The mess dress of the Hampshire Carabiniers was all dark blue and silver at this stage. They did not adopt white facings and gold lace until 1903. The standing officers in this photo are captains and show the pattern worn by subalterns and captains which was the same for the three ranks. Field officers wore the more ornate collar and cuffs as seen on the seated officer who is named as Major Montague Broun (honorary lieutenant-colonel). The broad silver lace and silver braid on his sleeves are in the same pattern as on the tunic and frogged dress jacket. The front edge, hem, collar and, in the case of captains and subalterns, pointed cuffs on the jacket were laced with three quarter inch French braid. The front edge was covered with silver plated seed studs and it could be fastened with hooks and eyes all the way down to be a stable jacket, as seen in the photo of Lieutenant Barclay. The shoulders had plaited silver cords with gold rank badges, captains having two stars at this time. The blue waistcoat was liberally decorated with silver braid twists. The mess overalls had silver broken bias lace stripes but in 1892 these were changed to white cloth.
