The US Army are responsible for producing the infamous M-1948 (M48) and M-1951 (M51) fishtail parka’s. The no expense spared parkas were made using the finest materials in order to combat the severe Korean winters. It is no wonder that the British Mod movement adopted these war coats to protect their clothing when riding out.
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Parkas were the most appropriate combat clothing in Korea’s frigid winters. Soldiers wore parkas as windproof outer shells when cold weather became too severe for field jacket and liner combinations. Several World War II era parka models were used, but their closed-front designs restricted wear and convenience. The Parka, Field, Cotton, Olive Drab, was long skirted and had a large front pouch pocket with two side openings. This cotton field parka was worn over the Parka, Field, Pile. The pile field parka was a bulky, hair-lined garment that was not windproof and rarely worn by itself as an outer coat. The Parka, Ski, Reversible, Fur Trimmed, was an olive drab outer shell with an inner layer of white for snow camouflage.
After World War II, the Army developed a combat ensemble that provided the flexibility of a coat and better layering under extremely cold conditions. The Parka-Shell, Cotton, Olive Drab, M1948, and Parka-Liner, Pile, M1948, were adopted in 1949 and produced under specification that was approved on 25 July 1950. The parka-shell was made of wind-resistant cotton sateen in Olive Drab shade 7 and featured a snap-and-slide fastener closure, slit front pockets, and a patch pocket on the upper left sleeve for pencils and cigarettes. The hooded parka liner was composed of wool-pile cloth in Olive Drab shade 30A.
The Parka-Shell, M1951 and its companion Parka-Liner, M1951 were adopted 27 June 1951. The parka-shell’s integral cloth hood could attach over the separate fur-trimmed M1951 parka hood or under the helmet. The parka-shell was made of a water-repellent cotton-nylon blend in Olive Green shade 107. The slide-fastening opening, pocket arrangements, and draw-cord design incorporated improved features. The parka-liner, made of 16-ounce mohair frieze, had no hood. The combination was scheduled for every soldier in Troop Categories A, B and C during six months of annual utilization in Korea, but its sporadic appearance very late in the war prevented this.
The M1948 and M1951 parka-shells and parka-liners were not normally interchangeable. There was some latitude, however, because the next larger or the next smaller liner could be fitted with other parka-shell models. Many parka combinations were used, as demonstrated by the fact that the Eighth Army distributed more than 331,000 for its final 1952-53 winter campaign. As of July 1953, available Eighth Army inventory still totalled less than a quarter of the 367,401 M1951 parka-shells and 360,912 M1951 parka-liners required for complete winter distribution.
Fishtail Parka - Clothing Requirements and Supply
U.S. Army clothing and individual military equipment were used to protect and sustain soldiers in the performance of their military duties. This task was complicated by the wide range of climatic, combat, and geographic extremes encountered in Korea. Clothing difficulties were further magnified by battlefield fluctuations and inadequate supply stocks, especially in the first 12 months of the conflict.
Korea is rugged and mountainous, and movement across its ranges and narrow river valleys caused hard wear on clothing and load-bearing equipment. The peninsula’s oceanic extension from 34 to 43 degrees north latitude places it within the cold-wet clothing environment. Drastic temperature changes are caused by seasonal reversals in prevailing winds, and the climate is dominated by frigid but relatively dry winters and hot, moist summers.
The northern Asian-continental winter climate of Korea is intensified by arctic winds driven across Siberia. These winds could strip heat from the body despite multiple layers of cold-climate clothing. Battle situations often forced troops to move or remain stationary (sometimes even pinned down) while fully exposed to subzero weather, causing much frostbite and many other cold-related injuries.
Army clothing also had to meet the demands of the hot summers. At this time, there is either heavy rainfall or oppressive heat accompanied by high humidity. The monsoon spring and autumn transitional periods are marked by highly variable winds and storms. During the spring, dust tempests arrive from the desserts of Mongolia and northern China. From summer through early autumn, an average of five typhoons lash the peninsula with torrential rains.
The sudden communist invasion and the later Chinese intervention caught the United States off guard militarily. The closest depots to Korea were in Japan, but material levels were very limited and winter field garments were scarce worldwide. The Army did not stock sizable amounts of special clothing for extreme cold because military preparations and procurement planning were based primarily on temperate zone operations. The Korean crisis created severe difficulties in textile acquisition and production, resulting in higher costs and delayed deliveries.
