Skin Two Memories

For me , subcultures were originators of a particular style that defined their tribe ,and clothing was one of the social indicators of their difference from mainstream society. Their styles did of course eventually filter into mainstream culture , especially after it was picked up by the fashion industry, which would diffuse the original meaning as expressed by the subculture and turn the “look” into a fashion trend. Plus the look was adopted by followers who may not have been proponents of the original tribe, but came onboard by sympathising with the sentiments expressed, or decided to use the look to express something else in themselves.

My research looked at the way fetish was represented in the high class worlds of Helmut Newton and David Bailey. Both men used the edgy seductive themes of fetish on beautiful women , dabbling with themes of master and slave to compose iconic images that were ultimately used to sell an image and a product. I also came across more underground images using real people in the pages of AtomAge where unprofessional people posed in domestic settings and were more outrageous and bizarre to the untrained eye. I wasn’t a participant at that stage. But the original Skin Two Club opened my eyes to a whole, previously unknown world that would change the course of my life forever.

Descending the stairs down to gay club called Stallions in Falconberg Court where Skin Two was being launched – after walking past the dingy prostitute-laden doorways in the back streets of Soho- was like stepping into the pages of AtomAge. The characters I had encountered while leafing through that magazine were there for real. I had my camera with me. I had been photographing people for years in clubs as a way of documenting the events but the images were never published.

I was astounded to see the diverse collection of people in catsuits, leather bodies, chaps, stilettos fetish underwear…… a phantasmagorical collection of fetish gear and all in black. There were gay, straight, bi, pro dommes, there were ordinary people dressed in fetish gear chatting to each other or dancing , posing in the arches , at the bar or in the corridor by the cigarette machine. The age range was vast and everyone was so friendly . It was not a threatening environment at all, even though many were masked up and black was de rigour  – or basically , black was what most people wore as it signified outsider status. In north-west London where I lived and went to school, they were the dominant youth cult, embraced by me for fear of being beaten up by skinhead girls I was at school with. I loved the music- reggae and dub – and liked the look of the button down pleated check shirts and Harrington jackets etc. But I didn’t agree with their antics or aggressive behaviour.

I ten moved on to becoming a hippy at my sixth form college in Harrow and on my foundation course . There , I substituted velvet and flowery long flowing dresses for my earlier two-tone suits and bovver boots and long flowering tresses for my old shorn hair . Then once I enrolled at Saint Martins, I became a voyeur of Punk . I never liked punks at the time but was fascinated by their choose of dress and do-it-yourself attitude, and their slashing of clothing.

Then came New Romantics . I was here where I felt really at home, as I was one of the creative people who made up the group . We were all at art school and would express ourselves at night by going to clubs like The Blitz. Some would become lifelong friends. I took lots o photographs of my peer groups, many of whom like Sade and Corrine Day of Swing Out Sister , John Gallianao , Chris Sullivan ,Boy George, Spandeau Ballet, Gilbert and George, and people from the art world Duggie Feilds, and Andrew Logan (to name but a few)

The Skin Two scene was different. Its clientele was not defined by youth or working class British culture, and was unlike a lot of subcultures that evolved from people associated with an art or creative background. People there were from all ages and backgrounds united by their shared interest in kinky clothing. Most people I discovered purchased their clothes from such early fetish suppliers as Sealwear , She n Me or Weathervane . The fetish clothing scene and repertoire of clubs was tiny then , and ripe for a makeover. Daniel James (as he now preferred to be known) decided to provide the scene with Style that it lacked, delivered through beautiful images created in collaboration with oBob Carlos Clarke. The small collection of glamorous dresses Daniel produced significantly changed the appeal of rubber.

It was in Stallions that I met Tony Mitchel, Tim Woodward and later Grace Lau all of whom became lifelong friends and collaborators . Many of the cross-dressers I got to know led “double lives at that stage. Their fetish dalliances were secret and this small location in the heart of Soho with its bar and alcoves and wooden floor, provided a basic unadorned environment that was more about the people and not the venue . Its neutral decor was the perfect backdrop for a creative underground scene where the participants could observe and be observed.  Dress options were simpler: there was a lot of leather and PVC but only some latex .

