From tiled walls and wallpaper to shrubs and graffiti, this array of custom outfits helps conceal wearers within very specific urban contexts.

Photographer Joseph Ford worked with knitter Nina Dodd to make these fashion non-statements, primarily: sweaters that mimic surrounding colors and patterns.

And while they only work to partially conceal the person wearing them, and even then only in very specific places, the designs are quite nice for everyday use, too.

A few years back, a similar project by Germany artist Menja Stevenson explored a more specific subset of city patterns: public transportation textiles, often with somewhat less fashionable results.

More about Ford’s (often weird) creative work: “The best summary of what I do is ‘storytelling with a side order of off-beat creativity’. Dynamite fishing? Check. Live butterflies flying out of people’s mouths? Check. A railway line merging into a zipper? Check. A crocodile attacking Lacoste sneakers? Yup, that too.”

NASA’s latest futuristic textile is made of metal but can fold and change shape, protecting a wearer (or covered craft) from dangerous collisions that could tear holes in people or ships.

The woven metal is made up of a squares on the surface that are linked together on the back, but thanks to clever manufacturing the entire system can be created at once (rather than stitched together). With printers sent into space, this means astronauts could recycle and rebuild the material for different applications on demand.

“We call it 4D printing because we can print both the geometry and the function of these materials,” explains Polit Casillas. “If 20th century manufacturing was driven by mass production, then this is the mass production of functions.”

Developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this versatile textile has thermal protective properties as well, able to to keep machinery and people warm. Despite its flexibility, the mail retains a high tensile strength and can reflect or absorb light for heat control depending on which side faces outward.