A 1995 exhibition at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art was called "Swords Into Ploughshares" and showed the origins of military looks turned fashionable: the safari suit was developed by the need for camouflage in the heat and dust of Britain's far-flung empire; gilt braiding was designed to protect the chest, before its use became merely ceremonial.

Wartime images tend to be absorbed into fashion when the clothing no longer serves its original function. Either practical things turn decorative -- like the silver-ball buttons that were once designed as backup ammunition. Or in a postwar period, practical army gear is absorbed into civilian life, as with the blouson jacket or trench coat.

But war fashion also appears suddenly, apparently from nowhere. The most likely reason for the current vogue is the flood of secondhand or surplus army clothing that came from Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. The clothes were practical and affordable for a young generation not necessarily making any statement about dressing aggressively.

Another explanation is that designers absorbed the imagery of the military that appeared on television screens and magazines last year as Europe celebrated the end of World War II 50 years before. Articles about the 20th anniversary of the Vietnam War may also have pricked the visual consciousness.

Retro fashions have also thrown up army looks, like the Eisenhower combat jacket from the 1940's as part of neo-conservative male dressing, or safari suits revived from the hippie era. Some garments, like the military blouson or the pilot's flying jacket, have just evolved into design classics.

One designer may act as a catalyst. Prada has stirred a general influence in uniforms, which have been developed as a fashionable look. Gucci's Tom Ford deliberately described the theme of his new collection as "uniforms, not military."

In a period when relatively few young people in Western societies do active military service, there is an esthetic attraction for trim clothes that are the antithesis of sloppy sportswear. Fashion follows its own logic, and any apparent connection between what goes on the runways and what appears in the headlines and on the nightly news programs is likely to be specious.