A Path Not Taken
The French experiment with gray-green uniforms
In the summer of 1911, magazine illustrator Georges Scott, heir apparent to the place occupied by Édouard Detaille for many decades, painted several pictures of French infantrymen wearing an experimental uniform. Known as the tenue réséda, this new manner of dress replaced baggy red trousers with a combination of tailored knee pants and puttees, baggy blue overcoats with short jackets, and red képis with cloth-covered leather helmets that might be described as ‘Pickelhauben sans Pickel’. The color of all of these items was a shade of grayish green reminiscent of the reseda plant, whence the name of the ensemble.
More comfortable than the blousy clothing that French foot soldiers had worn for nearly a century, the experimental uniform also facilitated the sort of tactical discretion made necessary by the weapons of the day. Unfortunately, the tenue réséda encountered considerable resistance in many influential corners of French society, and, most especially, in the Chamber of Deputies.
Some observers noted that it resembled the field gray uniforms that German soldiers had begun to wear the previous year. Others complained that, in sharp contrast to the traditional tricolor togs of the Infantry of the Line, the tenue réséda lacked any irrefutably French features. The polymath Étienne Clémentel, wrote a report for his fellow parliamentarians in which he opined that ‘red trousers had something national about them’ (‘Le pantalon garance a quelque chose de la nationale’). 1
Clémentel’s colleague, the former minister of war Eugène Étienne, expressed a similar sentiment in a less nuanced way. ‘Red trousers’, he said, ‘are France.’ (Le pantalon rouge c’est la France.) 2
Thanks to opposition of this sort, the tenue réséda passed into the realm of lost opportunities. And so, in the summer of 1914, the French infantry took the field dressed for the wrong sort of war.
Albéric Cahuet ‘La Question de l’Uniforme’ (‘The Uniform Question’) l’Illustration (9 December 1911) page 475
Adolphe Messimy Souvenirs (Memoirs), quoted by Mikaël Embry ‘La garance entre mythe et réalité…’ (‘Red Trousers between Myth and Reality’), L'Argonne à l'heure 14:18 (24 November 2014) (I am indebted to Monsieur Embry for pointing me to the article written by Monsieur Cahuet and the paintings that accompanied it.)
What an utterly tragic decision, made for the stupidest of reasons. How many lives were thrown away, all for appearances?
And note that neither of the “luminaries” quoted ever spent any time in uniform.
As much as Marines love their dress blues, you will find them most happy in the Battle Dress Utilities, with or without the sleeves rolled up, if rolled up, they will be approximately 1 inch above the elbow, in 2 and 3/4 inch widths but who’s particular about uniform and grooming standards.