The German Army and Fashion

I thought that I should elaborate with some images on what I said in the previous post, that the Nazi uniforms seem to have had more thought put into their stylishness than those of previous regimes:

WWII SS Uniform (left) and WWI German Army Uniform (right)

Granted the SS did not necessarily represent the average soldiers, but notice how the WWI uniform is designed far more for utility than the WWII uniform, which has various badges, insignia, a chest strap, a more detailed belt design, as well as an arm band. Considering that the average German soldier under Hitler would share many of these details, it shows that uniforms of the period were designed as much for style as practicality.

Overall I’m unsure of what the exact reason for this general trend was, although I thought I’d would be interesting to point out these details in light of the Hugo-Boss controversy.

Image sources:

(left) Wikipedia commons, (right) http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/german.htm

~ by begebies on July 13, 2009.