Pierre & Gilles have been a source of luridly-colored homoerotic joy ever since they first met at a party in Paris — Pierre, a magazine photographer; Gilles a middle-school art teacher — and became partners in art (as well as lovers), celebrating pop-mythology at its most homosexual and kitsch.

They have been out there since 1976, becoming so wildly fashionable that everyone hip passing through Paris — from Catherine Deneuve to Boy George to Jeff Stryker — sat in some stage of undress for their portraits. Not straight-forward portraits, you understand, but ones touched by whimsy and — dare we say it? – fairy dust. Deneuve, for starters, was re-imagined as a fairytale princess, Boy George as the Indian god Shiva playing a flute, and Jeff Stryker as a shirtless devil in sequined gold horns and sequined gold pants.

Yet even we — P&G love-slaves that we are — had never seen some of the works collected on Pierre and Gilles’ official site. Our biggest find was the faboo pop-music video that plays when you click on the site’s leatherman logo. The video, like most of their art, relies heavily on roses, pouty lips, french sailors, bistro toughs and Catholic-saint prayer-cards. French to the core, Pierre & Gilles never fail to slip in some reference to St. Jeanne D’ Arc or a beautiful bare ass.

If you’re new to the Fantastic Duo (at right, Gilles is the blond; Pierre, in muscle-shirt), you may want to check out the several P&G photo books. Better hurry, though, some are already out of print and going for twice their original price. The books come in small (the postcard-size Icons) medium (the very reasonably priced Pierre et Giles) and super-duper deluxe (the $170 Complete Works).

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