I am by no means a football fan. I don’t have a team and wouldn’t know what the offside rule was if it kicked me in the perineum. And yet, increasingly, I find myself drawn in by the bright tones of a football jersey, intrigued by the slimline silhouette of a football boot and, in the wildest moments, even contemplating a Beckham-style headband.
It’s hard to tell when or why this happened. Maybe it’s World Cup fever infiltrating sartorial thoughts, or some kind of Arsenal victory celebration by osmosis. Or maybe it’s the fact that football feels like it’s having a bona fide fashion moment.
Look at Burberry’s autumn 2026 campaign. A Good Sport, which features England and Arsenal stars Leah Williamson and Declan Rice, with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley supporting from the sidelines and Lucy Punch queuing at a burger van. This is a mood menswear label Labrum tapped into back in 2024. Its SS25 collection, created in collaboration with Arsenal and Adidas (both fashion FC buzzwords), was unveiled at Emirates Stadium, with Rice making his catwalk debut in a sharp navy suit laced with white fabric.
More recently, Simone Rocha teased an Adidas collaboration in her AW26 show in Alexandra Palace’s artfully crumbling Victorian theatre. There, sporty tri-stripe track jackets and pitch-ready sneakers were paired with whimsical chiffon, cascading pearls and coquettish bows. Football, it was clear, had earned a place at fashion week.
Now, the football shirt is taking its place in the spotlight. Increasingly, the sporty style seems to be shaking off its “pick me girl” associations (an internet term for women who seek validation from men by rejecting supposedly female interests and putting other women down), quite simply because it looks fresh and somehow very “now”. They’re most often uplifting in colour, easy to style, and even the newest feel pleasingly retro.
Perhaps that’s why, when Adidas launched its World Cup shirts in LA this year, the star-studded crowd included Kendall Jenner, Gabbriette and Damson Idris. Also on the moodboard is the patron saint of making football shirts look hot — Dua Lipa. She’s a fan of pairing them with belted denim, once memorably combining the forest green and zesty yellow of a Brazil shirt with a cherry red bag and layered gold necklaces. Equally of interest: Anne Hathaway singing North London Forever in an Arsenal shirt and Joy Crookes modelling a cropped Adidas shirt by streetwear brand Places + Faces.
This is infiltrating everyday wardrobes. A cursory Instagram search for “football shirt” delivers a feed full of influencer types offering “six ways to style a Liverpool shirt” and extolling the confidence the piece can deliver. According to Pinterest’s summer 2026 trends report, searches for “World Cup shirts” are up 840 per cent year-on-year, while World Cup searches on livestream shopping marketplace Whatnot are 25 times higher than those in January.
But as Sophie Marlow, fashion and luxury lead at Pinterest UK, points out, it’s the searches that sit alongside these figures that tell the real story. Searches for “shirt with heels outfit” and “crop shirt outfit women” are also spiking. “These aren’t fans looking for their team’s kit, these are people, and increasingly women, using a football shirt as a starting point to build a full day-to-night outfit,” says Marlow.
“The easiest and most-searched entry point to elevate football shirts with a styling-first lens is denim shorts or jorts. A more fashion-forward approach pulls the shirt away from sport entirely, pairing it with ballet flats, kitten heels, slim sunglasses or a strong bag. The shirt still signals who you support, but increasingly it signals taste and a particular aesthetic or era. That’s what suggests this trend could extend well beyond the final whistle.”
Four fashion FC finds
- Puma speedcats ballet flats, £70, Puma.com
- Adidas Places + Faces Arsenal FC shirt, £90, Adidas.co.uk
- Alohas TB 490 club Brasil leather sneakers, £170, Alohas.com
- & Other Stories mini silver shoulder bag, £87, Stories.com
The football influence can also be seen in the slimline trainers that have dominated the last season or so of footwear trends. There are classics, including Puma Speedcats, and special editions, such as Adidas x Wales Bonner’s sellout silver Sambas with sporty lip detail. But the style has also cropped up at high street brands, including Cos and footwear labels such as Alohas. The latter has just launched the Tb.490 World Club, which “brings together a series of colourways inspired by the visual language of national football team kits around the world”.
Throw on a pair of these with a sporty top, try a lace-trimmed slip skirt or shorts for a touch of Simone Rocha whimsy, add a clashing bag à la Lipa, and you’re good to go. As for the Beckham headband, I’m still thinking about that one…
