Dressing Up in British India
Side stepping the fraught issues of imperialism, it has to be said that British India did produce some remarkable outfits. Chitral, where our wool comes from lay on the North West frontier the Empire, a region where British rule was indirect and the uniforms of the soldiers who served there tended to reflect this. The corps of guides was the first unit recruited from this region and its uniforms echoed the traditional dress of the area. Most significantly the Corps of Guides was the first unit of the British army to reject bright red tunics and instead camouflage their uniforms with a local dye called khaki (a Persian word meaning 'soil coloured'- خاکی).
The images below show from top: Major Dighton Probyn VC, one of most renown dresser uppers of mid nineteenth century India. Dighton Probyn founded Probyn's Horse and the second row shows two officers from that unit, from around the turn of the twentieth century. The next row is of officers from Hodson's Horse, which would later become the Corps of Guides mentioned above. Note the wonderfully louche pose of the officer in the middle. The final image is of Captain Colin Mackenzie who had many an adventure on the frontier and here is depicted in Afghan dress, note the ikat hem on his coat.
Side stepping the fraught issues of imperialism, it has to be said that British India did produce some remarkable outfits. Chitral, where our wool comes from lay on the North West frontier the Empire, a region where British rule was indirect and the uniforms of the soldiers who served there tended to reflect this. The corps of guides was the first unit recruited from this region and its uniforms echoed the traditional dress of the area. Most significantly the Corps of Guides was the first unit of the British army to reject bright red tunics and instead camouflage their uniforms with a local dye called khaki (a Persian word meaning 'soil coloured'- خاکی).
The images below show from top: Major Dighton Probyn VC, one of most renown dresser uppers of mid nineteenth century India. Dighton Probyn founded Probyn's Horse and the second row shows two officers from that unit, from around the turn of the twentieth century. The next row is of officers from Hodson's Horse, which would later become the Corps of Guides mentioned above. Note the wonderfully louche pose of the officer in the middle. The final image is of Captain Colin Mackenzie who had many an adventure on the frontier and here is depicted in Afghan dress, note the ikat hem on his coat.
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