Camofleur

Justine Smith, Rise and Fall, 2010

I am rather taken by camofleur, conjuring together tough and trendy with willowy English rose.

Justine Smith cuts and crafts bank notes into intricate, delicate shapes: blossom and butterfly. Camouflaged by bank notes, these ephemeral forms converse money as conduit of power and its associated value systems. Specimen III: Kimilsungia, a sculpture of the orchid named after the infamous dictator, is scalpelled and shaped from North Korean Won.

King of camofluer, Jean Paul Gautier is influenced by street wear and popular culture, yet his haute couture can be very formal, unusual and playful, for example his 2001 camo evening dress, seen below worn by Lily Cole.  In the same year Moschino featured a camo silk-chiffon dress with ammo holster as hip-belt, bullets replaced by hot-red lipsticks. They remind me of illicit marking material, ripe and ready for drawing doodles on living room walls or the outside of tube trains. But then camo is associated with street culture, hip hop 
and graffiti.

[camouflage] can be subversive or simply make you smile. 
Camo has become a classic. It's a paisley for our times.
Richard James, Saville row tailor
  
To camofleur is to disguise, create and express, to become. 
It is a noun, a verb and an attitude.

Loren Beven, Repeat (detail), hand embroidered British DPM, 2008

Camofluer Haute-Couture
 L to R: Jean Paul Gaultier chiffon camo dress, Alexander McQueen snake skin print dress, Christian Louboutin camo pony hair pigalle shoes.

R-T-W Camofleur, Ocabini Style
L to R: Ocabini cashmere poncho (AW09)  accessorised with a Matthew Williamson scarf, TheOutNet jeans, Chanel nail polish, Guiseppe Zanotti ballet pumps and Marc Jacobs rings.