1959 Pattern Smock Pullover

I picked up an odd 1959 pattern smock. I have never seen one in a pullover pattern. Is it normal for soldiers to modify the zippers?

abefroman wrote:I picked up an odd 1959 pattern smock. I have never seen one in a pullover pattern. Is it normal for soldiers to modify the zippers?

NICE!

I've never seen one like this. Over the years, I had two '59 types and one had a replacement zip - silver teeth, grey fabric!


Certainly in my day ('80s/90s), if the zip broke on your smock, the storeman would NEVER replace the garment: instead, he'd give you a zip and tell you to take it to a tailor and bring back the receipt.

I'm thinking that my generation were luckier and that the bloke who had this had to find his own zip! If he couldn't get a long enough one, it'd make sense to make the mod that this smock's had. Zips can be deceptively complicated, especially these days. The zip used DOESN'T split like the original and, obviously, is too short. Perhaps the tailor didn't have a longer zip - or it was too expensive.

That said, it's possible that a re-enactor made the mod to make it look more like a wartime smock.

I remember talking to my unit's admin officer (ex-RSM) about a "fault" in a 1960s recruitment poster on the wall and he explained that the wartime smocks were issued until stocks were completely depleted. Some blokes were issued wartime smocks in the 1970s: usually, the mod is the other way around, wartime Dennisons being cut open and fitted with a full zip...

Thanks! Does it look to new to be an original modification?