Liberty Cuffs

The patches (liberty cuffs) were sewn, usually by a uniform tailor using a hidden stitch. This resulted in a regulation-looking uniform when the cuffs were in place and buttoned but displayed when the sailor was on liberty and unbuttoned and rolled the cuff up one roll to display the fancy designs. Liberty cuffs were found all over the fleet and in many state-side uniform tailor shops. But they were most commonly made in Asian ports. In fact, the oldest versions of these fancy inside cuffs were often attributed to “China Station sailors,” “China Fleet sailors,” or “China sailors,” for short. The customizing of the inside of Navy-blue jumpers dates back to the late 1800s.

The historical timeline of liberty cuffs is a patchy one. Military historians and memorabilia collectors place the origins somewhere in the early 1900s, with hand-stitched dragons on silk panels being sold to U.S. sailors as souvenirs of their visits to Asian ports. The first actual liberty cuffs, featuring Asian hand-stitched silk dragon designs, have been dated to the 1930s. It is believed that the era of mass-produced, machine-developed liberty cuff designs began in the late 1950s. This marked a shift, with major patch companies like GEMSCO producing packaged multiple design variations that were sold near navy bases in many cities.

Tailor-made dress blues were a canvas for individual expression, with more elaborate decorations than just the liberty cuffs. Many tailor-made jumpers feature zippers on one side, or even both sides, for easy dressing and removal. Intricate silk designs were sewn into the inside or backside of the jumper, and many were made of gabardine material. Tailor-made trousers sometimes hid zippers at the sides of the 13-button front flap, and a fancy silk insert with a design adorned the backside of the front “flap”.

Liberty cuffs became less prevalent, and downtown private “locker clubs” started disappearing when Admiral Elmo Zumwalt and BUPERS allowed lower pay grade enlisted personnel to wear civilian clothing, “civvies,” from shipboard liberty in the early 1970s.

 At this time, the collecting community dealing in liberty cuffs appears to be fairly small. Less than a dozen liberty cuff collectors have corresponded with this author. These collectors usually also collect and/or deal in other Navy militaria, such as vintage Navy rate badges, qualification badges, vintage Navy “marks,” and some collect complete uniforms.

As a short side story, there was also a tailor-made white uniform worn by some of my shipmates; I never had a set of these; they were called “sharkskin whites”; some even had a zipper in the side of the jumper, just like the tailor-made dress blues. Because you could see through the material of all white enlisted men’s uniforms, there was little or no fancy embroidery inside those jumpers. I did see one set that had a liner and a dragon in light thread inside the white jumper.