Disputes over the form of the Russian army, designed by the fashion house of Valentin Yudashkin, have not stopped since the very moment of its appearance, and Sergei Shoigu, becoming Minister of Defense, only increased criticism. In this article, FURFUR remembers seven designers and artists who developed military uniforms and talks about what happened to them.
Yudashkin for the Russian army
The uniform, approved by President Medvedev in 2010, in the popular mind is associated with the name of the fashion house Valentin Yudashkin, but he himself has only an indirect relation to it: the samples created there (according to both sides, absolutely free) were heavily modified by officials of the Ministry of Defense. It was at the finalization stage that the uniform was simplified, shoulder straps were transferred from the shoulders to the chest (an innovation especially hated by the officers) and it was decided to use cheap Chinese fabrics for its production, which caused an increase in diseases due to hypothermia among conscript soldiers.
This fact was not advertised until they tried to blame Yudashkin for all the shortcomings (Zhirinovsky even accused him of not serving in the army - in fact, of course, he served). But according to the results of the investigation of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, all responsibility for them lies with the department of resource support of the Ministry of Defense. And the designer even posted on his Twitter photos of the model in the original version of the form. Judging by them, the only significant similarity between his sketches and what happened is the pixel camouflage that replaced the traditional Flora.
Hugo Boss for SS
The Wehrmacht uniform, contrary to popular myth, was not created by Hugo Ferdinand Boss. However, the founder of the fashion house is still related to the uniform of the Third Reich. At that time, he was the owner of a clothing factory, which went uphill thanks to the state order for sewing uniforms for stormtroopers, the SS, the Hitler Youth and other paramilitary formations of the Nazi Party.
Having earned trust in the pre-war years, in the early 1940s, the Boss factory, already in the status of an important military enterprise, received a large state order for the production of uniforms. When there were not enough of their own hands, vacant jobs were given to Eastern Europeans and French prisoners of war driven to the Reich for forced labor. And yet it is difficult to make an evil Nazi out of the Boss - documents have survived that testify to his attempts to improve working conditions and better resettle forced laborers. Nevertheless, in 1946 he was recognized as an active accomplice of the Nazis, deprived of voting rights and the right to conduct business, and also paid a huge fine of 80 thousand marks for those times.
Vasnetsov for the Red Army
One of the first experiments to involve artists and fashion designers in the development of military uniforms dates back to 1918, when, by order of the People's Commissar for Military Affairs Trotsky, a temporary commission was created to create a new uniform for the Red Army (Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army), whose soldiers had previously worn the uniform of the imperial army.
The commission announced a competition for the development of a new form, in which Vasnetsov, Kustodiev, Ezuchevsky, Arkadievsky and other artists participated. Most of them already had experience in creating costumes for work in the theater. The competition did not have one winner - the commission developed a new form based on several proposed entries. Those uniforms were remembered mainly by the absence of shoulder straps - a visual expression of the abolition of military ranks and officers. Budyonovka also entered the same form - a new helmet, reminiscent of the uniform of an ancient Russian warrior. True, it was made for the army of the Russian Empire, but did not have time to enter service before the revolution.
Michelangelo for the Swiss Guard
One of the most common myths in the field of uniform design is associated with the Swiss Guard of the Vatican (full name - the Swiss Infantry Cohort of the Holy Guard of the Pope). Wikipedia, guides and even some art historians stubbornly attribute the sketches of this form to Michelangelo. There are indirect reasons for this, because the Swiss Guard was founded in 1506, during the highest rise of the Renaissance culture and its red-blue-yellow camisoles have a typical Renaissance style.
But there is no evidence of Michelangelo's authorship. Interestingly, the official website of the Vatican, while refuting the version of Michelangelo, nevertheless notes that another titan of the Renaissance, Raphael, influenced the uniform of the Swiss, however, as well as the fashion of that era in general.
Armani and Valentino for the Italian police
A very similar story links the two great masters of the 20th century. The fact is that the belief is very popular on the Internet, according to which the modern form of the Italian police was developed either by Armani or by Valentino. Like any other, this legend has several editions and versions - for example, that both fashion houses sewed for the police, but for its different departments (the uniform of the Italian guardians of the law varies significantly).
Authentic Apparel x U.S. Army
In November 2013, it became known that the Authentic Apparel Group was releasing a collection of menswear inspired by military uniforms and officially licensed by the US Department of Defense. For the first time in its history, the Pentagon gives permission to use the U.S. branding and name. army.
This is not a franchise, but a real collaboration: representatives of the ministry checked each element of the collection for compliance with its army standards. And part of the amount collected from the sales of the first collection will be donated to the program to help military personnel, veterans and their families.
