Hugo Boss’s Secret Nazi History

Hugo Boss’s Secret Nazi History

Made to Measure (2017)

Film Review

This documentary traces the history of the iconic menswear fashion brand Hugo Boss.

It begins by reviewing the life of founder Hugo Boss, whose fashion business was bankrupt before he joined the Nazi Party (in 1922) and received a commission to make uniforms for the Nazi army and the SS.

Boss, whose company employed slave labor, was tried at Nuremberg. He was sentenced to pay a fine of $100,000 Reichsmark.

For the Nazis, elegant uniforms were essential to their branding of Aryan superiority (see Mumia Abu Jamal Murder Incorporated). Most were high waisted to make the wearer’s legs seemed longer. Charlie Chaplin deliberately parodied this feature in his film The Little Dictator.

Boss’s grandsons revived the company following his death in 1947. At preset, the Boss brand represents a “uniform” for the corporate man – designed to symbolize “power, aggression, darkness and danger.”