These vintage menswear ads are campy, sexy, and utterly insane

We’ve talked at length about the vintage menswear catalogs that make our gay hearts sing—but we’ve been remiss in leaving out one important sartorial presence from the 60s and 70s. Fans of International Male—the homoerotic drool-fest where you could shop for briefs and gaze at torsos—were almost certainly enjoying the pages of Ah Men, a magazine serving a similar clientele.

When the queer historian and critic Matt Baume posted this deliciously campy sample of some of Ah Men’s sillier photoshoots, the Internet was agog, and for good reason. There used to be such a thing as style!

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It might surprise you to know that Ah Men in fact predated International Male and may have been responsible for inspiring that legacy catalog. According to Tom + Lorenzo, Ah Men was created by two gay men, “Don Cook and Jerry Furlow, who didn’t feel that mainstream men’s clothing outlets were offering them the kinds of clothes that they and their gay brethren wanted.”

It’s true: because what the gays want is flowing, disco-ready couture, and butts. Also…body belts?

Kinky!

By the 1980s, Ah Men was no more, but nothing’s to stop us from remembering the magazine’s glory days, full of kaftans, flowing leisure pants, and barely-there briefs.

The days of Ah Men may be long gone, but we can always dream…and remember.

“AH MEN, For his changing phases” – 1977 Ah Men’s Shop ad
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