Our costume

Every morris side has a distinctive costume, and a wide variety of colours and styles can be seen at any morris gathering.

Each side chooses its own design, there are no special rules except that morris men always wear bells on their legs, and always wear a hat! The rest of the costume, its colours and motifs, are usually chosen to reflect the town or area that the side represents.

In the case of the Men of Wight, we wear a royal blue tabard that carries two major Isle of Wight emblems. On the front is an old ship, this was the Roman emblem of the island, which in Latin was called Vectis*. On the back of the tabard is the modern sea horse emblem. You can see these two badges at the top of the page.

We also wear black knee breeches with white socks, and a white shirt under the tabard. This is all topped off with a black top hat. The colours of light and dark blue are reflected in the ribbons attached to our bells and hats. Hats are usually decorated, this is a personal thing and each man adds whatever he chooses. Badges and/or flowers are the favourite adornments.

On the right you can see Steve Baker expertly modelling our costume while in full flow.

Most men also carry their own beer tankard, frequently dangling from the belt. While not officially part of the kit, it's something most morris men are loath to be without (and preferably full!).

Footnote on Vectis - this is still widely used as a moniker by various island businesses (e.g. Southern Vectis buses), and the modern word Wight is a direct derivation of Vectis, which in Latin was pronounced "Wectis".