Stephen Sprouse (September 12, 1953 – March 4, 2004) was an American fashion designer and artist credited with pioneering the 1980s mix of "uptown sophistication in clothing with a downtown punk and pop sensibility".[1] (wikipedia)
I lived in town until I was eight and then I moved nearer the farmland, so I had a mixture.
I got to the point where I was sick of fashion again, like I was at the end of high school.
Then I moved down to the Bowery to this building where Debbie Harry lived. It was there that I started combining some clothes for her and continued doing the art and photography.
The photograph, the clothes, the sets - this was about 1974, and I started hanging out with my friend Richard Sold, who was playing in a band with Patti Smith.
I just really wanted to do art, except when I was taking those photographs of people I would make the clothes that I would photograph them in so I could control the whole thing.
When I went to college, I wasn't interested in fashion anymore - I was interested in art.
Maybe if they all could he combined - art, rock and fashion. Those were always my favorite things.
I don't know if it's a movement, but the only thing new that's happening is that I think music and art and video and fashion are all kind of thrown into one big ball that's on television, and people see that all the time - you see a fusion of all those things.
It's actually rock, art and then fashion, sort of in that order. That's why I like rock and roll, because I can mix all those arts.
I finished high school there and then I went to Rhode Island School of Design.