The Camo Guide
We’ve sold camo since we opened in 2006, so we wanted one place that tells its story properly. Here you’ll find camouflage patterns by date and by country, from the green jackets of 1800 to the pixel prints worn today. We’ve checked every fact against museums, armies and other sources, and labelled it so you know how sure we are.
From the shop floor
We’ve been talking camouflage since day one. We started out with Addict, the British label whose camo was drawn by artists: She Camo by She One, and patterns by Mr Jago.
Since then, nearly every brand we stock has had a go at camo, from Carhartt WIP and Nudie to Edwin, Deus Ex Machina, Pike Brothers, Fjällräven, Patagonia and Passenger. Camo is in our DNA.
Our own favourite? Tiger camo. It always looks good.
For a shop like ours, camo isn’t a trend that comes and goes. It’s part of our everyday, and this guide is our way of sharing it.
The Fat Buddha Store team, 81 Queen Street, Glasgow
How camouflage works
Camouflage stops the eye finding a shape and working out what it is. Scientists and armies agree on a handful of tricks, and the best-tested one is breaking up the outline. Once you know them, you’ll start to see them in every pattern.
Background matching
Colours that copy the surroundings. The Arctic fox turns white for winter.
Disruptive colouration
Bold, contrasting patches on the edges break up the outline. In a 2005 experiment with wild birds hunting paper “moths”, edge-breaking patterns survived best, beyond background matching alone.
Countershading
Darker on top and lighter underneath cancels the shadow that makes a shape look solid. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the painter Abbott Thayer published the idea in 1896.
Big shapes and small
Large shapes work at a distance, small ones up close. It is the idea behind pixel patterns such as Canada’s CADPAT. The Canadian Army says it cut the probability of detection by 45 per cent.
Dazzle
It doesn’t hide the object; it hides its speed and heading. In a 2011 study high-contrast zigzags cut perceived speed by about 7%. Whether it worked at sea is still disputed.Armies add their own rules. The US Army lists seven giveaways: reflectance, shape, shadow, movement, noise, texture and pattern, and notes that “slow, regular movement is usually less obvious than fast, erratic movement” (FM 20-3). Modern camo also has to work in infrared, so soldiers don’t glow through night-vision kit.
The firsts: how camouflage began
1775 - 1899
1775–76
American riflemen wear hunting shirts. The Museum of the American Revolution says Washington encouraged them to strike terror, not to hide. Source: Museum of the American Revolution
January 1800
The Experimental Corps of Riflemen, later the 95th, wear green instead of red: “an early adopter of camouflage”. Source: National Army Museum
1848
The Corps of Guides in India wear the first khaki uniform. How it was dyed is disputed: river mud according to the National Army Museum, mulberry juice according to Wikipedia. Source: National Army Museum
1899 or 1900
The Lovat Scouts are raised from Highland stalkers and ghillies, the first unit to wear ghillie suits. Sources disagree on the year. Source: Highlanders’ Museum, Clan Fraser
1900 - 1919
12 February 1915
France forms the Section de Camouflage, the world’s first camouflage unit, led by the painter Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola. Source: Musée de l’Armée
1916–17
Germany prints lozenge camouflage fabric for aircraft, possibly the first printed camouflage of any kind. The year is disputed. Source: Australian War Memorial
1917
The word “camouflage” enters English, from the Parisian slang camoufler. Source: Etymonline
May 1917
HMS Industry becomes the first dazzle-painted ship, under Norman Wilkinson. Source: IWM, Smithsonian
1 April 1918
The Women’s Reserve Camouflage Corps is formed in New York. Source: Atlas Obscura
1920 - 1939
1929
According to Wikipedia, Italy’s telo mimetico becomes the first printed camouflage fabric for general issue. Source: Wikipedia (Italian)
1931
Germany prints its splinter pattern on the Zeltbahn tent-sheet. Source: Deutsches Panzermuseum
The pattern families
Hundreds of patterns, but most belong to a few families. Learn these and the rest start to make sense, whether you’re in a surplus shop or looking through our rails.
Splinter
Hard-edged, angular shapes. Germany first printed its splinter pattern in 1931 (Deutsches Panzermuseum).
Brushstroke
Broad, painted-looking strokes, first seen on Britain’s Denison smock for airborne troops in 1942 (ParaData).
Spot or frogskin
Rounded blobs. The US M1942 frogskin was reversible: jungle on one side, beach on the other (Coffee or Die).
Lizard
Horizontal streaks, from France in the 1950s. The French army withdrew it at home in 1962 because it “rappelle de mauvais souvenirs”, bringing back bad memories of the Algerian War (Musée de l’Armée).
Rain
Thin vertical dashes on a plain ground, typical of the Warsaw Pact. According to Wikipedia, East Germany introduced its Strichtarn in 1965.
Woodland
Large leafy blotches. Heddels calls US Woodland “easily the most duplicated and modified pattern ever invented”.Digital
Small square pixels, designed by computer. Canada’s CADPAT was issued in 1997 (Canadian Army).
Multi-terrain
Soft blends meant to work almost anywhere, like MultiCam (2002) and Britain’s MTP. MultiCam was chosen for Afghanistan in 2010 (US Army).Explore by era
Each era gets its own page. You’ll find every pattern with its dates, country, why it was designed and what collectors look for.
