11/03/2021
POUR HOMME seeks to honour the full spectrum that is the human by visually “undefining masculinity” and presenting gender as the business of the individual, not the business of any society, system or structure.
The series pays homage to an iconic image, which birthed the aesthetic treatment for POUR HOMME. That image is the 1971 campaign image for YSL’s first men’s perfume, named Pour Homme (meaning ‘for him’, a phrase still used today to denote ‘men’s fragrances) where the house’s designer themselves stripped off in front of the camera for photographer Jeanloup Sieff. Yves posed n**e, wearing only his iconic frames, on leather cushions. The aim of that campaign was to challenge traditional ideas of masculinity (rejecting the machismo so commonplace in advertising of the time), desexualise nudity and pose the question: why is it more socially acceptable for a woman to be presented n**e in an advertisement, than a man?
At the time, the campaign cause quite some controversy and was refused publication by numerous newspapers who felt the image was too provocative. However, the images resonated greatly with the q***r community, as a message of radical self-acceptance and self-love, and today they have been widely published and celebrated. It is now considered a landmark in fashion advertising and is a primes example of Yves’ transgressive expression.
In honour of fifty years since the release, this portrait series pays homage to this important campaign with 50 portraits. The series does not seek to redefine masculinity – rather, it seeks to undefine it. The cast has been selected to make space for a spectrum that subverts all notions of gender, inviting men to sit alongside women to sit alongside the non-conforming.
Directed by Ky Bxshxff (they/them)
Photographed by Kye Vogel-Du Plessis (she/they)
Produced by Teagan van Zyl (he/him)
Hair and Makeup by Roxanne van der Watt (she/her)
