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Black models, foreign films, queer culture – how the Face shaped me as a young man | Marc Thompson

In the 1980s and 90s this pioneering magazine was a hub for subcultures, but in today’s digital landscape trends are followed rather than set, says queer archivist Marc Thompson

But the decades saw an explosion of youth subcultures, and the Face revealed and brought together different tribes that were previously siloed off – rockabillies, rude boys, skinheads, soul heads, goths. Images created by the Buffalo movement, a fashion collective headed up by the stylist Ray Petri and the photographer Jamie Morgan, often filled the pages and the cover. It also pioneered playing around with gender representation – putting men into leather skirts with combat boots; choosing steely, masculine depictions of women over glitter and elegance.

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