John Sutcliffe (designer)

John Sutcliffe (died 1987) was a British fetish clothing designer and publisher of the fetish magazine AtomAge.<ref name="auto2">Template:Cite news</ref>

In the 1950s he was divorced because his feelings about leather had led to him being diagnosed as mentally ill and treatment failed to change him.<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="guardian"/>

He began his AtomAge fetish clothing business in 1957, registering it as a “manufacturer of weatherproofs for lady pillion riders”.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auto1"/>

He was an influence on the leather catsuits worn by Emma Peel in The Avengers, and created the leather catsuit worn by Marianne Faithfull in the 1968 film The Girl on a Motorcycle.<ref name="guardian">Template:Cite web</ref>

Sutcliffe published AtomAge magazine, a fetish magazine that was an offshoot of his fetish clothing business. The magazine has been called the "underground bible of leather, rubber and vinyl fetish wear throughout the 1970s"<ref name="trunk">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="kwaidan">Template:Cite magazine</ref> and documented Britain's S/M scene.<ref name="quinn">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="woo">Template:Cite news</ref> The first AtomAge clothing catalogue was published in 1965 and it expanded into a magazine in 1972.<ref name="bbc">Template:Cite news</ref> The magazine ended in 1980.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref>

Sutcliffe's work helped inspire Sex, a boutique run by Vivienne Westwood and her then-partner Malcolm McLaren at 430 King's Road, London between 1974 and 1976, which specialized in clothing that defined the look of the punk movement.<ref name=PM>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auto2"/>

In 1982 Sutcliffe published a novel by Jim Dickson called The Story Of Gerda, about bondage and fetishism.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto1"/> A copy of it was sent to the police, and to keep from being prosecuted Sutcliffe agreed to have all stock and AtomAge magazine plates destroyed.<ref name="auto1"/>

He created a sewing needle for vinyl that improved the ability to stitch and work that material, and a method for attaching a muslin-type fabric to latex, which after that could be securely sewn.<ref name="auto1"/> He also created a sewing machine specifically for leather and asked Singer to manufacture it, but as remembered by his friend Robert Henley, "Singer were so horrified, they called the police."<ref name="auto2"/>

Legacy

In 2023 he was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Further reading

Dressing for Pleasure in Rubber, Vinyl and Leather: The Best of Atomage 1972-1980. Jonny Trunk (author). Damon Murray, Jonny Trunk, and Stephen Sorrell (editors).  United Kingdom: FUEL, 2010.

External links

• Atomage Magazine Appreciation Site (A private, non-commercial site featuring the history and work of John Sutcliffe and his Atomage fetish clothing business)
• Dressing For Pleasure, the book of Atomage imagery, history and readers letters
• EVOLVER article on John Sutcliffe (in German)