From Esquire
Pride lasts more than a month. Somewhere over the corporate rainbow, beyond the technicolour Uber/GSK/Google logos (which are all now mysteriously and conveniently blanched), several brands make activism and allyship a year-round thing. Because, believe it or not, we need more than 28 days to stamp homophobia out of the remaining 337. Who knew!
Well, queer apparel label Homoco does. The release of a brand new line has dedicated a slice of profits to Sage, a charity that advocates for LGBTQ+ elders at the federal, state and local level in the US, while commemorating the centennial of a queer neoteric proper: Tom Of Finland.
Born of a three-way collaboration between the brand, the late Finnish’ icons foundation and graphic artist This Is Amit, the line places Tom’s ‘Full Service’ illustrations upon workwear-infused pieces – a move that brings the very affectionate builders and carpenters and labourers of Tom’s X-rated dreams into real life. That means swimwear, baseball caps, sweatshirts and T-shirts that all sit on the casual end of menswear, and all emblazoned with reinterpreted imagery and a phone number that’ll connect you directly to an archival recording of a Tom Of Finland conversation that’d normally cost you £3 a minute from your landline (929-300-3269, if you were at all curious).
In a move that adroitly encapsulates Tom Of Finland’s reimagining of man-as-masterpiece, Michelangelo’s David is pictured beneath his very own hardhat upon a keyring, T-shirt and sweatshirt, among other pieces. This is a new testament entirely.
As with all of Homoco’s output, the production has an ethical focus with fabrics of recycled polyester and environmentally-friendly Tencel textiles. And there’s the social ethics of it, too. For Pride-adjacent menswear is for life – not just a corporately-charged short hot summer.
Homoco x Tom Of Finland x This Is Amit is now available online at the brand’s web store, and at the Tom Of Finland Foundation
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