One of the main attractions of military parades is the diverse range of uniforms, and Great Britain leads the way in this field.
From the police officers who patrol Trafalgar Square on horseback to the sentries who stand guard outside of Buckingham Palace, the British army has retained its ancestral charm.
The Queen’s Guards, who are charged with guarding the royal residences of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, wear a bright red tunic and a tall bearskin hat.
There are certain details on the guards’ uniforms which help to distinguish their different regiments: the groupings of buttons on their tunic, their collar badge, and the colour and position of the plume on their bearskin hat.
The Ceremony of Changing the Guard is an enduring ritual: it takes place every day at 11:30am in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace and lasts around 40 minutes.
The New Guards march to the ceremony from the Wellington Barracks and are accompanied by a guards band which plays military music and less traditional beats.
It has become a tradition for tourists to admire and try to distract these imperturbable soldiers!

Worn and reinterpreted by women, military uniforms have taken on a new dimension. It changes the rules, breaks the established order (masculine/feminine) and arouses curiosity. From literature to the cinema, the women who have reappropriated military uniforms have gone on to become veritable muses.

They are truly:
Legendary, like...
Charlotte Rampling in military trousers and a cap, provocative and lascivious, dancing topless amidst a group of soldiers in The Night Porter, a film by Liliana Cavani. This scene provoked controversy and she immediately became legendary.

Sensual, like...
“Two women rushed to tend to them. They were the very charming Culculine and Alexine. They were dressed in Russian army uniforms and wore lace aprons over their wide trousers tucked into their boots (...) A small cap worn at an angle completed this arousing military get-up.” (Guillaume Apollinaire, The 11,000 Virgins).

Rebellious, like...
Madonna, a contemporary muse, protesting against war whilst wearing a military uniform in the American Life video. Pop music, fashion and the artist’s subversion came together and caused controversy.

Maternal, like...
Marlene Dietrich in a borrowed uniform at the bedside of an injured soldier at the European Front during World War Two.

Adventurous, like...
Lara Croft, a modern pin-up and the first virtual heroine. She goes into battle wearing hot pants and a skin-tight cropped khaki T-shirt. She undertakes perilous yet fun missions.

Timeless, like...
Marilyn Monroe, descending from a plane wearing a military uniform, looking radiant. It is 1952 and she has come to give her support to the American troops fighting in the Korean War.

The eccentric and self-affirming reappropriation of the military uniform by these muses excites the imagination by intensifying their femininity.

One taste in fashion which comes up from time to time is military. Depending on our feelings at that time, we decorate the breast or shoulder, or use a bland color which reminds one of military uniforms in a coordinated outfit.
When we view such a style we get a vague feeling.
That is ...
“When women dress in a fashion with a military flavor, for some reason it induces a feeling of sexiness”.
Even with fashion which normally does not have a military connotation in itself, it is extraordinary how a sexual connotation can be induced.
I suspect that the presence of “women” in battles or in armies is not something which is found normally, and that when they wear some fashion item which is opposite their nature, it results in emphasizing their femininity.
Because it is not normally associated with women, on viewing it in the context of “Feminine”, a special feeling is created. But that is not all.
When a military style is associated with women, they are perceived as “We don’t depend on men, we are independent women”.
Or at least that may be exaggerating the case, but at least it does not impart a feeling that they will be obsequious to men.
There is a catchy and popular slang word in Japanese, “Mote”.
It comes up regularly in fashion magazines as a keyword...
It forms a pair with ‘mysterious flavor’ and hits a sweet spot in terms of good looks.
This is to say that it is a feeling of good looking which is hard to pin on that point or that element; this may be where the inexplicable secret of the mysterious sexiness comes from.
If we can create that sexiness and sharp look which can be slipped in, it will certainly be picked-up by viewers.
This year, I want to borrow the power of that military flavor!

There are legions of hard-hitting, serious war films out there, but the ones that I find the most inspiration in offer an iconoclastic perspective infused with fantasy ... or even a touch of humor.

Persepolis depicts a whimsical young girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution through animated sequences in bold black and white. Pan’s Labyrinth intertwines fairy tale elements with militarist, post-Civil War Spain. And in Life Is Beautiful, a man turns the elements of a Nazi death camp into an elaborate game to protect his young son from its horrors. But perhaps the best example of how military elements can have a lighter, quirky side is British sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo!, in which fun is poked at the Nazi characters, the French Resistance, and the British soldiers alike — I used to love watching it after a long week of schoolwork.