BrazenBooks

A friend of mine recently found a copy of Knave, published in November 1977. It includes a lengthy and interesting interview with John Sutcliffe (Atomage). Some of you more committed collectors may have already seen this, but if not, it’s worth a read. John’s perspective on fetishes is informative and interesting. The world would be a much better place if we were all a little more open and forgiving.

All text is an exact extraction, but some of the photographs have been added by me. For more information and lots of pictures, The Atomage Magazine Appreciation Site is always worth a visit. 

Editor Exposed – Extracted from Atomage No 18 (1978)

Being rather shy and diffident, John Sutcliffe has never sought the limelight even in the pages of this, his own, magazine. It needed the skill of another editor to do a profile which, under the heading ‘Johnny Sutcliffe, Man of Leather’, was published in Knave at the end of last year. Although still smarting at being called ‘Johnny’, he is quite pleased at having his life history printed, warts and all.

Derek Bowskill, who conducted the interview, observed that as he was dealing with an “off-beat aspect of human behaviour,” he expected to meet a character to match. “It was, therefore, a completely unexpected pleasure to discover that these traits were quite alien to Johnny Sutcliffe. He was gentle, quietly spoken, well educated, intelligent, courteous to a fault, and of great personal charm. He was open and frank, sensitive, articulate … and a good listener. Indeed, about this side of his character, he was to observe. ‘It is actually a time-wasting thing as far as a businessman is concerned. People have said to me, “You’ll never make your fortune at this – you waste too much time with people.”

It took four of Knave’s pages – twice the size of ours – to record John’s own personal history and the story of the firm he founded twenty years ago, and Derek concluded: “My report on Johnny Sutcliffe would not be complete if I did not mention that over the years I have visited many establishments that provide specialities for human sexual fancies – but not one of them could compete with the warmth, humour, and openness I found at Atomage.”

John Sutcliffe Interview – Knave (Nov 1977) Introduction By Derek Bowskill

For 20 years, the firm of Atomage has specialised in the manufacture of high-quality leatherware and accessories, sartorial excesses designed and executed in leather by Atomage’s founder and working director, Johnny Sutcliffe. His clientele covers a broad spectrum— from haute couture to Grand Opera, from the often glamorous requirements of film and television series or commercials to the sometimes bizarre whims of people with a penchant for way-out gear. Atomage’s combined office, showroom, and workrooms are in London’s Covent Garden district, where the decaying realism of battered brickwork and exposed and broken timbers presents a totally effective camouflage for the world of flourishing fantasy that is Atomage.

Knave sent journalist and author Derek Bowskill, no stranger to probing unorthodox human behaviour, to talk to Johnny Sutcliffe. “My previous experience of leather merchants,” says Bowskill, “had mainly been of bondage enthusiasts in that twilight world of ‘business’ covered by Person to Person (Star Books, 35p) and Swingers and Swappers (Star Books, 60p)—books which I wrote to explore some off-beat aspects of human behaviour. In the first I described the world of contact advertisements and in the second that of wife-swapping—and in both I had come face-to-face with many seedy characters whose main attributes were cunning and greed, hard-talking, fast-buck operators of both sexes.

“It was, therefore, a completely unexpected pleasure to discover that these traits were quite alien to Johnny Sutcliffe. He was gentle, quietly spoken, well educated, intelligent, courteous to a fault and of great personal charm. He was open and frank, sensitive, articulate … and a good listener. Indeed, about this side of his character, he was to observe, ‘It is actually a time-wasting thing as far as a businessman is concerned. People have said to me, ” You’ll never make your fortune at this—you waste too much time with people”.’ 

“I was invited to inspect the range of trousers, jackets, coats, skirts, boots, leggings and so on (and so on!), products of the personal, hand-made-to-order service that is central to the business of Atomage. I was also able to leaf my way through page after page of intriguing photographs: professional models on advertising stunts; glamorous ladies posing for promotional shots; and customers, their wives and girlfriends, all so highly delighted with their gear that they had had their pictures specially taken for the Sutcliffe Gallery. All of it was beautiful, most of it was unusual and some was sensational.

“As he told me about Atomage, his clientele, his modus operandi and his personal motivation, it became clear that sincerity, sensitivity and sympathy were as much a part of his worldwide market operation as they were of his own psychological make-up.”

So how was it that this extremely cultured man became involved in the commercial side of a world that many people (even in these so-called liberated and permissive days) consider to be weird… or just downright bent? Johnny Sutcliffe can tell you for himself…