Camo in fashion and film
The Camo Guide › Camo in fashion and film
How army surplus became hunting gear, streetwear and high fashion, and what camouflage really appears in the war films everyone quotes. Camo has been on our rails since the day we opened, so this is the part of the story closest to home. Here’s what we’ve checked, and how sure the sources are.
Fashion
From surplus to the catwalk
Army surplus, hunting, skate and hip-hop, then the fashion houses.
After 1944From surplus to hunting
Wikipedia onlyAccording to Wikipedia, surplus US frog skin uniforms from the Second World War became popular with hunters, which led to the nickname “duck hunter” camo. Today Heddels calls frog skin “one of the most appreciated camouflage patterns within the heritage clothing scene”.
StreetwearWoodland and tigerstripe on the street
Single sourceAccording to Grailed, “when most people think about camouflage they tend to think about… woodland camo”, and tigerstripe is “the most beloved”, worn by the skaters, graffiti writers and hip-hop heads who founded streetwear. Heddels calls US Woodland “easily the most duplicated and modified pattern ever invented”.
No platform publishes a sales ranking of camo patterns, so we don’t claim one.
1986Warhol’s Camouflage paintings
Single sourceAccording to the Gagosian gallery, Andy Warhol’s Camouflage paintings of 1986 were among his final works.
Source: Gagosian
1996Maharishi Snopants
DisputedMaharishi’s own archive says its Snopants launched in 1996, “inspired by white U.S. Army Snow Camouflage over Trousers”.
Founder Hardy Blechman later wrote the book DPM: Disruptive Pattern Material (2004). Disputed: our research gives it 944 pages; Maharishi’s own page is quoted as saying 720.
Source: Maharishi
1996BAPE 1st Camo
ConfirmedBAPE says its 1st Camo was “born in 1996”, based on American hunting camouflage with the ape head worked into it.
According to Highsnobiety, early runs of about 50 T-shirts a week created scarcity, and it was worn by Pharrell, Kanye West and the Notorious B.I.G.
For collectors, according to Complex: the 1st Camo Snowboard Jacket (FW96–97), the KAWS Bendy 1st Camo hat (SS05, “always sold out instantly”) and the Multi Camo terry robe (2004, “ultra rare”).
Sources: BAPE, Highsnobiety, Complex
On the catwalk
Camouflage from Comme des Garçons and Sacai, with the archives’ own captions.
Film
Camouflage on screen
Which films get it right, which get it wrong, and one famous film with no camo at all.
The Green Berets (1968)
Single sourceJohn Wayne in tigerstripe. According to Stars and Stripes, it gave its name to “John Wayne” tigerstripe, and the uniforms were reportedly made from cloth bought in Vietnam.
Source: Stars and Stripes
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Single sourceAccording to BAMF Style, Sean Connery wears a second-pattern (1944) Denison smock, the correct pattern for autumn 1944.
Source: BAMF Style
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Single sourceAccording to BAMF Style, Willard (Martin Sheen) wears tigerstripe and Kilgore wears plain olive. Which tigerstripe variant is disputed, so we just say tigerstripe.
Source: BAMF Style
First Blood (1982)
Single sourceNo camo at all: according to Heritage Auctions, Rambo wears an olive M-65, and his poncho was “discarded… industrial canvas underneath a truck”.
Source: Heritage Auctions
Aliens (1986)
Single sourceAccording to Propstore, the Colonial Marines wear a custom brown, tan and grey camouflage.
Source: Propstore
Predator (1987)
Single sourceAccording to Propstore, Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) wears a camo shirt and trousers with “Arnold” written in the waistband. No source names the pattern, so neither do we.
Source: Propstore
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Single sourceAccording to IMFDB, “one of the few films to accurately depict the transition”: US Rangers in Somalia in 1993 in the newer three-colour desert uniform with old chocolate-chip helmet covers.
Source: IMFDB
Jarhead (2005)
Single sourceAccording to the US Naval Institute’s review, the film blurs 1991 and 2003, moving from desert cammies to desert digital.
Source: USNI Proceedings
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Single sourceAccording to We Are The Mighty, the film is set in 2004 but shows the Army’s UCP uniform, which was not in use until 2005.
Source: We Are The Mighty
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Single sourceMyth-buster: no source shows camouflage in this film. According to Clothes on Film, costume designer Anna B. Sheppard dressed Brad Pitt’s Aldo Raine as “an American soldier in disguise as a French partisan”, in knitwear and a distressed Belstaff wax jacket.
Source: Clothes on Film
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Single sourceAccording to IMFDB, it shows MARPAT on embassy Marines in 2003, before the kit was issued in 2008–09.
Source: IMFDB
7 Days in Entebbe (2018)
Single sourceAccording to the costume supplier WWII Impressions, French Lizard was used for both the Ugandan and the Israeli characters.
Source: WWII Impressions
Making the uniforms
Dunkirk (2017)
“Everything was made. We had to.” According to Clothes on Film, 1,500 soldiers were dressed in one day.Source: Clothes on Film
The Pacific (2010)
According to Female First, 3,000 uniforms were made from about 20,000 m² of herringbone twill “specially woven in India on old-fashioned looms”. No source we found confirms frog skin on screen.Source: Female First
Keep exploring
More from the Camo Guide
Every era in date order, plus the country index and the FAQ. Back to the Camo Guide.
Image credits
Anti-Vietnam War march, 24 April 1971; veterans in fatigues with “Veterans” banner: Photo: Leena A. Krohn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Army surplus store front with camouflage clothing on racks: Photo: Anna Frodesiak, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Skateboarder in camo jacket and camo cap napping on his board: Photo: Ashley Van Haeften, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Close-up of camo combat trousers and trainers on the Tube: Photo: Annie Mole, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
BAPE founder Nigo in a camouflage cap, 2006: Photo: Sry85, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Inside a BAPE store: shelves of caps and trainers: Photo: paranoidnotandroid, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Comme des Garçons camouflage-design jacket from 2019 Spring-Summer, flat on white: Photo: RISD Museum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Chitose Abe for Sacai two-piece dress with camouflage print, on mannequin: Photo: RISD Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Street-style shot at night: woman in blue camo trousers and denim jacket: Photo: Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Last checked September 2026. Found a mistake or know something we don’t? Tell us in the shop at 81 Queen Street, Glasgow.
