See notes below
Untitled #1, 1957
Pencil on paper
11" x 8.5
Untitled #2, 1952
Pencil on paper
11" x 8.5"
Untitled #3, 1961
Pencil on paper
12" x 9"
Untitled #4, 1961
Pencil on paper
12" x 9"
Untitled #5, 1961
Pencil on paper
11.5" x 8.5"
Untitled #6, 1977
Pencil on paper
14" x 10"
|
TOM OF FINLAND’S
INFLUENCE ON FASHION
Before there was Gucci or Gaultier, There Was Tom of Finland
by Durk Dehner
Tom’s [Tom of Finland, Touko Laaksonen] influence on the fashion industry began around 1950. In a case of art-imitating-life-imitating-art, Tom drew his leathermen in outfits reminiscent of World War II military uniforms, but he rendered the clothing both tighter and sexier, tailoring it to his own specifications. Tom’s men had very narrow waists and broad shoulders during this period, making the tailoring of the clothes that he drew on his men all the more exaggerated.
A little-known fact is that Tom had his own leather garments hand tailored for himself in Helsinki, and would attend the straight biker round-ups dressed to the hilt in his stylized leather gear. He was a true Dandy in his own right.
Leather-clad bikers of the period, gay and straight, viewed the images Tom was executing through private photos that were passed around, and primitive copying methods of the time, and then subsequently had their own gear customized to emulate the artist’s specifications.
During the occupation of Finland during WW II, Tom engaged in forbidden sexual rendezvous with German officers in Helsinki parks after dark. The dynamic impact of these officers’ uniforms became deeply etched into his artist’s mind. It was Tom who invented the leather biker cap, transforming the canvas officer’s cap that so turned him on into the black leather equivalent–with a chin strap so it would work for riding on cycles. Officers’ jodhpurs, seen only in cloth and brown leather up to that point, were likewise transformed into black leather, along with the uniform shirt and riding boots.
In the 60s Tom was commissioned by a swimsuit company to draw his men wearing its designs. Naturally, Tom filled the men’s baskets to overflowing and made them look as sexy as hell.
From sailors to soldiers, workmen to businessmen, bikers to beach boys, Tom demonstrated that men had sex appeal in almost any mode of fashion–if the fit was right.
Tom was influenced by fashion design all the way back to his postwar studies at the Art Academy in Helsinki, gradually evolving his instinct for making the clothes fit the man.
Through the mass distribution of Tom’s imagery throughout Europe and North America during the sixties and seventies, tens of thousands of young gay males modeled their development, both physically and emotionally, on the hypermasculine imagery of Tom’s men. This led the male migration into the gyms, building muscles and definition, and donning clothes that would exaggerate their natural gifts and their new muscles. Studying the evolution of maleness in Tom’s work is fascinating, in that it continued to evolve through the decades to the ultimate “Uberman” of the late seventies and early eighties. The cultural shift in perception of what constitutes a “gay male”–from the extreme fem of the fifties to the hypermasculinity of the seventies–reflects the deep impact Tom’s work had on the evolving gay culture in those decades.
In photography and fashion, numerous artists have acknowledged Tom’s influence in forming their style, their aesthetic, and their viewpoint of men. Iconic photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber noted his debt to Tom in an essay that introduces Volume III of the Foundation’s Tom of Finland Retrospective, and Tom’s influence is clearly visible in the cutting-edge designs of contemporary fashionistas John Bartlett, Gucci’s Tom Ford, and the aforementioned Jean-Paul Gaultier. In fact, Ford and Gaultier have both acknowledged the influence Tom’s work has had on their take on how to dress their men.
After an exhaustive study of Tom’s art, Tom of Finland Clothing line designers Gary Robinson and David Johnson produced a collection that brought the artist’s vision to three-dimensional life and was embraced by fashion editors, featured in music videos, and covered prominently on both fashion television and the E-Channel. The low slung, “hip-hugger” jeans that are currently the industry standard reflect Tom’s influence as well. Unfortunately, the clothing line had only a five-year life span, but, as with much of life, that had nothing to do with popularity and everything to do with financing.
The mandate of fashion in Tom’s imagery is to showcase the maleness of his subjects, making them both alluring and provocative. Tom felt that men were sexier when they were clothed, possessing a mystery lacking when they were nude: his realm was fantasy, and his men are manifestations of that sensibility. As one of the principal architects of male heroism in 20th Century art, Tom’s influence will continue to resonate through fashion as his work continues to infiltrate mainstream culture. After 2000 years of Judeo-Christian hegemony, Tom of Finland restored the male form to the pedestal where it had stood in Greco-Roman times.
Images used with permission.
© TOM OF FINLAND FOUNDATION 2004
|
