CAMOUFLAGE

1. Cloaking
2. Art Of Concealment
3. Abbot Thayer
4. Pablo Picasso
5. World War 1
6. Variations
7. American Standard
8. Tiger Stripes
9. Modern Designs
10. Fashion Staple

 

1. Cloaking

The term "camouflage" comes from the French word "camoufler" which means "to blind or veil". Camouflage is also sometimes referred to as "protective concealment" and is a means to disguise an object that is otherwise in plain sight.

 

2. Art Of Concealment

Animals basically use one of two methods of concealment to hide themselves in the wilds of nature - general resemblance and special resemblance. With general resemblance, animals use color to blend in with their habitat so that they're almost invisible. Chameleons can do it with a handful of colors. With special resemblance, animals use a combination of color, shape and behavior to mimic their surroundings. This way they are simply mistaken for something else rather than truly being "invisible" to their hunter, such as a walking stick, an insect that looks just like a twig.

 

3. Abbot Thayer

In America, during the late 1800's, an artist named Abbot Thayer made an important observation of animals in nature. After studying various forms of wildlife, he noticed that the coloring of many animals graduated from dark on their backs to almost white on their undersides. This proves to be an important property of camouflage. This graduation from dark to light breaks up the surface of an object and makes it harder to see the object as an individual object. Nearly every animal uses camouflage in some way - from tigers and sharks to polar bears and killer whales to white-tail deer and butterflies.

 

4. Pablo Picasso

With this graduation, the object loses its three-dimensional qualities and appears flat to the viewer. Picasso and many other artists of the Cubist movement, utilized this discovery in their art.

 

5. World War 1

The French soldier and painter, Louis Guingot created the first camouflage uniform for the "Magasins Reunis" in Nancy. Five of these original uniforms were created and the pattern used was called, "Leopard". Soon after, the French formed their "Service de Camouflage" in 1915 and the British followed suit in 1916 with their own Camouflage Service as a part of the Royal Engineers. The camouflage uniforms didn't play a huge role at that time but camouflage artists were very effective in hiding military positions from aerial reconnaissance.

 

6. Variations

After World War 2, camouflage and the number of variations of patterns radically multiplied. Many countries all over the world developed their own special patterns based on the ones used by the Germans and Allies alike, during World War 2. The German "rain drop" pattern became popular in the Eastern Bloc countries.

 

7. American Standard

The American ERDL (US Army Engineer Research & Development Laboratory) had developed the leaf pattern and it later became enlarged and altered and is now known as the woodland pattern. This leaf pattern was a staple of the US uniforms during the Vietnam War.

 

8. Tiger Stripes

The French made the "horizontal lizard" and the Portuguese utilized the "vertical lizard", both of these were further developed in Southeast Asia and the "horizontal lizard" pattern gave way to the "tiger stripe" which was made popular by the US Special Forces and Green Beret during the Vietnam War.

 

9. Modern Designs

New desert camo patterns were developed during the Gulf War and now Urban camo designs have been developed for conflicts raging in cities and similar areas around the world.

 

10. Fashion Staple

Perhaps the most enduring part of the history of uniform camouflage is that it is artistically appealing and has become a fashion mainstay since its introduction. Today, camo patterns come in a wide variety of colors for no other reason than the fact that it looks cool when you're wearing it. Visit the streets of New York, Tokyo or Paris and camo patterns will be readily mixed and seen with high fashion.