http://www.sepp-magazine.com/ When we launched Sepp in 2002, few designers, except maybe Armani with the Davids - James and Beckham - and Dirk Bikkembergs sport couture, cared much about football. Since then, a squad of luxury labels has tapped into the global obsession with football, and player's rare ability to convey and magnify style trends. Mirroring that, The Beautiful Game, is designed to reflect how top brands now develop products specifically with soccer's global reach in mind, how they use famous players in their advertising and other related news. As Sepp hears about new deals and announcements on a regular basis now, we have decided to start this online column to support our print version and bring you the latest football fashion news at once. office@sepp-magazine.com (SEPP magazine) mail@unit-berlin.de (unit-berlin) Verlag Neunundsechzig 120 http://www.sepp-magazine.com http://www.sepp-magazine.com/co/asset/pic/logo_sepp.gif 144 60
]]> http://www.sepp-magazine.com/thebeautifulgame/Behind+the+Scenes%3A+Brazilian+Bombshells+in+the+Making office@sepp-magazine.com (Ebner Markus) http://www.sepp-magazine.com/thebeautifulgame/Behind+the+Scenes%3A+Brazilian+Bombshells+in+the+Making Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:29:54 +0200
Alou Diarra, the French capitain

Just when you thought that Karl Lagerfeld might be running out of professions – designer, photographer, essayist, wit, host and brand ambassador for everyone form Magnum to Volkswagen – when it comes up with yet another – footballer portraitist. To celebrate the latest chic French national football jersey, an away kit created by Nike, the Chanel couturier – another profession, let’s recall – has captured one of France’s great new players, Alou Diarra, elegantly juggling a ball. It’s not Karl’s first soccer moment; Herr Lagerfeld has sketched mega footballers for the last four issues of Sepp, with our South Africa World Cup issue featuring illustrations of Didier Drogba, Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery, among others. However, for Nike’ the German meister has trained his lens on his first footballer, capturing the novel spirit of the new French away kit. Nike and Karl will launch the spruce new outfit on March 28 in Paris with an opening in the capital’s coolest concept store, Colette. Though the kit has also just become available for pre-order via the websites of both Nike and the FFF.


New stripes for the French football team

A swish re-interpretation of the classic blue stripe on white background “mariniere,” or mariner, jersey first wore by sailors in the French Navy in the 19th century, it oozes French sporty chic. Plus, the shirt could not be more environmentally PC – it’s made of 4% organic cotton and 96% from a microfiber polyester entirely derived from recycled plastic bottles. The natty jersey’s crest is the minimalist cockerel strutting over the FFF of French Football Federation, on the left the classic swish from Nike. Karl photographs Diarra in profile with the French rooster visible. Alou, who has played 31 times for France, first captained France in the final match of the World Cup in South Africa. He also wore the captain’s armband this February, when he led les bleus for the fifth time in his career in their 1–0 victory over Brazil. The new away jersey is of lightweight fabric that incorporates Nike Dri-FIT technology, while its “engineered ventilation” will keep players cooler, especially Diarra, a tough tackling Bordeaux midfielder, who has also done stints at such giants as Bayern Munich and Liverpool. Though how anyone could be quite as cool than Karl is hard to imagine.

A swish re-interpretation of the classic blue stripe on white background “mariniere,” or mariner, jersey first wore by sailors in the French Navy in the 19th century, it oozes French sporty chic. Plus, the shirt could not be more environmentally PC – it’s made of 4% organic cotton and 96% from a microfiber polyester entirely derived from recycled plastic bottles. The natty jersey’s crest is the minimalist cockerel strutting over the FFF of French Football Federation, on the left the classic swish from Nike. Karl photographs Diarra in profile with the French rooster visible. Alou, who has played 31 times for France, first captained France in the final match of the World Cup in South Africa. He also wore the captain’s armband this February, when he led les bleus for the fifth time in his career in their 1–0 victory over Brazil. The new away jersey is of lightweight fabric that incorporates Nike Dri-FIT technology, while its “engineered ventilation” will keep players cooler, especially Diarra, a tough tackling Bordeaux midfielder, who has also done stints at such giants as Bayern Munich and Liverpool. Though how anyone could be quite as cool than Karl is hard to imagine.

