Ann : I should have mentioned that the officers’ dress shown on the bottom left of the 1910 plate was split in 2 : left : grey-blue trousers (« reituzy » / « sharovary ») worn by all cavalry officers on service order (except Cossacks); right : black hussar breeches (« tchaktchiry ») with silver zigzag braid (for officers) worn for parade dress, etc. Lower ranks didn’t have « reituzy », only « tchaktchiry » with white piping. I might add that the 5th Hussars was the only regiment with all-black uniforms. In 1914 it also got a special distinction : a « skull & crossbones » headplate on their busby instead of the standard eagle plate. See this 1914 color plate :
Here’s a photo showing the full-dress uniform of an officer (on the left, the greatcoat & headdress of a general enrolled in another of Empress Alexandra’s regiments, Her Majesty’s Guards Lancers) :
CountessKate :
Yes you are right about the photos you’ve posted, it’s the Empress in her parade uniform of her Guards’ Lancers. These photos were taken in May 1903 for the regiment’s Jubilee. To my knowledge, she never wore it afterwards.
I haven’t seen any photos of her in any of her other Russian regiments either. She had many photos taken with groups of officers from her regiments at various occasions (her birthday, regimental holiday, etc.), but she’s always wearing a dress, as seen here, in a white dress, seated in a carriage, surrounded by the officers of her Alexandrinsky Hussars:
And here, with some officers of her Krimsky Horse Regiment :
Maybe there are photos of her in uniform hidden in archives, or she didn’t like to wear them and would only do it for a regimental jubilee (which happened only once a century!) It seems to have been the case for Empress Maria Feodorovna too.
