Illusion (pronounced ih-loo-zhuhn)
(1) Something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
(2) The state or condition of being deceived; misapprehension.
(3) An instance of being deceived.
(4) In clinical psychology, a perception, as of visual stimuli (optical illusion), that represents what is perceived in a way different from reality.
(5) A very thin, delicate tulle of silk or nylon having a cobwebbed appearance, for trimmings, veils and similar designs.
(6) The act of deceiving; deception; delusion (mostly obsolete).
1340–1350: From the Middle English, from the Latin illūsiōn(em), stem of illūsiō, (irony, mocking), the construct being illūs(us), past participle of illūdere (to mock, ridicule) + lūd (play) + tus (past participle suffix) + iōn. The suffic -ion was From the Middle English -ioun, from the Old French -ion, from the Latin -iō (genitive -iōnis). It was appended to a perfect passive participle to form a noun of action or process, or the result of an action or process. It was from the Latin lūd that English ultimately gained ludicrous, illudere meaning "to mock at" (literally "to play with"). The borrowing from Latin displaced the Old English dwimmer, from the Old English ġedwimor or dwimor (illusion, delusion, sleight, magic) and, as absorbed by both Medieval English & French, meaning tended towards “act of deception” rather than “mocking or irony” which was the Classical Latin form. The English sense is reflected in the word’s use in Church Latin which is thought the source of the meaning-shift. In modern English use, particularly since the rise of mass-market visual entertainment, to some extent the preponderant meaning has shifted back. Illusion & illusionist are noun, illusionary, illusional and illusioned are adjectives; the noun plural is illusions.
English
offers many variations on the theme; words like fantasy, hallucination and delusion
all refer to false perceptions or ideas.
An illusion is either (1) a
false mental image produced by misinterpretation of stuff that actually exists
or (2) a deliberate creation in some form to create an impression of stuff in a
way not real. A mirage is a distortion of reality produced by reflection of light
against the sky but in general use is widely deployed as a synonym for anything
illusory. A hallucination is a
perception of a thing or quality that is either wholly or partially
unreal. A delusion is a persistent false belief that need not have any basis. A chimera
is something which, while unreal, has many elements of the real and thus seems more
plausible. A fantasy is either (1) a fictional creation where one is aware of
its untruth or (2) a fictional creation one believes.
The Illusion Panel
Used by fashion designers, the illusion panel is a visual trick which to some extent mimics the appearance of bare skin. It’s done with flesh-colored fabric, cut to conform to the shape of wearer and the best known products are called illusion dresses although the concept can appear on other styles of garment. Done well, the trick works, sometimes even close-up but it’s ideal for photo opportunities. Lindsay Lohan illustrates the idea in three outfits:
Left: A gown from the Fendi Spring/Summer 2016 collection, worn at the Asian Awards, London, April 2016. This may have been something of an "in joke" because although it looked like an illusion dress, the "cut-outs" literally were "cut out" and the skin was all Ms Lohan's own; fashion faking itself. Reactions may have been something like on journalist’s comment to the Irish-born UK politician Brendan Bracken (1901–1958): “Everything about you is phoney. even your hair, which looks like a wig, isn’t.” The playfulness continued above because above the modest cut at the midriff were translucent panels which created a nice effect, especially when in motion although opinion was divided on whether the geometric pattern was too busy for the concept, some suggesting a solid color or even some bold stripes might have lent better emphasis.
Centre: The Julien Macdonald (b 1971) green and blue sequin embellished mini dress with an open neckline was accented with a black hemline and came from the house's Fall 2013 collection. Ms Lohan wore the piece at Gabrielle's Gala, Old Billingsgate Market, London, May 2014, provoking some comment about the choice not to retain the black belt with which it was paired on its catwalk debut and it's true that did work well with the hemline trim, width and shade of both matching. However, what dominated the look was the illusion which was more a "wrap-around" than a panel and with things being that illusory, accessories really weren't demanded and probably it was more effective with neither belt nor necklace to distract.
