Epaulettes are the ornamental shoulder decoration that are used by the military and some other establishments just like a
wire badge wore to let people know their official status. These badges are fixed by a shoulder strap to the shoulder seam and to the bottom closer to the collar. Among various armed forces in Europe, epaulettes are insignia worn by most of the elite rank or used on the ceremonial dresses for parade.
Informally, epaulettes can be referred to as any shoulder straps that has marks. The position of epaulette, color, diameter and length of the epaulette bullion fringe are used to indicate the ranking position of the person wearing it. Even though, epaulettes are worn originally in the field but now restricted to be used on ceremonial dress of the armed forces. At times, a gold wire
bullion badge is attached to the raised and circular end of the epaulette.
Epaulettes were invented by French. Prior the binocular and fatigue style uniforms era, armed forces were required to know their officers when the battle was very tense. Epaulettes with fringe could be detectable from the distance and enhance the officers’ identification. Gone are the days when people wear epaulettes on the right shoulder, left shoulder or on the two sides of the shoulders. Everything have changed now that the French have finally concluded that epaulettes must be worn by the officers on the two sides of their shoulders.
However, in US, the armed forces took after the style of epaulettes by French as far back as the time of Civil War which later reduced in popularity after that time. But the British discovered that epaulettes were beautiful in appearance and can be found by the snipers and average sailor and solder. Before knowing it, those snipers began to pick off the officers due to their epaulettes that made them more visible. This made the British armed forces removed epaulettes from their uniforms. For this reason, the armed forces of the US also joined in removing them from their uniform too. Meanwhile, up till now, epaulettes are still used on occasional uniforms based on formal level.
