Lara Johnson-Wheeler: How did you get involved with poet, Tommy Sissons?
CRIB: We got ourselves into a complete state of obsession with spoken word and urban poetry. We would troll the internet late at night, watching videos and found it such an inspiring medium. One evening we thankfully came across Tommy. He is an incredibly talented soul and the second we met, a friendship was born - from that friendship an idea was born.
LJW: How does spoken word affect the way you chose to present this fashion film?
CRIB: The thing with spoken word is, it's originally meant for the stage; it’s a performance, an implementation. We wanted to stay true to that, to let it be its authentic self. The spoken word was the seed of this film so all the other elements had to fit in with it, not the other way round.
LJW: What was the process of filming with Sissons?
CRIB: When you first meet Tommy, he has what I would describe as a gentle and softly spoken voice but the second he starts to deliver his words, that whole persona is gone. It's replaced by such a commanding and confident tone that you are in awe. The poem was performed live, each time on the spot so the process was to simply let him be Tommy Sissons. It was so wonderfully natural.
LJW: Tell me about the garments used in the film.
CRIB: Once we knew we would be working with Tommy, we wanted to find a designer who was on the same page as us. After seeing and exploring the concept of Rebecca Haddaway’s London based brand Ataraxi, it was a no brainer. Ataraxi is centered on gender neutral and unisex collections, it's pushing the barrier and breaking the confines of societal rules and allowing people to be as true to themselves as they desire. This is what this film is about - being unapologetically yourself (it's actually what crib is about fullstop).
LJW: The tones of the clothing reflects the architecture in the landscape. Was this a conscious choice of location?
CRIB: Location was always something that we wanted to appear developed and industrialised. The poem is so raw, as is the clothing so the landscape had to suit. Ataraxi has a brutalist colour palette to that collection, which fitted perfectly because we wanted Tommy to blend with his surroundings - as if they were part of him .
LJW: Tell me about the environment you filmed in. I sensed Sissons was comfortable here, is the location a local area to you?
CRIB: Tommy’s, so far, affluent years have been spent in London. This is where he has created the majority of his work and as you can tell is reflected throughout his poetry. It only made sense for the location to be one where Tommy was comfortable being himself.
LJW: What interests you about fashion film? How do you imagine the medium is evolving?
CRIB: The thing that interests us most about fashion film, is there isn't one way to do it anymore. It can be anything and do everything you want it to. It's striving to be bigger than its label and that continuous evolution is a truly exciting - it begins with fashion and ends with us all.