軍裝夾克是如何一步步平民化的

Half the people on the street are dressed to kill. Every second woman on the avenue and every second man on the town and every other kid on the jungle gym has his or her back clad in army green. Challenging the ubiquity of black outerwear in the cities and lending a flavor of the PX to the suburban shopping center, the color has conquered the national wardrobe. The history of getting dressed is in large part a story of borrowing combat garb — cravat and cardigan, bomber jacket and pea coat — but the proliferation of the army green jacket is different in kind and in degree.

街上一半的人穿得好像要去殺人。街上一半的女人、城裏一半的男人以及攀爬架上一半的孩子穿着軍綠色。這種顏色正在挑戰城市裏無所不在的黑色外衣，給郊區購物中心增添一份不同的色彩——它征服了美國人的衣櫥。着裝史在很大程度上是借鑑戰鬥服裝的過程，比如領巾和羊毛衫、短夾克和雙排扣海軍短大衣，但是這一次，軍綠外套的大量出現在種類和程度上都不同於以往。

The most symbolically resonant of this year’s models evoke the M-65 field jacket worn by United States troops in Vietnam. The ideal color — the one approved by the Army Uniform Board — is “Army Green Shade 44,” but a variety of hues and cuts speak in the same idiom, likewise breathing military jargon into the general American vocabulary of dress.

今年最有代表性的款式讓人想起越戰時美軍穿的M-65野戰短外套。最理想的顏色是曾被美國軍裝委員會(Army Uniform Board)批准的“44號軍綠色”，不過各種顏色和剪裁都傳達着同一個意思——把軍事元素注入美國服裝語彙裏。

Proving immune to the seasonal cycles of designer fashion, retaining currency with elites despite its presence in bargain bins, losing no prestige with youth even as their elders try the same look, the army soldier’s green jacket has developed a status on par with that of the gold miner’s bluejeans with which it pairs so well.

綠色軍裝夾克證明自己不像名牌時裝那樣受季節限制，即使出現在特價區也依然受精英青睞，就算長輩們穿同樣款式也不影響它在年輕人中的聲望，它的地位已和淘金者的藍色牛仔褲旗鼓相當——還真別說，它們是絕配。

The green now regarded as a quintessentially American tradition emerged only recently. In the early 1800s, imperial armies kitted themselves out in similar shades, like the rifle green of the British and the Russian green of the czar, but Gen. George Washington had preferred the blue coat and buff breeches ordained by one of his old Virginia military companies and immortalized in the Charles Willson Peale portrait. Though Washington ordered the Continental Army into dark blue coats in 1779, the color did not become official nationwide until 1821. Nonetheless, the uniform’s details changed to suit new styles worn by European cavalry and on the streets of the new republic. In contrast to the rigidity of the French or the British or, for that matter, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army maintained a uniform tradition that was ad hoc and improvisatory — haphazard at worst but dashingly Whitmanesque at its finest.

綠色如今已被認爲是典型的美國傳統，其實它興起的時間並不長。19世紀早期，皇家軍隊穿着類似顏色的服裝，比如英國的來福綠和沙皇的俄羅斯綠，但是喬治·華盛頓將軍(George Washington)更喜歡他的弗吉尼亞老僱傭軍公司制定的藍色外套和淺黃色馬褲，他的這個造型在查爾斯·威爾森·皮爾(Charles Willson Peale)的畫筆下永垂不朽。1779年，華盛頓下令將大陸軍的軍服上衣改爲深藍色，但是直到1821年，那種顏色才成爲全國美軍的官方顏色。不過，這種制服的細節也做了些改動，以適應歐洲騎兵的新着裝風格以及新共和國的街頭風格。與法軍、英軍或美國海軍的刻板相比，美國陸軍的制服傳統獨特而隨性——最糟的時候，顯得太過隨便；最好的時候，具有帥氣的惠特曼風格。

When the tactics of the Spanish-American War showed the wisdom of some semblance of camouflage, blue gave way to khaki and eventually to the olive-brown tones of Dwight Eisenhower’s famous short jacket. The standard-issue olive drabs, or “O.D.s,” were openly derided. “It was a shade that might have reminded an imaginative observer of the color of vomit or even excrement,” the cultural critic Paul Fussell wrote in his 2002 book, “Uniforms.” After V-J Day, it became existentially necessary for the Army to address its image problem. Olive drab was a drag on morale and a handicap to recruitment, and the mass entry of army clothes to the civilian life, as worn by veterans to tend their lawns or to pump a customer’s gas, further eroded its prestige.

