For AW13 Casely-Hayford formed their own army of Kingland Knights. Taking inspiration from Ice Hockey and the adaptation of sportswear in hip hop culture, they created a collection that brought together English tailoring with a collision of cultural references. Here we exclusively debut Casely-Hayford’s first fashion film made in collaboration with London-based filmmaker Sean Frank. The result is a powerful interpretation of the collection and its many references. Hoping to capture “the drama” and “the suspense” associated with sports culture, Sean Frank set the collection against found footage of 1970s and 80s NFL games and a pulsating soundtrack by Raffertie. Below we speak to Charlie Casely-Hayford and Sean Frank about the process behind the film. 

Dazed Digital: Sean, the AW13 collection contains a lot strong of sportswear references, how did you re-interpret them for the film?

Sean Frank: After speaking with Charlie about his ideas for the collection I wanted to portray the feelings and emotions associated with sport, the drama, the suspense, the euphoric highs and the devastating lows. The collection itself is really strong and it was nice to be able to reflect the concept of the collection in the film.

DD: What references did you particularly want to explore?

Charlie Casely-Hayford: The idea of an army of individuals. We love the oversized silhouettes and graphic lines of a lot of the sportswear jerseys that were adopted by a number of hip hop stars as their language of identity in the early 90's.

Sean Frank: Sound was really important. I wanted to make a feature of the commentary that plays such a big part of watching a match, it can completely wash over you but also intensifies the viewing experience. The heartbeat was key in creating a sense of anticipation and what the players might feel ahead of a big game.

DD: You have also included sections of found footage, what fuelled that decision?

Sean Frank: I had been watching a lot of 1970s and 80s NHL footage on YouTube and loved the saturated colour, bad facial hair and dodgy graphics. I thought the enthusiasm of the commentators and the crowds were great. These were elements I wanted to bring into the film. 

DD: How did you approach the soundtrack?

Charlie Casely-Hayford: The music was completely down to Sean. We described the feeling we wanted to evoke and Sean suggested Raffertie to write the music. He killed it on the first edit.

Sean Frank: I have worked with Raffertie on a few projects. He is a very talented musician and conceptual in his approach to sound. I spoke to him about incorporating various sporting sounds (crowd noise and commentary) and I was excited to see his interpretation. I liked the dark and slightly sinister sound he came up with, in contrast to the often over hyped commercial tracks that are used in sporting highlight clips

DD: This is the first film for Casely-Hayford, why did you choose to work with this medium for AW13? Was it particularly important to do it for this collection?

Charlie Casely-Hayford:  AW13 was about creating an army of Casely-Hayford men. We wanted to convey this idea of clothing as body armour. The ice hockey theme was a great analogy for that. Film felt like the most effective medium to show the Kingsland Knights preparing for battle.

DD: Will there be more films in the future?

Charlie Casely-Hayford: Yes, we're working on SS14 right now for London Collections Mens.

Casely-Hayford will be presenting their SS14 collection for London Collection Mens at the Hospital Club from the 16th – 18th June 2013