Female uniforms

[grenzflieger]

grenzflieger,

My copy of Uniformarten und ihre Trageweise shows tunics with and without pockets so they must have been used concurrently. Unfortunately, my book contains only the photos and not the text explaining what each photo is showing. Photos of these pages will show up later in this thread.

Regards,

Gordon

Gordon,

Could it be the old 4 button variant that is illustrated? I only have seen the older variant with 4 buttons without pockets. I think (no real evidence) that the model without flaps is somewhere in between and the model with flaps is the latest model. I have several female tunics with flaps and these are all late eighties. I have one without flaps (that optically looks older) but unfortunately also without stamps. I'm looking forward to your pictures. The info on females tunic is limited.

By the way: all my flap-pocket-tunics are produced by 'herstellernummer' 1986.

Myddrcaps,


Thanks for posting the picture. That's the one! I still need one or two

Could you have a look at your tunic and see if you can find a stamp? Sometimes you can find them in the inner pockets.

By the way, since you are collecting ddr caps: there are two types of women's hats. One made of 'filz' (wooly material) and the other made of soft smooth material. I was wondering if the first type was worn by female non career soldiers. If so, that would be strange because all female personnel got gabardine officers quality uniforms. Maybe you can help me with this.

[myddrcaps]

Myddrcaps,


Thanks for posting the picture. That's the one! I still need one or two

Could you have a look at your tunic and see if you can find a stamp? Sometimes you can find them in the inner pockets.

By the way, since you are collecting ddr caps: there are two types of women's hats. One made of 'filz' (wooly material) and the other made of soft smooth material. I was wondering if the first type was worn by female non career soldiers. If so, that would be strange because all female personnel got gabardine officers quality uniforms. Maybe you can help me with this.

Bought the shirt from bernhardtroeger for 4 euros.

No markings on the tunic, only the size and maker VEB Bekleidungswerk Zwickau.

The only wooly female cap I've seen is for the Freiwillige Feuerwehr. All the others are gabardine, (except of course the hats and caps not made of gabardine, felt caps, berets ...). Its my understanding that there's no difference between non-career and career female headwear. I hope not, it'll meen more for me to find

[myddrcaps]

Gordon,

Could it be the old 4 button variant that is illustrated? I only have seen the older variant with 4 buttons without pockets. I think (no real evidence) that the model without flaps is somewhere in between and the model with flaps is the latest model. I have several female tunics with flaps and these are all late eighties. I have one without flaps (that optically looks older) but unfortunately also without stamps. I'm looking forward to your pictures. The info on females tunic is limited.

By the way: all my flap-pocket-tunics are produced by 'herstellernummer' 1986.

Myddrcaps,

Could you have a look at your tunic and see if you can find a stamp? Sometimes you can find them in the inner pockets.

Just got this in the mail from Bob Gowen. This vest has the same style pockets as the tunic, and a nice surprise inside the inside pocket 1962! And a Kontrollkarte showing its from the same VEB. I bought the tunic from him a few years back.

Does this help??

[grenzflieger]

My vacation and the large quantities of wine during it damaged my brain. I don't know why 1986 was in my head. I just checked one of my tunics and it's marked 1962 too. Except the tunic without flap pockets which hasn't got any marking at all.

About the hats.. I did had a chance to take a closer look. And I can see big differences. It's very hard to make a picture of it, but the two grey types I have are made of a different type of material. The one to the left smooth, soft and flexible, the one to the right rougher, woolly and less flexible. Definitely not the same material. Maybe these were worn by both career and non career personnel and the material changed from year to year because of cut backs. who knows...

[myddrcaps]

I would put it down mostly as usage. A well used felt cap would have looser fibers because of wear. A less used cap's fibers would be tighter.

Here is my 'well used' GST cap compared to my VM. When they were both new they would have been the same.

[Gordon Craig]

Gentlemen,

Finally able to post pictures of my female uniforms. There aren't a lot but combined with pictures from the uniformarten we should be able cover most of the uniform combinations. Almost all of my uniforms are for MdI personel but since the MdI and the NVA wore the same design of clothing, with a few exception, we can cover both at the same time.
First up the uniform of a Feuerwehr. It consists of a four button tunic with flaps on the pockets. It is marked MdI R (76) inside the left side in small white letters. The skin is the type with two pleats in the front. As it is on a mannequin I wasn't able to see any markings. The double knit sweater is NVA marked and Y dated for 88.

[Gordon Craig]

The double knit sweater.

[Gordon Craig]

The other basic style of skirt has no pleats but does have two seams down the front. One on each side. The only markings in the skirt are the size.

[Gordon Craig]

Skirt size label.

[Gordon Craig]

Since I received this second double knit sweater I have thought it might be of civilian origin but after looking at other posts in this thread I now think it is probably an issue piece. It has a civilian label and a size of 44 without any letter designation which I found unusual.

[Gordon Craig]

The other side of the label.

[Gordon Craig]

The double knit sweater with the four button vest. Only a four button vest is illustrated in the Uniformarten.

[Gordon Craig]

The three button tunic with the double knit sweater. The pockets have flaps. The tunic is marked MdI m (1970)? inside the right side but the letters are so small they are not all clear.

[Gordon Craig]

The slacks. They have a fly front. I suspect that very early women's slacks would have had a zipper at the sdie which was the style during WWII and very several years after that. I have no proof of this though. I have two pairs of slacks and they are both marked MdI/N for 1989.

[Gordon Craig]

The size label in the pants and the size label in the vest that came with them. The shirt is for a man. I have always felt that some of the more "robust" women could have worn men's shirts.