在美西戰爭中，迷彩色展現出自己的優勢，藍色讓位給卡其色，最終演變爲德懷特·艾森豪威爾(Dwight Eisenhower)著名短夾克的橄欖綠棕色。標準的橄欖綠土褐色被公開嘲笑。“這種顏色可能會讓人想起嘔吐物甚至糞便的顏色，”文化批評家保羅·富塞爾(Paul Fussell)在他2002年出版的《制服》(Uniforms)一書中寫道。“二戰”結束後，軍隊實在是需要考慮自己的形象問題了。橄欖綠土褐色挫敗士氣，影響徵兵，而且軍裝開始大量進入平民生活，退伍軍人穿着它打理草坪或者給顧客加油，軍裝的聲望進一步遭到損害。

In 1949, the Office of the Quartermaster General set about stabilizing the army uniform, and its search for a new color may have represented the most extensive development and market-testing process in the history of both apparel and bureaucracy. An advisory committee ruled that a neutral gray-green would be “flattering to the greatest range of people,” according to a later technical report. A team from the Quartermaster Corps proposed army uniforms to about 15,000 troops in 24 cities; quantified the relative enthusiasm of recruits, veterans and officers’ wives; and tested the new uniform on the ceremonial troop companies of the Third Infantry Regiment, a majority of which felt that officers and enlisted men should wear the same clothes.

1949年，美國軍需總辦公室(Office of the Quartermaster General)開始着手將軍服顏色固定下來，它尋找軍服新顏色的過程可能是服裝和官僚史上最廣泛的研發和市場測試過程。根據後來的一份技術報告，一個諮詢委員會裁定，中性灰綠色會是“最討人喜歡的顏色”。美國軍需部(Quartermaster Corps)的一個小組向24個城市的約1.5個軍隊展示了多套軍裝；量化評估新兵、老兵和軍官妻子對這些軍裝的熱情程度；在第三步兵團(Third Infantry Regiment)的儀仗隊公司測試新制服，大部分公司認爲軍官和士兵應該穿同一種顏色。

Phased in between the mid-’50s and early ’60s, the army green field uniform projected “the confidence and readiness of an authoritative military force,” the historian Shelby Stanton wrote in “U.S. Army Uniforms of the Cold War, 1948-1973.” “Army green,” Stanton felt, “complemented the U.S. desire to project the most professional soldiering image toward its Cold War adversaries.” The M-65 is named for the year of its debut.

史學家謝爾比·斯坦頓(Shelby Stanton)在《冷戰時期的美軍制服》(U.S. Army Uniforms of the Cold War, 1948-1973)中寫道，軍綠色野戰服在50年代中期至60年代初被逐步採用，它表現出“官方軍事力量的信心和備戰狀態”。斯坦頓感覺，“軍綠色”“幫助美國向冷戰對手塑造出最職業的士兵形象”。

But only a few years later, as a youth revolt emerged around the world, anti-authoritarians pressed the army jacket into subversive service. Country Joe at Woodstock, John Lennon at Madison Square Garden and Jane Fonda on the Free the Army road show all treated costume as commentary. The counterculture kid in Army gear could razz the warmongering machine that had endowed the jacket with symbolic power, and he could honor boys destined to die in their boots, and he could also effectively affect a bohemian pose.

但是，僅僅幾年之後，隨着青年造反運動在世界各地興起，反威權主義者把軍裝用於顛覆活動。鄉下佬喬樂隊(Country Joe)在伍德斯托克音樂節(Woodstock)上、約翰·列儂(John Lennon)在麥迪遜廣場花園、簡·方達(Jane Fonda)在“解放軍隊”(Free the Army)巡迴演出中，紛紛通過服裝來表達觀點。反主流文化的青年通過穿軍裝來嘲笑美國這臺好戰機器賦予軍裝一種象徵性權力，紀念那些註定在戰場上死去的少年，與此同時還爲爲自己帶來一種波希米亞的姿態。

In 1971, having returned from the Vietnam War and committed to protest against it, Navy Lt. John Kerry wore an army green field jacket to meet the press and the public. Alison Lurie decoded the message of every protester’s surplus-store get-up in her 1981 book “The Language of Clothes,” writing that “the longhaired kid in the Confederate tunic or the Eisenhower jacket was not some kind of coward or sissy; that he was not against all wars — just against the cruel and unnecessary one he was in danger of being drafted into.”

