Even if New York didn’t clasp Taboo to its bosom, the seething cauldron of outré creativity that the musical commemorated continues to exert a heady fascination. Central to the Taboo scene were Stevie Stewart and David Holah, the college friends behind the label Bodymap. They dreamed big—Bodymap was going to be a fashion empire. But dreams were no match for the fiercesome financial realities of the British fashion industry, and the label quietly fizzled out like so many of the bright young things from Stewart and Holah’s world. Holah became an artist and Stewart has built a sizeable resume as a production designer for advertising and fashion shoots and pop promos. But as keeper of the Bodymap flame, her life has been getting busier of late. It’s not only stylists like V’s own Tabitha Simmons or English Vogue’s Lucinda Chambers who are calling in vintage pieces from Bodymap’s archives. Kylie Minogue commissioned outfits from Stewart and Holah for her recent London showcase. Who cares if it took that never-ending ‘80s revival to bring it on? The time is over-ripe for a re-appreciation of Bodymap’s energy, optimism and originality. The dream lives again! Tim Blanks

TIM BLANKS How very forward thinking of you to archive!
STEVIE STEWART Wasn’t it! We were thinking of having an exhibition one day and I’ve dragged it round with me for the last ten years. There’s about thirty boxes—shoes, stickers, handbags, the lot.
TB How many collections did you do altogether?
SS About ten. There was the first one when we left college, Matelots and Milkmaids. Then there was Querelle Meets Olive Oyl; Cat in the Hat has a Rumble with a Techno Fish; Barbie Takes a Trip Round Nature’s Cosmic Curves; The Half World; Izzacomet; Tudors, Stewart and Holah; then Eek!, or Bodymapism; then Moon; and Life Is. So that’s eleven—and that was shows actually. We did one more collection after that which we didn’t have a show for.
TB So when did Bodymap end?
SS The end of 1991, beginning of 1992. We kept going after a while just with a little shop in Kensington High Street at the front of Hyper Hyper, and we were doing a lot of retail out of that and selling to select customers. We pared down and started again.
TB Was that whole decade a steadily disillusioning experience for you?
SS It’s difficult, especially in hindsight, but I’d say yes it was disillusioning, because we tried so hard to do everything the right way and not to get caught in the trap that we’d seen many designers above us fall into, and take on accountants and production managers and that sort of thing. We were completely undercapitalized. We borrowed from the bank but we didn’t want to take on backers because so many people from the generation above—like Stephen Linard and Katharine Hamnett—had been burned. So we tried to be really sensible. All the money went back into the business. David and I didn’t take any money out ourselves.
TB And your mother mortgaged her house. Did she lose it?
SS No, we saved the house. In that way, it was disillusioning, because we really tried, but there were lots of other things that came out of it. We were picked up by Italian companies to design for them. >

Clothing Bodymap