During WWI, Allied warships, troop ships and merchant supply ships were all targeted by the German forces. The Allies had to find a way to limit these attacks, but camouflaging ships against the sea and sky proved impossible for all weather conditions.

The artist Norman Wilkinson proposed the "exact opposite of camouflage" — a system of stripes and jagged lines, later called "Dazzle" camouflage. Wilkinson hired a camouflage unit to apply his designs, which were tested on small wooden models painted by by women from London's Royal Academy of Arts.

The designs were scaled up for real ships. No two designs were the same, partly so the type of ship underneath the paint could not be identified.

Pablo Picasso would later call Dazzle camouflage a Cubist invention.