Chelsea is the most interesting voice in the dialogue between fashion and football

No shirt tucked into pants with a belt, no tailored trousers and blazer matched with sneakers and a football shirt. Chelsea presented the For the Glory collection, which, perhaps fortunately, considering the redundancy in the campaigns presenting football shirts and team lifestyle collections, attempts to shed light on the direction that the intersection between fashion and football could take. Is there a need or desire to move beyond the looks and fits that have been focused on so far? A garment can carry multiple meanings, definitely more evocative than the looks that clubs and brands often use to communicate their releases, and Chelsea's latest lifestyle collection, created by emerging creative Ebele Ojechi, fully demonstrates this.

Several aspects are crucial in the For the Glory collection: the lines and volumes used, for sure; an upcycling approach employed in a way that is very close to the fashion system players who are gradually stabilizing, taking inspiration from football imagery – such as Prototypes, the brand founded by Laura Beham and Callum Pidgeon, former designers of VETEMENTS, a brand that made transgression its guiding principle for years. But also a message that manages to synthesize the club's heritage with that of a significant portion of its fanbase. In For The Glory, you’ll find balaclavas hybridized with wool hats, long-sleeves made by combining different shirts, scarves tied together as a simple styling exercise, split bomber jackets, and crewnecks embellished with visible stitching embroidery.

The materials used in the Chelsea items involved in the upcycling practice belong to the Igbo tradition. The Igbo are one of the largest African ethnic groups; they number around 38 million people in 2024. In Nigeria, they represent about 17% of the population. Nigeria is an important part of the Blues’ supporter base, and a collection of this sophistication could only be one of the best ways to express gratitude and belonging. Moreover, the collection arrives at a time in the season when European teams continue relentlessly releasing kit after kit – soon, the sixth seasonal kit of Bayern Munich will be released, a choice that makes you reflect on whether it's right to have so many collections, or if at least the clubs, active participants in the intersection of sport and fashion, have the sacred duty to do more, both in terms of the silhouettes of their collections and in terms of narrative.

It is also true that the creativity of the collection's shapes was made possible thanks to its destination. In other words, this is not a fan collection. The project by Ebele Ojechi is on display in London at the Saatchi Gallery as part of an exhibition celebrating the 120-year history of the London club, alongside photographs and installations that reference the club's heritage.