Linen Tea Towel - Gavin Brown, Boys Will Be Boys

Screenprinted linen
Dimensions: 50 x 70cm
Made in Melbourne
Exclusive to the NGV design store

Boys will be boys is one of the first textiles Australian fashion designer Gavin Brown released under his label, Plain Jane. The distinctive design portrays various icons of masculinity, including tattooed, quiff-haired bikers and leathermen, in cartoonish vignettes surrounded by crosses. Brown’s designs acknowledge a fluidity in masculine presentations that was popular among the gay community in the years before the design was made. Tom of Finland (whose distinctive iconography is also referenced in David McDiarmid’s Toxic Queen) had already queered the biker through overt, exaggerated masculine presentation in his drawings.

Plain Jane, Melbourne (fashion house)
Australian 1984–87
Gavin Brown (designer)
Australian born 1964
Boys will be boys 1984
screenprinted cotton 151.0 x 110.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2009
© Gavin Brown