Matthieu Nicol: Aesthetics of Power
Visual researcher Matthieu Nicol’s book “Fashion Army” traces more than 20 years of military style, looking at the US Army’s own archive.
The book presents 350 images taken from the US Army Natick Labs archive, shot by military photographers and documenting the latest “collections” soldiers wore from the 1960s to the 1990s. Showcasing new materials and innovations in style, the photographs evoke the far-reaching influence of military apparel on civilian fashion.
Looking at youth, posing in a studio against pastel color backgrounds, it is uncanny to connect these images to the reality of war. At the same time, uniforms, inseparable from their aesthetics, inevitably bear a strong connection with the aesthetics of power.