Wool shortages quickly developed, and 18 ounce serge jumped from a low of $3.74 a yard in May 1950 to a high of $8.67 by February 1951. Cotton supply problems were partially alleviated by authorizing variations in weave or finish, and by substituting other fabrics for uniform twill, oxford, and sateen. Newer synthetic fibres, such as lightweight rayon twill used in lining caps, coats, and jackets, were also scarce. The lack of rayon acetate delayed contracts for parkas and newer field jackets, while nylon shortages curtailed production of raincoats, ponchos, and parkas.
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Showing posts with label Fishtail Parka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fishtail Parka. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
FishtailParkas.com Launches Pretty Green Parkas...
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We are delighted to announce the arrival of Pretty Green Parka’s and Coats for the Autumn / Winter 2012 season. Liam Gallagher’s clothing brand Pretty Green is just getting better and better. We visited their London store and were blown away by their AW12 range. Some of the finishes and trimmings to their garments are simply stunning and no doubt cost quite a bit extra to manufacture.
It's this attention to detail which will set Pretty Green apart and keep the label at the forefront of British street fashion for many years to come. We foresee only a bright future for Pretty Green and that is why we are so pleased and excited to be associated with the label.
| Pretty Green Khaki Fishtail Parka Only £295 With FREE Delivery.. |
Pretty Green Black Fishtail Parka Only £295 With FREE Delivery.. |
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Buy Black Pretty Green Fishtail Parka | ||||||||
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Sunday, September 16, 2012
FishtailParkas.com Launches The Classic M-1951 Model
Friday, April 13, 2012
Womans Parka !!!...Finally perfected and Ready To Go
Hey All :)..
After nearly 12 months in production, more time, trouble and money than we care to remember, the custom Woman's Parka is now here !!...For a long time, we had wanted to help the thousands of our Lady customers calling us, upset that even the smallest M-65 standard parka will not fit them. And we decided to solve this problem once and for all !!.....Taking 100% Original US Mil Parkas and custom cutting and re-designing them down to the smallest size we could. Including, reducing chest, waist, arms, cuffs and even length !!...We finally got there....a woman's parka and its awesome.
Our aim was to completely reduce the parka in size yet, keep all of its original look and dimensions and create the only 100% genuine US MIL fishtail parka in a women's size.
We are pleased to say, we did just that...and its spot on. The only area we could not improve on was the hood, as you all know, M-65 hoods are always large, and we tried many ways to cut this down however, the time and cost was prohibitive as we also wanted to make this parka affordable and we were already conscious that our Woman's MINI parka is not the cheapest, as the amount of custom work involved in rebuilding an entire parka and liner..is.....extreme.
Our woman's parka measures only 40" in chest, and only 19" in arms and only 36" inch in length and still retains an exact fishtail :)....v clever we know :)...
This woman's parka is available with standard hood at £279 and with real wolf fur hood at £349 and for a fully customized fishtail parka this, we believe, is great value.
If you want to know or see more about our custom made womans fishtail parka, please check it out at
http://www.fishtailparkas.com/womens_fishtail_parka.html
You wont be disappointed :)...
Copyright2012 No part of this article may be copied, transmitted, stored or used in anyway without the express permission of fishtailparkas.com . If you wish to use this article simply contact me.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Liam Gallagher Sports An M-65 Fishtail Parka At Wembley Stadium
Thursday, 09/07/09 was a long damn day……
The BBC picked me up at 10am to take me down to Hendon for filming for Car Booty…..!!….Yes, someone found a parka in their attic and they wanted me to value it etc…..comical !!
Then they dropped me off in Wembley. Where I waiting around for my bro to finally get down there too as we were off to Oasis. Having taken a complete M-51 with me for the filming I was left wondering around with it…..and in the end decided to keep it on for the concert as it was sure to get cooler…
I soon realised I was the only person out of the 60,000 packed into Wembley wearing a genuine or indeed any kind of Fishtail Parka….
Then, after The Enemy and Kasabian the big moment came….
Oasis are now on stage…….and I was now the second person in Wembley wearing a genuine Fishtail Parka…..
The fact that it was indeed the same parka he bought from us, just kinda made it all even better !! :)….
After a long day, the very toughest months of my life…..it all seems worth it again. Thanks Liam :)
More pics and video to come.