Text: Grigor Atanesyan
Guess who was the designer of the fascist uniform?
Hugo Boss :)
Global brands - accomplices of the Nazis
A political oversight was averted by a vigilant citizen who complained that he had been issued documents for a car with the fascist abbreviation for the long-defunct NSB party. The Dutch Ministry of Transport immediately assured that the error occurred due to a malfunction in a computer program that tracks car signs, preventing the registration of car numbers with some forbidden letter combinations. Now all the normal signs are ready, and the owners will receive them soon.
In addition to NSB, the following abbreviations will not be used in license plates: KKK (Ku Klux Klan), PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), as well as letter combinations denoting any political parties, swear words and the abbreviated name of the Dutch football club PSV Eindhoven. The letter combination Philips Sport Vereniging (PSV) translated from the Dutch means only "Philips Sports Union". On August 31, 1913, a football club from the Dutch city of Eindhoven was founded by a team of Philips employees.
If you live in Amsterdam and are an ardent fan of the Amsterdam club Ajax, you probably will not be very comfortable driving a car with a PSV license plate," the press service of the ministry said.
The history of the letters on the license plates looks like "flowers" compared to the vinaigrette of political correctness and economic competition.
In 2006, the Austrian magazine Profil reported that the world famous brand HUGO BOSS had defiled its reputation during the Second World War. The company of the same name sewed not only uniforms for soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, but also for the SS. The International Tribunal at Nuremberg recognized the SS as a criminal organization, and its employees were subject to trial. In addition, a journal note noted that the company used the labor of concentration camp prisoners. A year later, Hugo Boss's son, Siegfried, confessed that his father was a member of the Nazi Party. "The whole industry worked for the Nazis," added the 83-year-old scion of the founder of the fashion empire.
Hugo Boss opened his sewing workshop in 1923 at the height of the economic crisis. Until 1931, she practically did not bring income, until the cunning fellow joined the Nazi party NSDAP. Two years later, Boss secured a state order for the production of uniforms for attack aircraft, SS men, Wehrmacht soldiers, and the Hitler Youth youth organization. The uniform developed by him is deservedly considered the best in the history of military uniforms. After the war, Boss was fined 80,000 Reichsmarks as an accomplice of the Nazi regime. And in 1948, Hugo Boss finally retired, transferring his company into the hands of his heirs.
In addition, the prisoners of the "death camps" worked at many German enterprises, such as Krupp, Siemens, Bayer, at the automobile factories of Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Porsche, and even stood at the conveyors of the American company Ford. Logically, for the exploitation of the labor of hundreds of thousands of prisoners, these firms and their products should be boycotted.
And further. The black SS uniform (well known to our viewers from the series "Seventeen Moments of Spring" directed by Tatyana Lioznova) was invented by a 34-year-old heraldry specialist, a member of the "Imperial Association of German Artists", Professor Karl Dibich with his assistant Walter Heck. The latter also developed the emblem in the form of a double rune "zig" and the design of edged weapons for the SS. Atelier Hugo Boss was engaged only in sewing uniforms for party bosses and senior SS and Luftwaffe ranks. The creation of the SS uniform of Dibich was inspired by the uniform of the Prussian "Hussars of Death" (in colloquial German since the 18th century it is customary to call the 1st Life Hussar Regiment and the 2nd Life Hussar Regiment of Queen Victoria of Prussia with the word Totenkopfhusaren), whose mirlitons were decorated with the Totenkopf emblem - "Dead Head". The combination of black and white is a tribute to the heraldic colors of the Kingdom of Prussia. Ironically, the Russian Empire had its own black hussars dressed in a similar uniform: the Fifth Regiment of the Alexandrian Hussars.
Black uniforms and caps for members of the SS were introduced on July 7, 1932, and after 1939 a massive transition of members of the General SS to gray uniforms began. In fact, from that moment on, the black uniform was no longer worn, giving preference to gray and field uniforms. In 1944, the black uniform was abolished in Germany. Soviet cultural figures turned it into a memorable symbol of an SS man.
Unlike the United States, where a scandal erupted over the Olympic equipment sewn in China, in Russia they do not ask where the uniform for our Olympic team was sewn. site tried to shed light on this mystery
The official outfitter of the Russian national team, Bosco Sport, sews uniforms in the USA, Europe and Asia, but does not name specific countries. "Like any brand, Bosco chooses a place of production where the capacity allows you to quickly and efficiently sew a collection," the company's press service told the site's correspondent. Recall that last week a scandal erupted in the US Senate over the sewing of uniforms for American athletes in China. The design of the equipment was developed by the fashion house Ralph Lauren. Several senators were outraged by this state of affairs. New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez said the US has an unemployment rate of over 8%, and athletes' clothing is outsourced, in a country that is the US's main competitor at the Summer Olympics. According to senators, about 600,000 jobs in the textile industry are vacant in the country.
