Como’s sweatshirt caught everyone’s eye vs Roma It’s part of the new Retro Collection
We are certainly not used to seeing a team take the field wearing a crewneck: usually, technical jackets with zippers dominate and steal the spotlight in the minutes before kickoff, while the Serie A anthem plays. Yesterday, however, against Roma, Como took the field wearing one of the pieces from the new Retro Collection, namely a sweatshirt featuring a large central COMO print, the number 9 on the back – the same for all players who wore it – and thin stripes running across it completely.
This is just one of the clothing items belonging to the club’s new line, designed, of course, by the creative director Rhuigi Villaseñor, an important figure within the club who works to enhance Como’s identity from an aesthetic standpoint through off-pitch collections. With the exception of some special occasions, Villaseñor is not responsible for designing the team’s game jerseys; instead, he focuses on the lifestyle side, which Como has used to build part of its aesthetic in recent years.
Could pinstripes return to football kits?
Clearly, the club has not made public the references that inspired the crewneck; yet it could draw inspiration from the 1982/83 season, as well as the following three: four consecutive seasons in which Como opted for kits featuring pinstripes, a pattern characterized by the arrangement of thin vertical stripes. Moreover, in those years Como was sponsored by adidas, and in the 1983/84 and 1984/85 seasons, it used the exact same collar.
Perhaps by pure coincidence, the launch and use of this sweatshirt also mark the spread – or rather, the return – of pinstripes in the world of football kits. Traditionally associated with the elegance of men’s tailoring, pinstripes have also had a significant presence in sportswear, especially in the 1980s. adidas was one of the main promoters of this aesthetic, as were brands like Le Coq Sportif – the 1981 Chelsea home jersey is a striking example. In recent years, adidas has brought this aesthetic back to the forefront with the launch of the Terrace collections, but perhaps one of the clearest examples of pinstripes’ return in modern football is the Inter home jersey made by Nike for the 2014/15 season.
