 The wearing of mess dress was suspended during World War II.For women, mess dress currently consists of the same style high waisted blue-grey single-breasted jacket and white marcella shirt as men, a small bow tie and cummerbund and a straight ankle length blue-gray skirt, worn with patent-leather court shoes and barely-black tights or stockings.From the 1970s and prior to the introduction of current women's mess dress in 1996, female officers wore a royal blue "Empire line" dress made of crimplene material with a loose mandarin neck, long sleeves and an ankle length hem.