Cold War uniforms for sale
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Guides for these pieces
- Dating a French military uniformThe cloth gives the period, the inner label gives the year, the collar tabs give the unit. The four places to look, in order.
- Identifying and dating a French military insigniaThe back of an insignia says more than its face: maker, fastening, approval number. How to place a striking and spot a recent restrike.
- Caring for military leather, textile and metal: the minimum ruleDry leather, moth-eaten wool, rusted metal: what to do, what never to do, and why doing nothing is often the right call.
Collecting Cold War uniforms (1947-1991)
The market separates two families. On one side, service and walking-out dress, in cloth or gabardine, with arm-of-service piping and removable shoulder boards, mostly from the East and still complete. On the other, combat dress, whose value lies in the model more than the condition. The French model 1947 fatigues and their variants, then the satin 300 and the F1 model, cover almost the whole period on their own. American olive green cotton work uniforms gave way to woodland camouflage in the early 1980s.
Dating by the cut
The cut dates better than a label. In 1969 the Soviet army abandoned the gymnastyorka, a pullover tunic closed by a short buttoned placket, for a tunic buttoned all the way down. A tunic of the first type therefore belongs to the early part of the period, the replacement having been spread over a few years. In East Germany, the vertical-line camouflage known as Strichtarn replaced from 1965 a spot pattern in service since the late 1950s. Material counts as much: pure cotton dominates the first two decades, synthetic blends and plastic zips become general afterwards.
What deceives
Three traps recur. Insignia and shoulder boards are easily added to a plain uniform: look at the reverse of the cloth, the colour of the thread and the fading around the spot. Soviet officers' uniforms were widely made up after 1991 from original parts, with ranks and arm-of-service colours chosen to sell. Finally, Eastern sizes follow national tables unrelated to Western sizes: ask for flat measurements, shoulders, chest and sleeve length, rather than trusting the number inside.