In this regard, six Democratic senators intend to submit a bill to Congress that would require sewing national uniforms only in the United States. The bill will be called the Team USA Made In America Act of 2012.
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid generally said that the best way out would be "to collect all the uniforms, dump them in a huge pile and set them on fire."
The US Olympic Committee said it was too late to do something - the London Olympics will start on July 27.
The Ralph Lauren fashion house has signed a contract with the US Olympic Committee to equip the national team of this country until 2020. Ralph Lauren hastily vowed after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi that uniforms would not be made in China. The fashion house promised to hold relevant negotiations and increase capacity in the United States.
In the Russian Olympic Committee, when asked about the site where equipment for Russian Olympians is made, they said that they did not have such information. This matter is the responsibility of Bosco Sport.
Should uniforms for Russian Olympians be sewn in Russia? You can express your opinion.
The press service of the company said that they cooperate with various factories. “More delicate things are made in Europe. Unfortunately, the volume of equipment and the timeframe in which it must be produced is such that European or domestic production does not have enough capacity, so we make less complex items in Asia,” said a representative of Bosco Sport. According to him, Asian countries are leaders in terms of volume and quality of sportswear production. The company sees nothing wrong with this. “The question is not in the geography or nationality of the manufacturer, but in the design, material and quality of production control,” Bosco Sport noted. He stressed that in Asia, large suppliers of sportswear sew their clothes. So, according to Forbes, the equipment of the British team is also made in China, there is no contention among the British about this.
At the same time, the geography of tailoring is not limited to Russia, Asia and Europe. “We produce competitive uniforms where there is many years of experience and expertise in working with this particular type of order for a particular sport..
According to the American media, the equipment of the Russian team for the Winter Olympics in Sochi will most likely be made in the United States. Such negotiations have been underway since 2011 with American Apparel (Los Angeles), reports The New York Post, citing sources. “[Representatives of the Russian Olympic team] say they don’t want anything made in China. It's not just about uniforms, it's about other items," American Apparel chief executive Dove Charney told the newspaper. According to him, the US Olympic Committee did not conduct any negotiations with his company. The top manager acknowledged that Wall Street prefers to invest in Chinese textile imports. "The banking oligarchy wrote off the US textile industry and it began to decline in the late 1990s," said Dove Charney. He noted that there is no other way out with the current price ratio. By the way, the clothes of security officers of American airports are also sewn abroad - in Pakistan.
Bosco officially presented the Olympic uniform of the Russian team (which is 436 athletes) and representatives of the delegation at the opening of the Olympic Outfitting Center on June 28, 2012. In addition, the company released a licensed "folk" collection Original London-2012.
Equipment of the Ukrainian national team. Photo: boscosport.ru
Bosco Sport equips not only the Russian national team, but also the Ukrainian and Spanish ones. “We supply a complete set of equipment “for all occasions” – from the opening ceremony of the Olympics to everyday wear in the Olympic Village and, of course, for awarding on the podium,” Oleg Rudakov, PR manager of the company, said on the website. The collection of dress, casual and sports uniforms of our neighbors was presented on July 13th.
Russian Spanish motifs
Equipment of the Spanish national team. Photo: twitter.com/adrpajaro
But in Spain, a dispute arose around the form supplied from Russia, similar to the scandal in the United States. For the first time, the Spaniards saw the equipment on Twitter runner Angel Rodriguez. He wrote on Twitter that the developers were "too clever" with stereotypes. “You see this, and you want to dance. Dance, dance, dance!!! Bomb!!!" - says the athlete. In the camp of the dissatisfied was the president of the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain, Modesto Lomba. He believes that outsourcing production to foreigners is an insult to the Spanish fashion industry. While Bosco's uniforms are free, the damage to Spain's international image is incalculable, the designer insists. Modesto Lomba also expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that customers left without attention 5 million unemployed in Spain (tailoring was carried out abroad). Separate complaints from the fashion designer were caused by the “low aesthetic quality” of the clothes.
