Hugo Boss

History

The founder, Hugo Boss, born in 1885 established its company in 1923 with Metzingen in Germany. It was originally a workshop of clothes industry of working clotheses. The country then lived an economic serious attack due to the bitter defeat of the First World War and the company comes very close to bankruptcy in 1930.

It is saved thanks to its engagement - as an active member - within the Nazi party in 1931 and of 1933 at the end of the Second world war in 1945, the company was in charge with the creation and the clothes industry of the military uniforms of the IIIe Reich, in particular those of the S, the Jeunesses hitlériennes and the Wehrmacht. To ensure its production, it has recourse to labor of French and Polish workers forced as well as deportees of concentration camps. After the war, Hugo Boss was only declared like “opportunist of Third Reich” and accepted a fine of 80.000 marks and the deprivation of its civic rights. The company remained relatively obscure during the Années 1950. Hugo Boss, the founder, itself died in 1948.

The company continued its activity and in 1969, the direction is taken again by its grandsons, the Holy brothers, which launch as of 1970 the mark of ready-made clothes mode of quality for man with like target customers, the triumphing executives of which they carry out the potential. It import their fabrics of Italy and work the cut particularly.

Starting from 1972, they have like ambition to develop the notoriety of their company by using sporting sponsoring in the Formule 1, the Golf and the Tennis. In 1984, they allot to Procter & Gamble the license of the perfumes. In 1985, they place on the stock market their company before reselling 51% of the shares of the capital to the Italian industry group Marzotto (today Valentino Fashion Group) and withdrawing businesses.

In 1993, the new leaders differentiate the lines from clothing by creating three marks: Boss for the traditional lines, Hugo for younger and connected creations, and Baldessarini for the high-end of the name of the artistic director Werner Baldessarini of Austrian origin. In 1996 east creates the Hugo Boss price for the Contemporary art.

In 2000, the mark opens to the women by creating her first collection in female Prêt-à-porter, for that an independent studio of creation is created with Milan and is entrusted to a designer external with the mark, but it does not find its market and the losses reach half of the turnover. The activity is repatriated with Metzingen where the designers of the house will succeed in saving the project by applying to the woman their receipts tested near the men. As of the following year, the sales of Boss Woman increase by 60% and the generated turnover accounts for 9% of the total of that of the company, making it possible to hope, with the chairman Bruno Sälzer, that the female ready-made clothes can be the primary source of the future development until representing a third of the total turnover.

The company does not organize processions in Paris and Milan, but organizes each year a little everywhere ten processions in the world as with Shangaï or Mexico City, which makes of it the mark which organizes the most processions.

Another growth relay is also found in the shoes and fashion accessories. In 1997 the company signs an license agreement watches with the Swiss company Tempus Concept. A license is granted to Safilo for glasses and to Procter & Gamble for perfumes. In 2004, on the Avenue of the Fields-Élysées is open the store headlight of the mark. In 2005, is launched a range of male cosmetics, Boss Skin , and in 2006 is open a store Rue Saint-Honore to Paris.

The mark

The Hugo Boss mark is segmented in four distinct divisions:

“ Hugo ” and “ Hugo Woman ”, for younger and connected creations, designer Volker Kachele;
“ Boss ”, it even subdivided in “Black Boss”, “Orange Boss” and “Green Boss” and since 2004 “Boss Selection”;
“ Baldessarini ”, for the high-end of the name of the artistic director Werner Baldessarini; (mark with whole share since 2006)
“ Boss Woman ”, for the female Ready-made clothes, since the year 2000.

Fragrances and care of the skin

The line of fragrances counts several perfumes. It was taken again in 1994 by the American company Procter & Gamble, more especially by its division P&G Beauté. Since 2005, P&G beauty also put before a line of care of the face for men called “ Boss Skin ”.

Range Hugo :

Hugo (Toilet water for men: 1995)
Hugo Woman (Toilet water for women: 1997)
Hugo Dark Blue (Toilet water for men: 2000)
Hugo Deep Red (Perfume spray for women: 2001)
Hugo Energize (Toilet water for men: 2005)
Hugo Pure Purple (Perfume spray for women: 2006)
Hugo XX (Toilet water for women: 2007)
Hugo XY (Toilet water for men: 2007)

Range Boss :

Boss#1 (Toilet water for men: 1982)
Boss Woman (Perfume spray for women: 2003)
Drunk Boss (Toilet water for men: 2005)
Boss Selection (Toilet water for men: 2006)

Boss Woman (Perfume spray for women: 2006)

Gasoline of Woman (Perfume spray for women: 2007)

Range Orange Boss :

Boss In Motion (Toilet water for men: 2002)

Blue Boss In Motion (Toilet water for men: 2004 | limited transitory edition)

Green Boss In Motion (Toilet water for men: 2005 | limited transitory edition)

Black Boss In Motion (Toilet water for men: 2006 | limited transitory edition)

Boss In Electric Motion (Toilet water for men: 2007 | limited transitory edition)

Range Baldessarini :

Baldessarini (Eau de Cologne for men: 2004)

Del Mar (Toilet water for men: 2005)

Del Mar Carribean Edition (Toilet water for men: 2007 | limited transitory edition)

Amber (Toilet water for men: 2007)

Work tools

More than thirty million labelled clothing Hugo Boss are sold each year throughout the world.

The majority of them are manufactured in an immense factory with Izmir in Turkey, another factory functions with Cleveland in the Ohio dedicated to the US market. A workshop is preserved at Metzingen in Germany where 300 dressmakers cut and bend still some 140.000 parts for the creation of the prototypes, the samples and the realization of small series.

The mark employs more than 8.000 people in the world and hopes for a turnover of 1,5 billion euros for 2007.

For the remainder, the company makes work many subcontractors in forty country. The Popular republic of China produces for the mark since the year 2005 and represented in 2006 3 to 4% of the production, but its share will increase.

One can as say as in the workshop of Metzingen exists an immense store of factory on several stages well-known of frontier French to have very accessible prices. One finds there all that Hugo Boss markets under all its various marks and variations and even of the untraceable parts on the French market. Metzingen is in the suburbs of Stuttgart.

External bonds

Official site

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