Sailor and Navy Officer Costumes for Men and Women: Classic Navy, White Officer, or Cartoon Sailor?

A sailor costume is one of three looks that share the name: the classic navy sailor in a square collar and white cap, the white navy officer in a peaked cap with gold braid, and the cartoon sailor with a pipe and padded muscle sleeves. We sell all three. Of the 8 costume packs on this page, 7 list a hat and none lists shoes, so this guide covers the whole outfit: the pack, the knot, and the shoes.

Sailors turn up in our stag do fancy dress guide and our hen party fancy dress guide as one theme among many. This post goes below deck.

Which sailor costume should you choose: classic navy, white officer, or cartoon sailor?

Choose by the picture you want: navy and white with a square collar for the classic sailor, all white with gold braid for the officer, or a black top, blue trousers, and a pipe for the cartoon sailor. Each comes from a real place. The National Museum of the Royal Navy describes a sailor's "square rig" as a blue collar, a black scarf, and a white shirt, "still worn by junior ratings today on ceremonial occasions", under "a stiff hat with a soft top". Senior ratings and officers wear a jacket and tie under "a peaked cap", and white clothing is "issued for use in tropical theatres of operations", which is where the all-white look borrows from. The cartoon sailor is a 1929 newspaper-strip type: round white cap, oversized forearms, pipe. Our range splits like this (product pages, 9 November 2026):

Of the Google web searches containing "sailor" that showed our UK site between 1 September and 7 November 2026, 53% said "costume", 32% said "outfit", and 10% said "fancy dress". The word changes nothing about the pack, so we use all three.

What do you wear with a sailor costume?

Wear a sailor costume with a white sailor cap, a neckerchief knotted where the two collar flaps meet, plain white or black shoes, and, for the cartoon look, a corncob pipe. Seven of the eight costume packs on this page list a hat (the tutu dress is the exception); none lists shoes, so those are always yours to bring.

• The sailor cap. For a pack with no hat, our Adult Sailor Cap is a white one-size cap designed to fit most adults. Spot clean only.
• The neckerchief. Fold it into a triangle, roll it from the long edge towards the point, then tie a square knot, not a bow. On a US Navy sailor the knot "needs to hang at the bottom of the jumper's V-neck opening", tails level (We Are The Mighty).
• The shoes. White canvas shoes or deck shoes under a white rig, black polished shoes under a navy one.
• The admiral's hat. Our Adult Admiral Bicorn Hat turns any sailor into the one giving orders. It is the Nelson-era officer's hat: Royal Museums Greenwich holds the cocked hat Nelson wore at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. Peak to the front.
• The pipe. It comes in the Men's Cartoon Sailor pack. Keep it and the hat away from water; wipe them with a damp cloth.

Which sailor costumes do we make for men?

We make three men's sailor costumes, one per look: the Men's Cartoon Sailor Costume, the Men's Sailor Costume, and the Men's White Officer Costume.

Men's Cartoon Sailor Costume: the one with the muscles

The Men's Cartoon Sailor Costume is a five-piece set: a top with padded muscle sleeves built in, blue trousers, a belt, a white sailor hat, and a pipe. The padded sleeves give you the comic-strip shape, and the top still moves like a top. Sizes M, L, XL, XXL, and 3XL; between sizes, size up, because the trousers have a defined waistband and you will want to sit down. A spare Adult Sailor Cap covers the mate who turns up in a striped jumper and nothing else.

For the classic look, our Men's Sailor Costume is a top with an attached collar and cuffs, trousers, and a white sailor hat, in M to XL. For the one in charge, our Men's White Officer Costume is a naval-style jacket with epaulettes, embroidery, and gold trim, trousers with an adjustable waist, a captain hat, and gloves, in M to XL, smart enough to make our work-appropriate Halloween costumes guide. One of each covers the whole ship's company.

Which sailor costumes do we make for women?

We sell the officer look once and the classic look three ways: a skirt, a tutu dress, and shorts.

Women's White Navy Officer Costume: the one in charge

The Women's White Navy Officer Costume is a three-piece set: a white jacket with gold detail and an embroidered navy badge, a white skirt, and a captain's hat. It is sized by UK dress size, Small 8 to 10 through XX-Large 24 to 26, which helps when a whole hen party orders at once. For the bride, add the Sequin Bride Captain Hat, a sequinned captain's cap with her title across the band.

