International Male

Nope.

I was completely turned off by those cheesy, tacky designs. It emasculated, cheapened and defiled a lot of otherwise, hot men.

There were some really hot men in those catalogs

Agreed on the hot men. Some of the clothes were ridiculous but they had some good stuff too.

We discussed this previously and came to the conclusion that this was a gift from the Gay Gods to the mailbox of gay little boys across the country. No clue where they came from or how I got on their mailing list as a kid hitting puberty, so that's the obvious explanation.

I always loved getting that catalog in the mail and see all the wac-a-doodle fashions. They even had a store on Santa Monica in WEHO with all the pirate shirts one would want.

Being gay now is no fun. So many judgemental status queen that don't see the fun in camp, being different, creative or just "out there".

R4 is correct.

One day in July opening the mailbox and finding this catalogue out of the blue, which was sent to earth by our Gay Gods from on high, was a life changing moment for this 14 year old.

Undergear was better, produced by the same company I think, and there have been numerous DL threads about it.

a website dedicated to IM and Undergear

I very briefly dated a IM model when I lived in SD. Hot as fuck, beautiful ass, kind of short though. Kind of a loser too, occasional modeling gigs was about his only profession. Loved their skin care stuff, have never found anything I like as much.

I didn't, I was living at my parents place and got home one day and there on the table was an Under Gear catalog addressed to me. The cover was almost pornographic. I just took it without saying a word and jacked off to it whenever I got the chance.

How DID the people at International Male figure out who was gay? I remember the catalog showing up out of the blue in the mail, even though at the time I was living in a small flyover town and had never ordered clothes or anything "gay" through the mail.

Ever subscribe to the Advocate or Village Voice? I used to think they got their mailing lists. Or maybe they found out which young males were single, although that didn't mean gay? Great free porn and once in awhile some clothes you could get away with.

TJ Hoban and his eight pack was one of my favorites; Thom Collins developed my love of long hair (very 90s!)

Collins in international male (he also did some playgirl stuff)

David Knight and Brian Buzzini were my favorites

Brian Buzzini was hot.

I had the biggest crush on David Knight in 1989!

"I was living at my parents place and got home one day and there on the table was an Under Gear catalog addressed to me. The cover was almost pornographic. I just took it without saying a word and jacked off to it whenever I got the chance."

Sweetie, we already knew you were a homo.

Love,

I googled him and this is what I get

r19

I can't find a thing when I search for Thom Collins today. I know he was openly gay and HIV+.

Ah Men was the original IM catalog. So, so gay. Even had caftans. Lots of swimsuits and thongs and lots of porno stars as models including Dakota and Elvira's boyfriend Bill Cable.

My favorite model was David Knight. Whatever happened to him? Is he still married to Jason Gould?

Shannon Fuller left a yuuuuge impression on me.

Rusty Joiner.

sigh

The really pretty one with the baby face and dark hair allegedly dated Jason Gould for a long time.

Brian Buzzino was the hottest one. I found an IM magazine with him in it on the naval amphibious ship I was stationed on and would sneak into the head and fap-fap-fap. I'd feel so guilty and ashamed afterwards until I realized that someone on the ship must've fapped to it was well, why else would it be on board?

[quote]why else would it be on board?

For the pirate shirts! You were on a ship after all.

R12 I thought the same when I got the catalogue. Mine came shortly after I got my first Visa card and had taken a trip. I don't recall buying anything gay with it but I'm sure they got their info from that.

With my first credit card, I bought some 12" Dance Singles at a gay record store in Houston in 1987.

Soon after that, I received my first copy of International Male in the mail.

I loved the early catalogs where there was plenty of VPL and very little retouching.

[quote]My favorite model was David Knight. Whatever happened to him? Is he still married to Jason Gould?

He actually a comment on his profile page at the attached link. I don't know about his relationship with Jason Gould.

[quote]David Knight achieved fame as a fashion model in Europe. He was an International Male & Undergear icon. He had starring roles in films. National TV commercials. His flipbook is being re-edited to reflect that he is alive and well, contrary to how he was portrayed by your host and editor. With DEEEEP apologies. Please check out his gallery until the David Knight Issue can be revised. Until then, I am dying my own slow, painful death by self-inflicted humiliation. I am grateful to David for his sense of humor.

[quote]Comments MARCH 6, 2017 REPLY David knight Lol! Not dead yet!

