What does a £100,000 ‘invisibility cloak’ look like? Funny you should ask …

Three years' research and a lot of very expensive materials have gone into Steve and Nick Tidball's thermal camouflage jacket. Can its wearer really blend into the background?

Harry Potter's invisibility cloak arrived in a parcel for Christmas, with a note from Dumbledore: Use it well." Ron Weasley's reaction was, as you might expect, to be insanely jealous. Who, after all, hasn't dreamed of having the power of passing through the world without being seen?

Well, there might just be some good news for Ron and the rest of us. A pair of twins have created something very like an invisibility cloak. No, not the Weasley twins, but real-life brothers Steve and Nick Tidball. They call it the thermal camouflage jacket, and I've come to see it and Steve, in the offices of the brothers' futuristic clothing company, hidden away behind a Travelodge in King's Cross, London.