1971年，海軍上尉約翰·克里(John Kerry)從越南戰場回國，決心抗議越戰，他見媒體和公衆時總是身穿軍綠色野戰服。艾莉森·盧裏(Alison Lurie)在她1981年出版的《服裝的語言》(The Language of Clothes)中，解讀了每位抗議者的軍隊剩品店裝扮想要傳達的意思。她寫道，“身穿盟軍束腰上衣或艾森豪威爾夾克的長髮男孩不是懦夫或膽小鬼，他不是反對所有的戰爭，只是反對自己可能被徵召參加的那場殘酷而沒有必要的戰爭。”

Having evolved into a uniform for dissenters, the army green jacket could variously represent the shell of a loner (Robert De Niro in “Taxi Driver”) and the skin of a neurotic (Woody Allen in “Annie Hall”), the badge of the last honest man (Al Pacino in “Serpico”) and the sign of a rebel’s toughness (the guys smoking cigarettes in your high-school parking lots).

軍綠上衣已經發展爲異見者的制服，它可以是孤獨者的保護殼（《出租車司機》[Taxi Driver]中的羅伯特·德尼羅[Robert De Niro]）、神經過敏者的外衣（《安妮·霍爾[Annie Hall]中的伍迪·艾倫[Woody Allen]）、最後一個正直的人的徽章（《衝突》[Serpico]中的阿爾·帕西諾[Al Pacino]），或者反叛者強硬態度的標誌（那些在高中停車場上抽菸的傢伙）。

The March 10, 1996, edition of The Times carried a report on ballistic-missile tests off Taiwan, an analysis of President Clinton’s difficulty articulating a foreign policy absent “the organizing principle of the Soviet threat” and an inquiry into “Fashion’s Military Fascination,” wherein the critic Suzy Menkes observed an increased number of fashion designers trafficking in the visual rhetoric of the battlefield. The escalation made her uneasy. Gucci epaulets, a Versace battle blouse, a trim-fit Prada trench coat tailored to a fascist aesthetic: These references collectively seemed crass, given the gravity of the referent. Moreover, they seemed like poor business. “Military looks on the runway are often badly received,” Menkes wrote, citing clients’ rejection of Valentino camouflage print in 1994, “just when the United Nations peacekeeping force was in Rwanda.” Why did designers persist? Menkes diagnosed a romance for old uniforms of all stripes: “Wartime images tend to be absorbed into fashion when the clothing no longer serves its original function.” This was the advance guard of the current moment’s military formation.

1996年3月10日，《紐約時報》報道了臺灣的彈道導彈試驗，分析了克林頓總統在缺乏“蘇聯威脅時期的組織原則”情況下，表達外交政策時遇到的困難，此外還調查了“時裝對軍裝的癡迷”。在最後這篇文章中，評論家蘇西·門克斯(Suzy Menkes)觀察發現，越來越多的時裝設計師在借用戰場的視覺修辭。這種增長態勢讓她感到不安。古馳(Gucci)肩飾、範思哲(Versace)軍裝上衣、裁剪風格符合法西斯審美的普拉達(Prada)修身雙排扣戰壕風衣：這些單品被放在一起討論顯得有點愚蠢，因爲每件單品都很嚴肅。而且，它們似乎賣得不好。“秀臺上的軍裝造型通常不被接受，”門克斯寫道。她以1994年客戶們對華倫天奴(Valentino)迷彩印花的排斥爲證，“當時聯合國維和部隊恰好在盧旺達”。設計師們爲什麼還要堅持呢？門克斯認爲，那是因爲設計師們對所有類型的舊制服仍懷有浪漫感情：“當服裝不再爲它的原始功能服務時，時裝界就會引入戰時造型。”這是目前軍裝盛行的前兆。

It is tempting to say that the army green jacket could not properly begin its ride to the fore until the 20th century was put to bed and the 21st woke to a need for nostalgia. The first sign of broad public acceptance of the army green jacket came in the spring of 2001, with the first Marc by Marc Jacobs collection, which emblematically featured a green jacket with epaulets adjacent to the cute puffs of its gathered sleeves. Vogue assistants threw them on to counter the girlishness of floral-print dresses, and fashion followed, high and low.