Sorry, "He actually MADE a comment on his profile page at the attached link. "

My favourite was Eric Fox, who goes under a different name now

[R26] I think it was spencer Garbett (sp?) who dated Jason Gould...he died of suicide (Spener, not Gould)

I went to an International Male store once (I believe it was in San Diego). Such cheap, tawdry discards (and that was just the staff). Virtually nothing for my 200 lb, 6'2" frame. This was before cell phones were commonplace, so no pics of us "modeling" the cheesy outfits. We laughed so much and so hard...had an excuse, for once, to skip the ab workout for the day.

I used to get these too, and I had no idea why. At 14 I wasn't on any gay mailing lists(that I know of). I would jerk off to these so often that I ruined a few( loved cumming on the pictures of the models).

I think it was the Enquirer that wrote the article about David Knight and Jason. One thing I remembered that seems commonplace today is their reporting that their wedding cake had two grooms.

R21, His last FB post was in 2014.

The models were great. But for the most part, clothes were cheaply made. I recently found a pair of shorts for lounging around the house in a dresser drawer I don't use much. IM sure made stuff to show off your cock. I have VPL.

In a lapse of good taste (hey, it was the '90s!), I once ordered a couple of pairs of these velcro snap trousers in obnoxiously loud, wild patterns.

David Knight appeared in a feature film during the 1990s, which I saw. If memory serves me right, he played a New York City street tough in it.

Back in the day, you could just fill out a card (pre-paid postage) and just sent it in to get on the mailing list.

So if you got a catalog unexpectedly, you were being called a faggot.

Where the anonymous homophobic sender got the card is another issue entirely...

I was 13 in a small Midwest town. I was so naive I didn't even know about jerking off. My mom was at the hairdressers and I was looking at magazines, international make was there. I got so hard it was scary and awesome! I slipped it into good housekeeping and I bet I stayed rock hard! The next day I came in with a grocery bag and said I was looking for a lost watch, I slipped the catalog in and I bet I looked at those men a hundred times!

I used to have a thing for James Guardino and Rusty Joiner - such a fucking daft name, but rather nice to look at.

The one thing that I always wanted from IM was the god-fucking-hell-what-is-that fur coat. I'd fucking SWISH the hell out of that sucker...

I saw three different men wearing this exact shirt in Dallas back in the day.

I'm right there with you, R43. Discovered masterbation by accident at age 18. In the Midwest. I got really good at it, really fast. Practice makes perfect.

[quote]Discovered masterbation by accident at age 18

After 18 years I'm surprised your very first orgasm didn't knock your balls off your body.

R43. How strange! I came across my first International Male catalog at the salon where my mother had her hair done too. Such an unlikely place to find one!

Are you surprised with all the gay men that work in salons? They knew that gaylings would be the only boys to sit in a salon while their female family members got their hair done and they put out those catalogues as an act of benevolence.

Lol r49. I went to every weekly hair appointment with my mother so I could read the PhotoPlay magazines. Mr Toft was my mother's stylist. He was totally dreamy to my little 12 year old gay boy self.

Thank you, R38.

The funny thing about IM and Undergear is now today you can find everything they sold in stores. They were ridiculed and yet they were ahead of their time

r26

Stop trying to make fap happen.

r43

Something similar happened to me in the school showers but in my case, it ended with me getting pig's blood dumped on me.

How did International Male manage to stay in business as long as it did? It seems that their business model was to send thousands of catalogs to teenagers and young men in flyover land who (1) would be too embarrassed to actually order anything and (2) even more embarrassed to be seen wearing any of the clothes. It was great free masturbation material, but how could they make a profit from that?

I wish I had saved some of those clothes from IM. God, they were a hoot.

It also was very exciting/stomach churning to be on Santa Monica Blvd. -- where you could feel "gay" in the air -- and going into the actual International Male store as a young gayling when I first moved to L.A. I too wish I still had the one "safari" shirt I bought there (for far more money than I'd spent on clothes until then).

On a sad note, though, I remember walking down Santa Monica and wondering why so many men looked gaunt and sickly, This was 1981 so, in terms of press, pre-plague but it was clearly already going on. And nobody knew yet.

I first became aware of Shemar Moore through the International Male catalogue. He was even hotter then.

Here is Super-Heterosexual Shemar Moore in a 1993 Gap fashion show!

Clothes at Gap were much more stylish than at IM.

Wow. He does look super-heterosexual...

IM had a store in Provincetown, MA for a few seasons I remember coming out of the store thinking what cheap poorly made crap.

Remember the gay braided bracelets?

The tackiness and cheapness of the clothes added a wonderful sleaziness, sort of the gay version of Frederick's of Hollywood.

