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A safari jacket or bush jacket is a garment traditionally made of khaki color lightweight cotton (drill or poplin) with a self-belt, , and four expandable bellows pockets. Also known as a sahariana, it was originally designed for going on safari in the African bush. When paired with matching trousers or shorts, it is a safari suit.
The earliest reference to a 'safari suit' listed in The Oxford English Dictionary is from an American newspaper in 1935. In 1936, author and adventurer Ernest Hemingway designed a 'bush jacket' which was made by Willis & Geiger Outfitters. In 1939, Abercrombie & Fitch advertised safari jackets, shorts and trousers, of 'coat shirt style' for sports and leisure wear.
In the 1960s and 1970s, safari suits became fashionable thanks to designer versions for men and women by, for example, French designers Ted Lapidus and Yves Saint Laurent, both of whom are among those credited with inventing and popularising the look.
On 7 March 1974, male politicians in the Northern Territory were given permission by the Speaker of the House Les MacFarlane to wear safari suits during sittings of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. It was granted at the request of the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Jon Isaacs. The Speaker of the House said:
Honourable members, I have received a further request that the standard of male dress be relaxed to include safari jackets. I have been in touch with the federal parliament and I find that the Speaker, Billy Snedden, is allowing safari jackets with shirt and tie. He also allows one member to wear a safari jacket over an open-necked shirt. Therefore, I have decided to accept safari jackets as suitable dress in the Assembly. I must say that I do this very reluctantly because I feel that we have relaxed our standards too far. However, the precedent has been set. I might add that I will not allow T-shirts.
Charles, Prince of Wales famously wore a safari suit on his visit to Ayers Rock with Diana, Princess of Wales in 1983.
Decades after they had ceased being fashionable, then-father of the house Philip Ruddock wore a safari suit into the Australian House of Representatives during Question Time in 2015 as part of a charity drive.
Reliance Industries and other textile manufactures set up synthetic fibre plants in India significantly reducing the price of synthetic fibre and the Indian middle class jumped at the opportunity to be well dressed in a fabric which, though unsuited to India's climate was fairly cheap, easy to maintain and long-lasting. The safari suit continued to be the de facto business attire, particularly in government/public sectors and the SMB arena in India, through the late-1990s. With India's growth over the 1990s, liberalization and with the middle class suddenly having more disposable income, the younger generations began to gravitate towards more modern western fashions such as suits and other business attire. Although it is still visible in some parts of India, the Safari suit is now indelibly associated with the so-called License Raj—the slow, inefficient Indian bureaucracy of the 1970s and the 1980s.
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