The best outfits at Women's EURO 2025 How female players are leading fit culture
Let us begin with a truth that, until recently, was whispered rather than spoken: women’s football, long overshadowed in funding, airtime and respect, is now decisively outdressing the men’s game. Not only are the players setting new standards on the pitch, they are redefining what post-match fashion looks like.
Gone are the days of shuffling through mixed zones in oversized hoodies and corporate polo shirts like begrudging interns on sports day. Today’s female footballers are not only elite athletes—they are cultural bellwethers. The tunnel walk has become a runway. The training ground, a backdrop for Off-White puffer jackets and Martine Rose sling bags. The fashion press, once laser-focused on the WAGs and their seasonal sunglasses, is now training its gaze on the players themselves.
The Lionesses
Beth Mead, England’s golden boot and arguably its most stylish ambassador, is leading the post-match renaissance. A recent stroll through the Zurich press zone saw her in wide-leg parachute trousers, a boxy tailored blazer in storm blue, and an acid-yellow sports bra peeking from beneath—equal parts Victoria Beckham and tactical mesh. Her look said: "I could score from outside the box and close a Loewe campaign before the bus gets to the hotel".
Meanwhile, Alessia Russo has taken a more architectural route. She favours tonal fits in sand, sage and bone. Technical jackets layered over ribbed knits. Trousers that recall military parachute gear but cut with a feminine silhouette. Her recent pre-match arrival look in Zurich—Rick Owens boots, a Wales Bonner track jacket zipped to the chin, and oversized hoops—triggered a full-day fashion debate on TikTok. If Mead is the cool older cousin with industry contacts, Russo is the fashion intern who actually gets it.
But this isn’t just about individuals dressing well. This is a movement. An emergent, uncompromising aesthetic rooted in confidence, experimentation, and visibility. Women’s football is embracing fashion not as an accessory to success, but as a strategic extension of identity. Where the men’s game remains largely wedded to luxury orthodoxy—tailored neutrals, designer-logo overload and the occasional exceptions—the women’s game has taken risks. Bright colours. Gender-fluid tailoring. Vintage-sourced denim. Bags worn inside tracksuits. Footballers, once told to stay quiet, are now making statements before they’ve even touched the ball.
A key shift is that women’s footballers are dressing for each other—not the cameras, not the brands, and certainly not the tabloids. The tunnel walk, now as much a cultural moment as the game itself, has become a coded performance of personality. Each outfit says something.
Other examples
But to focus solely on the Lionesses would be to miss the truly pan-European scope of this style revolution. Across the continent, players are turning the press zone into a runway with unapologetic flair, often with more fashion fluency than their English counterparts. Take Delphine Cascarino of France—equal parts winger and wardrobe icon. Her tunnel looks blend Parisian streetwear with high-concept minimalism: crisp pleated trousers, gilets layered over boxy shirting, and an enviable rotation of Jacquemus micro-bags slung like medals of honour. She dresses like she plays—clean lines, sharp angles, minimal wasted motion. Then there’s Jule Brand, the German midfielder whose EURO 2025 wardrobe appears to have been curated directly from Berlin’s Berghain cloakroom. She favours monochrome technical pieces, asymmetric tailoring, and a striking commitment to chunky-soled boots, even in the July heat. It’s a look that whispers post-industrial futurism with a side of midfield dominance.
From the Netherlands, Lieke Martens brings something altogether more polished: think tonal cream ensembles, silk varsity jackets worn like outerwear armour, and accessories that nod to her heritage—tulip-motif earrings, wooden-soled clogs (not the Croc kind, thank you). She exudes the quiet power of a player who has seen it all—and dressed for each phase. And keep an eye on Fridolina Rolfö, the Swedish powerhouse with a taste for Scandi-cool tailoring and genderless silhouettes. At a recent pre-match walk-through in Lucerne, she appeared in a full Acne Studios set: oversized collarless jacket, pool-blue pleat trousers, and a recycled nylon crossbody that looked like it could hold both her boots and a philosophy textbook. Rolfö isn’t just playing the game—she’s dressing like she invented it.
What binds these players across nations is not just flair, but fluency—the ability to speak multiple fashion languages at once. Whether rooted in Nordic minimalism, Parisian polish or East Berlin utilitarianism, their looks are bold without being performative, cool without being curated within an inch of their lives. They’re not trying to emulate men’s fashion—they’re creating a blueprint entirely their own.
The legacy EURO 2025
EURO 2025, taking place in a nation better known for neutrality than flamboyance, has ironically become ground zero for this new kind of football fashion. The Swiss backdrops—modernist stadiums, cool Alpine air, Bauhaus hotel lobbies—have provided the perfect runway for an aesthetic that blends streetwear sharpness with off-duty elegance. You’re just as likely to see a player in a Marine Serre body suit and track pants as you are in a 2000s-inspired Juicy Couture zip-up reissued for the crypto era.
It helps, of course, that brands have caught on. Slowly at first, and then all at once. Nike’s EURO 2025 women’s line leans heavily into cropped silhouettes, layered mesh, and preppy tailoring—clothes designed not just to perform, but to be photographed walking into a stadium tunnel at 5:40pm CET. adidas has launched a genderless tailoring capsule in collaboration with Grace Wales Bonner, styled on the players themselves.
The crossover is no longer theoretical; it is institutional. Fashion houses aren’t just lending clothes to players—they are recruiting them. Mead is fronting skincare campaigns. Russo has sat front row at the Milan Fashion Week. Katie Zelem just signed a capsule deal with Aries. And perhaps most tellingly, the players aren’t relying on stylists to translate the look. They already have the look. They are the look. The accessories, too, deserve attention. We are deep into the era of purposeful flex. Think Dior saddle bags peeking from kit bags. Tiffany ear cuffs tucked beneath messy buns. Ganni clogs worn to the dugout. Gen Z layering is in full swing: watches worn over sleeves, hairbands doubling as wristbands, vintage tinted sunglasses at 7pm in the shade. It's not extra—it’s elevated kit culture.
And while the men’s game slowly catches up—trapped somewhere between Paris Fashion Week and the influencer economy—the women are already five steps ahead, their boots in one bag, their Margiela jackets in the other. The message is clear: we are not here to imitate. We are here to redefine. As the EURO 2025 trophy waits to be lifted, the fashion stakes have already been claimed. The players have arrived. They’ve scored. And they’ve done it in pleated trousers, high-tops, and crystal-pinned braids.
