The Fashion of Football:

From Best To Beckham, from mod to label lover ...

ISBN: 1840188073

Mainstream Publishing

Hardback: 224 Pages

Paperback out in January 2006

Peckham Beckham showing how to fashion iconic status - By Claire Turvey (The Times).

THERE are only so many subjects that would put David Beckham and Darren Ward in the same sentence. Football may be one, but Millwall are a far cry from Real Madrid and The Den is hardly the Bernabéu. No. It is like that psychological test: ask someone to think of a vegetable and nine times out of ten the answer is “carrot”. Ask someone to think of a common trait held by Ward — “the Peckham Beckham” — and the England captain and the answer is likely to be “dodgy barnets”.

These so-called “dodgy barnets”, however, are, in the eyes of many, a part of Ward’s and Beckham’s tribute to the gods of fashion. The mullet comeback kings are the latest in a long line of footballers who have doubled as style icons during their careers. Or, at least in Ward’s case, have held fashion in the same esteem as football.

When we look for fashion tips, we no longer turn to the likes of Jude Law and Sienna Miller. Now we turn to Posh and Becks, or Wayne and Colleen. It may make some enthusiasts of haute couture to shudder, but Paolo Hewitt and Mark Baxter were so taken by the footballer as a dedicated follower of fashion that they have written a book about it.

“When you look at that picture of George Best (featured on the cover of the book), he could be a film star,” Baxter said. “My idea was to trace George through to David Beckham. Beckham’s the same sort of thing. He’s gone above football and he’s become an icon to some. The idea was to fill the gap, over 40 years.”

So The Fashion of Football was born. Think exclusive London clubs such as Chinawhite, bottles of Cristal, Burberry and Knightsbridge — not Filthy McNasty’s Whiskey Café near King’s Cross station, where the book was launched. Think again. Baxter, a Millwall fan, and Hewitt, a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur, are no Trinny and Susannah. The two came together over their shared passion for football and all things Mod. Quadrophenia and the like, then? “The worst film ever made,” Hewitt said. Really? “Absolutely. It’s a film about mods. Have you ever seen a more badly dressed bunch of people in all your life? Have you seen the poster? Check out Sting’s creases. They stop at his knees.”

The book is a 3½-month journey of exploration of the well-dressed footballer. “That’s Sixties mods for us,” Baxter, who looks and sounds like a sharply dressed version of Ray Winstone, said. “George Best, Bobby Moore, Alan Hudson, Sixties, Seventies,” Hewitt said. “When you get into the Eighties, it’s disaster time.”

What Baxter and Hewitt look for is the individual, a show-off on and off the pitch — apparently an increasingly rare specimen. “That’s how the football clubs want them,” Hewitt said. “They don’t want individuals. They want 11 players. When you have flamboyant players, they tend to dress how they play. George Best dressed like he played. Bobby Moore, too, with the suits — controlled, elegant.”

The pair concluded, after a tip-off from Frank McLintock, that the first “metrosexual” player was Gordon Smith, the Hibernian and Scotland forward from the 1950s who died in August. Hewitt e-mailed Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting and a Hibs fan, to find out more. Welsh delivered a footballing biography of Smith. “A wealth of information, my man, and many thanks for it, ” Hewitt said. “But was Mr Smith a good dresser or not? Was he as sharp as his crosses or as scruffy as Ralph Coates’s barnet?” You get the idea.

The book is a bible for the fashion-conscious football fan. You will even find out where Darren Ward gets his hair cut.

The Fashion of Football, by Paolo Hewitt and Mark Baxter (Mainstream, £12.99)

THE RIGHT KIT

Create a footballing fashion statement in five easy steps:

INDIVIDUALITY: Do not follow the crowd, stand out; create your own style.

STYLE: Your fashion should reflect the way you play.

MOVEMENT: Wear the clothes, do not let the clothes wear you.

SUIT: Tailored only. Preferably of the Savile Row brand.

RESEARCH: Shirt, tie, shoes. Do not, whatever you do, buy them all in one shop.