The SS Kleiderkasse sold textiles which the SS officer brought to his tailor for the final product.
Ready to wear garments were provided against payment in the SS quartermaster system of the Verwaltungsamt SS, that is, issued to enlisted ranks, though, the Allgemeine SS persons of all rank had to provide their own uniform as a rule.
Like mentioned , Boss was at the time just one of a vast multitude of manufacturers .
Here is one of their products - as I understand it , a Kriegsmarine tunic altered for WH use .
I would believe such an item to be very sought after , even if not SS ..
But they DID produce those too ..
Very nice. But not an early black SS uniform, to be sure. Thanks for your fine aid.
Do bear with me that I beat a dead horse, but the Diebitsch and Boss things do need some corrective.
Peek Cloppenburg advert from 1933, which is no less a well known name, also made SA and SS uniforms.
Here is an RZM SS advert from the Schwarzes Korps ca. 1936
- - ------- - -
and, by the time this advert appeared, the use of company logos and such in such items of wear was proscribed.
foetid woolens and oft repeated misconceptions.
Allow me a general observation:
Apparently, the answer to the question of who exactly designed the black SS service dress is lost in time. Nobody knows for sure just who the designer was; all we can do with any degree of certainty is to rule out some names (like Diebitsch or Hugo Boss, although the latter was never a serious candidate for this honor, just an undying internet myth). Maybe it was not even a single individual, but some SA/SS committee with the final decision resting in the hands of Röhm or even Hitler?
Unless some previously unknown period paperwork turns up, we will never know for sure.
Now, while the question is, of course, not an uninteresting one, I think it is really not all that important, either, not least because of the fact that the design process in question did not really involve that much creativity or innovativeness at all.
If we think about it, there was nothing crucially new about the black service dress:
All the badges and insignia were carried over from the brownshirt uniform, as were accoutrements like the brassard, belt and cross-strap, tie, high boots etc. The shape and style of the peaked cap was modelled on existing service caps worn by various uniformed organizations and even the cut of the tunic was not really new. (Just look at, for example, the experimental tunics worn by the Reichswehr in 1927/1928 with their open collars and slash side pockets.) The brown uniform shirt was an obvious no-brainer as was the choice of the black color for the other items, which was determined by the existing black caps, breeches and ties already worn with the brownshirt uniform.
As striking, impressive and sinister as the black uniform looks (especially at the peak of its evolution and refinement ca. 1938/1939) it was not born from a sudden flash of genius by an unknown Nazi coutourier in his studio.
I was under the impression , that Black was used in the tradition of the Death Head Hussars , also the reason for the choice of a totenkopf as insignia . This is a interesting topic , and I hope the period paperwork is one day discovered as HPL has said . One thing we can all agree on is , it was the snappiest uniform in the history of uniforms .
Cheers
Similar Threads
Posting Permissions
.
Bookmarks