How fashion borrowed military aesthetics and lost the context

For most of modern American history, military uniforms were designed to disappear. Camouflage patterns were designed to break up a human silhouette in various environments. Load-bearing vests, cargo pockets, reinforced boots and standardized cuts were functional necessities — solutions to problems that involved weight, heat, concealment and survival.

Over the last two decades, however, those solutions have been pulled into civilian fashion, stripped of context and resold as style. Camo pants appear on runways. Tactical vests are worn to music festivals.

Combat boots become seasonal staples. What was once functional equipment tied to service, sacrifice and sometimes trauma is now treated as visual shorthand for toughness or rebellion. Ralph Lauren can’t stop ripping off military clothing Ca