Football and Fashion. These two Fs go hand in hand.
So when Manchester City rocked up to Madrid for the 1st leg of their Champions League Quarter-Final tie against Real Madrid in varsity jackets paired with light-colored jeans, it’s fair to say it raised a few eyebrows.
Just like how season kits are judged by their design, style and inspiration, pre-match jackets and travel fashion, which is a norm for all the top clubs to don before their continental travels, are also under the microscope. City’s current choice of fashion has been put through the same treatment, and the verdict is not looking good, literally.
Man City have had a partnership with ‘Dsquared 2’, a luxury brand and a high-end fashion house, for seven years now. Their collaboration is solely for designing City’s pre-match uniforms when they travel for their Champions League away games.
While the brand, known for their tailoring and innovative denim, designs City’s pre-match fashion every season, this year’s look might be the one of the worst ones. It’s not to say they drop classics consistently, most of their designs are a hit or a miss, but pairing a varsity jacket, with a tucked out white shirt and light-blue jeans is a disaster. Not to mention the ultra black boots embodying complete discord.
Let's go to our Champions League match in Spain dressed like American College kids?🤦
— Shane Easterbrook (@ShaneUtdfan99) April 9, 2024
Looks like they’ve been drop kicked through TopMan in about 1993
— David O'Leary (@Dav1dOLeary) April 10, 2024
Marty McFly jackets and Jim Royle jeans.
— Nigel Manton (@mantonn) April 9, 2024
Styled by Stevie Wonder.
Last season’s all black uniform with a Manchester City logo etched on the sweatshirt covered by a coat was a simple, yet elegant look for the treble winners. Simplicity is appreciated and even cool but it seems like Dsquared completely forgot about that.
This is also not the first time that the fashion police is hot in pursuit of Manchester City’s fashion crime. During the current campaign itself, Dsquared 2 dropped a different collection for City’s group stage exploits in the Champions League away from home.
A 450 pound buttoned-cardigan with the players name and number at the back called for the head of the designers of the look. Even a little over two years ago, City players travelling across Europe in a pair of cuffed jeans saw a major backlash from the onlookers, asking for the artists behind the failed idea to be handcuffed instead.
Manchester City may be a functional club playing a stylistic, slick brand of football, aesthetically pleasing on the eyes, but their fashion sense is a different story altogether. They may be the champions of the world, historic treble winners, or perhaps even the best team around, but if they were to ranked based on their styling off the pitch, I am afraid they wouldn’t even qualify for the Champions League.
