PC colour question

[David Dubh]

Thanks for all the repies especially OC Richard, with the highland dress brochure. I certainly like the idea of a coloured coatee is especially appealing, I have attended the odd black tie event kilted. All the non kilted men are always in black jackets, so I stand out anyway so why not do a coloured coatee. Now can I get that past the wife??

[Chas]

Of course, in the early days of the tuxedo (certainly from 1915) the alternative colour was 'midnight blue'.

Midnight blue is an alternative to black as a colour for dinner jackets. Due to the deepness of the colour, midnight blue formal clothes are almost indistinguishable from black. This has been the case since the 1930s, when the Duke of Windsor popularized the colour in suits and tuxedos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_blue

You can still see a few on occasion - usually double-breasted.

Regards

Chas

[sailortats]

I have noticed in this thread people referring to their PC as "archer green". I am not familiar with this name of the color green but I have a green PC myself. Is mine archer green or some other shade of green?

[Tobus]

I have noticed in this thread people referring to their PC as "archer green". I am not familiar with this name of the color green but I have a green PC myself. Is mine archer green or some other shade of green?

I could be wrong, but when I think of archer green, it's a much deeper, darker shade of green. Might also be known as forest green, whereas your jacket is more of a bottle green.

It's possible that the term "archer green" is a reference to the green colour worn by the Royal Company of Archers (though that's just a guess on my part). You can Google images of their uniforms for an example of that colour.

[Chas]

Well now, there's a thing. We all call it 'Archer Green', but maybe we shouldn't. I can't find a reference to it anywhere except on XMarks.

For what it is worth, my PC is the same colour as yours and I call it archer green -

But, but, but ...

Rifle green

Rifle green is a particular shade of dark green. It is so named from the distinctive colour of the uniform of rifle regiments (a form of light infantry) of a number of European armies, and is still used as such by rifle regiments in many Commonwealth armies, such as The Rifles and Royal Gurkha Rifles of the British Army.

Rifle green was originally adopted by rifle regiments in the 18th Century. As the traditional role of riflemen was that of marksmen and skirmishers who attacked behind the cover of trees, a dark green uniform was adopted as an early form of camouflage, as opposed to the colourful uniforms worn by other soldiers of the period.

Rifle green was the official uniform colour of the Canadian Forces (CF) after unification; it was thereafter generally referred to as "CF green"; indeed, the Service Dress uniform of the day was referred to as "CF greens". After the introduction of the Distinct Environmental Uniform (DEU), rifle green remained as the uniform colour of the winter Land Environment DEU; a short-lived tan uniform was worn in summer. After the demise of the tans, the rifle green DEU was worn year-round. Rifle Green was also the colour of the uniform worn by the Northern Irish Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) until 2001 where the RUC was replaced by the PSNI and the uniform color was changed to "bottle green".

Rifle green is 19–0419 TPX in the Pantone palette, or roughly 414833h in the sRGB colour space.

One of my Argyles, one of my PCs, Royal Regiment of Scotland Doublet



So maybe the RRoS doublet is Archer Green or it might be Rifle Green. What colour then, is the colour of our PCs?

You've asked a good question there.

Regards

Chas

[Downunder Kilt]

Photo below of Archer Green issue doublets of the Gordon Highlanders/The Highlanders of the RRS

[Glen]

Besides my black PC, I also own and wear an Archer Green and Navy Blue PC. With my Flower of Scotland, I prefer the green and with my Royal Air Force, I prefer the blue. The black is for everything else.

If I could afford another, It would be a toss-up between Wine Red and White.

Regards

Chas

I have a few PCs, and select which one to wear depending upon the event. The black PC is old and needs to be replaced, but I would also like a red, wine red, white or cream...

[Chas]

I have a few PCs, and select which one to wear depending upon the event. The black PC is old and needs to be replaced, but I would also like a red, wine red, white or cream...

I do like that grey PC, Glen - a colour not often seen. As much as I would love to get a cream PC, it just isn't done in the UK. It has always been seen as 'overseas dress' and not 'at home'. Oh well, it will have to be wine red then.

Regards

Chas

[OC Richard]

Great photo there!

Yes Archer Green is an extremely dark green, often mistaken for black indoors or in poor lighting. Rifle Green is, I believe, the same, because the Scottish Rifles wore that same very dark green colour.

The path of the Archer Green doublet is, to me, a very interesting one, as it began as the particular colour of the pipers of the Cameron Highlanders, when a new costume was introduced for their pipers in the 1840s. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the Scottish Infantry wore red jackets trimmed with their particular regiments' "facing colour", and musicians tended to wear "reversed colours" (jackets of the facing colour, trimmed in red). So you would see musicians of The Gordon Highlanders in yellow jackets &c.

So it was on all fours with tradition when The Cameron Highlanders introduced green jackets for their pipers, green being the regimental facing colour.

But! within a few decades all the other Highland regiments had put their pipers into Archer Green doublets too, regardless of their facing colours! Why? No one knows, but obviously people liked the way the pipers of the Camerons looked.

Then in 1914 Full Dress was withdrawn forever, and from then on the dressiest the Scottish soldier could ordinarily get was the khaki Service Dress. In 1953 though it was thought that a nicer dress uniform was needed and rather than go back to the original red the MOD decided on Archer Green for the whole of the Highland soldiery. Now with the creation of the RRS the entire Scottish army is in Archer Green, a strange turn of events for the once-unique green doublet of the pipers of the Camerons.

Anyhow about those other shades, we here in the USA would call the bright clear strong green "Kelly Green" (the colour of Glasgow Celtic &c) and I've heard the green halfway between Kelly Green and Archer Green called "tartan green" by Highland outfitters and the mills, it being the green used in Modern Colours tartans.

So anyhow I would call those three jackets, from Left to Right, Kelly Green, Tartan Green, and Archer Green.

Funny thing, there's a pipe band here that used to wear, rather than the usual pipe band black Argyll jackets, green Argyll jackets. Even though all the jackets were ordered from the same Highland Outfitter in Scotland, which was fully aware that all these jacket orders were intended for the same band, no two jackets were the same shade of green, exhibiting the range in the photo above from Kelly Green to Archer Green and every possible shade in between.

Every time I saw that band, the smaltzy Irish-American song "Forty Shades of Green" came to mind!

It's a truism in the pipe band world that when a band tries to do anything interesting/different/bespoke it nearly always "comes around to bite you in the butt" as we say, and the band, sooner or later, won't be able to match in things and will look all ahoo.

[Gayle]

Purple for this Aussie lady.