No one saw camouflage’s fashion revival coming. Which is, you know, kind of the point of camo. Mission accomplished, they say in the military.
But, really, the recent boom of camo-patterned clothes was so subtle primarily because it came from an loosely affiliated ground-up consortium, part a post-grunge uniform adopted by subcultural folks until it bubbled up into the big time.
Yes, camo is on the cusp of blowing up. Ironic, because its original intention was to keep the wearer from doing just that.
Call the camo comeback part of the cultural climate, call it a stylistic subversion, call it whatever: just wear it big.
Camouflage has never not been a part of the general fashion milieu, of course, though menswear is especially intertwined with militaria. Staples like field jackets, bombers, cargo pants, aviator sunglasses and even the humble cardigan are all rooted in battle dress. And because military garments are always manufactured en masse, they’ve historically been affordable — hello, military surplus — and thus popular with budget-conscious young people seeking sturdy clothes.
As such, militaristic camouflage patterns are so common a menswear trope that they’re veritable wallpaper. Even during the dapper days of #menswear in the early ’10s, when every dude was out here in bowties, designers like Mark McNairy and Pharrell (abundantly inspired by the ’90s-era military fetishism of NIGO’s BAPE) pushed camo hard.
Like, on one commercial image website alone, you can find literally dozens of photos showing Pharrell’s camo fixation across the decades. Skateboard P loves camo so much that one of his first design priorities as Louis Vuitton’s menswear creative director was to create an LV-specific pattern.
Aside from a few high-profile moments here and there, though — like Drake and Virgil Abloh’s twinning Arc’teryx jackets — camo has mostly faded into the background. Ya know, as intended.
By 2024, though, it’s center stage.
Organic trends never start top-down. Sometimes they’re born of overlapping interests; sometimes they’re adopted by admirers of the tastemakers who make taste.
In the case of camo, it’s a little bit of both.
There isn’t a singular locus from whence contemporary camouflage styling came forth, but you can cite a couple clear examples of prescience.
Key to the new-school shift in camo is newly refocused (and extremely buzzy) clothing label 424 which has positioned camo as a a motif as vital as lived-in leather and shit-kicking boots. Balenciaga director Demna has also kept camo consistent — even in his days at Vetements — now offering it similarly distressed and consistently huge.
This is the look, you see: today’s camo clothes are worn huge, typically as pants (or long shorts, for the truly avant). They’re faded, scuffed and sometimes thrashed.
And always gigantic.
Camo first caught fire in 2023 but by now, it’s truly ablaze.
It’s in new collections as disparate as those from punkish fashion house 1017 ALYX 9SM, mass market luxury purveyor Acne Studios, and IYKYK brand Satoshi Nakamoto.
It’s worn by always-ahead Playboi Carti, his mentee Ken Carson and even Rihanna (pretty much solely pants).
It even appeared in abundance at A$AP Rocky’s AWGE fashion show.
But why?
Part of the appeal is that post-grunge feel I mentioned earlier — loose-fitting camo clothes have edgy appeal steeped in ’90s ennui. It’s slacker-cool skater steeze. Simple enough.
Further, today’s camo is typically worn-down because that’s just what people are wearing: pre-distressed workwear, war-torn militaria. It’s all of a stylishly shredded piece. The lived-in look is living large.
There’s implied worldliness in raw hems and sun-faded hues, reflections of a human touch (even if machine-made).
The camo itself is sometimes merely a statement bonus. It grants visual intrigue and a touch of historical sentimentality, hearkening back to the days when streetwear meant TLC and Biggie Smalls.
But, to be clear, this isn’t that high-contrast Rothco camo of the pre-COVID-19 days.
We’re talking about an earthy green, brown and black mélange, one that hews closest to a USA army design called the “ERDL” or “leaf pattern.” This reinforces a sense of understated authenticity, even if we’re talking $500 cargo shorts that never came within a million miles of a battlefield.
Part the appeal of today’s camo comes from it at least looking like it could’ve been borrowed from the barracks, a utilitarian signifier incidentally (maybe even ironically) appropriated into a fashion context.
Indeed, camo’s rise may simply be another case of fashion reclaiming something previously seen as entirely unfashionable.
Certainly, its proponents are loathe to be deemed “anti-fashion” but, in a sense, that’s part of the fun.
On the other, though, the influx of camo may actually have something to say about the state of the world. Seriously.
I mean, not to extrapolate politics from pants (which is how politics ought to be extrapolated, IMO), but at least some of the appeal of those cocooning military trousers comes from a general sense of dread.
If you’ve been online in the past, oh, 12 to 24 months or so, you may know that war is currently raging across the globe.
Couple that with the broader existential anxiety driven by intense international elections and you have as good a reason as any to want to disappear.
Camo helps you do that, ostensibly.
But, as its contemporary proponents know, it also helps you stand out.