Ghillie suit

British snipers from No. 34 Squadron RAF Regiment training in ghillie suits in 2015
Wildlife photographer in a ghillie suit
An Italian 9th Alpini 'Aquila' Regiment sniper in a ProApto winter ghillie suit during NATO exercises in 2019

A ghillie suit is a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble the background environment – such as foliage. Typically, it is a net or cloth garment covered in loose strips of burlap (hessian), cloth, twine, or jute sometimes made to look like leaves and twigs, and optionally augmented with foliage from the area.

Military personnel, police, hunters, and nature photographers may wear a ghillie suit to blend into their surroundings and to conceal themselves from enemies or targets.[1] The suit gives the wearer's outline a three-dimensional breakup, rather than a linear one. When manufactured correctly, the suit will move in the wind in the same way as surrounding foliage. Some ghillie suits are made with light and breathable material that allows a person to wear a shirt underneath.

Iranian Navy sniper in a ghillie suit

Hunters and soldiers may use ghillie suits with designs named for rural folk-spirits: the kikimora of the swamps or the leshy of the forests.[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Gusev, Ilya Valer'yevich (14 May 2022) [2017]. The Great Encyclopedia of Hunting Большая энциклопедия охоты [Bol'shaya entsiklopediya okhoty] (in Russian). Moscow: AST. ISBN 9785457964327. Retrieved 28 August 2023. Кому-то больше нравится расцветка «под камуфляж», а кому-то халаты типа «кикимора» или «леший». Каждый из вариантов по-своему хорош и удобен в определенных условиях.