One of those tricky things about getting lost at sea is ensuring that you have the best chance of being found, and with all those pesky U-Boats about the British found themselves being lost at seas more frequently than normal. To best aid their rescue efforts they developed a number of garments to help airmen and sailors to be spotted from rescue aircraft and boats. This garment was developed by The Dunlop Rubber Company in 1944 and is certainly one of the more idiosyncratic pieces I've come across.
This particular example has been modified to make it significantly more wearable. The hood/bag has been removed from the jacket, a zipper has been fitted to the top and the pants had the boots removed. This all comes with a nice tag on the bag, and a size in the top - both suggest this was done by the Navy likely during the war!
Condition
Used but very good, the fabric has not degraded at all, and it's really rather wearable! When I got it, the zipper pull on the top was broken so I've carefully replaced the pull with a period correct Aero.
Size
- Tagged a large
- Fits large
- Pit to pit 24"
- Shoulder to shoulder approx) 18"
- Shoulder to cuff (approx) 24"
- Collar to hem 23"
- Waist 19"
- Inside leg 29"
- Outside leg 46"