"What are polka style jackets?" Topic

I was reading in a recent Osprey MMA on the Union Army Vol.2 that some regiments were issued with polka jackets. What is a polka jacket?
thanks

link

Oh, I call those 'shell" jackets. Is shell jackets a British term for what Americans call polka jackets or is there a difference?

I got the sense that the Polka Jackets shared some similarities with Shell Jackets, but were a bit larger, extending down further toward the waist.

I have no info on what, if anything, the Brits had that may have borne a resemblance to US shell or polka issue.

I've never heard them referred to as polka jackets. Always shells. Could this be a term used by units who just immigrated from Germany and Central Europe? Just a thought.

Shells, Sacks and Frock coats, also the specialty Zouave jackets. Maybe I'm learning something new.

Perhaps named after the traditional Polish short jacket worn while dancing the polka? My Polish-American church has a folk dance group which wears a short jacket. The shell jacket appears similar in length to the jacket worn by the Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard. Perhaps I am grasping at straws.

The polka was the big dance craze of the 1840s and 1850s in Europe and America. Apparently so big that other things would incorporate the name to boost sales. How embarrassing would it be to go to a polka dance and not wear a polka jacket?

Grelber
Who had never heard of a polka jacket 15 minutes ago.

I am with Grelber – and my great grand-pa was actually in the Veteran Reserve Corps (after getting shot in the leg at Iuka)

HMS Exeter, from Wikiwand:
"During the first half of the 19th Century, the British Army wore dress coatees in battle against Europeans or Americans, but tended to wear shell jackets on colonial campaigns. However, the shell jacket was discontinued by the British in the 1870s (other than by certain cavalry regiments) in favour of a second, plainer skirted tunic."

"The troops looked with skeptical eyes upon the Polka jackets with the large colored dots, and to a man rejected them. 'Um, no, we will not wear these,' though they did keep a few to play Twister on…"

From The Memoirs of Colonel Sherman T. Bullroarer, of the 8 & 3/4 Union Infantry Regiment, New York Volunteers, pg.33

I'd never heard of a polka jacket before this. I had heard of the Holka Polka jacket. You know…

"You put the left sleeve in, you take the left sleeve out. You put the left sleeve in, you take the left sleeve out. You put the left sleeve in and you shake it all about…"

I think they went out of style because it took forever to get dressed.

:-)

News to me, too. Shell jackets, yes.