The exhibition Fashion Army presents over fifty remarkable photographs from a recently declassified US Army archive. While doing online research in 2022, French visual researcher Matthieu Nicol came across this collection with images of people wearing samples and prototypes of military garments, dating from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. Nicol was instantly intrigued with the scale, methodical approach, and obscure objective of this collection. The images of men and women wearing military outfits, statically photographed in plain studio settings, are conspicuously reminiscent of the campaigns and lookbooks of major fashion houses. Fashion Army offers a fascinating visual record of the role clothing plays in the projection of military power. At the same time, the images provide insight into how military apparel has influenced the fashion world over the past decades.
What started out as a random find, soon developed into a large-scale visual research project. The photos turned out to be part of a declassified archive from the Natick Soldier Systems Center. This American research institute works on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense and not only conducts research into the field of clothing, but also into food, shelter, and air-drop systems. The institute, however, refused to provide concrete answers to Nicol’s questions about the actual purpose of these pictures. In all likelihood the photographs were made to document prototypes of military garments and accessories for all imaginable applications within the context of the army: from secretary to soldier, from parachutist to explosives expert.
The enigmatic series was compiled by Nicol in the book Fashion Army, published in 2024, which formed the basis for the exhibition of the same name. Fashion Army offers an intriguing insight into the style, innovation, and far-reaching influence of military attire on fashion and identity. Over the years, many of these styles managed to find their way from the battlefield to the high-streets, including camouflage prints, cargo trousers, and trench coats. The aesthetic appeal of the images also causes a certain sense of discomfort, especially because of their associations with the army: an organisation that is focused on protecting and deterring, but also has the power to use force.
Matthieu Nicol
Matthieu Nicol (1978, Paris) is an iconographer, image collector, and independent curator who lives and works in Paris. He is the founder of the creative consultancy Too Many Pictures, which supports photography institutions in their communication efforts and digital strategies. Nicol previously worked for the photo department of the French newspaper Le Monde. He is currently actively involved in delpire & co, a publishing house and photography bookshop in de Parisian Saint Germain des Prés neighbourhood.
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