Trends

Camouflage… Nautical
Fashion sure loves uniforms

Camouflage: it hides us… it sets us apart… Why we love it!

Not really.

Camouflage no longer solely serves its original purpose — to make the wearer blend into his surroundings. Rather, modern day fashion-conscious wearers wear items with camo print to stand out, often with the camo printed in bright colours, for example red or pink, and with several embellishments. High-fashion designers, for example Christian Dior, have been known to feature evening gowns in camo print on the catwalk.

There are various theories why camo is such a widely used print in fashion. One theory is that it can be seen as the "logical extension of the trend towards faux snake, tiger, leopard, and zebra prints, all used in the wild as optical illusions to interfere with depth perception and adopted by the fashion world for their beauty." ¹

Considering that fashion trends go in circles, which explains why grandma’s clothing is fashionable today, this is a plausible explanation of why camo comes around so often. But it does not explain how camo got to be in the trends-circle in the first place.

Teens set the trends

In the search for an answer, what part of the population would flash onto the radar as possible trendsetters? Teens of course!

The concept of teenagers dressing to distance themselves from adults only emerged in the 50’s after World War II (WWII). Because the youth of the day had gone to war and since grown up, the young people in post-WWII-society had either not been born until after the war, or they had been too young to remember much of the war, and thus they did not share adults’ memories — the generation gap appeared.

Similarly, designing fashion directly aimed at teenagers only started during the 50’s and 60’s. Before this, children their parents wore.

By the mid 60’s half the population of the US was under the age of 30, and teenagers had more disposable income than before — the US having made money as a result of WWII and its citizens being better off financially.

A new culture developed — one that glorified youth.

Prosperous businesses saw the benefits of targeting this new market. US teen clothing styles were originally dictated by adult designers, but for the first time teenagers started buying products to show their status and identity, which meant big bucks for businesses.

By 1958, teens were spending $20-m a year on cosmetics, television sets, photographs, clothing, records and cars — whereas teenagers were previously seen as unproductive members of society because they were not able to work.² Teens developed their styles and identities, and, as all good teens do, started buying only what they wanted — not what they were told to wear.

Teens go to war

In the 1960s and 1970s American students were not only sent to make war in Vietnam, but back home also went to war against the people in power. European campuses also turned into war zones and the Red Brigade and Baader Meinhoff gang became icons of anti-establishment protesters, while adults called them terrorists.

Ironically, these anti-war and political protesters adopted military-wear as their own uniform. The poster of Che Guavara, dressed in army beret and tunic, adorned as many teenage walls as Madonna would in later years.

This popularity of army styles could have been fuelled by the fact that it is illegal to wear any distinctive part — tags that say US Air Force or US Army, stripes or insignia — of a US Military Uniform in the US and is a felony under 18 US codes.³ Other countries, like Barbados, Aruba and other Caribbean nations, also prohibit civilians wearing camouflage clothing.⁴

Wearing camo, was just another way of cocking a snoot at authority.

Besides, emerging from a war, the US had plenty of army surplus stores where the clothing could be bought cheaply.

Hunters, and those who were looking for tough, well-made and cheap clothing, had been wearing military surplus for many years. Military-wear had a less negative connection in the winning sides of WWII than among the losing sides, and thus it became common place to see army gear on the streets, however more in the sense of olive drab than actual camouflage.

The rebellious connection of civilian camo diminished in the late 70’s, as more mainstream groups adopted the style — although it was seen as youthful and anti-establishment.

The bands set the trend

Skip ahead to the 80’s and, despite technological advances and social changes having taken place, teens are yet again distanced from adults by not sharing the memories of a bitter war — the Vietnam War.

Conservative politics of the day encourage conformity to past values and there were very few advances in civil rights. In a patriotic drive, Vietnam veterans are recognised ten years after the war. Yet again, you find a society glorifying youth and thus the youth is a prime target market for big business. And, yet again, teens wear what they like — not what they are told to like — and use their clothing to identify themselves.

This time, however, identification is with their favourite music bands — made easier by technology. The video tape and MTV (Music Television) is freely available and teens start to adopt styles worn by popular rocks stars.

Several fashion trends emerged amongst teens as a result — black leather and metallic chains (as seen on Billy Idol and Duran Duran); denim and cut-off plaids (Bruce Springsteen); denim, lace and piles of costume jewellery (Cindy Lauper); skin tight prints, metallic glitter and one cut-off white glove (David Lee Roth of Van Halen); sports clothes (Lionel Richie and Menudo); lace mini skirts, piles of bracelets and prints (Madonna); ruffles, satin and bejewelled costumes (Prince); sensual mini skirts, lace, leather and spangled outfits (Tina Turner) — and the hardcore punk and heavy metal band Agnostic Front in camouflage military dress.⁵

Camo’s presence in fashion increased, until in the 90’s camo was a widespread facet of dress that was incorporated in all items, from streetwear to high-fashion labels.

