There are plenty of football shirt trends that divide opinion.
Blackout kits. Oversized collars. Centralised badges. Wild third shirts.
But patterns inspired by local fabrics and textiles?
We’re struggling to remember many that haven’t looked great.
Valenciennes are the latest club to turn towards traditional craftsmanship for their third kit, with Hummel taking inspiration from the region’s textile industry and, most importantly, its historic association with lace-making.
One look at the shirt and you can see exactly where the idea has gone.
Rather than simply printing a large lace graphic across the surface, an intricate pattern has been worked into the blue of the shirt itself. It’s detailed enough to become the defining feature of the design without completely overwhelming it.
That’s a balance these sorts of shirts seem to get right surprisingly often.
Whether it’s weaving, embroidery, traditional textiles or other forms of decorative fabric, there’s something about translating those techniques onto a football shirt that just seems to work.
Perhaps it’s because a football shirt is already a piece of fabric.
Instead of forcing an unrelated graphic onto the material, these designs can feel like they’re part of the construction itself. Patterns sit within the surface, appearing and disappearing depending on the light and how closely you’re looking.
Valenciennes certainly benefit from that approach.
There’s an elegance to the lace-inspired detailing, while the solid collar and cuffs deliberately keep things simple around it. Adding another pattern or colour treatment there could easily have competed with the main feature.
Instead, the lace gets the attention.
There’s also something particularly satisfying about using a textile tradition on a football shirt. Valenciennes lace required enormous technical precision and developed a distinctive identity of its own. Centuries later, another piece of fabric is being used to carry that craftsmanship forward.
So has this trend ever actually been done badly?
We’ve seen plenty of questionable attempts to put landmarks, maps and enormous graphics onto football shirts, but traditional fabric patterns seem to have an unusually high success rate.
Is there something about woven and textile-inspired designs that simply lends itself perfectly to a football shirt?
Or can you think of one that got it completely wrong?
One work of art woven into another.
Credit; @vafcofficiel @hummelsport
#valenciennes #lace #textile #footballkits #hummel #thekitsman
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