When Hugo Boss started his clothing factory, fashionable suits and cologne were not on the agenda.

Today, Hugo Boss is a well known global fashion empire with a chain of shops in 102 countries, more than 5000 stores and an annual turnover of over half a billion dollars. However, it was not always so good for the man whose company started one of the world's most fashionable men's clothing lines and now also features Hugo Boss cologne and other men's accessories.

From bankruptcy to Baldessarini

Hugo Boss started his clothing company in 1923 in Metzingen, where it is still based, a small town south of Stuttgart, Germany. However, due to the economic climate in Germany at the time Boss was forced into bankruptcy in 1930. Undeterred, Hugo set up a new business and in 1931 became a member of the Nazi party. With the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933, Boss's business also began to prosper as he became the official supplier of uniforms to the SA and SS guards.

With the defeat of Germany in 1945, Boss was charged with being sympathetic to the Nazi cause and was denied the right to vote in Germany and ordered to pay a fine. He died in 1948 but his business survived and in 1953, with the demand for SS uniforms gone, the business turned its hand to making suits. The timing was perfect, as the male fashion industry was just establishing itself and through the 60's and 70's Boss suits became the benchmark for quality, fashionable menswear.

In 1985 the company was floated on the stock exchange and the majority shareholder is now the Marzotto textile group. In 1993, exactly 70 years after it was founded, Hugo Boss launched its first fragrance, thus creating a division of the company that has steadily grown to be an important area of business for the company.

Today there are three main clothing lines - Hugo Boss, Hugo and Baldessarini, the latter being named after the chief designer Werner Baldessarini who resigned in 2002, and which will be discontinued after the release of the spring/summer collection of 2007. The Baldessarini fragrance line however will continue.

Apart from suits, over the years Hugo Boss has branched out into shirts, ties, tuxedos, underwear, shoes, sunglasses including a range of mens cologne and womens fragrances.