Marianne Faithfull and John Sutcliffe redefined the role of leather in costume. They did so with the movie The Girl on a Motorcycle. She acted alongside Alain Delon. He designed the catsuit worn by the actress and musician, who died on Thursday 30 January, aged 78. A scandalous movie for its time and with a particular history. And an icon, Faithfull, who influenced an entire generation.
The scandalous movie
The Girl on a Motorcycle is a 1968 film directed by Jack Cardiff. Released as Naked Under Leather, the film was one of the most controversial and contested. Hardly ever had drug use been dealt with so explicitly in a film. And indeed, the film caused a stir (but was also successful) in France and England. While it did poorly in the United States, so much so that it became the first film to be X-rated. One of the reasons why the film caused such a scandal, besides depicting atmospheres of pleasure and excess, was the costume worn by Rebecca, played by Marianne Faithfull.
Dressing in leather
The costume was actually a new interpretation of the leather biker jacket typical of motorcyclists. A fetish jumpsuit designed by John Sutcliffe, and which made the actress a modern catwoman. The jumpsuit, by the way, did something more. It played with the concept of ‘nothing underneath’. “The title says a lot, but there’s still a lot to see”, was the poster’s slogan urging not to judge a book by its cover. And then the body. Sutcliffe’s jumpsuit highlighted the actress’s without censoring her physicality, thus opening up a revolution that a few years later would affect young people in particular. “If we wear leather today, it is also thanks to Marianne Faithfull”, writes Studio Magazine.
Sutcliffe’s inventiveness
But the use of leather (and not only in cinema) was also thanks to designer John Sutcliffe and his catsuit. To protect his girlfriend from the rain when they were riding their motorbikes, Sutcliffe bought “a dozen red leathers”. Then with his landlady’s sewing machine he made a waterproof catsuit. Out of this episode came AtomAge, a clothing brand and magazine that brought the fetish for rubber and leather into the limelight for the first time, as The Guardian writes. His passion for leather became so strong that it was diagnosed as a symptom of mental illness. The diagnosis led to a nervous breakdown and caused him to quit his job as an engineer.
But it was his knowledge of materials that gave his career an unexpected boost. With his engineering skills, Sutcliffe was able to design a sewing machine for leather and approached Singer to produce it. It was such an ambitious project that the company, horrified, called the police. Sutcliffe was thus a pioneer, just like the suit worn by Marianne Faithfull, capable of influencing a new generation of film costumes. One out of all? Emma Peel‘s leather jumpsuit for the cult TV series The Avengers.
Images from Faithfull’s Instagram profile
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