The history of military camouflage has very distant origins.
Apparently the first-ever record of an attempt at military camouflage is reported by the Roman official and writer Publius Vegetius Renatus, who, in the fourth century A.D., gave news of Julius Caesar’s ships that in 56-54 B.C. set out to conquer Gaul, were painted in what came to be known as “Venetian blue”-a sort of sea green-the same color as the uniforms of the troops embarked.

As this is not a disquisition on the history of camouflage (Disruptive Pattern Material), let us take a time jump and go all the way back to 1892, when an amateur U.S. artist and zoologist, Abbott Handerson Thayer, wrote and published the book Concealing coloration in the Animal Kingdom, which, read by so many military leaders, sparked the beginning of systematic use in the military with the first Unité de Camoufleurs, which was born in France in February 1915.
Once it became widespread in the military, it became in common use among civilians as well, and the reasons are many.

As early as after World War I, camouflage jackets and jumpsuits began to be a garment worn even by civilians during festivals and celebrations. But it was with the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975, that camo garments worn by civilians and veterans acquired a completely different meaning.
Already with the anti-Vietnam War protests of the second half of the 1960s, camouflage became a symbol of the anti-establishment, pacifist, and anti-militarist counterculture, in a kind of reversal of meaning and also, to some extent, a desecration of the symbol.

And it was during this period that camo made its final landing in the world of naked street style, first as a subversive element, and then over the years almost completely lost this meaning.
If there is, however, one world par excellence that was born in the street and made the street its natural habitat and the place where it grew and evolved, it is the hip-hop world naturally involving artists from the rap scene. In fact, the entry of camouflage into hip-hop has been gradual.

The reasons behind the great success of camo among rap artists are many: the anti-establishment meaning that the camouflage pattern had now taken on; the loose-fit of military items; and the appeal to the toughness and imagery that automatically the military uniform immediately brings to memory.

Think of the cover of the debut album of the Capone-N-Noreaga duo, The War Report, or the very famous photo of Nas in a camo jacket and cap (the latter a true camo pattern enthusiast), or even that of Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac, in short, all the strongest and most important rappers of every era have worn and still wear camouflage items. Also because contemporary fashion has drawn and continues to draw from the military world and, in some cases, making it its own distinctive feature: think of BAPE for example, which has made its camo pattern an extremely recognizable peculiarity; Carhartt; the Japanese-inspired British brand Maharishi, and I could go on and on just mentioning streetwear brands.

In the end, it is all a matter of meanings and references, of opportunity and favorable historical moments, of ideals and the very simple current trends, which, however, as far as the camo pattern is concerned, seems to have no end.