{{Short description|Formal dress jacket of military origin}} thumb|Canadian officers in mess jackets 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.<ref name="Black Tie Guide">[http://www.blacktieguide.com/Contemporary/Contemp_Alternatives.htm Entry at blacktieguide.com] Accessed August 4, 2012].</ref> The jackets have shawl or peak lapels. Used in military mess dress, during the 1930s it became a popular alternative to the white dinner jacket in hot and tropical weather for black tie occasions. It also was prominently used, in single-breasted form, as part of the uniform for underclassmen at Eton College, leading to the alternative name '''Eton jacket'''.<ref name="Black Tie Guide"/> Its origin was a spencer, a tail-less adaptation of the tailcoat worn by both men and women during the Regency period. The term ''mess'' is the area where military personnel dine and socialize, and thus "mess jacket" corresponds etymologically to "(military) dinner jacket".
==History== thumb|Two St John Ambulance of Canada officers in mess uniform (mess dress), black jacket with grey facings and cuffs, and red vest; with others in Canadian army mess uniforms. The waist-length style of jacket first appeared in the 1790s when George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer removed the tails from his tailcoat.<ref name="Black Tie Guide"/> 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.<ref name="Weston">[http://www.fashion-era.com/regency_fashion.htm#Earl%20Spencer%20And%20The%20Short%20Spencer%20Jacket%201795 Regency Fashion History. 1800s Costume History], by Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com</ref> In the early 1800s, Eton College adopted it for first year students' uniforms; it was referred to as an Eton jacket.<ref name="Snodgrass2015">{{cite book|author=Mary Ellen Snodgrass|title=World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gO9nBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA233|date=17 March 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-45167-9|page=233}}</ref><ref name="F.Hunt-Hurst2015">{{cite book |author1= José Blanco F. |author2= Patricia Kay Hunt-Hurst|author3= Heather Vaughan Lee |author4= Mary Doering |title= Clothing and Fashion: American Fashion from Head to Toe [4 volumes]: American Fashion from Head to Toe |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hDkVCwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA68 |date= 23 November 2015 |publisher= ABC-CLIO |isbn= 978-1-61069-310-3 |page=68}}</ref> Civilians first adopted a white mess jacket in 1933 to wear in the tropical weather of Palm Beach, Florida, a popular tourist destination.<ref name="Black Tie Guide"/> It was adopted as part of mess dress, the military formal evening wear equivalent to civilian white tie and black tie.
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.<ref name="Black Tie Guide"/> The jacket also continues to be used as part of military mess dress.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{Commonscatinline|Mess jackets}}
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Category:Jackets Category:1790s fashion Category:1820s fashion Category:1930s fashion Category:Semi-formal wear