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Nazi Chic
The style that just won’t go away
In 1999 the British editor of GQ was fired for placing a Nazi on a list of who was Best Dressed in the 20th Century. He specifically praised the crisp style of Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, nicknamed the “Desert Fox,” who drove through Northern Africa as part of the Nazi colonial project during World War II. As the saga goes, Rommel lead his army from the front, yet managed to appear freshly pressed — at least in photographs — with not a hair out of place. A portrait of the perfect metrosexual (a title he would no doubt loathe).
It may be shallow to praise a handsome man for nothing but his looks and it certainly isn’t out of character for Western society to value beauty over character, but what does it mean when we laud a Nazi like Rommel?
The term “Nazi Chic” refers to the austere and tailored look of those in the Third Reich during the second world war, including Rommel. Adolf Hitler himself wore an undecorated and plain uniform while the majority of Nazi leadership dressed flamboyantly in black leather, brass buttons, and gilded epaulettes, stylings that would later influence 1970s punk and BDSM culture. From high end designers to campy trends like “swastikawaii,” the iconography of Nazi style has elbowed its way through history, whether its wearers promote its ideology or not.