Explore by country
Where each pattern began. Pick a country to see every entry we have for it.
Numbers show entries in the guide so far, by country of origin. See all countries.
The Glasgow connection
Sir John Graham Kerr.
John Graham Kerr, the zoologist who proposed dazzle-style ship camouflage to Churchill in 1914, taught at the University of Glasgow from 1902 to 1935, first as Regius Professor of Natural History and then as Professor of Zoology (Britannica). Norman Wilkinson is credited with dazzle, and Kerr later disputed the credit.
Kerr’s papers are held by the University of Glasgow Archives. Their catalogue says his idea of “obliterative shading and disruption was adopted, and was used extensively during the 1939-1945 World War” (Archives Hub).
Scotland has another first: the Lovat Scouts, raised from Highland stalkers and ghillies, were the first unit to wear ghillie suits.
Stories from camouflage history
Dazzle ships
About 2,300 British ships were dazzled by June 1918 and over 4,000 by the end of the war, painted from studios in the basement of the Royal Academy (Smithsonian).
The Ghost Army
1,100 men fooled the enemy in 1944–45 with inflatable tanks, fake camps “complete with fake laundry” and sound recordings audible 15 miles away. The fashion designer Bill Blass was one of them (National Gallery of Art).
Operation Bertram, 1942
According to Wikipedia, before El Alamein 722 “Sunshields” made tanks look like lorries, a fake water pipeline was built at five miles a day, and its chief called it “the biggest ‘film production’ on which I ever expect to be engaged”.Keep exploring
Image credits
White Arctic fox curled on snow: Photo: Emma, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Group of Grevy’s zebras grazing, stripes merging: Photo: bobosh_t, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Blue shark in open water, dark blue back and pale belly: Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Scan of Temperate Woodland CADPAT fabric (swatch): Cplbeaudoin / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
USS West Mahomet in dazzle camouflage, c. Nov 1918: US Navy photo, Naval History and Heritage Command, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
French camoufleurs at work altering the landscape (US Signal Corps photo 111-SC-1218): Unknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Italian cavalryman wearing the telo mimetico mod. 1929 as a cape, from 1929 War Ministry manual: Anonimo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Luftwaffe splinter pattern (Splittermuster 41) swatch: Photo: Skjoldbro, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
1944 Pattern Denison parachute smock, three views (surviving garment): Aodhdubh at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1944_Pattern_Denison_Parachute_Smock.jpg) Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Pvt Bradigan and Sgt Platt, Co. H, 35th Infantry, 25th Division, wearing ‘the Army’s new camouflage’ (spotted two-piece suits): Signal Corps Archive from United States (photographer not credited; U.S. Army Signal Corps SC 151516), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SC_151516_-_The_Army's_new_camouflage_is_worn_here_by_Pvt._Bradigan_and_Sgt._Platt._(51995383220).jpg)
Digital swatch of a 1950s variant of the French lizard pattern.: VoltigeurFR, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Close-up of a tigerstripe-pattern hat (file says ‘Post-Vietnam Era’).: Trios2007 — public domain (PD-self), via Wikimedia Commons
Photo of East German Strichtarn fabric (‘model 1964’, 1965).: Joan Rocaguinard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Military exercise in Nuremberg, West Germany, January 1986.: Nancy Wong, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Section of MTP camouflage fabric issued for Afghanistan, 2009: Photo: Amanda Reynolds/MOD. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0 Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Canvas and steel observation-post tree near Souchez, 15 May 1918 (IWM Q 10310): David McLellan, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
1st Marine Division Marines return fire during the breakout from Chosin, 7 Dec 1950; one Marine wears a spotted camouflage garment: National Archives 5891315, official USMC photo 127-N-A5434, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:127-N-A5434.jpg)
US Army LRRP team briefing before a mission, Operation Harrison near Tuy Hoa, Vietnam, 27 Feb 1966.: SP4 Robert C. Lafoon, DASPO — public domain (PD-USGov-Military-Army), via Wikimedia Commons
Close-up photo of ‘chocolate chip’ BDU trousers.: Pretzelpaws (English Wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Ukrainian soldier in MM-14 running past BTR-80s, Rapid Trident 2015, Yavoriv: Sgt. 1st Class Walter Van Ochten / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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.
Army surplus store front with camouflage clothing on racks: Photo: Anna Frodesiak, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo portrait of Sir John Graham Kerr by T. & R. Annan & Sons: Photo: T. & R. Annan & Sons Ltd / Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Modified (cropped and colour-graded) by Fat Buddha Store.
Postcard of troopship RMS Olympic in dazzle paint: G.A. Pratt, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Ghost Army dummy tank on display at the International Spy Museum, Washington DC: ArtemisiaGentileschiFan, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ghost_Army_dummy_tank,_International_Spy_Museum.jpg)
Dummy filling station and dummy vehicles on the ‘Diamond’ dummy pipeline, Operation Bertram, Oct 1942: British Middle East Command Directorate of Camouflage, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WO201-2023_Operation_Bertram_dummy_vehicles_at_Diamond_dummy_pipeline_October_1942.jpg)
Last checked September 2026. Found a mistake or know something we don’t? Tell us in the shop at 81 Queen Street, Glasgow.
