Diane M. Kirkland — an accomplished couturier and ex-Show Girl with an MBA from the University of Southern California — started DMK Designs a little over three years ago, because no employer will take you seriously when your last seven years of work experience is on a stage in rhinestones, sequins, fishnets and feather packs. “I am essentially a straight woman sick of straight men thinking it’s OK to wear plain, boring underwear,” she explains. “Seriously, if you pick up a box of department store underwear and cover the model’s six-pack with your hand, what you have left looks like a pair of Depends. Not sexy. No wonder women get headaches. All of this ‘metro’ stuff is straight men realizing that it’s gay men that turn women’s heads — it’s straight men trying to step-their-game-up.”

And you won’t be surprised to learn that her company’s motto is “It’s all about the package!”

DMK’s newest designs for this fall include hand tie-dyed brief, drawstring and square-cut silhouettes and retro-print Hawaiian fabric combined with black mesh. The tie-dye is available in several single and duo-tones. And since the tie-dye is done by hand, no two pieces are exactly alike.

The collection was shot this July by New York-based photographer Peter D. Brown. Peter has worked with Anton Antipov previously and he was an obvious choice for DMK — besides his powerful physique and charming boyish charisma, the phenomenally popular 25-year-old from Bobruisk, Belarus, has an open, easy going professional attitude and really enjoys being very involved with the creative process. Peter gave us this anecdote about Anton: “During the shoot, he looked at one shot — the Moody Blue brief (above) — and was especially pleased, commenting with a bit of surprised awe how big his own arm looked!”

In total, four models were used for this DMK shoot, including Colin, also featured in our gallery.

DMK Designs
Peter D. Brown photography