Is menswear entering its daddy era?

Tom of Finland’s legacy was felt throughout the S/S 23 shows that were rife with denim, leather, and a touch of kink.

It’s no secret that masculinity has been undergoing a rebrand in the past decade, thanks to the reckoning of toxicity that has long defined Western men. With it came exploratory perspectives and progressive declarations of “The New Masculinity” by GQ, and that infamous New York Times’s headline, “Welcome to the Age of the Twink”. With skinny legends Harry Styles and Timothee Chalamet leading the charge in the societal shift towards soft-lad culture, it’s the increased visibility of the LGBTQ+ community that’s subverting traditional notions of masculinity. Sure, languid figures have been at the centre of men’s fashion since Hedi Slimane sent his famished cohort down the Dior Homme runway in the early aughts, but this menswear season saw a renewed interest in hyper-masculinity with sartorial inspirations from another infamous archetype of the Gay community: the daddy. Not to be mistaken with the pram-pushing, Veja trainer wearing suburbanites that riddle parks on a Saturday afternoon, the daddy is defined by his rugged masculinity, domineering sex appeal, and tends to be clad in denim and leather. Best encapsulated by the bulging imagery of Finnish artist Tom of Finland, it’s precisely the codes of his instantly recognisable illustrations that defined the S/S 23 shows.

JW Anderson x Tom of Finland

Fashion’s fascination with Tom of Finland’s work has reached new heights since the Foundation celebrated the artist’s centenary in 2020. “As an artist, he did not let society’s norms dictate how he crafted his work,” explains president and co-founder of Tom of Finland Foundation, Durk Dehner, about the artist’s enduring legacy. In April, Tom of Finland Foundation debuted its travelling exhibition of archival works titled AllTogether (in partnership with Diesel and its creative director Glenn Martens) in Venice. In June, it moved to Paris, with the Foundation planning more cities in the future. To coincide with this partnership, the denim brand released a capsule collection adorned with those famous adonises. This summer also saw JW Anderson teaming up with the Foundation for his third capsule collection featuring artwork from the archives. ‘Tom of Finland is about love, friendship, sex, and mystery, and when he is used by a mainstream brand, his message of liberation and equality is part of the expression being communicated,” says Dehner.

Diesel x Tom of Finland

For Tom of Finland Store ambassador and certified daddy Terry Miller, this shift in fashion highlighting traditionally masc codes isn’t surprising. “It’s becoming more relevant, most likely as a reaction to the last few years of gender non-comforming, gender fluid, or more effeminate trends,” he explains of fashion’s picking of Tom of Finland aesthetic. “Not saying those were negative, but the pendulum tends to swing back in extremes every few years. We seem to be starting a new swing on the masculine side of those fashion constructs.” For this season’s menswear shows, this swing back to classic masculine tropes manifested in collections from Martine Rose to Moschino which were defined by leather and denim. “From cowboys to leathermen. Men, muscles, masculinity. And sometimes a moustache! That’s the best outfit one can wear,” Miller gushes.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY JOSHUA GRAHAM

Published: 17th July 2022

Categorised in: News