Nessun Dorma is belted out by Luciano Pavarotti, the soundtrack to Paul Gascoigne balletically skipping in and out of rampaging opponents. Desperately trying to halt him, they are powerless, dramatically falling by the wayside, almost in slow motion. The England man caresses the ball with the utmost care, manoeuvring it with total ease. It’s art.
Italia ‘90 made football beautiful again. After the trouble and strife of hooliganism in the eighties, the World Cup that summer turned the focus back onto the passion and the emotion on the pitch (Gazza again - his famous tears and quivering lip when he realised he wouldn’t play in the final, regardless of whether or not Bobby Robson’s boys made it through). Germany, Italy, Argentina, Cameroon, this was a tournament steeped in narrative.
Now, thirty years on, Lack of Guidance, who combine football and fashion with thought-provoking design, have teamed up with Too Hot Limited of London to bring us a brilliant collection, consisting of three t-shirts and two long-sleeve numbers, coming in grey and white, that celebrates all that was good about football back then. The memories, the nostalgia, and the style.
Items in the collection feature designs based on the Italia ‘90 mascot called ‘Ciao’, the stick figure with a football for a head who was made up of the host nation’s red, white and green flag (funnily enough it resembles the Channel 4 logo too who would later go on to showcase Serie A for a decade) - the mere image instantly takes you back to England coming so close to glory before Germany ultimately win on penalties and go on to lift the trophy. As. Per. Usual.
There is also a Torino ‘90 shirt in honour of the site where England’s heroic story came to an end at the purpose-built Stadio Delle Alpi, home of Italian giants Juventus between 1990 and 2006.
Launched on November 18, the collection can be found on both the Lack of Guidance and Too Hot webstores.
