It is my strongest desire to see MARS MILITARIA grow as an entity serving the military enthusiast and collector. Quality reproductions of specific East Asian uniforms of the 20th century’s first half are still missing from the growing catalog of offerings from other manufacturers.

The reader is probably already thinking of a few notable Japanese shops that have reproduced quite extensively various uniforms and equipment, or the handful of Chinese outlets that have also made examples of certain subjects. The issue I have is none of the offerings you are probably thinking of approach what I seek to obtain regarding the degree of authenticity or attention to detail like that of the reproduction U.S. and German goods, which have advanced and matured substantially over the years.

Some issues found with many of the current generation of reproductions:

• Extensive use of contemporary overlock stitching to close seams
• Errors in patterning and grading, some minor and some major
• Quality in workmanship
• Quality of materials
• Accuracy of materials

MARS MILITARIA also seeks to cut out the middle man entirely regarding material acquisition and to eliminate reliance on China as a source for supplies and labor. This is pursued primarily due to logistical concerns and quality control. Additionally, MARS MILITARIA chose this route in order to become a more proficient atelier, developing and expanding it’s multidisciplinary skill set.

All master patterns are made in-house and often go through several iterations before it is approved as a production pattern after which, we take the master to a professional pattern maker whom reproduces and grades (sizes) the additional patterns we need.

Most textiles used are locally sourced. Currently, all of our contemporary fabric is made in Korea. Additionally, vintage fabrics and notions are used. The origin of most is Japanese and American.

We use a variety of threads of varied vintages from 1940’s era Japanese military thread to what we presently use the most, 1960’s-70’s vintage American made thread. The thread most common in our garments will be a poly-cotton blend, that is a polyester core wrapped with spun cotton. Modern sewing machines are often too fast and powerful for many vintage threads depending on thread type, age, condition. Many cotton and silk threads for example, break often during high speed work. Hence choosing the poly-cotton thread for it’s strength and appearance.

Presently, the only items that are not sourced locally or of vintage stock are the majority of our buttons which come from China. We look forward to changing that in the near future…

Why MARS MILITARIA?

• Extensive use of period correct sewing techniques
• Few, if any, errors in pattern and grading*
• Pride in workmanship
• Quality of materials
• Accuracy of materials

*An exception will always be found, to every uniform pattern that is ever reproduced, and the authenticity of the reproduction and it’s creator always challenged by that exception. Likewise, we find ourselves always making subtle changes to our patterns as more and new information is discovered.