Comfort or attractive appearance?

It was always a combat function that lay at the bottom of the rich and sometimes strange or even grotesque soldier uniforms 200 years ago. Combat conditions, prestige requirements, a sense of aesthetics prevailing at the time and available fabrics contributed to the final and colourful silhouette of a soldier. What distinguished grenadiers from other units was their headgear without a distinct peak and not protruding to the sides in order not to disturb the backswing necessary to throw a grenade. With time grenadiers’ units as select ones started to adopt an elegant and distinctive dress to arouse the enemy’s respect with their very appearance. Napoleonic grenadiers wore white tights, and dark blue jackets with white revers, decorated with red shoulder straps, collar facing and crimson cuffs and trim. They had white belts and cartridge cases. Their headgear consisted of black caps made from bear fur with a gilded shield and decorated with a red putty and silver woven cord. They were armed with rifles with bayonets and broadswords hanging on a red sling. A grenadier also had a leather backpack and a rolled-up blanket as well as a bag attached at the back of his belt. The total weight of a grenadier’s kit was 27 – 35 kg. People were shorter at that time; even in the second half of the 19th century being only 152 cm tall was enough to be drafted to Austrian army. Consequently, the effort of those colourfully-dresses soldiers was really impressive. We should remember that verification of functionality and usefulness of a uniform was done at the cost of sweat and blood of thousands of soldiers. Ergonomics and comfort of uniforms was improved by way of inconceivable suffering of soldiers. They were supposed to be the toughest and the army is assumed to be a very conservative institution. It is hard to imagine what terrible things must have happened for the army to give up the colourful and stiff uniforms.