John Sutcliffe (died 1987) was a British fetish clothing designer and publisher of the fetish magazine AtomAge.[1]
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.[2][3]
He began his AtomAge fetish clothing business in 1957, registering it as a “manufacturer of weatherproofs for lady pillion riders”.[4][2]
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.[3]
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"[5][6] and documented Britain's S/M scene.[7][8] The first AtomAge clothing catalogue was published in 1965 and it expanded into a magazine in 1972.[9] The magazine ended in 1980.[10]
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.[11] [1]
In 1982 Sutcliffe published a novel by Jim Dickson called The Story Of Gerda, about bondage and fetishism.[10][2] 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.[2]
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.[2] 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."[1]