Have sailors ever worn the white and blue sailor suit? If not, how did it become a cultural symbol for sailors?
Both my dad and my boyfriend are Navy vets, and here’s what I know.
Yes, they do still have those uniforms, although they’re not what they wear on duty on ships nowdays. Those are more “dress” uniforms that they wear for special occasions.
FYI, I am told that the reason for those bell-bottom pants traditional in the Navy is that if one is thrown off the ship in battle or storm, one can tie the legs shut and create a sort of air bag to sustain one until rescue. That is, if you’re underwater for two or three minutes, those dorky pants will hold enough air to keep you alive.
Or else Dad was pulling my leg.
I wouldn’t put it past him.
Nonetheless, I possess a photo of my boyfriend in the blue and white uniform, just like the character on the Cracker Jack box.
My brother’s in the Navy and has said he wears a tan uniform aboard the ship, but I can’t recall what non-officers wear. All I know is that they look great walking around town. 
As for the pants, I’ve never heard of breathing from them, but I know that people have tied them off with air inside and used them as a flotation device until rescue ships arrived.
Now that you mention it, I recall my boyfriend talking about different colored shirts for different designations on ship. I have not heard about tan, but when he shifted from something to electronics, his uniform shirt color changed. He’s talked about such on-ship designations as “grapes” and such, depending on the color of the shirt. I’ll grill him when he gets home…
And I also have heard about the flotation device of Navy bell-bottoms – from my dad, and I thought he was joking. I’m surprised. Any more info?
- Blue Bell Camp. I’m a wee pudgy lad of 10. I take Advanced Swimmer Class, American Red Cross swimming right? A part of this is to jump INTO the pool, with jeans on. You have to get em off, knot them, and then heave them OVER your head WHILE treading water- thusly creating a balloon of air inside the denim.
It was a bitch, but it worked, and kept me afloat.
CartooniverseIn the Royal Navy each type of dress is given a number, so that ceremonial/best is called
No1s the best-includes medals and awards,status and specialisation.
No2 Is used in non-ceremonial environments where the wearer must be readily identified as being Navy such as shore patrols, guard duty.Markings include status, specialisation and medal ribbons only. Usually made of a fairly heavy duty wool and scratchy as hell.
No6s Are the whites, made of cotton drill they are light and cool - tropical uniform.Can be used ceremonially with medals
No8s Are standard working dress, shirt and pants.Badges of specialisation and status.
Shorts may be worn but only with 6 and 8 along with sandals
These are the main ones but there are others such as boilersuits, camoflage, medical etc
Bell bottoms, the reason they are that shape easier to dress/undress when wet(try taking soaking wet pants off)and they roll up easily when required, mainly when scrubbing decks in the old days and on top of that they look cool.
US patterns of Navy dress have very similar parallels
Here we go - probably more than you ever wanted to know about U.S. Navy attire. The Dress Blue Uniform does indeed look a lot like the get-up that the Cracker Jack character is wearing. The trousers (pants to you land lubbers) have a large button-up flap in the front. And the jumper (won’t tell you the joke about the U.S.M.C. jacket) has a large flap at the back. There are no buttons at the collar of the jumper and the black neckerchief is worn with a reef knot (square knot) at the neck with the knot hanging at just the intersection of the collar material. This uniform is required for all formal and official occasions. There is also a Summer Dress Uniform that uses the same style uniform as the Dress Blue except that the trousers are conventional button-fly (like Levi 501) front. The Dress Blue Uniform does not utilize a belt, but the Dress White Uniform uses a white canvas web belt with a brass clinch-type buckle. In all cases. the head cover is the traditional sailor hat (“dixie cup”) and the shoes are highly polished (“spit shined”) black dress shoes.
For normal work duty, the uniform consists of a dark trouser with a lighter blue chambray shirt. The trouser is button-fly in the style of Levi 501s. The head cover is the traditional sailor hat. The shoes are ankle high work boots called “boondockers”.
There have been and still are several variations of these basic sets of uniforms including Summer Dress Whites which substitute white short trousers for the long pants, a pullover blue work shirt, and Undress Blues which use a blue jumper without the fancy white piping of the Dress Blues.
All the above information is about male enlisted personnel below the rank of CPO (Chief Petty Officer - E7) that I am recalling from experience. I left the USN in 1977, so uniform customs may have changed dramatically since then. Tan (really khaki) work uniforms in varied configurations are worn by E-7 through E-9 enlisted personnel and officers. Their dress uniforms styles are just as complicated and (since I was never an officer) I am not real familiar with all the versions. Maybe some former USN officers can help on that subject.
The colored shirts referred to by Margarita are probably the jerseys worn by sailors aboard Navy ships - primarily aircraft carriers - that designate the person’s specialty. The ‘grapes’ (who wear purple shirts) are the fuel handling crew. Red shirts denote the ordnance (bombs, ammo, missile, rockets) group. Green are the aviation maintenance crew that come aboard as ‘visitors’ on the carrier. Brown are the aircraft crewchief guys who have personal responsibility for each squadron aircraft. Yellow shirts direct all operations on the flight and hangar decks - they are the ‘traffic cops’ of the aircraft carrier. The folks with white shirts have special duties like safety, medical, final checkers (they check to make sure the afterburners are lighted before take-off from the deck) cat checkers, and the LSO (Landing Signals Officer). Most of these people have radios in their headgear so they can stay in touch with the Air Boss (head dude in charge of all flight deck operations) who also wears a yellow jersey.
I am probably forgetting lots of little details, but this should give you some idea of the traditions and usage of U.S. Navy attire. The subject of USN uniform patches, pins, and insignia is a whole 'nother topic that we could discuss for hours on end!
Ok, now you must!!!
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I just want to hear that USMC jacket joke.
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Well, I don’t know about the USMC jacket, but I do know that the flap on the crackerjack blues trousers was referred to by some sailors as the “Marine’s dinner plate.”
Hey, I didn’t make it up, I’m just repeating it…
BTW, when I got out of the Navy (Reserve, ~1993), they had just gone to a jumper whites uniform for women–it was worn with a skirt rather than pants and looked pretty bad. Anyone know whether it’s still being worn?
Okay, okay, DAYIUZ, here it is: When a Marine is with a pretty lady who is ready to be romantic with him, he will take off his trousers and ‘jacket’. When a Sailor is with a pretty lady who is ready to be romantic with him, he will take off his trousers and ‘jumper’.
HA! I know, I know, I asked for it. Thanks anyway…