Football Clothing - The Scarf Is Back In Force

Football clothing has changed over the years - from shiny flat caps covered in pin badges, to the replica shirt era, to the soccer casual clad in designer labels... And one particular item of football clothing is not so much making a comeback but has made a return to the fore of football merchandise.

The football scarf has always been a prominent garment at football matches up and down the country, and recently many fans have reintroduced a trend first seen in the 60s - wrapping a scarf around your wrist and waving it around whenever the ball hits the back of the net!

The scarf has always been an iconic part of Liverpool football club, especially when anyone mentions the famous Kop End of Anfield stadium. It has long been a tradition, usually during victorious Champions League matches, for Reds fans to hold their Liverpool scarves aloft and belt out the club's anthem: You'll Never Walk Alone. The scene of a full Kop with nothing in view but heads and hands emanating from a sea of scarves is one of British football's iconic images.

At another Premier League club, Arsenal, many fans are waving their retro red and white striped scarves around Emirates stadium whenever a goal goes in, which adds to the colour of a match, and in turn adds to the atmosphere both within the ground but also on TV.

In South America and Italy in particular fans have always tied scarves around their wrists and celebrated in this way. And of course they adopted this trend from British football fans of the 60s. As any fashion designer will tell you, trends are cyclical. Just as sportswear and trainers of the 80s came back into fashion in a big way on the streets, scarves are re-entering the 'cool' of football.

Scarves in general have become extremely fashionable in this millennium, both for male and female. Be it cashmere, lamb's wool, silk, patterned, branded, plain... The choice is endless and designers really went to town in capitalising on this market.

And in the world of football it is no different, especially given the merchandising potential, particularly at Premier League level. Club scarves are available at club shops, at online stores, outside the football grounds at the vast numbers of market stalls... They are everywhere for one reason and that is because the football scarf is the most popular item of football clothing around. Always has been and always will be.

The football scarf has negative connotations, especially in Italy where football hooligans that form 'Ultras' - the Italian equivalent of football hooligan firms (a group of football hooligans who organise fights with rivals) - use scarves to cover their faces in order to disguise themselves from CCTV cameras and the Police when being naughty little boys. In fact, in Italy you can buy scarves outside the stadiums that have the name of the team, e.g. Lazio, and the word Ultras on them, actually advertising the hooligans! When in Rome eh!

Football has always been a vehicle with which to express style as well as to cheer on your team. Football fans are a sub culture in themselves and football clothing is a fundamental part of this. The football scarf is synonymous with football culture; it has been for generations and will continue to be for generations to come.

Seed Newsvine

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