Right: Dating from January 2013, the black Dion Lee (b 1985) cocktail dress used the technique featuring both the wearer's real skin (witness the off-the-shoulder silhouette) with illusion panels made of fabric of a matching hue; the shoes were Christian Louboutin (b 1964, he of the red soles) peep-toe booties. It’s a classic example of why most think illusion dresses work best if tailored in solid colors with a marked contrast between material and skin tone.
Kylie Jenner (b 1997, left) in 2017 used the idea in what was (by the standards of her clan) quite subtle but trolls quickly realized the possibilities offered by digital editing (centre). Swedish musician Tove Lo (Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson, b 1987, right) actually enhanced the illusion with a T-shirt which included shadow effects so the look would be consistent even in settings where ambient light was unhelpful. Pairing the T-shirt with an oversized, double-breasted teal blazer was a nice touch.
Ms Jenner’s interest in transparency is more than surface-deep. In 2025, in response to a fan’s enquiry, she revealed (what could, in the social media age, be thought a kind of “product disclosure statement”) the technical details of her much-admired breast augmentation procedure: Performed by plastic surgeon Dr Garth Fisher (b 1958), the silicone implants were a displacement of 445 cm3 with a “moderate profile” (a measure of “projection or fullness”), placed using the “dual plane” technique (in which the implant sits partially under the pectoral muscle and partially under the breast tissue). According to Dr Fisher, the combination of a moderate profile and the dual plane method produces the “most natural look”. While obviously, in a sense, an illusion, the result looked good enough to be “real” so according to theories of cognition, in another sense they are real. Almost instantly, the combo was being spoken off as “the Kylie Special” but Dr Fisher cautioned the variables (implant construction & size, profile, installation technique etc) need to be assessed on a patient-by-patient basis because what suits one may not suit another. Essentially, the advice was YMMV (your mileage may vary).
Model Kate Moss (b 1974) in a Stella McCartney (b 1971) illusion dress from her label’s Winter 2012 collection, London Eveningwear Presentation & Dinner, London, February 2012.
As a garment, an illusion dress is not technically difficult to cut or assemble but for its effect it relies on a close congruence between the colors of panel and the skin. Assuming such fabrics are either available or can be dyed to suit, that’s fine for bespoke creations but in the vastly bigger prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear) market, buyers are compelled to pick whatever is the closest match, the technique of choice being to alter the skin tone for the occasion, fake tanning product the usual choice which is fine if a darker hue is needed but when lightening that’s needed, the creams used temporarily to cover tattoos are said to work well, better even than the (now often controversial and in some cases dangerous) skin-lightening preparations popular in some markets. On the catwalks, it's not unusual for creams and various forms of "tanners" to be used if it necessary to have skin-tone and fabric match.
Model Ashley Graham (b 1987, left) in cage bra with the focus on flesh under a "curtain reveal" and singer Ricki-Lee Coulter (b 1985 right) in a (sort of) dress with an illusion panel under the strappings.
The illusion industry variously exchanges and borrows motifs. A cage bra is built with a harness-like structure which (vaguely) resembles a cage, encapsulating the breasts using one or more straps (which can recall the struts used in airframes or the futtocks which are part of nautical architecture. Few actually use the straps predominately to enhance support and the effect tends to be purely aesthetic, some cage bras with minimal (or even absent) cup coverage and a thin band or multi-strap back. Some things about cage bras can be illusory but the skin on show is usually real whereas when used over a skin-toned panel, the straps exist to enhance the illusion although, there’s no reason why they can’t also be structural, functioning effectively as an external bra.
Many bras purposefully are designed to create an illusion of some sort (bigger, smaller (despite what men tend to believe the “minimizer” concept really is a thing), higher etc) but there is a class of cups which borrows its motif from the illusion dress and, like the dress, there’s an art to the illusion bra and a successful execution seems best achieved when adopting the “less is more” approach; smaller panels well-placed creating a more effective illusion than using too much surface area. In some cases illusion bras are structurally identical to a conventional model, the only difference being the use of a flesh tone fabric in certain parts of the cup. The most dramatic effect is achieved when built using the cage bra model but most implementations tend to be more modest. To achieve the best match with human skin, the fabric of choice is often a de-lustred satin and given the cultural sensitivities, such things are no longer advertised with the phrase “skin-tone”.
