John Sutcliffe (died 1987) was a British fetish clothing designer and publisher of the fetish magazine AtomAge.
Early life
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.
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" and documented Britain's S/M scene. The first AtomAge clothing catalogue was published in 1965 and it expanded into a magazine in 1972. The magazine ended in 1980.
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.
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.
References
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)