FROM THE PICASSO-STYLE CAMOUFLAGE TO THE CAMOU-CHIC 2010

Guernica, Picasso 1937

From the etymological point of you the word camouflage would mean “to blow some smoke on the face of someone to distract him”;

From the poetical point of you “a spell on the things conferring them a different sense compared to their usual one”.

It was France to give origin, from the artistic point of view, to the camouflage, followed by England and Germany that in that specific period were involved in the great world war.

The cubists adopted this technique to create some works, among them there was Picasso that with “Guernica” exalted and condemned at the same time the horror of the world through the camouflage, the perceptive trick.

The futurists of the beginning of the 20th century, believing that the war was “only hygiene of the world” had a bold indifference regarding the practical and merely defensive problems of the camouflage.

But it has been actually the Italian army to be the first one to adopt, before the others, the grey-green colour of the mimetic cloth, giving to the parachutist troupes helmets and blouses able to make them invisible to the enemies.

But camouflage indicates also the seductive action concerning the construction and change of the external aspect of our image, as it happens in fashion.

This is the reason why the spring/summer 2010 fashion parades collections are ridden by Valkyrie style and soldier women camou-chic with romantic tops, voile blouses, pop style sandals and all of them rigorously CAMOUFLAGE!

Cristina Girelli