(29 May 2013, 06:50)Binnie Wrote: I was actually thinking about this thread last night.....If you are bugging in, then surely your normal attire would be best suited to your environement....
I was thinking this too.
It really depends on what stage we're at post SHTF. Long term we'll need warm, tough and practical clothing that provides portable storage and some form of protection. In the first three months or so while the die-off's happening, I've been planning something else.
I have a few garments stashed for this period which otherwise look pretty useless. The most important is an anorak that used to belong to my dad, which is one of those thin ones that look OK from the outside but actually contain no padding and only a single soft lining. It's OK for length, but way, way too big for me round the body.
It makes me look as if I haven't eaten for a month.
I'm probably being ridiculously paranoid here, but we've talked a lot about clothes that could make us 'stand out' in the wrong way, and I think there's something much more dangerous than that. In the die-off period, the biggest flashing light we could hold over our heads is to look
healthy and well fed.
Again, that depends on our different plans, but mine is to bug in and play the grey man for as long as I can. From the second month I'd hope to lie low and out of sight as much as possible, but I can see situations where I'd need to go out - especially if my rainbutts run out of water, and I need to go to the lake. It's less than a quarter of a mile away and I have a route that's almost entirely through woodland, but there's one little housing stretch I'd need to pass through and a playing field I'd need to cross. Even if I went by night I might be seen - and almost certainly would be, since any intelligent predators looking for survivors would obviously watch over the water holes. Well - it's what
I'd do.
There's an argument here for going out with body armour and armed to the teeth, but that has its limitations. All those things would signal to any watcher that I was a prepper and HAD STORES, so that even if I looked too dangerous to attack now, the obvious thing would be to lurk and follow me home. For me, I think the best defence is to look not worth bothering with - just another sick refugee who obviously has nothing worth taking.
Obviously it wouldn't work after three months - anyone still alive after that is obviously prepared and has stores, no matter what they look like. For that time I have a different plan, and will have different clothes. But for this one time I want 'normal' clothes that are baggy and too big for me, and hide my face in a way that looks natural rather than deliberate. My husband is a big man, but dress him in a coat too sizes too big and he looks as if he's lost a lot of weight fast. It might be stupid, but that's the look I'm after.
Flares and kipper ties are, of course, optional.