The Hugo Boss Experience

"Does Hugo Boss live up to its reputation of tailoring?"

Prior to visiting the Hugo Boss section of Selfridges in Birmingham quite recently, I have no had too much of an opinion on Hugo Boss' tailoring. I mean my dad wore a long tailed grey suit for his wedding from Hugo Boss (Yuck) and the Hugo Boss store in Leicester, you have a security guard that follows you around as you look and you feel so awkward that you don't want to try anything on or even stay in there for longer than 2 minutes. All of this though doesn't mean the tailoring itself is bad, the difference I found in Selfridges was the staff were there to give advice and didn't care what you was looking at/trying on which ironically lead to me buying a suit! So here is my experience from Hugo Boss.

'Reyno2/Wave1' Suit £369 ($475) Extra-slim fit

So to begin, I thought I would just show you the suit so you could see the colour and the other major details so you can ignore the fit here because this image is following the first set of alterations that had taken place.

So when I first tried on the suit, they were numerous problems,

• Trousers were too baggy around the whole of the leg

• Trousers did not taper nicely

• Basically the trousers were horrendous

Most of the problems then, were to due to the trousers and I was quite content with the jacket and the Hugo Boss staff agreed. Seeing as though I loved the suit I went ahead and bought it and Hugo Boss sent it off with the following alterations to take place; the waist to be taken in (as pinned) and trouser taper (as pinned) which amounted to £20 worth of alterations on top of the suit cost which is nothing really if it comes back fitting you perfect...

This is what I got one week later.

First Round of Alterations

First of the all the waist alteration was brilliant, no belt required! The taper however was done awfully, the leg was now twisted and the break onto my shoes (well Hugo Boss' shoes) was not what I was looking for at all. I then had to start wondering if the jacket itself was too short in selves as it just didn't look right. By the way, the sales assistant at this store in Leicester was awful, seriously no helpful tailoring advice at all.

This lead to me then going to the tailor in Leicester which deals with all the alterations by Hugo Boss, Reiss, Moss Bros, etc and well, I love this guy. First of all his style was sick, contemporary but comfortably cool and he knew what I was looking for and his advice was perfect.

Second Round of Alterations

The tailor suggested,

• The jacket was 0.5/0.75" too short but not a problem

• The waist alteration that Hugo Boss did was actually really badly done. Although it fitted fantastically, technically speaking it was done poor and he was going to correct that for me.

• Sleeves needed lengthening about 0.5" an inch and they would be perfect

• Finally his plan was to adjust the ratio of the back and front of the trouser to sort of the break.

This second round of alterations amounted to another £50 which we got in contact with Hugo Boss to complain about and they refunded us this amount.

Finally then, what was my first experience of Hugo Boss like? Bit of a pain to be honest, the experience in Selfridges was fantastic, I maybe wish I had their in store tailor sort the alterations out rather than an sales assistant (no offence to the sales assistant of course, but the tailor will have far greater experience). The Hugo Boss in Leicester, is not greater for opinions on the fitting of the suit but would that stop me buying another Hugo Boss suit? Not at all, the materials are fantastic, I mean this jacket I have is the comfiest thing I have ever wore - it is on the same level as pjs. And the silhouette of a Hugo Boss suit, is brilliant I think so I will definitely be popping in there more.

To aid this, I have some final recommendations,

• Always bring someone along with you (preferably someone who has some experience with tailoring)

• Ask if there is an instore tailor to get there thoughts on the fit and (if any) the alterations that need to be done.

• Ask for shoes and a shirt to try on with it as you need to be in the most similar outfit to what you would be wearing in it as the suit will sit differently.

This suit forms my Monday suit in the 'Permanent Collection' if you want to see images of the suit and more details of it, click here.

Overall Rating Pain but worth it, 6 out of 10.