The atmosphere there took me back to Berlin where I had gone in as a student at St Martins in 1978, before the wall came down. It was on that trip that I had first encountered overtly outrageous transvestites ,( as they called themselves then.) The trans contingent at Skin Two were at that time less flamboyant until the scene expanded and the likes of the Alternative Miss World events and the Drag and Leather Balls at the Porchester Hall started to change things as the explosion in latex fashion was yet to come.

It was in this club after meeting and chatting with Tim and Tony that I decided this scene needed a make-over . My aim was to merge the worlds of fashion, from where I had come , and fetish – which my eyes had now opened to . I had no idea if this would work. I fact when I first took my collection of EctoMorph latex garments to Fashion Week later in the 80’s buyers used to laugh at the clothes, feeling them and saying “ who on earth is going to wear this fabric?” .My collection at the time was mainly white latex , designed to neutralise the the shock-horror reaction people had to the clothes. It was only when Elle magazine then Vogue started featuring my designs that their attitude completely change.

It was most disheartening. It is It is hard to imagine this now as latex is such a universal look- the go-to fabric for celebrities on the red carpet and a first choice for bands in their promo videos . o when one is so familiar with the ubiquitous scene that it is today.

The black latex look, has merged in to the identity of rock’n’roll that it no longer shocks.

Music at Skin Two was amalgam of styles delivered by David Claridge. As soon as the gregorian chants started, we knew this was the cue for a spanking or SM scenario to take place on the dance floor.This was a place were pro dommes could demonstrate their skills and provide both entertainment and a vehicle for willing participants to engage in the ensuing drama.

Sadly the original club was short lived due to the tabloid exposure of David Claridge whose talents included puppetry and who had become renowned for creating the breakfast television character Roland Rat

Unfortunately the twin interests of kids’ entertainer and fetish scene operator were incompatible in the public eye. The former was more lucrative so the club had to go. It however, segued seamlessly into a new club called Maitresse run by another couple but otherwise largely unchanged .

After Tim Woodward launched Skin Two Magazine in 1984, he and I partnered up to relaunch Skin Two Club events . We started with a ball which held at the Embassy club in Old Bond Street in July 1985, and followed with club nights at Heaven’s Soundshaft annex and then Zeetas in Putney.

Our concept incorporated fashion shows, a live band and entertainment as in ponygirl racing Staged by the legendary Master Keith . It was at this first event that I launched EctoMorph latex label on the catwalk. The scene had started to expand and change direction, venturing into new definitions and a more openly expressive culture .

One started to see celebrities attend. Prince came to our first event in Old Bond Street . At this time his onstage look reflected the colourful dandyism seen in the Purple Rain movie released the previous year, but his Embassy outfit evoked more his DirtyMind era style of tight briefs and leg dancer’s leg warmers. The latter was a daring image for the time considering the attitudes of tabloids , which were anti-gay, but his image was risqué and ahead of its time. He was alone in the club quietly observing.

Marc Almond of Soft Cell attended regularly and had also been seen at the original Skin Two club nights. I photographed Dexys’ Kevin Roland and also Sioux of the Banshees. I later designed a black Pu dress for her, for the video and song Face To Face , which was composed for the Batman Returns soundtrack but was released after the film because of licensing issues.
Jean Paul Gaultier became a regulate attendee who, as well as enjoying the vibe of the club , came in search of inspiration for his catwalk collections.

An unfortunate encounter transpired when the club renovated to the annex of Heaven called Soundshaft . A very engaging Italian guy would come regularly and we got to know him, or so we thought. Grace Lau took photos of him naked and dressed in EctoMorph fetish gear outside the Bank of England, for an exhibition of hers . He had taken a shine to Tim Woodward, who asked me to pretend to be his girlfriend because he was being pestered by this guy. It transpired not long after that this guy was Micheal Lupo, a serial killer of gay men who used sadomasochism to lure and trap and then kill his unsuspecting his victims!

It is hard to imagine how small and underground the beginnings of the fetish scene were over 40 years ago when one is so familiar with the ubiquitous scene that exist today. Definitions and interpretations of fetish are now so vast, much like the gender rules that have been expanded from dual to a multi-diverse system. There is no putting that genie back into the bottle.

But it is with fondness that I look back on the beginnings of the that scene in the narrow definition it then had – beginnings that led me to where I am today.