On March 12, 1919, the Chelsea Arts Club held a costume party, called a Dazzle Ball, at Royal Albert Hall in London. It was inspired by the abstract geometric shapes on camouflaged ships in World War I , a method that was first employed by the British, who called it “dazzle painting” or dazzle camouflage. When the Americans adopted a comparable method, they referred to it by other names, among them “baffle painting,” “jazz painting,” and (rarely) “razzle dazzle.”