The head of Bosco, Mikhail Kusnirovich, in an interview with El Pais said that when developing the form, "the designers studied Spanish folklore in detail." The company is sure that both athletes and ordinary citizens of Spain will like the "beautiful, authentic design, very Spanish in its spirit." According to Kusnirovich, Bosco's goal is to "capture in clothes the spirit of Spain, Russia and Ukraine", with which the brand cooperates. Mikhail Kusnirovich promised that cooperation with Madrid would not be limited to the Olympic Games alone. “The Olympic Games are an opportunity not only to prove yourself in sports, but also to show the creativity, diversity and culture of the country. Starting from the stage of design development, we take responsibility with all seriousness and are ready to prove it with new avant-garde ideas, unique in their kind,” emphasizes Kusnirovich.
The National Olympic Committee of Spain sided with the Russian company. They noted that the form was delivered to the sportsmen free of charge, on this the country, mired in debt, saved about 1.5 million euros.
A few years ago, a scandal erupted around the published facts about the involvement of the world famous brand "Hugo Boss" in the creation of military uniforms for soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht. famous designer Hugo Bossa accused of complicity with the Nazis and personal ties with Hitler. The company even turned to historians for help to sort out this issue. And although the results of a scientific study disproved many of the replicated myths about the designer, the company had to admit the fact of creating the Nazi uniform and apologize for the exploitation of prisoners of war and prisoners from concentration camps in labor factories.
In those days, the name of Hugo Boss was not yet a well-known brand. He began his professional career as a garment factory worker in 1902. After 6 years, a textile shop was inherited from his parents, and in 1923 Hugo Boss opened his own sewing company - a workshop for sewing overalls, windbreakers, overalls and raincoats for workers . In 1930, his firm was on the verge of bankruptcy. To save her from ruin, he took up sewing Wehrmacht uniforms.
Rumors that the world-famous company Hugo Boss profited from cooperation with the Nazis appeared in the late 1990s, stirred up society and caused a scandal. In 1997, the company publicly acknowledged the fact of cooperation with the Nazis. Since this had a negative effect on the brand's image, the company sponsored a scientific study of these facts, which was carried out by the Munich historian Roman Kester. In 2012 he published a book called Hugo Boss, 1924-1945. A garment factory between the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich”, in which he detailed the results of his research.
As it turned out, Hugo Boss was really engaged in tailoring military uniforms for the Wehrmacht and received large profits from these orders. And the factory used forced labor of 140 immigrants from Poland and 40 French prisoners. However, no written evidence that Hugo Boss was Adolf Hitler's personal tailor has survived. In addition, the designer was not involved in the development of sketches and creating patterns, and his factory was one of many, far from the largest, of all companies that were engaged in sewing uniforms.
In fact, the designer of the black SS uniform was not Hugo Boss, but Karl Diebich, a German artist, designer and officer of the SS, and the SS emblem in the form of two “Sieg” runes was designed by graphic artist Walter Heck. The black color of the uniform of SS officers was intended to evoke respect and fear, but it soon turned out that this color had a significant drawback: in the summer, it absorbs solar radiation and provokes profuse sweating. Therefore, black was soon replaced by gray, although black continued to be used in the ceremonial uniforms of officers of the highest echelon of the SS. The factory of Hugo Boss only made uniforms designed by Karl Diebitsch.
But the fact that Hugo Boss collaborated with the Nazis not under duress, but because of personal convictions, was confirmed even by his son. In 2007, Siegfried Boss publicly admitted that his father was a member of the Nazi Party and commented on this fact: “ And who was not a member at that time? The whole industry worked for the Nazis". Back in 1931, the designer voluntarily joined the National Socialist Workers' Party of the NSDAP and was himself a staunch Nazi. This was the main reason why his factory was registered as an important military enterprise and received a large order for sewing Wehrmacht uniforms. The German historian Henning Kober claims that all of the Hugo Boss management were Nazis and Hitler supporters.
After the end of the war, the factory again took up the production of overalls for postmen, policemen and railway workers. And its owner was tried, he escaped prison, but was sentenced to pay a fine of 100 thousand marks. True, later Hugo Boss was partially rehabilitated, and his status was changed: from the "accused" he turned into a "sympathizer." In 1948, the designer passed away at the age of 63. His company became a world famous brand after his death.
Following the publication of Roman Kester's book, Hugo Boss posted a statement on its website in which it stated " deep regret for the suffering that befell those who had to work in the factory of Hugo Boss under the Nazis”, which recognized the legitimacy of the conclusions of the historian.
And in the fashion world, the uniforms of the Third Reich, created by the Hugo Boss company, are considered the most beautiful and stylish military uniform. In the 1990s even a new movement was born - Nazi chic - Nazi chic. It was especially popular in Japan, where neo-Nazi organizations appeared. True, such a fashion is dictated rather not by aesthetic preferences, but by socio-political views, and is very far from ethical considerations - what is called "beyond good and evil."
Similar rumors circulated about the founder of another famous brand:
