Diesel collaborates with the Tom of Finland Foundation for Pride

The Pride 2024 collaboration between Diesel and the Tom of Finland Foundation is a multifaceted project that includes a capsule collection, a contest for emerging erotic artists, and a series of global events to mark four decades of preserving and promoting Tom of Finland's iconic legacy. Supported by Diesel, the celebration begins with the annual Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival, held in Berlin for the first time, at the legendary Halle am Berghain. The exhibition and performance program continues at Fire Island, NY, with other events taking place during Helsinki Pride, an exhibition at the Diesel Art Gallery in Tokyo in July, and concluding in Los Angeles at Tom's house towards the end of the year. The Diesel x Tom of Finland Foundation Pride 2024 capsule collection amplifies the message of freedom of expression, sexuality, and individualism that has always been fundamental to Diesel.

Specifically designed to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community, the capsule features the work of artists such as Stuart Sandford, Suzanne Shifflett, Tank, The Hun, Valentine, Henning von Berg, and Tom of Finland. Applied as prints and patchwork on the 24 pieces of the capsule, the selected artworks represent important voices of the Tom of Finland Foundation over four decades of preserving the work of queer artists, many of whom have faced discrimination and misrepresentation due to the nature of their creations. Each garment is finished with a special canvas tape printed with a quote from the artist. The capsule prints draw from a wide range of erotic art styles, including Hun’s homoerotic illustrations and comics that appeared in beefcake magazines in the 1960s, and Tank’s saturated color photographic prints of American cowboys. Before Henning von Berg was known as an art photographer specializing in erotic scenes, such as American western nudes, he was an architect and civil engineer.

Painter and tattoo artist Suzanne Shifflett specializes in depictions of gender non-conformity. Stuart Sandford contributed Polaroids of gay men. There are drawings of bodies entwined in an orgy by writer and artist Valentine, and Tom of Finland’s iconic gay bar scenes. Designed for all genders and conceived as a celebration of the indomitable sense of pride in the gay and queer community, the collection ranges from t-shirts to denim to jockstraps.

It will be available for pre-order in Europe from June 6 to 11 before the global launch at the end of June on Diesel's website and in Diesel boutiques. Diesel’s collaboration with the Tom of Finland Foundation highlights a long legacy of queer imagination and perseverance worldwide. Through its support of the series of events and exhibitions related to Pride 2024 from May to November, Diesel recognizes the profound social and cultural impact the Tom Foundation has had in providing an open and unique space of freedom and love for this community of artists.