Update: Camouflage

In December I posted about all the camouflage army jackets I'd been seeing around town.  Since then I've seen more and more camouflage, but remained unsure of what it meant. Today I read this article, which describes how gang members in the U.S. army in Iraq are sending flak jackets back to America for use in gang warfare.  It gave me a couple of new ideas about the source of the camo trend.

On one level, the camouflage trend may have come from a street trend: gang members started wearing the stolen camouflage flak jackets around, clothing companies picked up on this, and the trend was turned into fashion.

On a more abstract level, the use of camouflage as a print in civilian wear may be a symbol of how American corporations are using the war to make money.  Commercializing camouflage by bringing it into "fashion" could be a statement about the commercialization of warfare.