strange "soviet/russian style M88 cut" uniform in Bulgarian 4 colour trial DPM

I recently aquired a strange "soviet/russian style M88 cut" uniform in Bulgarian 4 colour trial DPM  ... I have compared it to all of my soviet and russian "M88 cut" field uniforms and I found out measurements, pockets, cut, size etc is exactly as on those soviet/russian ones.











First I thought maybe a commercial home made one, however in the left chest pocket I found these two babies ...



I will try to gather more info on the uniform, i.e. was it ever in use? who used it if so? etc ...

Alex

Very strange indeed! Since the Bulgarians don't have a history of using this style of uniform, I don't think it is Bulgarian military issue.

Steve

That's an Afghanka alright. It's either commercial or perhaps an experimental piece for some post-Soviet state, since this cut was and is still popular in those parts.

Very cool.

Yeah, but I can't see anybody experimenting with Bulgarian winter-weight cloth. To me it's commercial unless proven otherwise. That's the safe way to approach it.

Steve

thanks a lot for your comments and thoughts on this guys ...

@Koalorka, yes it has got the exact same cut as the "Afghankas" out there ...

@Steve, it is not really of winter weight cloth ... I think it is a 80/20 cotton mixture, very sturdy but not neccesarily very thick ... the material reminds me of the russian "VSR" uniforms from the mid 90's ...

I am still very puzzled about the uniform, too ...
initially I thought too it is commercially made ... the funny thing about it is, however in contrast to most commercially patterns from Ukraine, for example, the chest and the lower pockets on the jacket close by the means of buttons, so do the pockets on the trouser. Only the sleeve pockets are closed with velcro. Most (or at least all items I came across so far) commercial uniforms mainly have/had velcro closure on all pockets of the jacket, at least. Also it has got a stamps. The one in the jacket, however is on the reverse side of the pocket instead of the inner side of the jacket where the lower pocket is located, as you would normally find the stamp on soviet / russian etc garment.  It also has got one stamp on the inside or rather underside of the inner (handwarming) pocket of the pants, however both stamps are very blur. I can just about make the size out. It does look like a stamped 54-4 ...
Also the make of the uniform, the seams, the sturdyness etc is of way higher quality as most or all commercial M88 cut copies I have seen so far.
I have got this feeling, too that it was possibly made in some ex-soviet state, maybe Moldova or Armenia, in both countries are huge communities of people of Bulgarian descent or with relatives here in BG. However this is an unproofen and wild guess only ...
I will talk to some people from those countries who are living here in BG now, maybe someone can help and shed some light into the whole story.
I will keep you updated folks.

Alex

btw. here is a pic of one of the stamps (but please don't kill your eyes looking at it) ...