In terms of my f-factors blogs, this could have been categorised as either fashion, football or fun, but I’ve gone with the former. And I’m afraid if you disagree with that, there is no referral to VAR. Called ‘Tops Off’ (as shown on the home page), this is a beautifully curated small exhibition showing at the Oof Gallery at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London N17. (Oof is also the name of a marvellous niche magazine that covers art and football.) I think it’s safe to say that the majority of folk who were in the Spurs’ merchandise shop on the day I went to see the exhibition were there to acquire a Son Heung-min shirt in its classic white with navy trim, but inside the gallery were items with rather more back story and colour.
The exhibition styles itself as ‘A Century of Football Shirt Art’, which timing-wise is pretty much spot-on with reference to what you see above. This was introduced in 1923 and the concept was to change the way people regarded sports outfits. Varvara Stepanova saw the football kit as part of the fight against sexism in sports. In the words of one art historian, her designs “testified to the influence that sports had on the development of unisex clothing, which suggested gender equality as one of the means of the cultural revolution”. I think that sentence might not look out of place today.
Football shirts are about identity. They are about expressions of support but also about the opposite. As the catalogue puts it: “By saying you support Rangers or Everton, you’re also saying you absolutely despise Celtic or Liverpool.” Around the time of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, Rachel Maclean worked up a theme called The Old Firm Altarpiece (it’s on show at Oops) which imagined a world devoid of sectarian strife; one in which Celtic and Rangers fans would come together to worship Scotland, itself depicted as a humanoid thistle. Fat chance!
It was conflict which eventually led to the break-up in the early 1990s of what was Yugoslavia. It devolved into six countries: Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia. The urgency to establish a new national identity was especially important for Croatia – they had an international friendly match looming against the United States, and they had to get the right look for the shirt. “It was the first time our team played as Croatia,” said one contemporary artist, “and [the shirt] was much more important than who the opponent was.” Indeed!
Understandably, given the delicate nature of some of the items on show, there is a sign reading ‘Don’t even think about touching anything’. I didn’t. The exhibition runs until September 28. Go if you can.