John Sutcliffe (designer)

For other people named John Sutcliffe, see John Sutcliffe (disambiguation).

John Sutcliffe (died 1987) was a British fetish clothing designer and publisher of the fetish magazine AtomAge.

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. 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."

He began his AtomAge fetish clothing business in 1957, registering it as a “manufacturer of weatherproofs for lady pillion riders”.

It is a popular misconception that he designed the leather outfits for The Avengers. He did not. They were designed by Michael Whittaker for Honor Blackman and by John Bates for Diana Rigg, although they may have been made in Sutcliffe's workshop. He did design some costumes for the stage version of The Avengers which appeared later. He also designed the leather catsuit worn by Marianne Faithfull in the 1968 film The Girl on a Motorcycle which may have been influenced by the style of The Avengers.

Sutcliffe published AtomAge magazine (later AtomAge International magazine), a fetish magazine published as an offshoot of his AtomAge 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 creations were an inspiration for 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.

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

At some point Sutcliffe was diagnosed as mentally ill because of his feelings about leather, which resulted in him having a nervous breakdown and a divorce, and quitting his engineering job.

Legacy

In 2023 he was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame.

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

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