In a walkthrough of the new Umbro 100: Sportswear x Fashion exhibit, curators Prof. Andrew Groves and Dr. Danielle Sprecher are explaining the challenges of sourcing pieces for the exhibition. Attention turns to a Top Team kit box from the eighties in perfect condition – back then, you were more likely to rip the box open in excitement then think of it as a collector’s item that you could make a buck off in decades to come.
“It was wrapped in cellophane, so we videoed us opening it,” shares Groves, smiling as he explains that they didn’t have any indication of what team’s shirt it would contain.
“We were buying it knowing that Liverpool was going to be the most valuable after England, but that it could be any [team]. And then we opened it and went 'oh'.” They’d hit the jackpot: a Liverpool FC European home shirt from 1983-85.
Groves and Sprecher are part of the Westminster Menswear Archive, a stockpile of clothes that can be used by students and industry peers for research, and with over 2500 artefacts that span over 250 years, it’s become a vital resource.
The idea for the exhibition came when the duo were in Manchester visiting Umbro: 95, a historical showcase done in collaboration with Mundial Magazine. It was the same year WMA held their last retrospective, Invisible Men, where they noticed that their collection was lacking sportswear.
It made them think, “In five years, around the Umbro centenary, maybe we could do something around it, and that would support us in terms of collecting sportswear and really getting to grips with it in the collection,” explains Sprecher.
The exhibition starts with the brand’s beginnings, born in 1924 and from a small village in Cheshire just outside of Manchester. Visitors then move up the proverbial pitch to the fifties and its licensing deal with Adidas.
But it’s in the following decades where the fusion with fashion really takes place. An article from 1963 on display describes the head of Umbro as “the Dior of football” due to his expertise in the kits’ cut and fit, while the 2002 England kit designed by Paul Smith is proudly on display, marking the first collaboration with an external fashion designer.
“It was only six months ago when I suddenly realised that [the Paul Smith collaboration] predated Yohji [Yamamoto] and any other collab, which even Umbro didn't realise,” says Groves.
Umbro x Percival Retro Football Shirt
Umbro x Whippets FC Match Jersey
Umbro x Palace Classic Jersey
Umbro x Slam Jam England Classic V-Neck Jersey
Sprecher goes on to share the subtle differences between what the players wore on the pitch and what the public would buy, it being that the latter would feature small mod-like Paul Smith logos.
“You might think it's just an England replica kit, but actually it's a Paul Smith designer piece,” shares Sprecher. “Which I think reflects a lot of what we find with menswear. It's about the subtle differences, it's not in your face. And it's that insider knowledge as well; you have to know what it is that you’re looking at to be able to interpret it.”
The rest of the exhibition is presented in five sections, Manchester, England, Tailored, Replica, and Diamond, all of which feature a mix of designer collaborations from the likes of Christopher Raeburn, Kim Jones and Vetements.
Each section highlights the tug and pull of designing athletic gear from a fashion perspective, whether that be how to reinterpret England colours with their problematic, nationalistic connotations, to designing pieces that are in line with FIFA and FA regulations.
“I think that anyone playing with design is going to reinterpret the idea of a nation's identity. Which is a really hard design task, isn't it?” says Groves. “It's the equivalent of how everyone's got an opinion on Eurovision. It's kind of a poisoned chalice.”
But who is this exhibition for? Those who looking longingly back to the World Cup win of ’66 but care little for what’s on their feet day to day, or is it the high-fashion crowd that have been introduced to the beautiful game via ‘blokecore’? For Groves, it’s both.
“It'll be interesting to see what the reaction is, how fashion people react compared to sports people,” he says. “That's one of the key things [about football shirts], how emotional these garments are to people.”
Umbro 100: Sportswear x Fashion runs from 12 – 28 April 2024 at Ambika P3, University of Westminster, Marylebone, London, NW15LS.
