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History of the International Male catalog
Today, International Male seems on the verge of extinction. “It’s such an embarrassment,” [founder Gene Burkard, who sold the company in 1986] says. “It’s like a costume catalog. I really don’t know who would dress like that. Do you?” I have been asking the same question Burkard has about International Male since it started materializing in my mailbox three years ago. Who is this mysterious customer in the market for package-enhancing underwear, black leather “Swashbuckler” shirts with lace-up fronts, and sleeveless pink suits? I phoned Barneys New York creative director Simon Doonan, who calls himself “the world’s leading authority on bad men’s catalogs.” Doonan, who when he first moved from London to Los Angeles in the ’70s proudly wore square-legged velour leopard swim trunks from International Male around the pool at his apartment complex, sounded legitimately dejected when he heard that the catalog might be rebranding. “Oh, no,” he said. “They’ll probably try to turn it into Banana Republic. That would be a tragedy.” The catalog, he says, is one of the last remaining bastions of the pre-feminist ideal of hypermasculinity: swingerwear, if you will. “The guys are real Hai Karate guys, unapologetically masculine,” he says. “They’re not girly boys. They’re not metrosexuals. They’re real blokes in the tradition of Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood. To me the International Males don’t look gay. They look like tough, sleazy, straight men, which is probably why gay men like it. The contemporary ideal of masculinity is actually very girly. Jake Gyllenhaal couldn’t pull off a bloody pirate blouse with a trouser with 16 pleats.” If this story gets you hot to shop, check out the International Male online store.
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