Khaki is a color, a light shade of brown with a yellowish tinge. Khaki is an equal mix of sage and buff so it is considered a quinary color. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms, including camouflage. It has been used as a color name in English since 1848 when it was first introduced as a military uniform. A khaki uniform is often referred to as khakis. In Western fashion, it is a standard color for smart casual dress trousers for civilians, which are also often called khakis.
Khaki was first worn in the Corps of Guides that was raised in December 1846 by Henry Lawrence, resident at Lahore, and Agent to the Governor-General for the North-West Frontier. Initially the border troops were dressed in their native costume, which consisted of a smock and white pajama trousers made of a coarse home-spun cotton, and a cotton turban, supplemented by a leather or padded cotton jacket for cold weather. In 1848, a khaki uniform was introduced. Subsequently, all regiments, whether British or Indian, serving in the region had adopted khaki uniforms for active service and summer dress. The original khaki fabric was a closely twilled cloth of linen or cotton.
Military use
The impracticality of traditional bright colors such as the red coat, especially for skirmishing, was recognised early in the 19th century. A response to improved technologies such as aerial surveillance and smokeless powder, khaki could camouflage soldiers in the field of battle. Khaki-colored uniforms were used officially by British troops for the first time during the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia, when Indian troops traveled to Ethiopia. Subsequently, the British Army adopted khaki for colonial campaign dress and it was used in the Mahdist War and Second Boer War. These uniforms became known as khaki drill, versions of which are still part of the uniforms of the British Army. During the Second Boer War, the British forces became known as Khakis because of their uniforms. After victory in the war, the government called an election, which became known as the khaki election, a term used subsequently for elections called to exploit public approval of governments immediately after military victories. The United States Army adopted khaki during the Spanish–American War, replacing their traditional blue field uniforms. The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps followed suit, authorizing khaki field and work uniforms. When khaki was adopted for the continental British Service Dress in 1902, the shade chosen had a clearly darker and more green hue. This color was adopted with minor variations by all the British Empire Armies and the US expeditionary force of World War I, in the latter under the name olive drab. This shade of brown-green remained in use by many countries throughout the two World Wars.
Use in civilian clothing
The trousers known as "khakis", which became popular following World War II, were initially military-issue khaki-colored chino cloth twill, used in uniforms and invariably khaki in color. Today, the term is sometimes used to refer to the style of trousers based on these trousers, properly called chinos, regardless of their color.
Tones of khaki
Light khaki
At right is displayed the color light khaki. It corresponds to Khaki in the X11 color names.
Khaki
This is the web color called khaki in HTML/CSS. The color shown at right matches the color designated as khaki in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color, the standard for color nomenclature before the introduction of computers.
Dark khaki
At right is displayed the web color dark khaki. It corresponds to Dark Khaki in the X11 color names.
