A British classic, and one of the most recognisable piece of vintage clothing! The denison smock's history lies in the early part of WW2. Having seen the success of the German's airborne forces in Norway, Churchill ordered Britain's parachute regiment to be formed and expanded quickly. Initially the British copied the German parachute oversmock, called a knockensack, but soon developed their own large overfitting garment known as a denison smock. The first iteration was introduced in 1942, and whilst there would be small changes, remained largely unchanged into the late 50s.
In 1959 the Parachute Regiment issued a new specification, known as the '59 pattern'. This retained many of the features of the WW2 garment, but now included a full length zip, and made the size substantially more suited to wearing. The camouflage would change from the earthy toned brushstrokes, to a yellow/tan led colour, with green and brown strokes. This iteration, and the various variants of camo in which it was produced would be used by the Paras until replacement with DPM in the late 70s.
Condition:
This example is in amazing shape. Whilst its been issued, it seems to have been used sparingly, and remains in unwashed condition - it still has the paper tag in the top pocket! This is named to a D Thewlis, and retains its DZ flash patches on either sleeve, the black square of 4th Battalion, Parachute Regiment. The zipper is a little stiff from under-use, and it's missing one tooth which doesn't cause any issues at all. The only other issue of note is some mothing to the cuffs. A beautiful example that really is hard to top
Size
- Tagged a size 3
- Fits from a modern medium to large depending upon desired fit
- Pit to pit 27" (if you've never had a denison, these fit very broad across the chest)
- Shoulder to shoulder 23"
- Shoulder to cuff 26"
- Collar to hem 33"