Read
even now, the wealth of examples he offered and the incontrovertibility of his argument
seem convincing. Unfortunately, Wilhelm
II (1859–1941; Kaiser (Emperor) of the German Empire 1888-1918), although it’s
known he received a copy of the book, was more influenced by one published
in 1911 by the Prussian General Friedrich von Bernhardi (1849–1930) with the unambiguous
title Deutschland und der Nächste Krieg
(Germany and the Next War). Bernhardi’s text is of great interest to
students of military, diplomatic and political history but the casual reader can
gain the necessary understanding merely by glancing at the table of contents,
the uncompromising chapter headings including The Right to Make War, The
Duty to Make War and World Power or
Downfall. In case anyone might have
thought he had written a work of abstract theory, another chapter was titled Germany’s Historical Mission. Describing
war as a "divine business", his central two-pronged strategy was the
one which would doom both the Second Reich and the Third: Wage wars of aggression
and ignore treaties.
World War I (1914-1918) was something probably worse than even Angell had prophesized and in its aftermath the phrase “the war to end all wars” was popular although some of the delegates leaving Paris after the Treaty of Versailles (1919) weren’t so sanguine, reckoning all that had been gained was a truce with estimates of its duration ranging between 10-25 years. Despite the cynicism however, the 1920s were the years in which the (now mostly forgotten) successes of the League of Nations (1920-1946) included the notion that war had been made not only unthinkable (both because of Angell’s analysis and the shock of what was then called "the World War") but actually unlawful. It was a brief, shining moment and by 1933 Angell felt compelled to add to a revised edition of The Great Illusion the new theme of the need for collective defense. Other things happened in 1933, the implications of which would mean that too would prove an illusion but that year, Angell was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Illusions
however seem to be something to which men can’t help but be drawn and by the
late twentieth century, as globalization 2.0 accelerated, another part of Angell’s
conceptual framework gained a new audience.
Angell had noted the obvious: That the imperative of modern capitalism
was profit, not romantic nationalism and that there was more to be gained from
peaceful trade than attempts at conquest with its unpredictable outcomes. By the 1990s, political commentator Thomas Friedman
(b 1953) had reduced this to what came to be called the Golden Arches Theory
of Conflict Prevention (the idea that countries with McDonalds restaurants didn’t
go to war with each other) and while that’s since been proved untrue (few rules apply in the Balkans), the point
he was making was the same as Angell: That democracies run according to the
rules of market capitalism don’t go to war with each other because the it’s too
threatening to the hegemonic class which owns the means of production and
distribution.
By the time Mr Putin (Vladimir Putin, b 1952, president or prime-minister of Russia since 1999) began his special military operation (the invasion which started the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022), it’s doubtful there were many left in Europe with illusions about the nature of man. Unfortunately, it may be that in the Kremlin the reading of Bernhardi may not have gone beyond those first few bellicose chapters because deeper into his book, the author moved beyond the justification of “necessity” to the nuts and bolts of “method” for once one convinces one’s self one has a duty to make war, one must ensure it is waged with success. To be successful he explained, the state must begin a war at “the most favourable moment” of its own choosing, striking “the first blow” in a manner which guarantees victory. Mr Putin had illusions of his own, about the people of Ukraine, about the West and about the state of his own military.
In 2014, an illusion outfit attracted much comment when the Colombian women’s cycling team uniform was first seen at an event in Italy, held in honour of former Italian champion Michela Fanini (1973–1994). Despite the appearance, it wasn’t a two-piece, the otherwise standard strip augmented by a (vaguely) flesh-coloured section across the lower torso and upper hips. The photographs caused a stir and the unusual degree of international attention must have pleased the team’s sponsor, the city government of Colombia's capital, Bogota. Innovations like this might be one way to redress the imbalance in the media coverage afforded to women's sport.