France
Until 1914 officers of most French Army infantry regiments wore gold epaulettes in full dress, while those of mounted units wore silver. No insignia was worn on the epaulette itself, though the bullion fringe falling from the crescent differed according to rank. Other ranks of most branches of the infantry, as well as cuirassiers wore detachable epaulettes of various colours (red for line infantry, green for Chasseurs, yellow for Colonial Infantry etc.) with woollen fringes, of a traditional pattern that dated back to the 18th Century. Other cavalry such as hussars, dragoons and chasseurs a' cheval wore special epaulettes of a style originally intended to deflect sword blows from the shoulder.
In the modern French Army, epaulettes are still worn by those units retaining historical full dress uniforms, notably the ESM Saint-Cyr) and the Garde Républicaine. The French Foreign Legion continued to wear their green and red epaulettes, except for a brief break in the 1920s. In recent years the Marine Infantry and some other units have readopted their traditional fringed epaulettes for ceremonial parades.
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Cadets of the ESM Saint-Cyr in full uniform. The gold epaulettes shown are those of cadet officers, while those of ordinary cadets are red.
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Yellow epaulettes of the French Marines
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