Rufskin is no different than IM

In fact the models are photographed the same way

WHET David Knight?

R64 in the IM catalogue there was lots of VPL in the early catalogues when they didn't retouch the pictures.

rufskin is only somewhat like international male, r64. where is the dong bulging from each pair of briefs? why aren’t the models oiled up, or pouring urns of water over themselves?

photographed the same way, my fat cooter.

[quote][R64] in the IM catalogue there was lots of VPL in the early catalogues when they didn't retouch the pictures.

Photoshop has made it so much easier to make things look better than they are that I honestly think porn was hotter without it. And so was this, which was basically glorified soft porn anyway.

Eric Fox was my favorite model too! I still have a Mens Workout with on the cover.

I jacked off SO many times to the pilfered catalogues

r56, I still have a jacket - blue and green houndstooth

Getting these catalogues in the house undetected eventually became an art unto itself. So was hiding internet porn when we only had one computer with internet access.

Yes, because their clothes was so beautiful and flattering!

Buzzini was gorgeous. The clothes were both tacky and cheaply made. I think that underwear was the only thing I bought from IM or UG.

Rufskin at least is better quality -- though a lot of their stuff is over-the-top as well.

What's the name of the guy on the top left in OP's photo?

[quote] Stop trying to make fap happen.

Uh fap already happened and is OVER, Mr. Dinosaur.

I'm fairly sure I saw David Knight in a commercial recently. White hair and was playing a dad.

I'm sorry Thom Collins disappeared. He was absolutely gorgeous back in the day, and he had such a charming what-the-fuck attitude--he was a little crazy, but he did not take himself seriously at all.

More hot Thom Collins:

Did any of the models do nude layouts or porn? I remember Paul Barresi doing ads for the very similar Ah Men catalog.

Thom Collins face:

Remember buns the white or pinkish underwear that was supposed to make your ass shapely? The San Diego store was in a nice area in the 80s. One of the clerks was a bit of a queen but very nice. He introduced me to a hot as fuck sailor from West Virginia, damn the hot sex we had. Wonder what he looks like 35 years later?

[quote] Did any of the models do nude layouts or porn?

Brian Buzzini did nude layouts for PLAYGIRL. He was really something special.

When I was 14 and deeply closeted, someone signed me up to receive International Male catalogs. I had never heard of them before, and this was a revelation to me in terms of masturbation material. There were a lot of ridiculous clothes in it but the men were HOT.

I had bought a pair of gym shorts from the catalog, back in the 80’s. I was working out a friend who asked me if those were the shorts I got from International Male. I told him to keep his voice down; I didn’t want everyone to know. He just looked at me and without skipping a beat said “Oh honey. Everyone already knows “

I first came across one in a Barnes and Noble when I was 12. Soon after, I discovered the internet.

I wonder if any of IM's models were "harassed" by the photographers, a la Bruce Weber.

I preferred the models with the hairy chests, both the brunettes and the blondes. What were some of their names?

Of course, I saved every single IM and Undergear catalog I ever received. In the 2000s, during a move, I discovered the stash and it occurred to me to try to find Brain Buzzini and offer to send them to him...to sign for fans, sign/sell, etc. Somehow I found his e-mail address and messaged him and, to my complete surprise, he responded. He said he had tons of the catalogs but thanked me for offering and thinking of him. I remember being surprised at how cool and down-to-earth he seemed. I believe he's married, living in California(?) and has a gorgeous (of course) teenage daughter. Found this photo of him; he's still handsome.

looks like he's had a ton of eye work done

For 55, that bod's really not bad.

As an adolescent male in the 70's I was always buying the latest shampoos. Saw an ad for Jojoba Oil shampoo, so sent away to International Male. With the product came their catalogue, and I was put on their mailing list.

The first catalogue that came in the mail I got to before anyone went to the mail, and I hid it between the mattress and box spring of my bed, along with the one I had received with my shampoo. My mother found those when she routinely flipped my mattress (I had no idea that she did this twice a year!), and confronted me about being a homosexual. Things went downhill from there, but I did routinely jerked off to the catalogues that kept coming in the mail after I moved out.

R46 & R47 I began masturbation early, before I could cum. My first cum, I was sitting on the age of my bed with the local grocery-store delivery boy. A friend. We'd "play" with each other. Somehow I knew I should "shoot". Tho' younger, he already could. I grew up to LOVE some guy in International Male. Compact, dark hair. By then I'd worked with enough 'models" to know he was too short to actually do real work. He was only in IM for about three years, vanished. Can't remember his name, probably not his real one when they began naming names. Any copy with his G-Strings was all fantasy.

