From Invisible to Inconspicuous

[Psychlonic]

I'll confess, there's been times during on operation where I flat out got bored and said "Fuck this" and just wanted to mosey back home unimpeded. For some of you others, you may find a sudden need to blend in with the crowd even when all you have is camouflage. Either way, despite popular belief, you can look passably inconspicuous even if you're decked out in "full battle rattle."

The best trick when wearing full camouflage is to take your long sleeve blouse off, turn it inside out, and roll the sleeves up just past the elbow. If you blouse your trousers over your boots, untuck them and let them simply cover over most of your boot. Place your gloves and your mask in your trouser pockets. This is enough to pass as normal to anyone not studying every detail about you. You'll be able to pass people on the sidewalks (lit up no more than one would be in street lights) without looking suspicious, and anybody driving by won't notice anything out of the ordinary.

If a cop stops you, he's probably going to notice eventually that something is wrong about you, so don't even bother trying to fast talk your way out of it. Just haul ass back into the shadows and resume your camouflage at the first opportunity.

If you're wearing an LBV, you might get away with putting it underneath your clothing if it's not stuffed with equipment. Again, people aren't going to be studying you if you're just walking along, so don't worry about it. I wouldn't rely on the technique when going to your area of operations, but if you're just trying to go back home it will suffice.


Overall, the method works great. You might look a little "rough", but nobody is going to think much about it. Again, you won't stand up to a keen eye - you'll have tags sticking out and generally look "off" - but if you don't stop for anyone, nobody will notice.

[Xanatos]

Sometimes when I'm travelling light (just a knife & 1 or 2 bits of other equipment) I don't normally wear my hoodie to cover myself, especially on hot nights. What I do instead is just stuff my gloves & equipment into my pockets (gotta love those pants), untuck my trousers from my tabi boots and wear my t-shirt mask over my grey longsleeve & roll up the sleeves. It works fairly well.

[ShadeWarrior03]

Due to where I live I have to go full inconspicuous. I find this general clothing layout to be the most effective for the fall and spring.

Dark Shoes
Dark Colored Soccer Socks
Durable Belt
Non-white T-shirt, I prefer a dark blue band t-shirt that I own
Flannel or Button Down Shirt, tucked in
Zip-up hoodie, black or navy blue

If I need to maneuver down an alleyway or through darkly lit areas, my kit allows me to vanish. If I need to change what I look like I can unzip the hoodie and look like some sort of prepster yuppie (tie hoodie around back and neck, put hood on inside where it isn't seen). If I need to change again to fit a different scene, I unbutton the button down and look like some form of hipster or concert-goer. Final change, zip it up again with everything untucked and I look like a disheveled youth. So, with this clothing layout I can have four forms
a)stealth
b)upper-class brass, trust fund edition
c)middle-class white kid, rock edition
d)lower-class white kid, forgotten by society edition

[Urgon]

AVE...

Fortunately here I can wear all black and still look like a law abiding citizen. Yesterday I bought two nice, black shirts, one with tribal-style dark gold dragon. I can blend in shadows with style, and also blend into society. The most important thing is not what you wear, but how you act. Whenever I'm in area where I'm not supposed to be or would stand out, I say to myself and to the others this latin sentence: Recedite plebes! Gero rem imperialem!(Stand aside plebians! I am on imperial business!). By doing this I change my whole behavior. I could go trough construction site wearing tuxedo and the people would not remember my face...
Here wearing military-style clothes is a kind of fad. I've once seen a pink camo pants...

[Xanatos]

Ha! I've got to try that next time I'm out. Although I should probably learn a bit more Latin to make the image more authentic.

There is a particular shade of pink that actually makes good camouflage, the SAS uses it on their 4WDs (hence their nickname 'Pinkie' or 'Pink Panther'). It absorbs light, appearing black in the darkness and works particularly well in the desert during sunsets. This same shade of pink is also used on multicam.

[vonunov]

Yeah, I do that too, OP. I would go out in black BDUs, but since I lived in a big city (recently moved), it was pretty much impossible for me to find any darkness to move through (especially since I just wanted to go explore a construction site. So I did basically what you said. Wore white T-shirt under BDU jacket so I could unbutton it and roll up the sleeves to look less shifty. Put gloves and balaclava in trouser pockets (or roll the balaclava up if it's cold enough to be wearing a beanie). By just doing this I looked less suspicious by far, and I could easily convert.