Tom of Finland is one of the artists forming the image of the leather fetish in the early years of the scene after World War II. Nearly anybody in the scene has at least seen a few of his iconic drawings and can instantly recognize their style. And while they might not meet everyone’s taste they are still an important part of our history.
In order to preserve his work Touko Laaksonen and Durk Dehner established the Tom of Finland Foundation in 1984 (which purpose was later extended to collect and thus safe erotic art from other artists). Since then the foundation has carefully curated the catalogue and last year teamed up with the Finish textile company Finlayson to create a range of products bearing the works of Tom of Finland. Their current range ranges from bed sheets over pillow and duvet covers to towels large enough to take to your favorite bath house (or normal sauna to show your leather pride there).
Tom of Finland XXL by Taschen
If you want a more traditional gift I would recommend the Tom of Finland XXL book from Taschen. It is a BIG book, looks great on (a not too small) coffee table and through its sheer size gives the works enough space to take full effect. It features over 1.000 works, some of them published for the first time. Strolling through the book shows how Tom of Finland’s style and the idealized type in the scene developed over four decades. So this is the right gift for every kinky art aficionado, Tom of Finland fan or person interested in how the gay leather scene changed between its coming into existence to the late 1980s.
Note: I sadly couldn’t obtain the copyright of the product pictures so I kindly ask to click on the provided links to see the products.
