Camouflage patterns have perennially been in and out of fashion, and, throughout the decades, we have seen camo integrated in casualwear and in Haute Couture gowns. Yet, with the war in Ukraine continuing, it would be inappropriate for designers to turn to camouflage, but there are other ways to reinvent military inspirations while experimenting with tailored silhouettes and aligning with the sustainability trend.
Junya Watanabe explored camouflage and military inspirations in his S/S 18 collection in which he included also green camouflage-printed ponchos, leggings and skirts, turning the camo pattern into an abstract motif and breaking it into irregular geometries.
Yet, before that, in his A/W 2006 collection, Watanabe worked on the possibility of deconstructing military army garments and surplus fabrics: he literally disassembled army fatigues and reassembled them into trench coats, parkas, and tail coats with a historical flair about them, adding here and there a functional zipper of replacing existing zippers.
In this collection the designer eliminated epaulets, inserted new collars and lapels, added straps and multi-layered peplums, and integrated in some of the designs green lace.
Innovative cutting techniques and complex unexpected seaming allowed Watanabe to come up with new textural surfaces that became testament to his endless experimentation.
There was an element of subversion and anarchy in the collage-like and patchworked clothes matched with black boots and accessorised with belts studded with spikes and with aggressive headgear, latex head and face coverings decorated with studs and pins, chains and nails.
As stated earlier on, talking about military inspirations in fashion is not appropriate at the moment, but in future we may be using dismissed or found army fatigues not necessarily for fashion collections, but maybe for art projects and installations that may prompt us to think about wars and their consequences on humanity. So, let's not underestimate the power of deconstructed recycled army fatigues not on the runway, but as mediums to ponder about conflicts and the long-term physical and psychological harm they cause to children and adults.
