GARMS + SETS

Describe Garms + Sets…

Garms + Sets documents style codes in inner-city UK street culture.

What are your tools of choice?

A point and shoot film camera!

No manual cam on your books?

I can do a red eye flash, a flash or no flash. That's my metrics.

How did you end up documenting all this?

I was older and on my own, people spoke to me a bit more, and I ended up crossing over from the dance floor into the green room and meeting people in the scene.

When are the garms for Garms + Sets coming?

Not yet, but why would I not? It makes sense.

A piece of clothing that’s survived multiple generations?

The Big Apple Records T-shirt. You could get them from the shop in Croydon (basically the birthplace of dubstep), and you can find them on their Facebook. Skream’s older brother, Hijak, worked there, and Coki, Mala and everyone would go there. I still see that T-shirt, and it’s 20 years later?

One style detail people outside the scene would never notice?

I’ve got two; the Peak TV caps that are kinda like this generation’s cap similar to how the New Era Lake Elsinore Storm caps were in the 00s - the ones with the eyes on them. People think they’re that skate brand No Fear but they were the 9FIFTY’s adopted by Wiley Dizzee Crazy Titch etc.

What was the biggest pattern you’d see in the dance, garms aside?

The same faces would always be there. I had friends from different generations — people 10 years younger than me and people 15 years older than me.

How much of this story is really a story about technology?

Technology is such a part of all this. Whether people are using a Nokia to Bluetooth a tune, LimeWire to download music or now it’s SoundCloud. It’s always there.

Online or offline?

The offline life that I have through Garms + Sets is so good. I’d rather be busier offline than all my connection happening through the internet, but maybe that’s because I’m an early 90s baby. I don’t know.