"No1 Dress", "FAD", "No2 Dress" — if you've browsed genuine British military surplus and felt like you'd wandered into a maths exam, you're not alone. These numbered "orders of dress" are how each service labels its uniforms for different occasions, and unhelpfully, the Army, the RAF and the Royal Navy each count differently. Here's the plain-English version, sourced from the actual official dress regulations so you don't have to read 59 pages of MOD paperwork yourself.
British Army
No1 Dress — Temperate Ceremonial ("Blues")
The most formal order — a dark blue, stand-collar tunic worn on only the most formal ceremonial occasions. This is the uniform most people picture when they think of traditional British Army dress: the one on the postcards.
Genuine British Army No1 Dress "Blues" jacket, 100% wool.
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No2 Dress / FAD — Service Dress
FAD stands for Future Army Dress, not "Fatigue" or "Field" Dress — a common misconception, and an easy one to make. FAD is simply the current-issue version of No2 Dress, the service uniform worn for parades, formal duties and everyday smart occasions. Issued from 2009 onwards, the FAD-pattern No2 suit replaced the older, separately-cut No2 Service Dress jackets that officers and other ranks previously wore — and along with the new cut came a colour change, moving away from the traditional WWII-style khaki tan towards a more brown/olive-green shade. So a listing saying "FAD No2" and one saying "No2 Dress" are describing the same category of uniform — FAD just tells you it's the modern-pattern version, in the newer colour and cut.
Genuine FAD No2 Dress jacket — the modern-pattern colour and cut.
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No3 & No4 — Warm Weather Ceremonial and Service Dress
The tropical-posting equivalents of No1 and No2: No3 is a white ceremonial tunic, No4 a lighter "stone"-shade service dress, both for overseas postings where the temperate wool uniforms would be, frankly, unbearable.
Genuine No4 warm-weather dress jacket, stone colour.
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No6 & No7 — Warm Weather Parade and Barrack Dress
More warm-weather variants — a stone-coloured bush-jacket parade uniform (No6) and a short-sleeve barrack/working uniform (No7) for personnel stationed in hot climates.
Shop No6 & No7 items →No8 — Combat Dress
The modern field combat uniform (Multi-Terrain Pattern / PCS-CU) — practical, hard-wearing kit for actual soldiering rather than parade or ceremonial use. See our separate guide to the evolution of British Army camouflage for the full history of this pattern.
Shop combat/MTP items →No10 & No11 — Mess Dress
Formal evening wear for dinners and mess functions — No10 for temperate climates, No11 (a white jacket) for warm-weather postings.
Shop mess dress items →Higher numbers (No12–14)
These cover specialist categories — protective/working clothing by trade (No12), everyday temperate barrack dress (No13), and shirt-sleeve working order (No14). So if you spot an Army listing in the low teens, don't assume it's some elite, top-secret grade above No1 — it's usually specialist working kit, not a bigger or more senior version of the ceremonial stuff.
Royal Air Force
No1 Home Dress
The formal ceremonial uniform, worn on all formal and ceremonial occasions as ordered by the MOD or Commanders in Chief — the RAF's equivalent of the Army's No1 Blues.
Genuine RAF No1 Dress jacket, blue-grey.
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No2 Dress
The standard RAF working uniform, worn year-round as routine dress by all personnel — this is the one you'll see most often in genuine RAF surplus, for the simple reason that far more of it existed in the first place.
Genuine RAF No1/No2 Dress shirt, air force blue.
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No3 Dress
DPM (camouflage) jacket and trousers, issued for ground defence duties, training and station guard force work — practical rather than parade wear.
Shop RAF No3 Dress items →No5 Mess Dress
Formal evening/mess dress for dining-in nights and guest nights, worn by officers, warrant officers and senior NCOs.
Genuine RAF No5 Mess Dress jacket, air force blue.
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No6, 7 & 8 — Warm Weather Dress (Overseas)
Worn specifically in warm-weather postings like Cyprus, Gibraltar and Hong Kong, with official changeover dates each year between temperate and warm-weather orders of dress (Cyprus, for instance, switches over on set Mondays each April and November). No6 is Service/Full Dress, No7 is Service Working Dress, and No8 is warm-weather Mess Dress — a white jacket for evening functions in the heat, not working kit.
Shop RAF warm-weather dress items →No9, 10 & 11 — Bandsman and Musician Dress
This is where RAF numbering goes highest — specialist ceremonial dress for RAF musicians and bandsmen, including the busby, Bandmaster insignia, Drum Major's sash and ceremonial cape. If you've ever wondered why some RAF listings reference numbers in double figures, this is usually why — it's genuine specialist band uniform, not a rarer or higher grade of everyday dress.
Royal Navy
No1 Dress
The formal ceremonial "sailor suit" uniform for ratings, worn on ceremonial occasions. Has sub-variants — 1A (worn with medals, bearing arms), 1B (same, without arms) and 1C (medal ribbons only).
Shop RN No1 Dress items →No2 Dress — Mess Dress
Formal evening dress for dining, worn by senior rates (Petty Officer and above). 2A is the most formal (white waistcoat, miniature medals) for ceremonial dinners, 2B is "mess undress" for other mess functions, and 2C ("Red Sea Rig") is informal warm-weather evening wear — a genuinely charming bit of naval history, originally adopted because full mess dress in the Red Sea heat was simply too much to ask of anyone.
Genuine Royal Navy Mess Dress jacket, Lieutenant Commander cuff curls.
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No3 Dress
Day-to-day rate/working dress with the relevant insignia and cap — 3A is the long-sleeved shirt-and-tie version for senior rates, 3B the open-collar short-sleeve version issued to junior rates.
No4 Dress — Action Working Dress
A practical, flame-retardant blue shirt and trousers combination, worn for working duties aboard ship. See our separate guide on how this evolved into the current Rig 22 if you want the full story.
No5 Dress
A collective category covering various specialist working uniforms across different trades and roles, rather than one single uniform.
A note on ceremonial jacket materials
RN ceremonial and dress jackets aren't all made from the same cloth — you'll see terms like diagonal serge (a wool serge with a pronounced diagonal twill weave, traditionally used for naval dress) and barathea (a tightly-woven wool twill with a slightly pebbled texture, very commonly used for mess dress and formal jackets across all three services), alongside heavier plain serge for more everyday working dress. The material is often a good clue to how formal/ceremonial a jacket actually is — the finer the cloth, the more likely it's dress or mess wear rather than working uniform.
Why this matters when buying
Getting the right order of dress matters most for cadets, re-enactors and anyone buying for a specific event or requirement — a ceremonial No1 and a working/combat order look and fit very differently, even from the same regiment or service. If you're ever unsure which order of dress you actually need, get in touch before ordering and we're happy to help — far better than turning up in mess dress to a working parade, or vice versa.
Sources: this guide is based on official RAF orders of dress regulations (AP 1358) and published British Army and Royal Navy dress information. Exact requirements can be updated by MOD from time to time — if you need certainty for an official/parade purpose, always check current regulations directly.
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