Womens Sailor Uniform Navy Costume: the classic in a skirt

The Womens Sailor Uniform Navy Costume is the classic rig in a skirt: a top, a skirt, and a hat, in navy. Check the size guide on the product page before you order. For a full-size cap to match the men, add our Adult Sailor Cap. Next to a man in the Men's Sailor Costume, the two read as one crew.

Womens Sexy Sailor Dress Tutu Costume: the one with the tulle

The Womens Sexy Sailor Dress Tutu Costume is a sailor dress with a tutu hem: the dance-hall sailor rather than the parade-ground one, made for a hen night that ends on a dance floor. Put the Adult Admiral Bicorn Hat on whoever organised the night, so the crew has an admiral. Check the size guide on the product page.

Our Women's Sailor Shorts Costume is the shorts version of the classic rig: buttoned navy shorts, a striped top, white anchor hold-ups, and a white sailor hat, in UK 8 to 22. If half the party would rather be a different crew, our Women's Blue Cabin Crew Costume and Women's Red Cabin Crew Costume give you an airline to go with the navy.

How do you dress a stag, hen, or boat party as a crew?

Give one person the officer whites and everyone else the classic navy sailor, so the group reads as one ship from across the bar. The average hen party is 14 people, according to GoHen's 2025 hen party statistics, and when Aviva surveyed about 1,000 UK adults who had been to someone else's stag or hen (May 2023), guests put £105 per person on fancy dress for a do in the UK and £126 for one abroad. At that spend, one theme for the whole group earns its place. Three ways to cast the crew from our stag do and hen do costumes range:

• The hen: one captain, thirteen sailors. The bride in the Women's White Navy Officer Costume and the Sequin Bride Captain Hat; the party in the Women's Sailor Shorts Costume or the Womens Sailor Uniform Navy Costume. The whites make her the one everyone can find in the photos.
• The stag: ratings plus one cartoon sailor. The groom in the Men's Cartoon Sailor Costume, the lads in the Men's Sailor Costume, the best man in the Men's White Officer Costume with the Adult Admiral Bicorn Hat for the speech. Book a Party's stag data put boat parties third among the most popular stag activities for 2024, so the theme has a venue to match. The same data reports fewer stags in fancy dress than five years ago and names bar doors as a reason, which is where officer whites and polished shoes earn their keep.
• The joint do or the boat party: officers and crew, mixed. Officer whites for the couple, classic navy for everyone else, sailor caps for anyone who arrives in their own stripes. On deck, wear your own clothes and change for the evening; the costume is for the bar, not the rigging.

Is there a navy officer costume for kids?

Yes: our Boys Navy Admiral Costume is a four-piece navy officer set for ages 3 to 4 up to 10 to 12. Small sailors have royal precedent. The Royal Collection Trust holds Winterhalter's 1846 portrait of the future Edward VII, "aged 4, wearing a brand-new sailor suit ordered for him by Queen Victoria", and Royal Museums Greenwich holds the suit itself, a child-sized copy of sailors' dress bought from a naval outfitter in Gosport, and credits the portrait with helping to make sailor suits children's wear.

Boys Navy Admiral Costume: the small officer

The Boys Navy Admiral Costume is a navy jacket, matching navy trousers, a black tie, and a white hat with a gold badge, gold band, and curved brim. It is 100% polyester, and the four sizes run from 3 to 4 years through S, M, and L up to age 12. All of our kids' products are safety tested by accredited labs. Send it to a school careers day or the family photo at a nautical do; a toy telescope from the toy box finishes it. Hand wash, air dry, away from open flame.

How do you keep a white sailor costume white?

Give it a cold hand wash and an air dry, flat and away from direct heat or sunlight, which is the care our own product pages give the sailor costumes on this page. Keep it out of the tumble dryer (the Women's White Navy Officer page says so outright) and keep bleach away from the trim: Persil keeps chlorine bleach for "white, hard-wearing items", which a jacket with a coloured ribbon bar and an embroidered badge is not, and Which? advises against machine washing "heavily embellished clothes" at all. The caps, the bicorn, and the pipe never go in the wash: a damp cloth, then air dry before storing. On the night, red wine and whites do not mix: the officer sits at the end of the table.

Frequently asked questions

Count the crew, decide who gets the whites, and polish the shoes. We make your best times better with costumes.