
Portrait of artist, Andrew Sedgwick Guth. Lensed by David Zimmerman.
We launched Made X Cruise out of wanting to explore our queerness more. Made X Hudson, our umbrella brand, is a small batch factory in Hudson Valley. The "X" implies collaboration, so with Cruise, our goal was to work with talented queer artists in our region and around the country.
For our launch line, we collaborated with Harrisburg, PA based artist, Sedgwick Guth. When meeting in Provincetown, we immediately aligned with Sedgwick's playfulness in his work, and that he also worked in textiles, which circles back to our garment factory in Catskill, NY.
This launch collection is an homage to retro queer culture which we love and adore.
Here is what Sedgwick has to say about the collection:
Are you a ‘good boy’? Are you a daddy? A ‘sir’? This collaboration with Made X Hudson was created to give you a frisky assist in asserting that side of yourself - direct or subtle depending on your mood. This collection of special gear was inspired by my ongoing interest and investigation of vintage printed queer beefcake publications, a source of inspiration for series of my recent works.
These items were designed to give a playful and sexy nod to the aesthetics and rituals of the 70’s and 80’s queer scene depicted in many of these magazines - from the sun soaked poolsides in Fire Island, the sweaty saunas of bathhouses in Chicago, to the musky red lit darkrooms of leather bars in the fabled Castro.
Magazines like ‘DRUMMER’, HONCHO’, ‘Advocate MEN’, ‘Blueboy’, and ‘TORSO’ served as the main magazines that I paged through and studied, pulling moments of magic from to create images and text for the items that have now cum to life. To me, these magazines represent not only functional items in what they were intended to deliver, but I feel they also serve as historical records of our queer culture, elbow deep in depictions of fashions of the era, sexual practices, gathering places, community, and all the arts - painting, theater, music, etc.
An initial jumping point was “what would be a gay man’s on the go grab bag include?” - well, a classic jock, a bandanna to possibly flag his tastes, a tee, a towel, a speedo for the pool, of course! Those items and more are all here - including a cute drawstring bag to shove them in as you hurry out the door on a last minute decision to catch a bus, a ferry, a train, a plane, to a place where your people are. Myself and everyone involved at CRUISE Athletic Club hope you love this chic and fun collection of items, wear the shit out of them, and experience lots of fun and love along the way.
We hope you enjoy our collection as much as we do!