Tom of Finland's New Fashion Collab Has a Prince Albert Keyring
| 06/23/20
Timed for Pride month designer JW Anderson has announced a new capsule collection created in collaboration with the Tom of Finland collection. The three-piece range includes a tote, a visor, and a keyring that we can only describe as a pierced and studded penis -- Tom of Finland indeed.
This year marks 100 years since the birth of Touko Laaksonen, the man we've come to know as the artist Tom of Finland. In that time we've seen his work indelibly impact not only gay culture, posing gay men as hypermasculine when the vast majority were effeminate (and by extension helping to provide the aesthetic blueprint for the leather community) but pop culture at large. As an extension of that the London-based designer Jonathan Anderson is launching a new capsule in collaboration with the Tom of Finland Foundation. Having first come into contact with Tom's work via a REM video -- the designer has since gone on to collect Physique Pictorial books -- this project is based on an image from the 1958 Tom of Finland series The Saddle Thief.
"I collect many types of art, but drawings have always been a passion," Anderson told AnOther Magazine. "As a gay man and a designer, Tom of Finland has always fascinated me. To take his drawings and use them in my designs is a bit of a dream come true."
In addition to the three pieces which are available online and in the brand's Soho store in London, Anderson has also released Tom of Finland posable action figures, only available in-store.
JW Anderson X Tom of Finland Tote (back)
