1806 to 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents. He was ...

removed the tails from his

. Spencer, it was thought, singed the tails of his tailcoat while standing beside a fire and then cut off the ends, unwittingly starting a new fashion.Regency Fashion History. 1800s Costume History
by Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com In the early 1800s, Eton College adopted it for first year students' uniforms; it was referred to as an Eton jacket. Civilians first adopted a white mess jacket in 1933 to wear in the tropical weather of

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach, Florida, West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach, Florida, ...

, a popular tourist destination. It was adopted as part of

, the military formal evening wear equivalent to civilian

white tie White tie, also called full evening dress or a dress suit, is the most formal evening Western dress code. For men, it consists of a black tail coat (alternatively referred to as a dress coat, usually by tailors) worn over a white dress shir ...

and

. The mess jacket soon fell out of fashion for two main reasons. One is that the jacket only worked well with an athletic and slim fit. The other reason is that the mess jacket had gone on to be worn by musicians, bellhops and waiters, leading the class conscious of the era to abandon the garment. It is still used in service industries. The jacket also continues to be used as part of military mess dress.

References

External links

* {{clothing Jackets 1790s fashion 1820s fashion 1930s fashion Semi-formal wear