FROM thousands of fans on the terraces looking dapper in their Sunday best to Becks’ sarong, football and fashion have always gone together like Lampard and Gerrard.
There’s been the good – Mourinho’s famous grey coat and Mediterranean swagger, as well as the bad – Liverpool’s white suited ‘Spice Boys’.
From the terraces to the modern footballing style icons and even the kits themselves, our national sport and the way we dress have influenced each other.
“The best dressed out there on a consistent level are people like Thierry Henry and David Beckham. They’re always looking to be dressed well but for me that’s a bit too much effort." - Sol Campbell
Strike A Pose: 50 Years of Football and Fashion is a new exhibition documenting and celebrating the evolution of era defining styles. At the launch Confidential caught up with one of the men chosen to feature in the display, Sol Campbell, ex-Tottenham, Arsenal, Portsmouth and England defender.
Sol has donated one of his favourite outfits to the museum as part of the ‘Style Icons’ section alongside Jose Mourinho and Thierry Henry. Moved from his wardrobe to a display case, Sol’s clothes include a jacket and jeans by Dolce & Gabbana, T-shirt by Emporio Armani and Adidas Gazelle trainers.
“This is one of my favourites, it’s not so much daytime stuff – more evening – I wanted to be comfortable in my trainers, sometimes when I go out I don’t really like to wear my shoes. The ripped jeans are a fashion statement for me and the tigers on the back pockets.
“The zip jacket is just a favourite because of how it fits and how it feels and it’s incredibly soft. I still wear the jacket, that’s actually my jacket in there.” he said.
Sol Campbell's favourite outfitAlthough Sol didn’t want to be drawn on which of his fellow players were the worst dressed he did single out a couple of former team-mates for fashionable praise.
“The best dressed out there on a consistent level are people like Thierry Henry and David Beckham. They’re always looking to be dressed well but for me that’s a bit too much effort. It’s nice to chill out and sling on some tracksuits every now and again.”
Football eras are unmistakeably defined by fashion trends. Haircuts and moustache tendancies aside, the kits themselves are as much a signifier of the time as anything else. Manchester United famously withdrew a kit part-way through a season because players blended in with the crowd and who can picture David Seaman without his infamous England keeper jersey. Sol also had his fair share of kit fashion fails.
“I don’t know if they do it now but years ago a lot of the hierarchy would not have a conversation or consultation with the captain, vice-captain or any of the players – asking what do you fancy this season?
“Because with fashion and when it comes to football kits too you’ve got to be two seasons ahead, about 18 months or so. You’ve really got to talk long before it comes into the changing rooms or the shops. Now I think a lot more teams have conversations with the players because what do they know about fashion, those in the hierarchy? That yellow Arsenal kit is not one that I would have chosen.”
Stirke A Pose moves from the Sixties Beatlemania stylings of George Best's boutique label to today’s WAG trend. Some of the most interesting displays however, involve the fans. In no other exhibition could you really get away with having a raincoat wearing mannequin next to a placard reading ‘Scally’.
The Nineties football fans' trend for Italian labels with fans scavenging for elusive continental footwear whilst following teams to European away fixtures, is a curious thought with the word ‘Hooligan’ still being bandied around at that time.
And yes, Becks’ pants are there too.
Back on footballing matters though, and the thorn in many English football fans' recent memories is that Argentina game in World Cup ’98. Ten-men England and the entire country thought they had won in the dying seconds when Sol Campbell rose to head in a winning goal, only for it to be dubiously ruled out and Argentina to go through on penalties.
So Sol, should it have stood?
“I think both of them, that one and the one against Portugal as well. It does hurt. The hurt goes but it’s hard knowing how close it was in those situations that very rarely come around and twice I was denied to move England through.
“That one [Argentina] was to go through to the quarter-finals and the other one [Portugal] was to go through to the semi-finals. You work hard and do the right things but those are the moments where you need that little bit of luck. I think you have to work for your luck.”
Sol is currently working towards his coaching badges so may be back on the touchlines in four or five years in his words, perhaps in a Mourinho style coat of his own.
Strike A Pose: 50 Years of Football & Fashion is open now at The National Football Museum and is free to all until 27 August.
