Red Serge

The Red Serge is the formal and ceremonial uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It consists of a scarlet military dress-style coat, replete with a low neck collar, brass buttons, and golden braided ornamentation with a white cotton T-shirt underneath. The riding breeches (pants) are "midnight blue" (virtually black) with exaggerated bulges at the hips and a yellow strapping (stripe) down the outside seam of each leg. The breeches are always worn with braces. Finishing off the Red Serge are brown leather riding boots, a chocolate brown wide-brimmed stetson with a glass-flat brim (prior to 1904, a pith helmet was standard), and the ever-present side-arm in a brown leather holster on a brown Sam Browne belt. A white pistol lanyard is worn arround the neck and connected to the side arm.

Related Topics:
Uniform - Royal Canadian Mounted Police - Stetson - Pith helmet - Sam Browne belt - Lanyard

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An RCMP officer wearing the Red Serge is an internationally recognized Canadian icon.

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The Red Serge is typically not worn when an officer is on duty during a normal shift, but reserved for occasions such as civic ceremonies, as a visual representative of the security force for government dignitaries, and during public relations–related special events such as school career days.

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The Red Serge is also worn with pride by the Members during special personal events, such as the wedding ceremony of a fellow Member, where it is not uncommon for an entire detachment of a small community to wear the Red Serge as an honour guard for the bride and groom at their wedding ceremony. Usually, if the groom is a Member, he will be married in his Red Serge, foregoing the more traditional tuxedo. Though not as common, if the bride is a Member she may also wear her Red Serge on her wedding day.

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