Scott Cruft Interview: When Creativity is More Important Than Money

words by Dave Paicu

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Photo by Dani Kim

In a highly stylised contemporary culture, the necessity for creative people to be themselves is imperative. Whether that be with regard to fashion or an approach to the way a piece is created, what must be maintained is a sense of individuality.

Pure Nowhere sat down Scott Cruft (otherwise known as crusco on Instagram) a stylist, subdued foodie and part-time PAQ member earlier this summer. Delving into his opinion on the fashion industry and the problems that have come to light recently with Kyra TV, Cruft gave us an insight into his mentality for creativity and the importance of creation for creation’s sake.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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At what point in your life did you realise that you were into fashion?

It came down to the point where I felt like I didn’t fit in much as a child, like when I was younger. I didn’t know what kind of person I wanted to be, so I just explored with different groups of people. It was when I went to Topman and I tried on a pair of skinny jeans and that was it, that was when it started.

This happened back, like way back, when skinny jeans were like a social death sentence, ten years ago when it was a sin to be seen in tight-fitting jeans. I wore the skinny jeans and I liked them, and they started coming on-trend, everyone else started wearing them and there was just that feeling like I was ahead of the curve. I liked that and I just kept going with that and exploring and then as soon as everybody started wearing skinny jeans, I started wearing baggy jeans and started doing my own thing. From there it evolved into what you see before you now mate.

How did you develop your style? Is it set or does it shift and evolve?

In terms of styling, it changes all the time. I change up my style at least once every four or five months. It can just be from films that I watch or books that I read, people that I see. I’m inspired more by everyday people, rather than people and icons in Hollywood. I don’t care about what Jared Leto is wearing, I only really care about what the bin man down my road is wearing. These are real people and they create real inspiration; I think it came from there. It’s kind of just a case of how I feel.

“I don’t care about what Jared Leto is wearing, I only really care about what the bin man down my road is wearing. These are real people and they create real inspiration.”

Recently, I’ve just been smoking and hibernating in my house creating tie-dyes, reading, and chilling; and become somewhat of a hermit. Rather than putting on Hawaiian shirts, vests, and baseball hats, I dress how I feel, and at the moment, I feel lazy. This leads to more humble homely vibes and it means I don’t have to dress up for anyone, so I don’t have to dress well. But you know when you feel like you dress well, for instance, there are times when I walk around in clothes in my house that I could probably wear to fashion week.

How exactly did you get into being a stylist? Whether that be for other people or a brand?

I started off as a Christmas temp. at a Topman where I used to live and expressed interest in being a visual merchandiser. A visual merchandiser is someone who curates and sets up a shop’s aesthetic. For example, in Topman, the VM decides how the mannequins are clothed and where the clothes go, where the graphics and posters go. The entire look of the shop is up to the VM. I was one of them. I styled the mannequins and created shit around the store. I did that for a year, I was doing well and started getting bored. There are just so many ways you can dress a mannequin and the fact that it’s just a fucking concrete block is not interesting to me.

I applied to the Topman personal shopping role in Oxford street. I styled in London for a year for anyone that came into the store. I met Justin Bieber and Noel Fielding, also the guy that plays Flash. I would take people from the shop and take them upstairs, find out what they were looking for, and help experiment and style around that.

I then saw an ad for Bad Canteen, applied for it. From there, I just helped with any styling jobs here and there. I don’t call myself a stylist per se, it’s more just a hobby that I can do well. For a shoot, if someone needs a bit of styling, I can help out but I wouldn’t want to do it as a job role because of all the stress. For example, you get paid for one day despite doing the equivalent of three days' work, you have to pick up the clothes, style them and return them but you just get paid for the styling. It’s an interesting job and I’d do it more in the future but it’s just something I’d do more for fun, I guess.

London fashion week is a staple in the fashion calendar and the fashion world in general. What are the highlights of your experiences with fashion week?

For me, it revolves around me with my mates just chilling. I like the artistic nature and seeing catwalks. Certain designers you can still get the feel [for the collection] across a website when you’re looking at their clothes; however, when you're at a catwalk show, it’s a different vibe. 

I was at Liam Hodges SS18 show — it was about Vegas and people from England going on holiday — and you got a feel for why they used the catwalk. Some of the models had fake patchy sunburn-like British people. It felt like they were walking down the Vegas strip with the music, the way it was all presented. Fashion week is good because you can dive into the mind of a designer you follow. However, most of the time, I’m sitting at fashion week looking at shit that I’ve never heard of before. It’s not a bad thing, it’s more like I’d never heard of them, but now I want to research them.

I feel like fashion week, however, is getting tainted by social media culture. Nowaday, fashion week has become more of a “I’m gonna go and buy a ten grand outfit and wear it to fashion week so people take photos of me and then go home.” That’s not what I do. I know a lot of social influencers and people in the London scene, where I‘ve been cued up at fashion shows and seen them just waiting outside the show so that when the cameras come out, they can stand up, pretend they’re going to get photographed. 

That side of fashion week I don’t like. The art is lost and it’s become a platform for social media where people care about the “I was at fashion week.” If I’m there, I’m not the kind of person to be like “fashion week day 1 or fashion week day 2, etc.” I’m more into appreciating the designer’s art as opposed to promoting myself for something I don’t enjoy or appreciate.

With your experiences with London Fashion Week, would you say that living in England has defined the way that you dress? Does England have a distinct sense of style in comparison to the rest of the world?

