Hugo sees Red after 20 years

By Ashley Kowalewski

Hugo, the clean-lined contemporary division of the Hugo Boss empire, celebrates a big birthday this year: 20 years of creating smart tailoring and fresh invigorating scents. To commemorate this anniversary, Hugo looks to musician, songwriter and actor Jared Leto to rep its newest fragrance, Hugo Red. Front man to rock band 30 Seconds to Mars, Leto has been a long-standing face of the Hugo fragrance lineup; he has represented both Hugo Man, and Hugo Just Different which launched in 2011. (FYI, the Hugo brand was launched in 1993, after the Metzingen, Germany-based Hugo Boss house, originally launched in 1924, split into Boss and Hugo, creating two distinct divisions.

In addition to his scent and songwriting projects, Leto has also held supporting roles in notable films such as Fight Club, Panic Room and Girl, Interrupted, and was Claire Danes’ love interest in the ’90s TV series My So-Called Life. In fact, he was even engaged to Cameron Diaz, though the couple broke it off in 2003.

Hugo Red boasts two opposing accords—what the company calls its “solid chill” and “liquid heat” accords—which harmonize to create a most likeable and invigorating scent. The cool side of the scent’s personality comes inspired by metal when it is heated and cooled; it’s represented by a fresh top note of grapefruit and a tart, bitter heart of rhubarb. And to express the so-called “liquid heat”: base notes of cedarwood and amber are used.

The Hugo Red anniversary spritz is both fresh and warm, not unlike what you expect from Leto or any other solid musician: the ability to provoke and energize but also to comfort and soothe.

Hugo Boss Hugo Red, EDT $68 (75 ml), www.hugoboss.com; at major department stores.