Fetish industry flagship magazine Skin Two has returned to the scene in a timely move that sees the brand engage with the current trends for digital delivery and celebrity latex. Available by post for its long-held price of £10 (plus p+p), issue 61 sells at £7.50 as an e-magazine.
Renowned for its high-quality design, photography and writing Skin Two has been the essential purchase for discerning fetishists who have followed our subculture since its inception. Indeed, many retailers and club hosts I have spoken to have been calling for its reinstatement to help act as a leading light during a dark financial period.
The new Skin Two contains a mix of popular fetishism: with a cover feature on Katy Perry, Cheryl Cole and Nicole Scherzinger; high fashion: with pieces on Atsuko Kudo’s New York extravaganza, amazing shoes from ainsley-T of Milan, fantasy by Patrice Cantanzaro of France and corsets by AMF of Germany; plus interviews with designer Kim West and film-maker Maria Beatty. In addition there are full-length club reviews of Pussy Control by Kitty von Yum Cha, and Club Rub and Antichrist by a certain nightlife journalist by the name of Jackson Rocco, eh-hum.
Without sounding too self-congratulatory and flicking through the new issue I can see why Skin Two has been missed and indeed relaunched: the images and exceptional layout raise the bar for genuine fetish glamour. The magazine has always been important for making fetishism difficult to look down on: rather inspiring intelligence, class and creativity. Asked if it felt good to have the magazine out again, editor Tim Wordward said: ”It’s pretty exciting to have a new issue out. I have a copy on my desk now and it looks fab.”
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SKII clearly was one of the primary if not the primary medium through which fetish as secretive, private, kinky niche evolved with the a larger cultural milieu to one where it is a fashion alternative. They offered one of the first high end fashion lines with a catalog of impeccable production values and many caught the bug and turned their design creativity with latex loose.
But they did not establish the fetish genre by a long shot and it was there quite under the radar for a decade or two before Tim Woodward decided to make something different out of fetish and try to cash out in so doing (nothing wrong with that).
But the success led to competition and SKII could not hold the leadership as designers or marketers and tried other approaches such as the Rubber Ball and then morphed their latex fashion back into a more encompassing product of the larger BDSM scene. Personally I think this was a blunder, but Woodhouse and his colleagues being “scene” players couldn’t help themselves. Selling BDSM to new fetish fashionistas was not going to play as well as selling fashionable fetish to newbies and the BDSM crowed who wanted to look like more than gimps in rubber suits.
Frankly I don’t know that crowd that jumped on the SKII bandwagon back then and catapulted SKII to the go to publication to follow the “scene” is interested in Gaga, Katy Perry, Cheryl Cole or Nicole Scherzinger who likely (guess) could care less about kink and all about making themselves more shiny and attractive to mindless bot pop fans. I could be wrong as gossip seems to have a universal appeal.
I predict SKII will not find its former place as the go to source for all things fashionable and fetish. Tim you did good, now it’s time to retire and let this play out with the next gen.
I wrote this article as a response to all the people in the scene asking me (as I write freelance for the site) when is the mag coming back? No there still isn’t another mag like it, its unique. Its the only lifestyle fetish mag that you can put on your coffee table, and I believe its possibly the scene’s best representative.
I think its a positive that so many people want to wear latex and S2 is only reflecting that. The more the merrier. And there are another 90 pages to look at…
Regards, Jackson Rocco
sigh. i agree with dark. Skin Two represented something previously, but now i have the tendency just to think it’s tim woodward refusing to give up the ghost on a magazine he’s beaten into the ground. Every “reinvention” seems to have instead been the result of a previous downright failure, followed by a lapse, before the energy/finance has been recouped to try and have another (potentially ill fated) go.
i still feel embittered on behalf of a lot of the advertisers who got screwed around during the last couple of issues – paying for advertising space, and either not getting it, or having it in a publication they didn’t ask for. And all those people who went to the rubber ball who were promised refunds/part refunds, who to the best of my knowledge just haven’t gotten any yet.
jackson, i’m sure your work is excellent! and i might pick up a copy, but anything with such a seemingly enormous ego as Tim Woodward involved is enough to make me consider steering clear.
I disagree with Dark and andrew on both counts. Fetishists have always had a fascination with glimpses of celebrities in latex as if we need to legitimize our own existence by saying “See, she’s wearing it too!” It doesn’t matter whether they’re doing it for professional reasons or not. You can read any number of threads on Kinky Gerlinky or Rubberist.net to watch our unhealthy obsession for any public appearance of our favorite material.
As for SK2, the magazine did lose its way as this article chronicles through its covers as it morphed from a visually fascinating chronicle for fetishists (Ye gods, I miss Grace Lau and Trevor Watson’s work), into a fetish pseudo-celebrity party snapshot album of little artistic value.
But like many a public figure and traditional fashion magazine has demonstrated, it’s never too late to re-invent yourself, is it?
Personally, I feel they moved away from their strength as “the fetish industry bible”. Firstly by moving the directory out of the back pages, then ceasing the standalone directory altogether in favor of their seriously lame attempt at an online directory with paid listings. Parties are fine, but I wasn’t there. They don’t deserve as much coverage as actually useful information such as new products, and of course fetish photography and artwork and articles on obscure fetishes and BDSM.
The good news for them is that that “fetish bible” niche has yet to be filled from the time since they dropped the ball.
I look forward to seeing this latest incarnation, and probably the next too.