hello!! I’ve been quite influenced by your (fantastic) o.cs and am thinking of making a historical navy/sailor character but am struggling to find detailed references for their uniforms. I’m not sure if you’ve already posted something similar but if you have any advice that’d be amazing :)
It depends, there is so much variation sometimes even within the same rank and country. My OCS with the exception of Ganymede are British Royal Navy. You have dress and undress uniforms. You have how the uniform looks buttoned a certain way.
For seamen or other non-gentlemen roles in the early 1800s there was no standard Anything aside from the iconic navy blue wool coat that could be purchased.
My first reference was this but it’s sadly lacking in dimension due to the simplicity of the drawing. How the fabric sits and moves on a real person is hard to interpret from these images, so your other best bet is finding interpreters dressed in these uniforms. Note that the Lieutenant in the drawing has no epaulet on dress nor undress whereas the link to the extant garments does contain one. Also note that there’s variance in where the epaulet goes, if there’s one at all. Note ALSO that there’s tiny variation if the Lieutenant is a commander!
For my Lieutenants, the best uniform reference I use (extant garments are ALWAYS nicer to look at) is this (it’s just missing the stockings and black buckle shoes)
This uniform belonging to Lieutenant William Hicks is the only known surviving example of a Royal Navy lieutenant’s uniform from the Napoleo
For Lieutenant undress, Hornblower screencaps will be your friend haha but here’s some photos of one reenactor from Reddit . It’s 1805 issue but my story is just on the cusp of 1812 for a part of it so I use this as a reference as well because iirc the standard changed around 1812?
Note the difference in the lower half. Knee breeches and buckle shoes (and wigs) were starting to become associated with more formality so in informal situations and maybe weather permitting?? you would often see hessian style boots and fall front trousers instead.
For my Ordinary seaman, Ganymede, I kind of winged it based on this coat
But with a much more tailored cut, cinching in at the waist a little, and the buttons on the sleeves having a more pronged? or something design, as well as making the sleeves more puffy at the top. Seeing as there’s little in the way of standards I went wild with the tailoring looool.
The rest of the uniform can be -almost whatever-, but you may want to look into popular fabric patterns for the shirt from my era (1812) to give it some more accurate flair. (I am incredibly lazy and have not looked into it)
Thank you for your inquiry I am always happy to help when it comes to historical character design even if I may not be the most accurate.
