Tibi Close Friends 1.2
Featuring: Brunello
I have so much to share about this project - how immensely rewarding, fulfilling and just purely fun it was to pull together and execute with the help of our creative team at Tibi. I remember, about exactly a year ago, sitting in Austin, TX trying to envision and manifest a concept that would cohesively blend Tibi, music, video, film photography, and small independent artists into one. All things I love. It has been a vision in my head for so long and to finally see it come together, with the finest team and one of my favorite artists, who I now consider a great friend, it feels surreal. Last July, we launched Episode 1.1 of Tibi Close Friends, featuring Bebe Stockwell, and to coincide with that release, I wrote a Substack to dig into what TCF is, the why behind the work, where the inspiration came from, and where we are headed. If you have not had a chance to familiarize yourself with that article, I strongly suggest checking it out first:
It should be pretty apparent at this point that one of my favorite ways to spend time is by digging for music, particularly by small artists. This past spring I started listening to a young producer out of San Diego, his name is Chris, a.k.a. Brunello. What first caught my attention was his mesmerizing sampling and beat making techniques - it was obvious he had been doing this for a long time, honing his craft, for the love of the game, not the love of the $$$. I went to Chris’ TikTok and discovered videos of him mixing and creating, live, on the spot. An art form in it of itself, the artist producing the art, watching it come together in real time, I just couldn’t get enough and knew pretty much immediately that we needed to work with Brunello.
Brunello’s music is deeply reminiscent of another one of my favorite artists, Adam Ten - I mention this because I just realized that I originally reached out to Chris during the same timeframe as when I went to see Adam Ten play at 99 Scott in mid-July. As a quick aside, I have noticed, when looking at the year behind us in totality, that there are many coincidences and correlations between actions that I and we as a brand have taken – happy accidents that I theorize occur because we love what we do, and because we never shut off, so it’s no surprise that I sent Chris a DM in the middle of a concert on a Saturday where the music probably spurred the outreach in the first place. DMing on Instagram is the method I use to contact everyone I seek to collaborate with. In this case I said something along the lines of “Hey man, genuine fan of your work, would love to chat about a creative project I’ve been working on for our brand Tibi - I think there’s something great we can create together”. I’m sharing the exact words because it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. And in fact, if an intro requires more complication, that’s usually an indicator that it may not be a good fit…for us. We set up a call where I learned Chris founded his own label, Mellow Circus Records, on which he releases his music himself – a small business, one dude, no one to tell him what to do, what decisions will make the most money, or what type of tracks will make the top charts. I knew in my bones from that first chat that we were in sync and that this would, will, turn out beautifully.
I assembled a pitch that outlined what we’ll create together, the team involved, and everyone’s roles, from the set design to audio/video engineering to film direction, and how we’ll roll it out for launch once ready. The cool thing, or I guess one of the many cool things, about working with likeminded individuals is the communication that exists when you speak the same language. Yes, literally of course, but also figuratively. I get Chris’ goals, he gets mine and Tibi’s, and because of this intuitive understanding, there is a flow state that arises, streamlining processes and providing ultimate efficiency - all that good stuff - but mainly what I’m getting at here is that we all just really care, so when we send each other a text or an email, we respond and we collaborate to fix things on the spot, in real time. I cannot begin to express the importance of communication in bringing these projects to life - when they fail it’s because of communication, and when they succeed…it’s because of communication.
Brunello’s brand and theme revolves, to a decent extent, around the circus - bold, primary colors, intriguing and interesting graphics, with comical and lighthearted undertones. So, for the set design, Rae had the brilliant idea to build a set, really an imaginary world, where everything is upside down, except Chris. When she first brought this concept to me, my immediate thought was how the hell is she able to pull from my brain exactly what I want to see happen creatively, but don’t yet know it’s what I want. Rae had not even created the outline for the design yet, and she doesn’t know I did this, so surprise :), but I immediately texted Chris and said “dude, upside down set” - the rest is history.
As we timed the release of this project with the launch of the Resort 2025 collection, Emmalee styled Chris in two looks from the season:
Bio Twill Bomber Jacket With Removable Corduroy Collar in Dark Navy, Bio Twill Triple Pleat Pant in Dark Navy, and the Mock Neck Unisex T-Shirt in Navy.
Vintage Black Denim Sid Jean, Mini check Shirting Detached Shirt in Red Multi, and the Washable Cashmere Striped Warp Tennis Sweater in Ivory / Multi.
Rae built the set from scratch on a budget of less than $400 (even less, when you consider that most of what we create is repurposed for other shoots) at 666 Studios, our Tibi loft in NoHo. Derek and I strategized the direction for a short film, cinematically and tastefully done for use on our social channels, while Matt engineered the video set up for YouTube and the audio capture for all usage needs. Reed and I contrived an approach to photographing the project - two looks, utilizing the city as the canvas, all shot on 35 mm film and polaroids - and I dug up various street photography references from my favorite photographers, like our very own Reed Young.
I want to take a moment to mention that the score Chris created for this project was completely and entirely new music, mixed live, with a specific track for Tibi Close Friends that you’ll hear at about the 4:00 minute mark. The man is a production wizard in the fondest sense of the word. I know it might not seem like an unbiased opinion, and so I genuinely believe this to be objective when I say that this is one of the best live sets I have heard or seen created. Chris’ level of professionalism is uncanny, and it shows in the quality of the final product. I have been listening to the 30-minute Dropbox file on repeat the entire time I have been writing this Substack.
Similarly to our collaboration with Bebe Stockwell, I feel a sincere sense gratitude to be in a position where my work is my life, and my life is my work - where the projects I help create are the projects I want to be, in this case, listening to all the time anyway. When the creative process revolves around the questions of “Do we like this?, Is this cool to us?, Does this make us excited?” instead of “How many Sids will this sell?”, it fuels you rather than drains you. To have a creative outlet like this is beyond special, and the uniqueness of a job where I get to walk around NYC with a friend who is sick at what he does and photograph him in our clothing, moving with the vibes of our surroundings and riffing off each other, is not lost on me in the slightest.
As this campaign launches, and is shared with all you wonderful people, I have to say one more thank you to everyone involved: Matt, Derek, Rae, Sarah, Reed, Emmalee, Colleen, Kayla, Stella, Amy - the names behind the scenes - and of course, Brunello, the artist and Tibi Close Friend who was an absolute pleasure to work with and be around, as well as gain inspiration and learn from. On Chris’ last night in the city, I had the honor of meeting his family, driving home the significance of friendship and connection coming first, as it is, in my eyes, the reason why the Episode 1.2 is such a wonderful manifestation of self-expression, care and dedication, and most of all, hard fucking work.
So, thank you to the team, and thank you all for taking the time to read this recap of how Tibi Close Friends 1.2 came together. The full set and video can be found here on Tibi.com, and if you’re super into the set like I am, you can find the audio on our Tibi Soundcloud here.
It’s passionate work, we can feel it. It has guts, and a soul of its own.
I so enjoy your writing every single time.
I'll check it out, Gabe! This was beautifully written, as always.