Copyright FishtailParkas.com 2009: No part of this article may be copied, transmitted, stored or used in anyway without the express permission of fishtailparkas.com
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Finally, A True Quadrophenia "WHO" Parka !!
As I'm sure all of you know, sometime back Lambretta clothing knocked out a "who parka".
Basically, a khaki green M-65 styled fishtail parka repro with "who" on the back etc....Modelled on The Who’s 1972 Quadrophenia Album cover. (Black and white one)
A lot of you have been asking why I don't stock this Lambretta Who Parka or more importantly, why I don't also do a quadrophenia Who parka ?...
Firstly I don't stock this Lambretta Who Parka simply because I do not stock anything that is not Genuine US Military Issue and the second question:...
Why don't we make one ?
Well we did and WE DO !!;
 | We first made a "Quadrophenia" tribute p arka around 4-5 years ago. It was a genuine M-1951 as on the album and styled exactly the same, it sold via private auction within days of being released to a US private bidder to be used in a stateside Quadrophenia production. |
And thanks to all of you who have been pestering me over this, you will be pleased to hear...we are making them again :)
The Who Quadrophenia Parka !!
There will be two options...M-65 or M-51 and both custom made to order.....:)
I wanted to create something accessible to all, as I know not everyone can stretch to a custom M-51...so, here it is :)...
 | The True Quadrophenia Parka..... A 100% genuine issue M-1965 fishtail parka using all genuine US MIL issue patches, complete with genuine Wolf Fur hood !!! The Original Who Parka from the Original Specialist… Only £199 Worldwide delivery available.. |
<<<ORDER NOW>>> Simply <<<CLICK HERE>>>
Now, compare that to your 3 wheeled lambretta trike with lights and mirrors and tell me what you would rather be riding :)
Copyright FishtailParkas.com 2009: No part of this article may be copied, transmitted, stored or used in anyway without the express permission of fishtailparkas.com
Friday, February 17, 2006
The Fishtail Parka, from war coat to fashion icon...
Copyright 2006 fishtailparkas.com
The fishtail parka started life in service to the US army in 1951 to help the American soldiers cope with the freezing conditions in the Korean War.
It was known as the M1951 parka and those wanting the full history on this please see Article©: M1951 Fishtail Parka, history of the vintage M51 parka.
However, in 1960’s Britain the Fishtail Parka took on a whole new life and came to represent an entire era, a lifestyle and a statement of intent.
You were a Mod.
By 1963 the mods were here, they had their own style, their own dress codes, their own transport and indeed their own language. In a fashion culture that changed on a weekly basis forcing mods to work overtime to keep up with the changes, everything from colour to length of jacket side vents, to width of trouser bottoms and style of shoes only one item of clothing managed to stay a constant throughout the life of Mod.
This was the Fishtail Parka (US Army only).
The truth is that exactly how this came about no one really knows, it’s as much a mystery and it is a phenomena. The influencing factors can readily be drawn, fishtail parkas were cheap, warm, relatively water proof and great for riding scooters in a pre-helmet era as one could tie the fur hood right up around your face. Plus, no one else was wearing them on the street and that was important to the mods.
However, no one really knows who started it and how it caught on so quickly. It’s not like anyone can say oh that was Dave, he got one in Whitechapel for a bob and we all thought; “fuck it!…. let’s all get one”.
Therefore, one is left thinking, why not any other warm coat of that time…why that parka and why ONLY that particular parka ??
Yes we all know mods wore other jackets and coats but only one coat kept its place as the first choice for scooter riding and only one coat became the most prolific symbol of Mod and that was the Fishtail Parka.
For me, it is not hard to imagine the early 60’s and a small group of early mods, or maybe even “Coffee Bar Cats” seeking out a warm coat and stumbling across a US Army M1951 Fishtail Parka in the local Army Stores. And seeing the price, seeing the quality, seeing the benefits of warmth, head protection and durability, and the fact that no one was wearing them, made the choice that this was the coat to wear.
They rode back into town adorned in their new gear, espousing the benefits of being warm and dry, the next day 4 more mods went back to that same army store and got themselves kitted out. Within a week, you a one gang of 12 mods all riding around wearing the same Fishtail Parkas.
The same processes took place as they chatted with the mod gang in the next block, and Mr Army Stores was having a good month with lots of new visitors. These early mods, being the trendsetters and likely to be looked up to by new and aspiring mods, were soon copied.
