SKIN TWO
This clip dives into the history of London's first Fetish club Skin Two, which opened in 1983 by children's entertainer David Claridge. After the press caught up with his penchant for Fetish, Tim Woodward took over the club and founded the seminal Fetish magazine of the same name with his friend and photographer Grace Lau. Soon other likeminded creatives and writers gravitated towards the publication's alternative aesthetic and liberal ethos. The journalist and nightlife native Michelle Olley became a Features Editor and the Fetish brand Murray & Vern frequently showcased their subversive designs across magazine spreads. 

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"The modern Fetish scene was started by Skin Two in 1983. People had always been spanking each other and all that kind of stuff for generation upon generation upon generation But that was when it came out of the closet. And people flocked to the club. There were women dressed up as dominatrixes who were not young, not pretty, not slim. But that didn't matter to them at all. They were expressing themselves. No one gave a damn if you were Black, brown or green. And that was striking to me." ~ Tim Woodward about Skin Two club. 
"We tried hard not to make it a 'lads' magazine, and I'm sure we succeeded. There was politics in it. There was sometimes humour, and quite a lot of art." ~ Tim Woodward about Skin Two Magazine 
"Tim gave me an incredible opportunity at the age of 23 to be very much involved in the decision making and the strategy process at Skin Two. If there was ever anything that I felt uncomfortable with, I was absolutely able to raise it with him. I was sort of stimulating, like we'd have intellectual arguments about adverts for chastity belts.
The first big interview I did for them was with Jean Paul Gaultier, which was the only interview he did that year because that was the year that his partner died. We went to see him in Paris and yeah, it was very sweet. He was like a French Santa Claus." ~ Michelle Olley about Skin Two Magazine 


FEATURING
Tim Woodward. Skin Two Magazine Editor 
Michelle Olley. Journalist & former Features Editor at Skin Two Magazine
Angela Murray. Fashion Designer & Co-Founder of Murray & Vern 


Smoke break
X Man 
Isabella Josephine Leon. Animator


Skin Two editorials 
Tim Woodward. Former Editor at Skin Two Magazine
Michelle Olley. Journalist & Former Features Editor at Skin Two Magazine 



Roland the Rat Goes on Holiday 
Creative Commons 


Cover image
Skin Two Magazine No.5 1985
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