But the fact that fashion is making football uniforms – and with them the sport itself – more accessible goes beyond their aesthetic qualities. Designer and fashion lecturer Hattie Crowther has been working with football tops since 2019 (first creating corsets), using her jerseys to critique and shift the traditionally closed narrative around football. She created a bespoke corset for Trami Benson for the Euros final.
“Turning something as traditionally masculine as a football jersey into something that can be owned by anyone — women, queer, transgender — is incredibly important to me,” Crowther says. “I want to challenge the idea that a sport like football is primarily owned by men. Sparking dialogue about these issues is an important part of my design narrative and I hope to open up new spaces and conversations through my work.”
Charlie Keathley, founder and designer of the London-based label Kitten, operates in a similar ethos. The concept of Kitten is to repurpose used and discarded clothing. Aside from the obvious environmental benefits, she says, there’s also an aesthetic subversion: With jerseys, “we’re repurposing traditionally masculine pieces and bringing them into the feminine realm,” she says.
Make space
Experts agree that making space for women in soccer is a big value proposition for brands: “Soccer uniforms not only allow women to participate in the culture surrounding soccer, but also allow them to feel part of a community that has not traditionally welcomed women,” says Future Laboratory’s Rose.
It’s a two-way street: designers are creating space for those traditionally excluded from football’s male-dominated culture, and by working within the world of football, brands are expanding the relationship between sport and fashion.
Until now, fashion has focused on sports traditionally associated with luxury and leisure. “Thanks to the rise in people taking up racquet sports, the aesthetic of this old-money sport is certainly not going to waver,” says Rose. “But the leisure activity and the style collective that comes with it are now being embraced by a new, more savvy and diverse audience.”
Hattie Crowther’s collection “Fuck the Fans” criticizes toxic fan culture.
Photo: Rebecca Zephyr Thomas
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