I moved here in 1984 and it was crazy. I had been working for Interview Magazine in New York and I came to shoot the scene happening in London. There was this cultural explosion happening with Leigh Bowery, Trojan and Michael Clark and Culture Club. We were in Taboo, and I fell in with people like Princess Julia, Jeffrey Hinton, John Maybury, the director, and Stevie and David from BodyMap. I was sleeping on their couches, I had no idea they were at the epicentre of creative London. I thought I’d seen it all in New York, but London was next level wildness. I learnt an important lesson in those years: a sense of originality. If you copied someone else’s work you were looked down upon. It was not cool. Everyone had their own creative voice — today, so much is made from mood boards off Instagram and Pinterest. It’s bizarre that’s accepted.
Like the Beatles before them, a slew of British brands are taking the US by storm with their whimsical dresses and cosy knitwear.The Guardian’s journalism is