Menswear, when it comes down to it, is a pretty simple business. It’s either all about streetwear (hoodies, T-shirts, sneakers), tailoring (suits, shirts, ties), workwear (chore jackets, work boots) or, as per this season, something more military.

This isn’t what you’d wear in the army exactly. Instead, it’s khaki and safari suits at AMIRI, olive green at Dries Van Noten and Paul Smith; reworked jacket pockets at Auralee; combat shapes at Officine Générale; even extremely refined versions of field jackets and parkas at Brioni, TOM FORD and Brunello Cucinelli.

The question is, how does one wear these designs now without looking like an extra on the set of a war movie? And crucially, with the geopolitical backdrop as it is, how can we neutralise any hawkish associations and not look like we’re on a war footing?

Perhaps it’s best to think about this trend strictly in fashion terms. While it’s hard to completely ignore current affairs, the reality is that military references have always been around. We have been wearing these clothes as civilians for a while, after all. As Andrew Groves, the director of the menswear archive at Westminster University, confirms, “military clothing never leaves menswear because it underpins it”.

From the trench coat to cargo trousers, the military origin of clothing is always fascinating, but it’s now amassed a lot of other associations. “I don’t think most people would even look at, say, a bomber jacket and think of the US Air Force,” says Tom Barker, the style editor at Highsnobiety. “They just think, ‘this is a jacket with a cool colour’.”

The way military codes are being explored now is new, though, Groves says. “What we are seeing now is abstraction,” he argues. “Designers and brands are extracting the codes rather than reproducing the full garment.” See those pockets at Auralee or green hues on distinctly non-military items at Dries Van Noten. But this might be down to another influence – Gorpcore. “People aren’t going to want to lose that function, but they’re also over wearing super high-tech clothing,” Barker says. “This is a good in-between.”

Contrast is the key, he says. “I’ve seen a bomber jacket with a shirt and a tie underneath. That, I find, looks really cool.”

Groves suggests there’s a new take on the classics “through context and styling. Cargo trousers might be cut wider, paired with tailoring or luxury knitwear. A field jacket could be layered over soft shirting. Colours are refined beyond regulation olive and tan. The garment becomes detached from military authority and repositioned as civilian style.”

Fashion podcaster Avery Trufelman recently produced the series Articles Of Interest: Gear, which looked at the influence of military clothing on what we wear. She says the custom of civilians wearing these types of clothing dates back to the 1960s, when army surplus – literally the excess clothing made for an army in WWII – was sold to the public. “Of course, that’s what we consider classic shapes,” she says. “Also, it’s good design. There’s something kind of ideal about it.”

The association between green and the army, meanwhile, goes back to the early 20th century, says Kassia St Clair, the author of The Secret Lives Of Colour. “[Before that] armies generally wore really bright colours [to stand out] because you’d have loads of smoke on battlefields.” When warfare got more accurate and less smoky, the situation flipped. “Suddenly, you don’t want to be highly visible,” St Clair says. “You want to fade into the background and make it harder for your enemy to spot you.” Khakis and olive greens began to be seen (or not).

Like Trufelman, St Clair points to practicalities and versatilities as part of the longevity of these colours in fashion. “The military connection gives it two things,” she says. “You can lean formal with military uniform, but also as surplus clothing – it can be coded to smart or more casual, and that’s really useful.”

She speculates that the revival for 1990s and early 2000s style is a factor in the new interest in these colours and the trend in general. St Clair remembers wearing a parka and combat trousers in those days. “People tend to get sick of [this type of green] and then it comes back because people are like, ‘Oh, that was a really useful colour’,” she says.

Barker agrees. “Helmut Lang drew a lot from military clothing [in the 1990s],” he says. “People loving the Helmut Lang archives is nothing new, but it’s super prescient at the minute.”

No one wearing these clothes probably wants to be in the army or is endorsing war. They might just like the coat, as Barker says, or they’re leaning into the history Trufelman points out. “There are so many cultures that have adapted military styles throughout the years that have been decidedly anti-war,” she says. “Like Rastafarians, or street artists who’ve used camouflage while they were painting graffiti on the subways at night.”

While Trufelman says the military influence in what we wear is “forever”, it will likely continue to evolve just as we do. Looking forward, Groves predicts “it will become increasingly technical and increasingly systemic. Expect lighter performance fabrics, modular construction, hybrid tailoring and garments that move between civilian and tactical codes.”

And, of course, don’t expect it to go MIA, to use a phrase with origins in the army that’s now part of our everyday vernacular. “Military influence will remain embedded because it is already built into the structure of menswear itself,” Groves says.