WAAF O/A SERVICE DRESS
- Lucy Manley
- Feb 11, 2019
- 3 min read
Welcome to the first post of the WAAF series. To kick things off we’re starting off with the O/A service dress.
One of the iconic female uniforms of the Second World War, the O/A WAAF service dress a wonderful yet sensible uniform. I personally adore the colour of the cloth and structured cut of the jacket. I once read that the WAAF uniform was voted the second favourite of the nations female uniforms. Moving swiftly on lets talk about the two garments featured …
I like to see the WAAF service dress at the cornerstone of the WAAF uniforms. It was the first uniform issued to the girls who joined up in 1939 and again later on in the war. The WAAF were required to wear the Service Dress when leaving any base that they were working from and in the early years of the war, for example in the Battle of Britain, were expected to wear the SD to do proper manual tasks in.
THE JACKET
The WAAF SD tunic is very similar to its male counterpart. The tunic is belted, with four pockets and a button fastening down the centre of the jacket. The belt should sit between the 3rd and 4th buttons and should fit comfortably on the middle set of eyelets. The WAAF SD tunic will button on the mens side. The differences are; there is a seam running from the front of the shoulder down to the bust and the bottom two pockets have a button fastening, whereas the mens do not.
The main notable difference is the cloth. Whilst still being a serge, the WAAF tunics are made of a serge that is much finer and lighter in weight and a better quality than their counterparts, I have included a comparison photo of my WAAF tunic and a Mens RAF tunic to show the difference. As with many women’s SD uniforms of this era, the WAAF SD tunic is fully lined in a blue cotton sateen. Overall the Rank and File SD tunic is of a much better quality to that of the mens, even down to its construction. The tunic is fully canvassed and has shoulder pads, whereas the mens is much more primitively made. This is probably down to the fact that they expected the men to take on much more of a hands on role in the RAF and the women, to play a larger role in the administrative side of things.
THE SKIRT
The skirt is made of the same cloth as the tunic and is constructed of four panels with a seam down the centre back and front. It has a simple cloth waistband and a fly fastening on the left hand side. Although some specs state that the WAAF skirt would fasten with 3 buttons my one, which is 42 dated, fastens with one at the top so this may vary depending on who the manufacturer was and when it was made. Reading from an original, official pattern for the WAAF uniform, it is suggested that the hem is 14” from the ground. In the latter years of the war, due to austerity measures the skirts did get shorter but never sat higher than the bottom of the knee.
The WAAF SD is very interesting piece of kit, as it is made so beautifully with little to no fault to its practical serviceability to the working WAAF. As stated above, I would say that the Air Ministry perhaps had not expected the women to be having to take on such a share of the more masculine trades and that is why very early on you begin to see specific chore dresses and coveralls (some of which I hope to cover very soon) being issued within the WAAF to protect the service dress from daily wear and tear.
I hope this description of the finer details that are featured in the WAAF O/A SD skirt and tunic have helped. Alongside this post I have included some detailed photos of my original 1942 dated O/A service dress tunic as well as original pattern drafts.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next instalment ! I hope you enjoyed this post.
TTFN
Lucy :)
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