Fashion Army

Photographs from a declassified US Army archive, tracing how military clothing and equipment were developed between the late 1960s and the early 1990s.

Matthieu Nicol, a French visual researcher, drew the pictures from the files of the army's Natick laboratories, an archive of 14,134 scanned negatives whose original purpose is still unclear. He chose 350 of them on visual grounds: portraits, in the studio and outdoors, and product shots, tightly composed against bright coloured backgrounds. They show clothing and kit made for combat as well as for everyday life in the army.

The book follows the path from army research into civilian dress, by way of the trench coat, camouflage and chino cloth, and does not look away from what these pictures say about military and institutional power. An essay by the fashion critic Angelo Flaccavento looks at the relationship between military function and the fashion industry.

SPBH Editions, 2024. 192 pages, paperback in a PVC jacket, 23 x 30 cm.