We've seen some of your 80s Polaroids of Basquiat and Andy Warhol. How did you get into Polaroid photography?
I came to New York in '76 with my boyfriend Edo. We found the whole disco thing and I worked with Fiorucci right away. We moved downtown and Edo, who was a photographer, gave me my first Polaroid camera. It was like a toy to me. I think when you move to a new city, you behave like a journalist and want to take pictures of everything. I rarely took photographs of buildings though because it was the people who interested me. Everyone remembers that I was the only one taking Polaroids back then in the clubs.

What's the most rewarding part of your photographic work?
I think it's when the kids from this generation, who don't know our generation, can see it. It's the same with the film Downtown 81. We heard so many kids say the 80s were short compared to the 70s. What people don't always realise when they look at the 70s, is that it's actually the 60s combined with the 70s. The 80s was the 80s and the 90s was when the yuppies came and killed all the soul and creativity. They made the rent sky rocket and it's not as interesting anymore.

If the yuppies killed off creativity, are there no fashion movements then that you consider important from the 90s?
I like Grunge, but there was nothing new in the grunge movement. Kurt Cobain put it on the map, but it had already been around. Physically, it was what we were busy doing in the 80s. Madonna was the Queen of Grunge, long before Kurt Cobain.

Is this lack of originality why you're less interested in the fashion industry these days?
Yes. I think everybody is their own fashion designer now and there's too much of it. The designers copied a lot of the street kids. Actually, all the big designers copy what they see themselves and they go back to the past a lot too. So there's nothing new in the creative market because everybody's eating their own tail. Someone said the other day that my pictures look very natural even if they're from twenty years ago; they still look relevant today because everyone's looking to the past.

You were responsible for styling Madonna in the 80s and creating some of her earlier looks. What were your main influences for that?
Madonna was a dancer so it was important for her to be very comfortable as well. It's not that I styled her exactly, I mean, she dressed herself every day. A lot of the early looks were pretty catastrophic, if you look back at the pictures. But that's grunge, that's what I'm saying.

Who is the most important person working in fashion today?
Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, because he's really carrying on the torch. I also love Gucci, Christian Dior and the Italian designers, MARNI. As for young designers, I don't think there's been anything creative since Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.

This generation are heavily involved in creating their own fashion designs and looks. Is this something you welcome?
Well, yes. This generation have so much information and magazines that tell them what to put together, so some of them reject the system and dress how they want. In a way, we're all victims of consumerism. They're telling us what to wear next winter. What if I don't like that next winter? It's business, you know; it's lost its soul. When we were at the Mudd Club, we'd go to the thrift store and get all the 60s garb and everything. Why would I spend all my money on Prada when I can get my own style?

As an artist, how do you feel about recent government pressure to stamp out street art in the UK?
They probably got inspired by the New York law. A lot of the local kids were pushed away from New York and went to Europe. I consider graffiti to be an art form, so I find it really sad. They just want to put their mark on society, to make sure we know they exist. Some of the calligraphy is pure art. Graffiti is what motivated me to go to New York, back in the 70s. I was in art school and I picked up a book called Subway Art and focused my whole year of study around it. When I came to New York, I would see these trains that had been graffitied and I became friends with Fab Five Freddy and Lee - they were called The Fabulous Five because of the because of the no. 5 express train they sprayed.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
I want to do films really, even if I have to animate the Polaroids and make a film with a voice over explaining the moment. I like real life situations as well as fiction. I believe I've always been a documenter with a voyeur's eye, for my generation. I'm a natural producer - I produce images, I produce fashion, and I produce film.

Interested in pin-up and erotic photography? You should try the Suicide Girls. READ