STOCKROOM//001 Brings Fashion, Art and Underground Rap to Dubrek Studios in Derby

Derby’s creative scene has always been bigger and stranger than the bits that are easiest to see. Away from the established galleries, bigger stages and more conventional events, there is a younger community building its own thing around fashion, skateboarding, art and underground music. On 11 September, a good chunk of that world found itself under one roof at Dubrek Studios for STOCKROOM//001.

Put together by local designer Mason Toone, aka SOAR / Peace And Love Soar, STOCKROOM//001 brought together independent fashion, original artwork, a runway show, DJs and underground rap for an afternoon and evening of full-on creativity.

Walking through the door, one of the first people I bumped into was Zah Zah Binks, aka Brandon, surrounded by his vibrant and ridiculously intricate artwork. Zah Zah has become a familiar face around Derby’s creative and skate scenes, and it is always a pleasure seeing his work pop up at events like this. We had a catch-up about what he has been working on and some of the projects he has coming up before I had a proper look around the rest of the space.

Alongside Zah Zah, STOCKROOM//001 featured work from SOAR, Skull Trooper, Marin8ted, Saarinen, Elektikz, Gremlin and Earth of Suspects, with fashion and artwork sharing the space rather than being separated into their own little corners. That was really the appeal of the whole event. Nothing felt overly formal or precious. You could wander around, talk directly to the people making the work, pick something up, then head through and watch those same ideas come alive on a runway.

After grabbing myself a SOAR lighter and sticker, I made my way into the main room for the fashion show.

Skull Trooper Opens the STOCKROOM//001 Runway

Skull Trooper was first onto the runway, presenting several ensembles that loosely pulled from pirate fashion but pushed it somewhere much less obvious.

There were definitely punk influences running through the collection, but there was also something almost New Romantic about parts of it. Rather than feeling like costume, those different references were pulled together into something distinctive and wearable. It was theatrical enough to command attention on the runway while still feeling connected to the alternative fashion and music scenes surrounding the event.

Then came SOAR.

For Mason, this was his first runway show, and it felt like a significant step up from simply seeing individual pieces hanging on a rail or appearing online.

The collection included handmade jeans, printed garments and handmade jackets, with Mason taking on the process himself from the original designs and sourcing materials through to cutting, stitching and finishing the clothes.

And the craftsmanship showed.

There is a very obvious punk and skate influence running through SOAR, but the collection also had this slightly smarter late-90s and early-2000s indie-boy feel underneath it. It is an interesting combination: rough edges and DIY ideas paired with good materials, considered silhouettes and genuinely impressive construction.

These weren’t just T-shirts with a logo printed across the chest and called an independent clothing brand. The pieces felt like individual works in their own right.

The designs immediately catch your attention, but getting closer to them makes you appreciate how much actual work has gone into producing them. From the materials through to the stitching and construction, there is a level of craft behind SOAR that deserves recognition.

From what I understand, the pieces sold out following the show too, which is probably the best testament you could give to the collection.

Once the runway had finished, Mason headed onto the stage to a deserved round of applause and said a few words to the crowd. It was a nice moment after seeing months of ideas, designing, cutting and sewing finally make it onto a runway in front of a room full of people.

But STOCKROOM//001 wasn’t finished.

From the Runway to Derby’s Underground Rap Scene

With the fashion show wrapped up, Fin Birse took over DJ duties and the event gradually transformed from runway show into an underground rap gig.

A host of local rappers followed, including Fanetokai, Will2k, Dvrryl and Vital Jazz, with performances shifting between solo sets and people jumping onstage together. At points it was organised; at others it was wonderfully chaotic.

Musically, there was plenty of the distorted, melancholic and deliberately rough sound that has become part of the current underground. Sad-boy rap, emo rap and cloud rap influences all appeared across the evening, but there was enough variation between the artists to stop it becoming one continuous wall of the same sound.

ABK had originally been due to headline STOCKROOM//001 but unfortunately couldn’t make the event, leaving VEXT to step up and close the night.

And he did the job properly.

VEXT brought a much more party-driven energy to the final stretch, delivering his stoner-infused take on underground rap and giving the crowd something they could properly get involved with. By the end, the room had turned into a big singalong, sending STOCKROOM//001 out on exactly the sort of high it deserved.

A Different Side of Derby’s Creative Scene

What stood out most about STOCKROOM//001 wasn’t any single performance, garment or piece of artwork. It was seeing another part of Derby’s creative community confidently creating its own spaces.

There is real talent operating at this level in the city.

These are young designers who aren’t simply ordering blanks, putting a logo on them and calling it fashion. They are developing ideas, sourcing fabrics, cutting patterns, sewing garments and then putting together their own runway shows to present the finished work. Alongside them are artists developing their own visual styles, DJs digging into underground sounds and rappers building a scene that exists largely outside Derby’s more conventional live music circuit.

And there is a crossover between all of it.

Fashion feeds into skate culture. Skate culture feeds into art. Art feeds into music. Music feeds back into fashion. Put everyone in a room together and you get something like STOCKROOM//001.

That is why events like this matter.

Derby has plenty of conversations about its creative scene, but sometimes the best way to understand what is actually happening is simply to turn up to something being organised by the people making it happen. Go beyond the obvious events, established names and traditional venues and there is an entire generation of artists, designers and musicians experimenting underneath it all.

STOCKROOM//001 at Dubrek Studios was another brilliant showcase of that side of the city. Handmade fashion on the runway, artwork covering the space and underground rappers taking over the stage, all put together independently by people who clearly care about what they are creating.

If you want to see what some of Derby’s next generation of creatives are capable of, get yourself along to the next one.

We’ll certainly be there.

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