{"id":1981,"date":"2020-08-28T09:13:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T09:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2025-09-04T01:24:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:24:36","slug":"the-ventilated-shirt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/the-ventilated-shirt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ventilated Shirt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BR Ventilated Shirt was originally manufactured for the British Army for use in tropical outposts. The cotton shirt is soft and light with an intricate weave to allow breathability. Introduced in 1983 it was sold in both short and long sleeves, with the short sleeved version selling until 1988. Interestingly, the earliest long-sleeved “Authentic British” version was made in the UK, while the short-sleeved version is imported from India.<\/p>\n

The Long Sleeved Ventilated Shirt<\/h3>\n

On Page 108 of Wild Company, Mel and Patricia mention contracting with the manufacturer during their first visit to the U.K. and that story is repeated in the catalog copy:<\/p>\n

From the 1984 Catalogue: \u201cWe went to the English factory that made the original cellular cotton for British troops and had our fabric specially woven there; then, for tailoring, we traced down the company that manufactures Her Majesty\u2019s army\u2019s shirts to this day. Finally, we had the horn buttons flown in from Canada. A top-hole shirt if we do say so-the finest of it\u2019s kind we\u2019ve ever offered. (Ever even seen, for that matter.)\u201d<\/p>\n

The example below from my collection is one of these early U.K versions sold in 1984 <\/a>. Note the large BR tag. (I believe the other numbered tags in the collar are residual dry cleaning tags.)<\/p>\n\n\n

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An early (83\/84) Long Sleeved Ventilated Shirt in khaki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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By 1985 the long-sleeved version is also being made in India, though only in WHITE. The Summer 1985 catalogue added a lot of flair and legend to the India-centered copy for the Long Sleeved Ventilated Shirt: \u201cIt was 1846 when a Lieutenant named Harry Lumsden, serving her Majesty in the burden of Indoa, noticed his stiff upper lip starting to wilt. He immediately had himself and his soldiers refitted into ventilated shirts made from the finest local cotton. On our last trip to India we came back with an updated version of Harry\u2019s breathable shirt. The ventilated cotton has an average of 195 cooling air chambers per square inch, pus all the amenities of expert tailoring. For sahibs, memsahibs, or Manhattanites touring the hot, damp or duty corners of our Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By Summer 1985 the long-sleeved version is also being made in India, though only in WHITE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This sage green Ventilated shirt bears the Travel & Safari tag. Notice it lacks the horn buttons. This is NOT The Cellular Shirt, which lacked epaulets. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Short Sleeved Ventilated Shirt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Summer 1983<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Summer 1983 catalogue introduced the Short Sleeved Ventilated Shirt as the “Ventilated Bush Shirt”. The shirt appeared again in the Summer 1984 catalogue as the “Ventilated Shirt” and was a regular item in the catalog until Summer 1988, outlasting the long sleeve version by three years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The catalogue copy laid it on rather thick about the oppressive heat of the India in the era of colonial rule….From the catalogues: \u201c Some most definitely do NOT like it hot. Englishmen, in particular. You then can imagine, indeed, what a burden it was for His Majesty to maintain the glories of the Empire in such a blistering, dusty, absolutely wretchedly uncivilized, godawful, overbooked, undernourished, misplaced Hades as the Colony of India. For those British subjects attending to His Majesty\u2019s interests in this unspeakable climate came word from Buckingham, find them something decent to wear<\/em>. And so Britain\u2019s finest textile lords were called upon to develop a special ventilated all-cotton bush cloth that would spare a gentleman India\u2019s worst punishment. We\u2019ve now gone back to India to have it made again into our own ventilated bush shirt. Equally suitable for ladies and gentlemen traveling in the tropics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This 1984 catalogue page offers the shirt in khaki, white and navy. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In most cases, the key art for the Short-Sleeved Ventilated Shirt was this highly detailed illustration by freelancer Ellery Knight who captures the texture of the shirt perfectly. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Khaki was the most common color, along with white and sage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I believe this is a sage ventilated shirt. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is a navy version as offered in 1984. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A wine version from Summer 1987<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Summer 87<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BR Ventilated Shirt was originally manufactured for the British Army for use in tropical outposts. The cotton shirt is soft and light with an intricate weave to allow breathability. Introduced in 1983 it was sold in both short and long sleeves, with the short sleeved version selling until 1988. Interestingly, the earliest long-sleeved “Authentic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1435,4],"tags":[1114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11441,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions\/11441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfanbase.com\/banana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}