This wonderfully vivid and appealing book tells the fascinating story of camouflage - an interplay between modern military developments on the one hand and the spheres of art, fashion and popular culture on the other.A dazzling revelation of camouflage's power in nature, war and art, it is essential reading for anyone interested in design, fashion or military history.

The animal kingdom provides examples of all the essential principles of camouflage: the chameleon, whose colors change to merge with its setting; the zebra, whose vivid stripes disrupt its outline and make it more difficult for predators to sight from a distance; the stick insect that pretends to be what it's not.

Creativity in the art of disguise was spurred in World War I by the threats of aerial reconnaissance and long-range enemy fire. Aircraft and ships were painted with lozenge and zigzag patterns to make them more difficult to target. Artists were involved in creating these patterns, and were influenced in turn by the extraordinary painted vessels, said to be like floating cubist paintings. In 1919 the Chelsea Arts Club in London, inspired by wartime camouflage patterns, staged the Dazzle Ball, the first known example of camouflage influencing popular culture. Since then, artists from Pablo Picasso to Andy Warhol to Bridget Riley have explored the themes and extremes of camouflage and optical illusion, while camouflage patterns in clothes and accessories have filtered from the street to high fashion and back again.

Uniforms made from camouflage-printed textiles were first developed before World War II, and teams of artists, designers, and scientists worked together to create ever more sophisticated modes of camouflage and disguise. Today's high-tech research on textiles that are resistant to infrared and thermal detection shows a new direction in the future of camouflage. 300 illustrations, 250 in color.

Preface

Visual Subterfuge in the Natural World

Introduction by Jonathan Miller

Hunters and Riflemen

Early Camouflage

Hunting and Camouflage

Defeating the Eye in the Sky

Camouflage in the First World War

Cubism and Camouflage

The Dazzle Ball

Camouflaging a Nation

Camouflage in the Second World War

Patterns of the Forest

Aircraft Camouflage

Camo Triumphant

Camouflage in War and Peace since 1945

The Future of Camouflage

Contemporary Artists Inspired by Camouflage

Camouflage Architecture

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index