Surplus clothing that's similar to civilian clothing?

[Paul_B]

Saw my first glamourflage this morning A school girl I passed on my bike had a glamourflage coat on. I guess I might notice it more now it's been mentioned on here. Funny that effect. Someone points something out you didn't think was common near you then you suddenly start seeing it more.

Then you start noticing the lass in an insulated jacket in a very muted or towards sandy brown, almost a military colour. Definitely not a military inspired jacket but it had a colourway that would not look out of place on a soldier in certain deployments I guess.

 

[Janne]

You can buy camo bikinis in the ole' US.
Even G-string bikinis, but that is a bit stupid as you hardly see the camo pattern.

I wonder which designer started the fad with civilian clothes in camo?

Most are ugly, imo.

 

[Erbswurst]

Last year every youth orientated European shop for clothing had round about 60% faked military clothing.
It was in fashion and is still in use of course.

 

[Trojan]

Then there is the cross over with Arktis for example with there Ark Air kit for snowboarders, skaters etc. which is still ideal for outdoors/buahscraft etc.

Now they are doing something for Fred Perry!

Arktis do have a range of colours so you can still 'hide' but not look like an army surplus shop!

May be I need a Fred Perry tennis shirt for lighting fires??

 

[Billy-o]

Probably go for Fila

 

[moocher]

I used to wear a green coat an brown or green trousers an wellies or walking boots when out with a hunting dog or air gun in the uk.movement sound and strong deodorant I think are the key problems, gamekeepers never wore camo when working .

 

[Laurentius]

I am an alpenflage junkie myself, it is distinctive I can say that. I have an old flecktarn tanksuit that I use as overalls for gardening, but my alpenflage tanksuit is the state of the art, it is the SAK of overalls too good to get all muddied up

 

[Laurentius]

You see people on here posting pictures of cammo tarps. For I guess a stealthy pitch.

I once pitched a 2.4m square tarp on open fell next to a tarn in the lake district. A flying v or diamond pitch with one high corner and the other three pitched to the ground. Inside was my kit and my mates kit which consisted of a blue and a black bivvy, orange mat, red mat, grey and blue sack, blue and yellow sack plus brightly coloured dry bags. Highly visible? Not a hope!

We went for a walk up a hillock overlooking the pitch. Turned back and we were less than 100m away and it took some time to see it. I took a photo of it and used to ask people where our tarp was. Kind of a spot the ball contest. BTW it wasn't cammo but a plain green, about a hilleberg green.

I only say this because the tarp was colour matched to the fell so it was hard to see. The rest was flat on the ground so whilst bright colours wasn't actually obvious. A cammo tarp would be visible I reckon since it was a high tarp pitch and cammo doesn't match the terrain.

I wonder whether a how well cammo works in varied terrain. I know it breaks up shape but the variety of colours could surely result in a chance of contrast and an easy spot. Catch something that looks out of place and you'll see the rest perhaps. Although armies wouldn't use it if it doesn't work well overall for them.

DD do a nice custom camo of there own. I reckon it is better than DPM.

 

[Erbswurst]

Ladies and gentlemen, that thread is about civil looking military clothing!

Ok, if I stand up from the table after dinner my civil suit usually looks like Flecktarn, but ...

 

[Janne]

Military issue underwear looks civilian.

I wanted to ask earlier, but forgot: why do you want civilian looking military gear, is it not much better to buy civilian gear straight away?

 

[Laurentius]

Military issue underwear looks civilian.

I wanted to ask earlier, but forgot: why do you want civilian looking military gear, is it not much better to buy civilian gear straight away?

My underwear is nobody's business, but for what it is worth I started wearing military surplus because of practicality, cheapness and durability, I wasn't particular concerned what it looked like. I don't like a lot of high end or for that matter cheaper outdoor gear because it doesn't do the job, vintage Rohan excepted. It is style over content too often. Wasn't it the case when the age of the musket gave way to the age of the rifle that military clothing started to be styled on the practical country wear of the day, Norfolk jackets and all that?

 

[Janne]

I do not know about other countries ’regimental worn’ armed forces clothing, but a lot of the Swedish ones was made from awful materials like nylon.

I shudder when I remember the Nylon white shirts, gabardin trousers and jackets.
I think I wore the Nylon shirt once, after that I bought civilian cotton shirts.

You can still buy Swedish Army cotton underwear and socks ( thin cotton, thin cotton/ wool mix or wool).
Fantastic quality and very comfortable!

 

[Erbswurst]

Leo Koehler, Carinthia and Ullfrotte/Woolpower are sold new to everybody. Steinadler too.
They all offer olive green original military clothing.

Leo Koehler is relatively cheap. But the stuff is accessible used and very cheap too.

Leo Koehler doesn't get the original oliv moleskin fabrik any longer. The oliv clothing do not have the old quality, but if you compare the price with civil products, it is still worth the money.

A real competition is the Solognac clothing. I am not so convinced about other Decathlon stuff. It isn't bad, and cheap it is.

But the Decathlon hunting stuff is very tough! It is nearly on Nato level, especially the clothing. They sell new clothing for the prices used nato stuff can cost too.
May be other hunting clothing are like that, I don't know them all.

I use Solognac clothing and Austrian and oliv Bundeswehr clothing. The quality is far better than from civil street clothing. And I do not really like the stile and prices from civil outdoor clothing.

In my opinion there is to much over priced rubbish on the market. More fashion than function. They speak about function, but the function of the old school military equipment is better.

Hunting clothing most times are designed very conservative too.

 

[Janne]

I used to wear clothes I bought in Austria, or what I bought from Frankonia Jagd.
Does that company still exist?

Then I used parts of my issued uniform, but it was green. Not camo.
I usually wore M59F trousers and shirt, a Loden jacket, the knitted S. A. Beanie.

Orange hat when I hunted or was in the forest during hunting season.

Maybe the OP can change the mil clothes by dyieing?

 

[Erbswurst]

It is possible to colour camouflage patterns black. Because usually black is the darkest colour in the pattern.
Desert patterns should be possible to colour to brown or whatever is the darkest colour in the pattern. To colour to oliv should work too with desert patterns, I guess.

Yes, Frankonia stills exists. They are the market leader for hunting equipment in Germany.
They run an internet shop and several large real shops in most bigger german cities.
The stuff usually isn't cheap, but made in very good quality.
In Germany it is very expensive to rent a hunting terrain. This people don't have to count with the penny.
But yes, modern stuff, classical stuff like loden and leather, what ever you like you can find there.

My uncle bought nowhere else. I have a lot of the stuff too.
But: Unfortunately relatively pricy.

 

[snappingturtle]

I've had some snugpak kit from a surplus shop, some military mid layers can be very civi like, and the best that I have is a USAF flight jacket in olive nomex and my Swedish army coat in leather would be hard to define as military.

 

[Janne]

Sweden is a popular hunting destination fir Germans.
Moose usually. One if my old friends owned a bit of forests in the north and took in guests to hunt.
He used to joke that he had laminated pictures of cows, bulls, reindeer, mama moose, daddy moose and ptarmigan so they knew what a moose looked like...

He joked of course!
Did happen though every year that a tourist bagged a reindeer.

 

[Erbswurst]

Yes, the tests in Germany are complicated too. We try to avoid to much idiots who run around with a gun in the woods.

Perhaps not the best idea, to invite them to Sweden!

(Usually we send them to Mallorca.
I mean our idiots.)

 

[Janne]

Sweden send them to UK.


I did not mind, we love UK!

 

[Erbswurst]

Ah, slowly I unterstand ...