Post-Vietnam War camouflage became very popular and replaced olive-drab military clothing. Many of the fashion trends have made a 360-degree turnabout, and is today accepted fashion — after being anti-establishment in the day.

Ironically, teens started wearing many of these outfits to stand out from adult fashion and to identify themselves. Today these items are fashion trends and are worn by thousands — including adults — and because it is so fashionable, and everyone wears it, the trend is ‘threatening’ to make everyone look the same — and ultimately blend in with their surroundings.

The nautical trend — leaving its stripe across history

Stripes are evil. Did you know that? The innocent looking lines had a bad stigma attached to them in the early Medieval times, when the wearing of stripes was reserved solely for society’s outcasts and those rebelling against the establishment – clowns, lepers, convicts, etc.

By the end of the Middle Ages stripes became the sign of a subordinate function, for example a lord’s household staff’s uniform.

However, with the emergence of the household stripe comes the aristocratic stripe that is sometimes seen to be sophisticated, but is always considered to be in good taste. The aristocratic stripe takes over in popularity during the second half of the 18th Century, the first period of romanticism and revolution.

In the late 1770s we find war setting a trend. The Americanophiles in France, in support of the American Revolution, rebel against England and move under rebelling against the British crown – the flag becomes the symbol of new ideas. In addition, the stripe also acquires an ideological and political status — by displaying the flag or wearing it, you proclaim your support for the movement – and it also becomes a fashion trend.

All of a sudden people in both the courts and in the villages — not only in France, but across the entire continent — are covering each and every part of their daily wear in stripes. The aristocratic and a peasant stripe can be distinguished, but sometimes they do merge to create a new look. The rage for stripes lasts more than half a century, during which it moves from clothing to interiors and furniture.

Sailor suits

The idea of dressing young boys in sailor suits became fashionable in the first part of the 18th Century in England.

Although the English sailors had been wearing pantaloons since the 17th Century, the rest of the population proved very reluctant to start wearing these pants, with children wearing fabric trousers half a century before their fathers. Children had previously been dressed in smaller versions of the stiff clothing their parents wore, but it is believed that well known writers put pressure on society during the Age of Reason to put children into comfortable clothes — and sailor suits come into the picture.

Queen Victoria also used to dress her son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in a sailor suit. His mother thought he looked so adorable that he was painted and his image engraved and spread across the country. After this, it became popular to dress young boys in sailor suits.

A boy’s typical sailor suit was a short jacket with an open-necked blouse, waistcoat without skirts and long breeches. It came in several variations: the Blue-striped suit, Jersey suit, Middy suit, Jack Tar suit, Man-of War suit, and the Reefer suit.

Usually only young boys up to the age of 8 would be dressed this way, but sometimes girls would also be.

Today, the fashion is to dress adults in sailor suits, with ruffled shirt collars, navy-uniform-inspired jackets, and wide-legged pants dominating some of the more recent fashion trends.

Interestingly, men’s sailor uniforms only became standardised in the early 19th Century — for example, in 1817 in the US and 1857 for the British Royal Navy. Before this, the style of the uniforms depended on the whims of the captain.

Fashion adapt to the outdoors

During the 1930s sun worshipping became a favourite past-time, as society became more health and fitness conscious, and with it came chic outfits for the beach — the beach wraps, hold alls, soft hats and knitted bathing suits were all given the designer touch.

In addition to this, swimwear become smaller, and the back was scooped out so that women could develop tanned backs to show off at night in the backless and low backed dresses popular at the time. Popular colours for the beach were navy, white, cream, grey, black and buff with touches of red⁶

Pyjamas, originally worn as informal dinner dress or for sleeping in, became a popular item for the beach. The pants were sailor-styled, widely flared and flat fronted with buttons, and were worn with blue and white tops or short jackets. These pants remind one of today’s bootlegged pants.

Footwear

The 17th Century saw the making of espadrilles⁷, casual sandals originating from the South of France that are made of canvas or cotton fabric with a sole made of rope or rubber material moulded to look like rope. The rope or faux rope sole is the defining characteristic of an espadrille, where the uppers vary widely in style. The espadrille was and is a popular seaside shoe.

In the 1830s the plimsoll, an athletic shoe with a canvas upper and rubber sole and originally called a sand shoe, was developed as beachwear. The shoe was named plimsoll either due to the coloured horizontal band joining the upper of the sole resembling the Plimsoll line on a ship’s hull, or because, just like the Plimsoll line on a ship, if water got above the line of the rubber sole, the wearer would get wet. With its rubber sole and canvas upper, the plimsoll is the forefather of the sneaker.

In the ‘30s Hollywood picked up on the idea of wearing sneakers and made it fashionable for the youth to wear — up to this point these shoes were reserved exclusively for athletes. With icons such as James Dean sporting the shoes, Hollywood cemented the sneaker as an essential item in teenagers’ wardrobes.