England is very culture-dominated concerning the way we dress. It’s the same with any country, but with England, because it’s such a powerful country in terms of a lot of people know England and live here and come here. In London especially, it’s a hotspot for culture. You see Eastern European and Asian culture, and since they come from their countries, they bring a certain sense of style with them. That results in loads and loads of different things with styles and cultures intermingling, like you can go down to subcultures too. 

These days, though, with the rise of social media, I feel like subcultures are dying and you don’t have defined rockers or goths anymore. You don’t have sporty kids or mods and punks. Everyone is just melded together. In a way, it’s a good thing because there’s no boundaries or isolation in groups, but in another way, it’s a bad thing because things can’t brew in their little subculture. 

When it comes to British culture, in terms of styling, I think Britain is one of the best-dressed places in the world — not because of British people — but because there are so many mixes of cultures in Britain that we are just constantly changing and ahead of the curve. Some countries are a couple of years behind in terms of fashion and I think countries like England, America, and France are the ones leading.

“With the rise of social media, I feel like subcultures are dying and now you don’t have defined rockers or goths anymore, you don’t have sporty kids or mods and punks, everyone is just melded together.”

When you talk about the London aesthetic or the British aesthetic, is there any English designer at the moment that you’re particularly hyped about?

Not really. There are designers that I’m into like I mentioned earlier, Liam Hodges is quite good. At the same time, I agree with Liam Hodges. I agree with his vision, but I hate his clothes. I wouldn’t wear them, the only thing I wear are his socks and I got them for free and I wore them for four days in a row, so I don’t respect them. There are a lot of people, but there’s too many, that’s the thing with the London scene. All of them are vying for the spotlight that it almost confuses you, in terms of being a follower.

There’s a guy called Samuel Nowell that makes the pieces that are sewn together from second-hand garments that are insane. JW Anderson is quite good in terms of English design because a lot of his work is based on English culture and landmarks. I can’t think of many off the top of my head. I haven’t been that involved recently, since the fashion has died down due to lockdown.

photo by Charlie Holland (left) and Freddie Stisted (right)

When it comes to London Fashion Week, as you said, you hang out with your mates. You are known as a member of PAQ to a certain extent and are mates with them. When you look at those guys and that show, what would you say is their impact on the fashion community in England?

I think they’ve made the fashion more fun. Before them, there was just PRs and brands; it was very cut and dry. It was brands trying to directly sell to people. PAQ has made the market more light-hearted and have shown brands and customers that there are different ways of doing things. In terms of the industry and consumer, they have perhaps influenced the younger generation that has not gotten into it. With fashion now, they’ve caused an increase in fashion, like when you’re in college or university, a lot of people will just be watching PAQ as a reference to media or fashion in actual uni classes. 

They’ve made fashion more attainable in terms of opening people’s eyes to that world. When I was around fourteen/fifteen, I didn’t know that you could study fashion or that it was a viable career choice. I liked clothes, but really, I was into art. What PAQ has done with their interpretation of fashion, they’ve opened people’s eyes to how ever-present fashion is and should be for people.

“What PAQ has done with their interpretation of fashion, they’ve opened people’s eyes to how ever-present fashion is and should be for people.”

Since you are a part of this fashion community in England, I’ve heard that you are starting your brand. What is your agenda behind this?

It’s a whole thing. It’s gonna be more than just a brand with regards to the clothing and everything. The inspiration for the brand itself revolves around the message that we wanna spread positivity through creativity. We wanna make it known that this industry is inclusive and that everyone can be a part of it. There’s gonna be a lot of podcasts and shows similar to PAQ. The clothes themselves will be fun and free and more contemporary style of fashion.

The whole ethos behind it is to show people that it is easy to do this stuff and get people involved in creating their pieces.

Here Still, which is the brand, will involve a YouTube channel. We want to try and make and create everything from clothes to mugs, bowls, and chairs. And while we learn, also teach our audience vicariously through YouTube.

With the rise of social media and influencer culture, people are ironically less and less connected. We wanna bridge that gap and let people know what’s out there. I feel like that’s what the industry needs right now, especially in England, to just revitalise the creativity of the youth. Especially during this isolation, now is the time for the creative industry to stand up and project their voice and give smaller companies a fighting chance at cracking the monopoly that established brands hold.

So, what’s happening with Bad Canteen? You were one of the hosts and after that Billie Eilish episode you guys just went AWOL — what went down?

It ended. It’s over man.

But did they have a reason? Or did it just end like that?

Bad Canteen ended on that Billie Eilish episode. You know where it said season one over? There was never gonna be a season two. That was the last episode. Then there was a short episode that only came about because I was working as a stylist for PAQ. I heard them talking about it and I told them you might as well make this last episode and make some money and just say that it’s over, but they still didn’t say it then. The thing is with Kyra, is that they don’t know what the fuck they are doing as a business. None of their shows makes them money which is why Bad Canteen was cancelled. 

Really?

That’s the thing and that’s another reason why I wanna make my brand Here Still. It just shows that Kyra as a company doesn’t respect you or me. It hasn’t told anyone about any of this shit. It’s disappointing considering you are the viewer and everyone that watched it and supported it is the reason they made any money and they can’t even have the honesty to let you know that the show is over. 

I’ve been speaking with Danny and I told him that I think it’s pathetic. They are the first-ever show and the only reason why they are where they are right now, and they didn’t give you a goodbye episode. I hated that. The disrespect.

Well, at least you guys can now learn from their mistakes.

Exactly, and that’s what we’re gonna do. We want to do something that’s the same, but more open and honest with the viewer and not being stupid about it.

All I can say is, expect a Danny and Scott show coming very soon.