Last month, New York was drowning in Pride activations and Diesel sponsored a five-day erotic art extravaganza.
Diesel teamed up the Paris-based art nonprofit The Community and the Tom of Finland Foundation to present AllTogether Clubhouse.
The temporary space hosted an exhibition culled from the foundation’s extensive LGBTQ+ art archives that shaped a very New York narrative in art and ephemera, as well as talks, performances, and parties galore.
Diesel’s creative director Glenn Martens said after traveling to NYC from Paris, relating the title’s meaning,
It’s important to be together. It’s about community.”
Among other works, the exhibit featured a vitrine of vintage periodicals like Leather!, Butch and Straight to Hell, The Manhattan review of Unnatural Acts (below, left). To my surprise when researching this piece, that’s a 19-year old me me on the cover!
Martens is responsible for Diesel’s return to the higher echelons of fashion, but he doesn’t shy away from hyper-sexual messaging like that in the exhibition we’re touring. The Fall 2023 show used a backdrop of 200,000 condom boxes (above). The Spring 2023 show invite was a glass butt plug.
On the wall of AllTogether Clubhouse were various Tom of Finland drawings depicting a racy barroom, bathroom, and outdoor tableaux.
He was the very first super famous sex-positive artist, really the original legendAnd he draws hot and sexy guys. You want to meet every single person he’s drawn.
Diesel has always been a sexy brand—you know, ‘For Successful Living,’
What’s more successful than being sex positive? I just really pushed a bit of fuel in there to explore a bit more. But I mean, the most important thing that it’s really about is having fun.
Don’t give a shit. Enjoy your life. Uh, nail everybody.
Of course, being sex positive is connected to that also.
What his work represents is freedom and love.”
Diesel’s Pride collection was inspired by works from the exhibition.
(Photos, Diesel, Tom of Finland; via Artnet News)
