Fashion's ongoing obsession with football jerseys: ‘I would absolutely die for that shirt'

The Guardian

12-02-2025

Instagrammer Mariame Choucair has built a steady following from her love of football and obsession with football jerseys. The Sydney pharmacist is a lifelong fan of the game, but it's her 'fit checks – photos of her, red lipped with a chic brunette bob, sporting a retro football kit – that have positioned her as a style influencer.
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'I love wearing my football shirts – and not just to matches,' she says. 'I love incorporating them into everyday looks. I like to dress it up in a feminine way; I'll wear [a jersey] with an A-line skirt, short or long.'
Choucair posts photos to her followers of her styling the retro football shirts she collects – think a long-sleeved, cherry-red Bayern Munich top with a black-and-white tweed miniskirt.
It's a look she's rocked for years, but Choucair says it has been 'really cool' to see the rise of 'blokecore' on TikTok over the last two years, a term used to describe men and women styling vintage football shirts with baggy or straight-cut jeans, knee-length shorts, skirts and trainers – especially Adidas Sambas and Gazelles.
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In the last year, Hailey Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter and Dua Lipa have posted photographs of themselves wearing football shirts, both team jerseys and custom designs, and fashion brands Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and Armani have embraced football culture in their collections. The trend has surfaced globally over the last five years, with Australian stores noticing the impact more recently.
When vintage football shirt store PFC Vintage opened in Melbourne in 2019, its director Paul Blake recalls most customers were straight-up football fans. Nowadays, he says, 'festival culture and the 'blokecore' movement' has transformed jerseys into 'socially acceptable' casualwear.
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Ed Podlubny, the owner of clothing store Vintage Sole, also in Melbourne, agrees. 'There's been a noticeable shift in the demand for football shirts, driven by a more diverse and fashion-savvy crowd,' he says. 'Football kits have transformed into a cultural phenomenon, merging sport, fashion and personal identity. It's a huge departure from the classic game-day look.'
Dr Harriette Richards, a senior lecturer at RMIT's school of fashion and textiles, has noticed more football jerseys on her students too. 'It's not a particularly gendered trend,' she says. 'I think it's wrapped up in the broader 90s fashion trend, a throwback to 90s football culture that's different from contemporary football culture.
'The graphic designs of the 90s shirts are cool, and the sponsorships of the clubs are different now. They're not accountancy brands or betting brands. Back then it was Mars bar and Sega.'
Football jerseys have never been cheap, but now that retro kits are sought-after fashion items, retailers are capitalising. Ultra Football in Sydney sells current kits of the world's biggest teams for about $120, but a limited-edition 1974 Lazio shirt goes for $220. And if you're seeking match-worn shirts, PFC Vintage sells them for over $1,000.
Brisbane-based Mystery Kits Australia, a company that sells gift boxes containing a 'mystery shirt' from any club in the world, says sales have 'skyrocketed' among gen Z customers. 'Once seen as dorky or childish, pairing a football jersey with shorts and a nice pair of shoes has become commonplace,' says co-founder Harry Johnson. 'Part of the appeal is wearing a rare kit from 20 or 30 years ago that no one else has.'
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Most teams with an international following have a 'retro' section on their website where you can buy replicas of discontinued kits. And teams are leaning on celebrity football fans to launch new versions of vintage styles. When Manchester United revealed its 2024-25 kit, it did so with a campaign featuring the Irish actor Barry Keoghan wearing a club tracksuit, soundtracked to 90s dance music.
Then there are teams generating more buzz for their fashion than their football. Venezia FC, a middling Italian football team, was dubbed 'the world's most fashionable football club' by GQ, and the team routinely launches new shirts with elegant shoots that would be more at home in fashion magazines than on the training ground. FC Versailles, the third-tier semi-professional French outfit co-owned by Formula One driver Pierre Gasly, is also cashing in on its kit with a streetwear collaboration with Kappa.
'You have to credit Venezia and Versailles for marketing their shirts as fashion items,' says Podlubny. 'They're tapping into a wider audience beyond traditional football fans. These clubs recognise the crossover between sport and fashion.' But clubs that prioritise aesthetics and high-end collaborations 'risk alienating dedicated football fans who value the shirts as symbols of team pride rather than fashion statements', he says.
Choucair, who collects both jerseys and football boots, welcomes fashion's interest in football. 'If I am wearing something original and vintage, people will ask about the era of the kit,' she says. 'I love connecting with people who love the game.'
She owns about 60 Sydney FC shirts, 40 Germany shirts ('the oldest I have is from 1994') and countless others from Bayern Munich, Germany, England, the Socceroos and Matildas.
'I'm always on the lookout for vintage Sydney FC kits that were never for sale commercially,' she says. But her 'grail jersey', she says, is a France 98 home kit with Zidane on it: 'I would absolutely die for that shirt.'