Jos Hurt is not new to the Sniffies universe. She’s been behind the scenes styling shoots for years. But now, she steps into the spotlight as she releases her first official collaboration with Sniffies for Pride. 

Luckily for you, Cruiser, that means you get to step into Jos Hurt’s world: one where eroticism meets humor meets cute cartoon aesthetics. Here, we chat with Jos about how she thinks about her Pride collab with Sniffies, the world she builds in her work, and why it’s important for her to weave in an element of eroticism to the clothes she makes. 

How has working with Sniffies been different than other jobs?

I've never worked with that many gay men before in my life  that was a really big adjustment. Working with gorgeous gay men who are creative in their own right, and also rely on others' creativity and input was really new for me. It was new to have the queer-centric shorthand that I usually use in my personal life exist at work. 

When did you first start designing?

I’ve been designing clothes for my whole life. In high school, me and my best friend used to make clothes together for our home girls. We would make skirts and little tank tops for our friends, and if one of our friends' bands was playing somewhere and they didn't have merch, I would go to a friend's house and we would make merch shirts together.

Around 2019 I started to hand paint shirts and lean into it a lot more, as more than a hobby. That was 2019 and here I am now designing shirts for Sniffies.

How would you describe your work?

It’s cute, a little erotic, a little scary. I like to bring in all facets of the things that inspire me: film—adventure and sci-fi fantasy like Dark Crystal and Fern Gully—I really love 1960s manga. Any sort of films that have world building. I love to live in my own world. 

When I was younger, I wanted to be a director so badly. I love the idea of living in your own world and bringing people into your world, and getting lost in it—giving someone no compass or road map, and saying “this is the world that I'm creating, come join me, and let's go to the other side together.”

How did you develop the world you created for this Sniffies Pride collab?

I got really into vintage men's homoerotica—the comics, if you remember, in the back of the magazines. They would have comics or a short story with an illustration. I liked this concept of gay men drawing for gay men, while also making it otherworldly. 

I've been with Sniffies for so long, I know that there's a lot of vintage homoerotica on the mood board—I mean homoerotica in general is the damn brand. So I wanted the collection to feel tongue in cheek; if you know, you know, sexy-ish. 

That’s what we did with the tank: It says Dad’s Day and you see all the little trinkets at the bottom. But someone who has a trained eye will see it looks like a 1980s catalog image, and underneath they’ll notice there's lube, there's a ball gag, there's a butt plug. Oh, it's a dad's day. I really wanted to bring humor and horniness to the vibe. 

Why is it important for you to make clothes that have that element of eroticism?

I wanted to drive forth the eroticism because this is a cruising app. This is an app for people to go on suck dick, sniff feet, eat butts, and fuck. I didn't want that eroticism and the horniness to be flattened. I don't ever want to be flattened in the way I style the clothing—I don't want to be flattened in the way this interview goes! I know the audience I'm speaking to, and I know the audience I'm trying to excite. As a trans fem in this cruising app of hairy pecs and butts, it was really important that the work did feel like gay erotica.

I can make it happen. I can turn you on too—let's not forget that we’re all just dicks and butts, babe.