Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi

The other day, I brought a couple pairs of binoculars to lower Manhattan to meet up with fashion reporter Avery Truffleman.

We were there to do a little bit of urban birding.

Are you a big birder?

I don't do outdoorsy things.

Luckily, Avery made an exception for us because we were not, in fact, heading out to spot migratory birds with spectacular plumage.

No, no, no.

We were on the hunt for some very particular kinds of clothing.

Would it be fair to say that fashion is kind of your Roman Empire?

Yeah, I would say fashion is my Roman empire.

You see, Avery is the host of a podcast called Articles of Interest, which is all about unraveling the hidden histories behind the things we wear.

She's done deep dives into the question of why women's clothing didn't used to have pockets, or how preppy Ivy League style got big in Japan.

And I wanted to talk to Avery because her latest season is all about how a massive shadowy force has been shaping the stuff we all wear for the better part of the last century in ways that most of us might not know about.

And what is that shadowy force, you might ask?

The United States military.

The United States military.

It is kind of common knowledge at this point that many of the most resource-intensive technologies that define our daily lives began in government-funded labs as military R&D, from nuclear fission to GPS to the internet.

But what Avery found is that that same military-industrial influence has shaped many things that are even more intimate in a way.

The very clothing we wear to express our sense of who we are or to protect ourselves from the elements.

And it's the kind of hidden influence you can actually see on the street today, if you have the right kind of eye.

Yeah, let's do it.