International Male: How One Mail-Order Catalog Changed Men's Fashion—and Queer Desire—Forever
Lots of gay guys will tell you that the moment they knew they were gay was when they lingered in the underwear aisle of a department store as a kid, ogling the torsos on the packaging. Another version of that moment: the first time they opened an issue of International Male, a mail-order catalog packed with ripped male bodies and seriously bold fashion, from yellow high-waisted military pants to coral mesh tank tops. Starting in the late 1970s, the catalog treated men as objects of desire, kicked open the doors for decidedly sensual ad campaigns from Abercrombie and Calvin Klein, and prefigu...
Source: gq.com