Like the "grocery boy" above …. I had one, and IM "type". Mine became a high school first-string basketball player, never went further. I'm not, but I hear he is still around town, big landlord, bald and very fat. No other info. Still, I'd like to see what kind of dick he has now, where he is and isn't hairy.

In 1989, I thought that David Knight would be the perfect boyfriend.

At least the International Male models didn't ruin their bodies with hideous, shitty ink. Outlaw fucking tattoos.

[quote] Outlaw fucking tattoos.

We said no, you didn't listen.

Although David Knight was my fantasy boyfriend in 1989, I would have cheated on him with Brian Buzzini...

[quote] At least the International Male models didn't ruin their bodies with hideous, shitty ink. Outlaw fucking tattoos.

This x 1,000. Completely agree. With any luck they will, at some point, run their course.

R80 Shannon Fuller did Playgirl.

Not to overstate it but... Parking and walking into the International Male store on Santa Monica Blvd. on a hot day a few weeks after I had moved to California was a HUGE step in my coming out. It felt like it even at the time. I was a kid right out of college and was very happy to be there but still nervous somehow. I wish I still had the safari shirt I bought, my first L.A. glam purchase. I wore that thing for years and years, though I'd never fit into it now.

How many of those guys are dead?

How many of the models were gay?

IM had a store in Provincetown, MA years ago the products were poorly made and the materials were cheap. The t shirts were ok, most of the other clothes were just embarrassing.

"The funny thing about IM and Undergear is now today you can find everything they sold in stores. They were ridiculed and yet they were ahead of their time"

Just goes to show you that good taste fades, but tacky is forever.

I want to see all the #MeToo videos of all these photo sessions.

I miss me some Rusty Joiner.

Brian Buzzini grew up in my hometown and my eldest sister babysat him.

.............

For those of you who are wondering how you got on the IM list as a young innocent teenager, it is said that IM used to get their mailing list from PFLAG

R64's link has a pair of underwear for $56

Fuck that.

[quote]WHET David Knight?

Ennui, R65.

Brian Buzzini was about as close to a male supermodel as you could get but he was still light years behind the female supermodel fame.

I am starting to think that I was the only girl who received the IM catalogs regularly. I absolutely loved the tawdry sleaziness of the clothing.

I can't believe that some of it was ever worn on the street...I guess it was sort of the Frederick's of Hollywood for men.

Go away Fish

So Brian Buzzini destroyed his looks on hideous tattoos?

Does anyone know what became of the model Eric Fox? I know he did some soft core workout videos at one point.

Fish is blocked.

In this video he shows his butt .... yum. His daughter's name is Daisy and I think he still lives in Thousand Oaks.

The ugliest clothes in American history. Somehow, I didn't think so at the time... I remember saving up my paltry adolescent allowance to buy from IM. Hilarious!

He's a grandfather.

Brian Buzzini today.

My dad threw my copy away because it was “pornography”

Well, it was

Prevail Sport is better.

My theory on how IM got gayboys mailing addresses is the combed the subscriptions of Teen Beat and Tiger Beat magazines for boys names and sent them to those addresses. I’m sure that’s how they got mine!

whats ah malebox?

R83: Brian Buzzini was Playgirl's Man of the Year. I can still picture the local 7-11, where I saw his Playgirl layout.

Back in the mid 1980s I ordered something, I think it was a jacket, from a catalog and then began getting mail catalogs regularly from International Male. I never ordered anything from them, but the several of the models were very hot.

I ordered several pieces from them in high school in the 90s. I wore several of them for my senior pics, including a "swashbuckler" shirt in "Paprika" and a pinstripe suit.

Like many previous posters, I also look back and wonder how the IM catalog ended up in our mailbox. My theory is that it was related to other catalogs or subscription services. My mom got Victoria's Secret and the Fredericks of Hollywood catalogs. I know you could fill out an "interest" survey that was sometimes sent with those. The type where it's one sheet you fold over and mail back. It had a bunch of groupings with check boxes. "Are you interested in gardening? Recipes? Stamp Collecting? VPL?" 🤣🤣🤣

Yes. Some of my earliest masturbation material. I would save every catalog and just drool and fantasize. It created unrealistically high expectations. I wish I still had those catalogs, just for old times sake.

It was pornography, of course, created for closeted gay boys.

I think IM was the textbook definition of "tryory."

And only a couple of guys "tried."