Raglan Sleeves

A raglan sleeve, for those among us not so well versed in fashion, is a sleeve that has a continuous, diagonal seam extending from the underarm to the neckline, rather than a traditional seam that runs around the shoulder. Today, it is most associated with baseball jerseys and has become a common style of sleeve in many T-shirt designs. Its name, however, goes all the way back to the 1850s, and a one-armed field marshal named FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan. 

In 1815, Somerset lost his right arm at the Battle of Waterloo, where the French defeat marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Later, Somerset’s tailor, John Emary (founder of the luxury fashion house Aquascutum) devised an innovative sleeve for the marshal that drew less attention to his disability while offering greater freedom of movement. The elegant design caught on and is now one of the most common jersey styles in the world.

Spencer Jackets

The spencer is a short, tailored jacket cut off at or just below the waist, similar to a gentleman’s riding coat but without tails. It gave rise to the modern mess jacket that is still worn by military officers at formal dinners today. It has not one but two colorful origin stories involving George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, a British politician who served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1794 to 1801. 

Both stories agree that Spencer inadvertently invented the style, but in different ways. The first describes an incident in which the earl fell from his horse and tore the tails from his riding coat, while the second has Spencer backing too close to the fire while warming himself, burning off his jacket’s tails. Either way, Spencer apparently found the tailless riding coat quite comfortable and practical, and he had his tailor make several more in the same style. The jacket was adopted by officers in the British army, and also became a popular piece of women’s fashion, as it fit snugly and elegantly over the Empire dresses worn by ladies at the time. 

Eisenhower Jackets

An Eisenhower is a short, waist-length jacket, still sold today by workwear brands and worn by civilians as a casual piece of streetwear. Its name comes from one of America’s most celebrated generals: Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower wasn’t a fan of the original World War II uniform, which he considered poorly fitting and restrictive. So, he asked his tailor to make some modifications, creating a jacket that could be worn by itself or over a shirt. The design was a success and became standard issue for U.S. troops in November 1944. The cropped, practical silhouette crossed into civilian fashion after the war and hasn’t entirely left since, retaining the Eisenhower name. 

Wellington Boots

In the United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent in other English-speaking countries, rubber boots and rain boots are often called Wellington boots or just “wellies.” The name comes from Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who, sometime in the early 1800s, asked his shoemaker to make a boot designed after the Hessian boots worn by and named for German mercenaries who fought alongside the British in the American Revolutionary War. 

Wellesley wanted boots that went better with the lighter, tighter-fitting trousers being worn in Britain. His shoemaker removed the tassel found in the traditional Hessian boot, and cut the footwear lower to make them more comfortable for riding. During the early 19th century, the Duke of Wellington was a national hero and an iconic figure, and his new style of leather boots — casually known as Wellingtons — soon caught on. The name became so synonymous with boots in England that even the emergence of rubber rain boots couldn’t shift the “wellies” tag. 

Blucher Shoes

A blucher is a style of lace-up shoe very similar to a derby, with characteristic open lacing (in comparison to the closed lacing of the classic Oxford shoe). The name of this particular style of shoe comes from the 18th-century Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, a commander during the Napoleonic Wars. He wasn’t satisfied with the shoes worn by his troops, so he sought a more comfortable design with a higher ankle and an open front that made them faster and easier to put on before battle. The design was a hit and was soon adopted by the British army and navy. Today, the blucher remains a common type of lace-up shoe in both business-casual and formal settings.  

Havelock

The havelock is a cloth cover traditionally attached to a military cap, providing a long flap hanging down the back and sides to protect the neck from the sun. In the U.S., it’s most associated with the American Civil War, but it was named after General Sir Henry Havelock, a British officer who became a national hero during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Havelock served extensively during the sweltering campaigns in India, and the neck-protecting cap cover became associated with his name during and after the rebellion. The havelock crossed into civilian use and was also adopted by Union soldiers in the American Civil War, in various styles. Havelocks have largely disappeared from everyday use but can still be seen in military history museums and battle reenactments.

Cheetos

Cheesy puff snacks and the chaos of warfare may seem diametrically opposed, but it’s the military we must thank for the former’s existence — including the top-selling brand, Cheetos. Their origin can be traced back to the Natick Soldier Systems Center, a U.S. Army research complex responsible for the development of the U.S. military’s food, clothing, and shelters. 

One of the items to come out of the research complex was processed and powdered cheese, which was created for military use in World War II. According to Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, author of Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat, by the end of the war “a whole little industry had sprung up to support this dehydrated cheese.” And one of the very first products to use the cheesy powder was the now-ubiquitous Cheetos.  

Instant Coffee

Instant coffee isn’t a modern invention — it was created and patented as a “coffee compound” by an Englishman named John Dring in 1771. It later appeared in cake form during the American Civil War, before being refined by Japanese chemist Satori Kato, whose soluble coffee was introduced to the public at the Pan-American Exposition of 1901. 

Instant coffee as we know it today became commonplace during World War I, providing a quick and easy taste of home for soldiers on the front lines. The Department of Defense began buying as much as 37,000 pounds of coffee powder each day, at which point the instant coffee industry skyrocketed. Then, in 1938, Nestlé introduced its new product, Nescafé. With the outbreak of World War II, Nescafé was included in the emergency rations of every U.S. soldier, further cementing the popularity of the instant brew.  

Minute Maid

In 1942, the U.S. Army offered a lucrative contract to any company that could figure out a process for producing palatable frozen orange juice — deemed necessary for keeping vitamin C levels at acceptable levels among the troops. It wasn’t until 1945 that a viable process was created, at which point the Florida Foods Corporation won the contract to produce 500,000 pounds of orange juice concentrate. 

However, the war ended before the product was shipped. Finding itself sitting on a giant mound of oranges, Florida Foods changed its name to the Vacuum Foods Corporation a year later and began selling the nation’s first concentrated frozen orange juice, which it called Minute Maid (in reference to the product’s quick and easy preparation). Despite initially slow sales, Minute Maid eventually took off — with the help of a catchy jingle from Bing Crosby — paving the way for similar frozen products. 

TV Dinners

The first successful frozen prepackaged meal — what was later dubbed the “TV dinner” — hit supermarket shelves in 1953. Produced by Swanson, it was a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cornbread stuffing, and peas. But while Swanson took TV dinners to the masses, the concept was originally developed for the military. 

In 1945, Maxson Food Systems manufactured the first complete frozen meal — known as “Strato-Plates” — specifically to be reheated for troops and other passengers on long military flights. A typical meal was a basic three-part combo of meat, vegetable, and potato, each housed in its own compartment on a plastic plate. Maxson’s frozen meals never made it to the civilian retail market, but they were the precursors of the TV dinner, despite no TVs being involved. 

Spam

Though Spam wasn’t invented specifically for the military, war rations certainly helped popularize it. When Spam was created in 1937 by Hormel Foods Corporation, it was seen as a way to increase sales of unprofitable pork shoulder, which was then considered an undesirable cut. Initially, sales of Spam were poor, partly because people had doubts about canned meat being safe for consumption. Then World War II began, and the U.S. military saw Spam as a perfect addition to its soldiers’ rations, being affordable, filling, easily portable, and shelf stable. 

Spam accompanied U.S. troops all over the world, with 100 million cans shipped out to the Pacific theater alone. It became something of a culinary icon during the war, and went on to become an enduring supermarket staple — today, more than 9 billion cans of Spam have been sold.