ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the visuality of militarisation through the medium of fashion. It explains the phenomenon of militarisation, and explores how fashion trends that draw on the aesthetics of military attire contribute to the dynamics of militarisation in contemporary Western societies. Aesthetic sources, including fashion, also reveal and conceal a lot about militarism in society. The popularity of a military aesthetic in mass-produced clothing – from baby clothing to wedding dresses, by way of high-street chain-store jackets and pants – suggests a widespread acceptance, what might be termed a normalisation of militarism in the everyday. The chapter concludes with an argument that links everyday representations of militarism, such as those found in fashion, with a changing contemporary security environment that relies on such representations for the normalisation – and therefore acceptance – of war.
