Football shirts reappraised as design classics

London: Football shirts are not just symbols of team allegiance: the colours, designs and styles are being reappraised as icons of sartorial cool at an exhibition in London.

“The Art of the Football Shirt” takes visitors through 180 different football shirts, from instantly recognisable classics to strange strips that pushed the boundaries, and jerseys that crossed over into fashion, music and politics.

It shows how plain shirts gradually gave way to a tidal wave of graphic design experiments, with art school graduates let loose to play with shapes, patterns and colours.

Curator Neal Heard, who owns 70 shirts in the collection, said kits were now jumping out beyond the sport once again. “These things are fashion items now,” he said.

“I call it the ‘basketball-isation’ of football — it’s becoming more about lifestyle and less about the tribal resonance of a team’s shirts.”

He compared modern football jerseys to New York Yankees caps — a symbol worn by many people without any allegiance to, or even knowledge of, the baseball side.

“Shirts and football are going more that way. The teams are seeing themselves as brands,” said Heard.

The exhibition includes an iconic XI chosen for their legendary football status, but breaks down the collection into sections such as streetwear, music, politics and graphic design, rather than eras, countries or club and international shirts.

The iconic XI includes classics such as England’s red 1966 away shirt, the bright yellow 1970 Brazil jersey, AC Milan’s red-and-black stripes, Celtic’s green-and-white hoops and the black-and-white stripes of Juventus.

It also includes, from 1988, the Netherlands’ Marco van Basten/Ruud Gullit era patterned orange shirt, and the white West Germany top featuring a tricolour band of the national flag’s black, red and yellow.