Disguise Kit

Holmes uses disguise to remain unrecognized while investigating.

Sherlock Holmes displays a strong aptitude for acting and disguise. In several stories, among them The Sign of Four, "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Adventure of the Empty House" and "A Scandal in Bohemia", he goes undercover to gather evidence in disguises so convincing that Watson fails to recognise him.

Quick Facts

Primary user: Sherlock Holmes

Lore & Background

Disguise is a common device in detective and spy fiction, and Holmes often disguised himself as someone else to avoid being recognised. He dresses as a peddler in The Hound of the Baskervilles so that he can work on the moor without being spotted, and as an Indian sailor in the film Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon so that he can speak with Professor Moriarty about his plan. In "The Man with the Twisted Lip" Watson is surprised to find him in an opium den, in disguise and trying to get information on a man who has disappeared; in The Sign of Four his disguises help him trace the steam launch Aurora to a repair yard.