What is Dazzle Camouflage?
The bold black and white stripes of the Dazzle/Razzle masks are inspired by dazzle camouflage, a surface treatment used on battleships in World War I. The technique “dazzles” the eye, confusing the direction of travel due to the jarring stripes and shapes used in the painting (Kiger, 2019).
Design Inspiration
The Dazzle/Razzle masks are designed to complement a costume created in 2019 for attendance to the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas. The look of the costume was aesthetically influenced by the striking contrast striping of dazzle camouflage and the silhouette of a Victorian-era corset held in the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection, made in 1876. The silhouette of the corset used in the EDC look was exaggerated to dramatically expand the hips, accommodating for a removable ruffle skirt to be added to the inside of the corset. The black and white striping of the classic dazzle camouflage look was offset by the addition of fluorescent yellow contrast fabric, adding an interesting juxtaposition of visual aesthetics meant to simultaneously camouflage and call attention.
The Masks
Simple in design, these masks are intended to highlight the striking aesthetics of the dazzle camouflage look with minimal additional embellishment. The Plague Doctor styled mask is made of a neoprene base with an overlayer of printed stretch nylon fused to white canvas. The eye holes are bound in upcycled neon yellow high-vis safety tee shirt, and the bias binding around the face is high-vis safety fabric. The complementing daily wear face mask is created with a lining and binding of upcycled neon yellow high-vis safety tee shirt fabric, topped with a layer of printed nylon fused to black cotton twill. The modular fastenings of the mask are stretch cords of the same printed nylon and hot pink spandex for aesthetic effect. The mask can be tied behind the head and neck, or configured (as pictured) with stretch ear loops that can either be tied in place or fastened behind the neck. Finally, further inspired by the concept of visual camouflage, the plastic pony beads on the ends of the mask ties contain a secret: while the black and yellow beads are merely decorative, the white beads on the pink cording spell out the artist’s initials of J and L in morse code.
References:
Kiger, P. J. (2019, March 14). The WWI ‘dazzle’ camouflage strategy was so ridiculous it was genius. History.com. https://www.history.com/news/dazzle-camouflage-world-war-1
This project is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts. 