直到人們送別20世紀、在21世紀初感到自己需要懷舊時，軍綠上衣才正式出人頭地。公衆廣泛接受軍綠上衣的第一個徵兆在2001年春天出現，馬克·雅可布之馬克(Marc by Marc Jacobs)的第一個系列象徵性地推出了一件帶肩飾和可愛泡泡袖的綠色上衣。《Vogue》的助理們將它們歸爲印花連衣裙的女孩子氣服裝一類，高端和低端時裝界都開始追隨它。

Why not? As engineered by the government, army green has mass appeal. Egalitarian in its origins and its effects, the color is in the key of the enlightened manners of the day. Not so much androgynous as unisex, it implies perfectly correct gender politics. The army jacket retains suggestions of smart readiness and swaggering utility. It seems to have been scrubbed clean of most other connotations.

爲什麼不呢？軍綠色是經過政府精心調研的，它很受大衆歡迎。這種顏色在起源和效果上都是平等主義的，集中體現了當今的開明態度。它不是雌雄同體，而是男女皆宜，蘊含着完全正確的性別政治。這種軍裝上衣仍代表着胸有成竹的瀟灑和高視闊步的實用性。它似乎已排除了大多數其他涵義。

Wrapped around a hippie in 1968, army green blared a clear contradiction: The wearer was at sartorial war with the program of power. Worn to brunch in 2015, it still communicates a conflict, but there has been a paradigm shift. The person most likely to own a fur-trimmed Saint Laurent army coat is most unlikely to have a yellow ribbon tied around her oak tree.

1968年，嬉皮士裹着軍綠色上衣，顯示出明顯的矛盾：穿着者正在與權力進行服裝方面的鬥爭。2015年，你穿着軍綠上衣去吃早午餐，也傳達出一種矛盾，但是社會模式發生了變化。最可能擁有聖羅蘭(Saint Laurent)毛邊軍裝外衣的人最不可能在自家橡樹上繫着黃絲帶。

The jacket, shifting symbolic shape, now belongs to a consumer culture that pays tribute to the chic of a uniform worn by veterans who are currently begging for change. Thoroughly disconnected from the military-industrial complex and the wearer’s place in it, the garment announces allegiance to only a broad conception of contemporary style. To wear an army green jacket while remaining innocent of the consequences of donning the genuine article for its dedicated purpose is the definition of luxury.

這種上衣的象徵意義發生了變化，現在它屬於一種消費文化，它向退伍老兵制服的風尚致敬，而退伍軍人目前正渴望有所改變。這種服裝與軍事產業的複雜以及穿着者在其中的位置毫無關係，它只是忠於當代時尚的寬泛觀念。身穿軍綠上衣，同時對穿着真正制服去執行專門使命的後果完全不瞭解——這正是奢侈的定義。

In John Knowles’s prep-school novel “A Separate Peace,” set during World War II, his narrator describes olive drab as the “prevailing color of life in America. That color is always respectable and always important. Most other colors risk being unpatriotic.” Does army green inspire any sense of national pride in 2015? Even as it has come to epitomize a certain kind of urbane civilian cool, green field jackets have given way to camouflage prints in the U.S. Army, and the top brass decided to retire the green service uniform as well. The phaseout was completed last year. Dress blues are the new green.

約翰·諾爾斯(John Knowles)的預科學校小說《另一種和平》(A Separate Peace)以“二戰”爲背景，敘述者將橄欖綠土褐色描述爲“美國生活最普遍的顏色。那種顏色總是受人尊敬，非常重要。大部分其他顏色都可能被認爲是不愛國”。2015年，軍綠色也激起某種國家自豪感嗎？儘管它已成爲某種城市平民時尚的酷風尚，但是軍綠野戰服已讓位給美國軍隊的迷彩印花，軍隊高層也已決定淘汰綠色軍服。淘汰過程已於去年完成。深藍是新的綠色。