Hitler in lederhosen

The world of fashion is littered with stylistic disasters, but one you may not be aware of is that perpetrated by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

For a man so obsessed with the careful cultivation of his image, this extremely camp shot of him leaning against a tree in a Bavarian forest wearing a tight pair of lederhosen must rank as one of history’s all-time fashion clunkers.

Taken sometime in the 1920s by his friend and personal photographer Heinrich Hoffman, Hitler, upon seeing the picture, ordered its immediate destruction. Clearly this did not represent the image of the cultured statesman he was striving for.

But somehow the picture survived. Perhaps Hoffman had a soft spot for it.

After the war he had the picture published in his memoirs which have only now been deemed fit for publication in the West.