If you like to blend in when it comes to fashion, then this is the skirt for you.

A Japanese designer has unveiled a garment that doubles as a disguise, unfolding to look like the front of a vending machine.

It may look decidedly silly, but Aya Tsukioka's idea has a serious aim.

Miss Tsukioka, 31, says she hopes it will help ease women's fear of crime and discourage would-be attackers.



  

With vending machines lined up on many of Japan's city streets, there are plenty of opportunities for camouflage.

Showing off the design yesterday, Miss Tsukioka lifted a flap on the skirt to expose a large sheet of cloth printed with the familiar bright red Coca-Cola logo.

She showed how a woman walking alone could hide behind it to outfox a potential attacker.

The experimental clothes designer has already sold 20 of the £400 hand-sewn vending machine skirts and is hoping to market the design worldwide.

She says the idea was inspired by a trick used by Japanese ninja assassins, who cloaked themselves-in black blankets so they couldn't be seen at night.

She has also come up with the 'manhole bag' which is supposed to look like a sewer cover when you put it down so unwitting thieves walk right by without noticing it.

And there's a line of knife-proof high school uniforms made with the same material as Kevlar military vests

While British women might prefer to take self-defence classes, Miss Tsukioka said: 'It is just easier for Japanese to hide. Making a scene would be too embarrassing.'

She added: 'These ideas might strike foreigners as far fetched, but in Japan, they can become reality.'