Football and Fashion |

The English football Premier League has not had a good last few weeks with tabloids featuring the indiscretions of many of its star players almost every day.

Although Ashley Cole’s troubled marriage to Cheryl Cole and John Terry’s adulterous affair have been pretty horrible for the football teams, and the fact that Portsmouth is threatened with a wind up order after the financial mismanagement of the bottom club.

However, while the world’s wealthiest sporting team is out searching for a moral compass, Sir Alex Ferguson may be able to help out by taking a strong stand against vivid bright coloured football boots.  According to his new rules, all of the junior players on the Manchester team will have to wear old school black any time they are on club business.

Defender John O’Shea stated that the restrictions are to help the players from being singled out if they are playing poorly and that once a team earns a spot on the first team squad or reserve then they can wear flashy colours.

Although it may seem as if Ferguson’s change is simply cosmetic, the truth is that the collared boot has represented football’s popularity over the last twenty years and its absence in junior players may help restore honour and order to wear it is due.

Before Ferguson’s announcement people were already getting tired of the collared boots with youth team coach of the Queens Park Rangers, Marc Bircham, banning his players from wearing them because of how flashy they look.

The World Cup finals are coming and with them of course the chance to celebrate, incredible anticipation, and eventually commiseration for the fans of the losing team.

However, this year the finals will come with a twist as they will be held in Africa for the first time since the World Cup began and thus all the major sporting merchandise brands are gearing up with plenty of African themed items.

Puma, which has enjoyed a long standing line of sponsorship with African teams, will introduce a lifestyle clothing line that celebrates the African football team and fans.  Additionally, they received a commission for a uniform that will be worn by all African nations that are competing as part of their third kit.

With the aid of African American artist Kehinde Wiley Puma also has a commission for a wide range of training gear, street wear, footwear, and four paintings that were inspired by the top three football players in Africa.

The clothing line will debut in Paris this week as a travelling exhibition and will move onward through Europe, Australia, and Asia before finally landing in South Africa as the World Cup commences.

In an interview Wiley stated that her work with Puma started when she began to look outside of America and using global fabrics.  She stated in the past that she was already working on her own clothes which is why it was the perfect time when Puma approached her about working on a World Cup football line.

Football legend Zinédine Zidane, Arsenal Football manager Arsène Wenger, tennis star Boris Becker, former footballer Luis Figo were amongst some of the world’s top sporting and entertainment stars to come together at a special event to celebrate the launch of luxury watch brand IWC’s new Portuguese collection in Geneva.

Here is some footage from the event including interviews with Zinedine Zidane, Arsene Wenger, Luis Figo and Olivier Bierhoff .

Burton menswear has announced the launch of its Score Draw competition. The Score Draw collection is a retro collection of football shirts to celebrate the great years of footballing champions and cool shirts.

There are 20 shirts available in the collection, covering 10 English clubs: Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, West Ham United, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Manchester City, plus 4 Scotland shirts soon to be available.

The Score Draw brand is the leading supplier of official retro football shirts in the World.  Score Draw football shirts are officially licensed and endorsed by more than 40 football clubs and national associations accommodating over 600 styles from over five decades. Every Score Draw football shirt is meticulously researched and designed to represent the original garment worn by momentous old teams and players – football shirts fit for heroes – that are widely accepted by football clubs, players and supporters as the definitive reproduction.

To celebrate this collection Burton is giving the chance to win a T-shirt – a Brazil 1970 World Cup Final shirt signed by the world’s greatest ever player, Pele.

This authentic reproduction Score Draw shirt represents the all-time football shirt design classic. Worn by the famous Brazil team of the 1970 Mexico World Cup Final in the 4-1 victory over Italy, the top epitomises the classic encounter of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object as the Brazilian force prevailed and secured a record third World Cup triumph (1958, 1962, 1970).

This Score Draw shirt has been autographed by Edison Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pele, who played in 92 internationals (scoring 77 goals) for Brazil – including two World Cup Finals.

For a chance to win this signed collectible retro Brazil shirt signed by Pele, entrants just need to fill out a competition entry form on the Burton site. The closing date for this competition is 12 February.

For more information – click here.

David Beckham is known for his great figure whenever he slides into a nice pair of keks, but it is about to get more personal as he will soon design his own clothing line and even model the entire range himself.

The news comes after he officially signed into a deal to follow his wife into the fashion industry after the World Cup is over this year, when he will temporarily hang up his cleats and pen menswear designs for the top couple’s DVB fashion line.

According to a source that knows the famous couple they have been working together on her already popular fashion ranges with Armani and that he has big plans for his own lines.

The source continued to say that fashion is a passion of David’s and that it is only logical that he would want to work on his own fashion line.

His wife, Victoria better known as Posh, established herself as a fashion designer after ending her career as a pop icon with the Spice Girls.

Since she entered the fashion world she has earned millions from her designs that include lines of sunglasses, dresses, and jeans.

David also has modelled already for Emporio Armani underpants and is usually seen around town in the most popular designs, although the skirt that he famously wore while in the South of France may be one of his most known fashion faux pas that is not likely to make an appearance in the line.

FIFA announced today that they will launch an e-commerce environment in which football fans can purchase sporting items from the official FIFA website.

The site will feature event merchandise from several high note tournaments such as the impending South African FIFA World Cup as well as many different clothing items from the new lifestyle FIFA clothing range.  Additionally, fans can get their hands on their favourite team products, allowing supporters to wear their devotion on their sleeves, literally, for both national and club teams.

FIFA marketing director, Theirry Weil, stated that the new e-commerce platform on the website is an important new component in their marketing program for merchandise.  He stated it is important that using this outlet FIFA offers as many product choices both form the lifestyle range and event memorabilia range as possible.

One of the newest additions to the FIFA brand is its new lifestyle collection titled FIFA Collections.  The new collection will feature clothes that are meant to be a combination of fashion, football, and culture which is exemplified through each piece of the accessories and casual wear line.

At the moment event related products will mostly be available from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa although coming soon will be clothing items for future meets such as the Women’s World Cup in Germany in 2011 and even as far in advance as the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.  The products will be available on the new website as soon as they are officially launched.

The badge of the West Ham United team has become a fashion trend in itself thanks to American singer Katy Perry who has been wearing the logo in support of her boyfriend Russel Brand.

Perry showed up at the MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony dressed in a very revealing two piece that was blue and white made out of three replica West Ham shirts.  On the small pieces of clothing were two club crests and across her pants the words Rusty were enamoured in support of her boyfriend.

Freelance celebrity stylist Siobahn Dillon was in charge of Perry’s outfit which was supplied to her by the club.  Dillon decided it would be fun to keep the football theme live in the outfit so she used the collars from the men’s shirts to make the top of the bra and put the badges on front.

For West Ham United fans who loved Perry’s outfit, the good news is that Dillon will release a limited range collection of the outfits for fans with 50 initially being sold by the club stores to judge the response.  The shirts are only available through pre-order and will run £300 each.