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Navy women need fashion help, critic says

Navy women “are getting the short end of the stick” with unflattering and un-stylish uniforms, wrote a fashion critic on the Web site of an influential style magazine, but never fear — she has some suggestions for improvements.

Roxanne Robinson-Escriout, the senior accessories editor of Women’s Wear Daily, a trade publication known as “the bible of fashion,” took a look at the women’s uniforms this summer aboard the cruiser Anzio, which is commanded by her brother, Capt. Scott Robinson. Although he described the ship’s offensive capabilities during her visit, Robinson-Escriout wrote that she “was naturally more interested in finding signs of chic.”

There weren’t many. With the ship’s training officer, Lt j.g. Sandra Davis, serving as a model, Robinson-Escriout concluded that the officers’ khaki pants were unflattering; Davis’ v-neck uniform sweater was “too boxy;” and worst of all were the crew’s coveralls: “These puppies were definitely designed to erase any trace of femininity.”

But she had a solution: Upon discovering an officer “with a designer’s dream body” — Lt. Charlotte Bigg — Robinson-Escriout suggested Bigg cinch up her web belt, turn up her collar and push up her sleeves:

“Voilà! Instant Navy makeover!” she wrote. “It seems logical to me that if you look better you work better, no?”

Robinson-Escriout had other suggestions for Navy women to become more fashionable: fitted shirts that don’t need to be tucked in; pencil skirts; and splashes of red or blue around warships to break up “the allover battleship gray.” Still, there’s only so much Big Navy can do, in this era of Task Force Uniform, so Robinson-Escriout had another suggestion to pull the Pentagon back from women’s uniform design.

“Why not enlist an American designer like Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors or, of course, Ralph Lauren to add a little fashion-forward flair to regulation garb?” she wrote — an idea that has been tried by European police departments and the Russian military. “Maybe then the military just might find themselves with a few more female recruits.”

DISCUSS: Are the new uniforms needed?