Tom of Finland Foundation Launches Online Store

Leading brands in fashion, art, design and publishing have collaborated with the Tom of Finland Foundation to launch the online Tom of Finland store.

As one of the world's most influential artists, Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen, Finnish, 1920-1991) is the creator of the most iconic and readily recognizable gay post-war imagery. Beginning in the 1940s, he robbed straight homophobic culture of its most virile and masculine archetypes (bikers, hoodlums, lumberjacks, cops, cowboys, and sailors) and recast them - through deft skill and fantastic imagination- unapologetic, self-aware, and boastfully proud.

Tom's positive message of respect, tolerance and sexual freedom, expressed through a body of work produced over six decades, has turned him into a hero and symbol for human rights.

By engaging in a wide array of commercial collaborations, Tom of Finland Foundation has further embedded Tom's body of work into popular culture, and made it available to all audiences, in the hopes that everyone can find a way to incorporate Tom's art into their lives.

TOMOFFINLANDSTORE.COM ships worldwide and will debut with 400 items across categories that include apparel, XXX toys, art editions, paper goods, home textiles, luxury rugs, vintage ephemera and specialized products.

Highlights include the full range of home textiles by Finnish heritage brand Finlayson, limited edition luxury rugs by Henzel Studio, Tom of Finland Pleasure Tools (including dildos hand sculpted after Tom's finest), athletic apparel by Rufskin, and a vast range of paper goods and books published by Putinki, Taschen, Rizzoli and Bruno Gmuender.

A "WE LIKE" section features products by other artist contemporaries such as Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Bruce LaBruce and Jack Pierson. Exclusive Tom of Finland products, as well as ones developed in direct collaboration with other artists, will be released on a regular basis.

"Our commercial collaborations include unique collections that defy conventional norms," says Joakim Andreasson, Founder of cultureEDIT and Director of Licensing for Tom of Finland Foundation. "They all embody Tom's magic in unique ways, spreading his message of freedom, respect and sexual pride."

Part of the proceeds of TOMOFFINLANDSTORE.COM will directly support Tom of Finland Foundation's non-profit activities and mission of promoting and preserving Tom's work and the erotic arts worldwide. In a climate where there is little financial backbone to support non profit organizations with sexually charged and homoerotic material, the Foundation heavily relies on its commercial partnerships to keep its doors open.