Manufactured at our state-of-the-art facility in North Carolina, our Blue Mess Dress Trousers for Generals meet or exceed all Army specifications. Per DA PAM 670-1, these low-waisted trousers are dark blue with two ½ -inch ornamental gold braids spaced a ½ -inch apart (the trousers for all other officers have only one braid) running from the bottom of the waistband to the bottom of the trouser legs. The braids on our straight-legged, cuffless dress blue trousers are sourced from a certified braid supplier.
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According to the Encyclopedia of United States Army Insignia and Uniforms, the 1851 Army uniform regulations mandated wool as the fabric of choice for trousers, with light blue used for enlisted men and regimental officers and dark blue for generals and staff officers. Pleats designed to make the trousers appear more full were added to issue trousers between 1854 and 1858.
Officers’ trousers were trimmed with 1/8-inch welts; they were buff for staff officers, while regimental officers’ were the branch/regimental color (scarlet for artillery, orange for dragoons, etc.). Enlisted men’s trousers featured a cord, an eighth of an inch in diameter, in the appropriate branch color. Because a colored welt indicated assignment as either a company- or field-grade officer, the absence of a welt indicated that the wearer was a general.
The current system based on gold stripes for trousers as opposed to branch-colored stripes was introduced after World War II, when the Army reintroduced dress blue uniforms.