By 1964 Mod was in full swing and thousands of mods were now springing up all over London and all needed to complete their uniform.
And by 1965, Mr Army Stores had retired to a small condo in St Moritz and every mod in London had a M1951 Fishtail Parka…
No part of this article may be copied, transmitted, stored or used in anyway without the express permission of fishtailparkas.com . If you wish to use this article simply contact me.
M1951 Fishtail Parka, history of the vintage M51 parka.
Copyright FishtailParkas.com 2007.
The M1951 Fishtail Parka. Also known as M51 Parka, M-1951 parka
The very first fishtail parka was the EX-48-1. This was the prototype for the M-48 Fishtail Parka. This prototype featured an attached wolf fur hoood, heavy cotton shell and detachable "fibre glass" based lining plus the major distinction was it had a pocket on the arm (much like the MA1 flying jacket sleeve pocket). The production version was the M-1948 and was the no expense spared parka of the same above specification but featuring fur pile/satin liner....
This model parka is extremely rare and fetch well over £1000 at auction in good condition and complete. (Any one seeking these should contact me as I can get them but be prepared to pay...!!!)
Looking to buy an M51 parka? click here...
The concept of the Fishtail Parka design was to offer flexible extreme cold weather protection through the detachability of all parts and the "fishtail" was designed to be tied around the legs for extra insulation. The fishtail parka rear drawstrings also benefited airborne divisions as when jumping out of planes it could be tied so not to flap up and about.
The first mass production of the fishtail parka was in 1951 and hence the M-1951 fishtail parka, commonly known as the M51 parka was born. The US Military now heading into Korea and needing large amounts of cold weather field gear could not afford to mass produce the heavy, expensive and high quality M-1948. Hence, the M-1951 was born. Quite simply, a cheaper cut down version of the M-48 was needed.
The first generation of these differed from the M1948 parka in that there was no sleeve pocket, the heavy fur pile and satin full fitting lining was replaced with detachable mohair or alpaca lining and the attached hood was unlined and without fur. Whereas the M-48 was a 2 peice construction, M-48 Shell and M-48 Liner, the M-51 was a 3 part contruction with M-51 Shell, M-51 Liner and detachable M-51 Wolf Fur Hood.
Another distinction of the M1951 fishtail parka were that it featured shoulder epaulettes that could be buttoned down to hold hats or other light items.
The 1st generation M1951 fishtail parka was made of the same heavier cotton (canvas appearence) material as the M-48 and featured a thick, heavy Alpaca liner. Once again, this proved expensive to produce and the liners were hard to dry in the field once wet. Hence, the heavier M-48 material was dropped in favour of the more commonly seen thinner, lighter (shiny) cotton and the alpaca was replaced by Mohair Wool very soon into producion (1952). This 2nd Generation M-1951 is the more common of the two.
Production of the M-1951 continued in the US up to 1956 when US production ceased. After this period M-51 production continued in US territory in the now defeated and occupided Germany up until 1958. Notable German manufacturers during this time include Albatross Franz Mayer. Franz Mayer being involved in the production of the Focker Wolfe. Another run of M-51's was made around 1963 for UK and Canadian Specification. After this time, no more M-51's were produced and fishtail parka saw no new events until 1965 when it was once again updated and remade as the M-1965 Fishtail parka.
All models of the M-1951 fishtail parka are highly sought after today and are prized by both modernist connoisseurs and militaria collectors alike. The M-51 complete with all 3 parts and in good condition command handsome sums these days and the values just keep rising. Good condition complete M-51 fetch a minimum of £350-450 ($700-$900) and Mint condition or even Unissued Never Worn fetch a whole lot more. For mint or unissued expect to pay anything from £600 up to £1000 for a perfect example.
News Flash: April 2007, A Mint complete M-51 fetched a record $956 at auction.
A word of warning, unissued M-51 kit is rarer than hens teeth and in 19 years of collecting and 6 years of dealing with the largest surplus dealers and collectors in the world today, I have seen a total of around 60 peices of geunine Unissued Kit and only 7 complete unissued parkas (all 3 parts).
So anyone claiming to have "bundles" of unissued M-51 stuff has either found the holy grail or is full of shit...I tend to go with the latter :)
Copyright FishtailParkas.com: No part of this article may be copied, transmitted, stored or used in anyway without the express permission of fishtailparkas.com
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