Save this story Save Save this story Save Despite how easy it looks in James Bond movies and heist flicks, good disguises are hard to pull off. A good wig and some makeup don’t make you a new person—full transformation requires a full attitude adjustment. Just ask any contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race . And when you’re a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency, being able to execute a perfect disguise can be a matter of life and death. Just ask Jonna Mendez. Related Stories Security CIA Releases Analyst’s Fascinating Tale of Cracking the Kryptos Sculpture Kim Zetter The Great Escape How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans in Iran Joshuah Bearman espionage China’s 5 Steps for Recruiting Spies Garrett M. Graff “One of our officers, probably working out of the American embassy, would have surveillance 24 hours a day; they’d have teams of people following them,” says Mendez, who spent years as the CIA’s disguise chief. “But they had work to do; they had to communicate with people, clandestinely. The extremes we would go to to disguise those people was the most interesting, and the most challenging, part of the job.” So what does the agency do to protect its assets in the field? A lot of it, Mendez says, involves hiding a person’s tell-tale features. If they have straight hair, make it curly. If they’re young, give them a few streaks of gray. It also helps to change the way they walk or talk by putting a brace on their leg or an “artificial palate” in their mouth. Americans have a certain way of standing—weight on one foot or the other—and if they’re trying to pass themselves off as European, it helps if they stand squarely on both feet. Good disguises, Mendez says, are almost always “additive;” you can make someone taller, heavier, or older, but “we can’t go the other direction.” The CIA can also give a person the ability to do a “quick change.” If someone knows they’ll be trying to shake a tail, they can change their look as they move through busy sidewalks. Add a hat, change a shirt, add sunglasses, and—if it’s done right—it’ll look like someone has disappeared. “You want to be the person that gets on the elevator, and then gets off, and nobody really remembers that you were even there,” says Mendez, whose husband, Tony Mendez, was the subject of the 2007 WIRED story that became the movie Argo . “That is a design goal at the disguise labs at CIA.” Check out more of Mendez’s tricks in the video above and in her Reddit AMA here . More Great WIRED Stories A sleeping Tesla driver highlights autopilot’s biggest flaw PHOTOS: Giving animals the proper portrait treatment The WIRED Guide to online shopping (and digital retail) Inside the pricey war to influence your Instagram feed The music obsessives who tape your favorite concerts Hungry for even more deep dives on your next favorite topic? Sign up for the Backchannel newsletter Most Popular Health and Fitness The Best Running Underwear to Beat Burn on Your Bits By Kieran Alger Gear How to Use Parental Controls in Your Google, Apple, and Microsoft Accounts By David Nield Phones How to Use Apple’s Genmoji to Create New Kinds of Emojis By Brenda Stolyar
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