]]> http://www.sepp-magazine.com/thebeautifulgame/New+image+for+the+FFF office@sepp-magazine.com (Ebner Markus) http://www.sepp-magazine.com/thebeautifulgame/New+image+for+the+FFF Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:05:22 +0100
Messi in Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce&Gabbana are on a full court press to become the reigning high-end fashion brand when it comes to football. This month, alone, the dynamo Italian duo have inked a deal to dress the current English champions Chelsea as well as the man most rate as the planet’s best player, Lionel Messi. The Milan-based house announced this week that they will create the formal suits of the Chelsea Football Club, dressing a star line-up that includes internationals like Frank Lampard, John Terry, our favorite battling midfielder, Ghana’s Michael Essien, and Didier Drogba, the top-scoring striker in the English Premiership last season. Plus, Domenico and Stefano are also going to create their second “Dolce&Gabbana Lounge” concept in the West Stand at Chelsea’s home ground of Stamford Bridge in London. In September 2008, Dolce&Gabbana opened their debut lounge in San Siro stadium for home games of Italian giant AC Milan. Hate to brag but your favored editors – Markus and I – got to enjoy the pleasures - twice - of the San Siro lounge, first in January, for the opening home game against Fiorentina of fashion icon David Beckham for the rossoneri. Appointed with classic black and white images of fashion shoots, coffee table photography books, black clad waiters, viewing terrace and upstairs seating for 30. Plus, the Sicilian red mini pizzas and pulsatingly tannic Sicilian red they served was not half bad either….


Mr. Deeny and Mr. Ebner in the Dolce box

“We are really happy about this partnership and to be able to link our name to such as prestigious club like Chelsea,” the designing duo said. Dolce & Gabbana replaces Giorgio Armani, who decided not to renew his three-year contract with the London-based team. Like Armani, the duo’s contract is for three years. “We are big football fans, for us it means healthy competition, intense passion and great discipline. Football players are style icons both on and off the pitch and, on top of this, there is our love of England and of London, which have always been a source of inspiration for our work,” Domenico and Stefano added. They will create two outfits for the players – dark three piece suits with two button jackets, and the club’s rampant lion crest embroidered on the breast pocket, and jeans worn with a “martini” shirt and black sneakers. A black coat completes the look for the Chelsea blues. For foreign matches – vital since Chelsea are currently second favorite for the Champions league, rated at 5/1 by Ladbrokes – Dolce&Gabbana have provided black leather trolley bags.


The Dolce look for the Chelsea boys: Hilario, Sturridge, Essien, Borini, Obi Mikel (from l-r)

Trumpeted Chelsea’s CEO Ron Gourlay: “In addition to dressing the team, Dolce&Gabbana’s comprehensive redesign of the club’s directors’ lounge and other key areas of the stadium will also serve to showcase our relationship over the next few seasons.” In a related move, the Italian brand has also linked up with Lionel Messi, the star Argentine attacker of Europe’s number one ranked club Barcelona. In future, Messi will wear Dolce&Gabbana at all official occasions. “I would like to thank Dolce&Gabbana for having made this collaboration possible. I have always had a preference for their sartorial style and I always loved the sophisticated image they project,” Messi explained. True is, Lionel already made his sartorial debut in the Milan fashion house’s clothes when he picked up the Golden Boot – Europe’s most prestigious prize for an individual soccer player. The moves confirms Dolce&Gabbana as the most soccer oriented of any major fashion label. Doubly so, seeing the house has been sponsor of the Italian National team since 2006, famously using five star players, shot in football dressing rooms, as their underwear models for several seasons. Our only concern? Well, when we visit the Chelsea “Dolce&Gabbana Lounge” which will feature six tables for eight people, each, or a total of 48 dining guests, will the WAG's look as good as le belle donne in San Siro?

]]> http://www.sepp-magazine.com/thebeautifulgame/Dolce+%26+Gabbana+are+serious+about+their+football%21 office@sepp-magazine.com (Deeny Godfrey) http://www.sepp-magazine.com/thebeautifulgame/Dolce+%26+Gabbana+are+serious+about+their+football%21 Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:37:15 +0200
Jogi's Cashmere V-Neck from Strenesse made Savile Row envious!

By Godfrey Deeny There has been something of a long search for us folks in the United Kingdom for the Cool, New German, especially when it comes to football, where, hang it all, you Teutonic chaps have this damned habit of always seeming to beat us when it really matters. We all like to remember 1966, England’s one moment of World Cup glory, but since then, it’s been a painful chain of losses. And, hang it all, you finally got your revenge of that infamous Wembley Tor in Bloemfontein; and tore the English defense to shreds. Before, at least, we could always poke fun at our Germanic cousins for the way they dressed. Gerd Muller did score that brilliantly opportunistic diving header against the Three Lions in Mexico 1970, it’s true. But did he ever actually look in the mirror? He might have been the all time goal-scorer for the Mannschaft, yet off the field poor Gerd still managed to look like an unemployed miner in frumpy cardigans. You see, when the final whistle was blown, we still had Savile Row, George Best and David Beckham. Could you ever imagine a Jerry from the Ruhr modeling an Armani underwear campaign? You have got to be kidding. Which is why all of a sudden, everyone over here is upset about Joachim Löw. You see, you Krauts – yes, that’s still the most widely used term for folks from the Bundesrepublik – not only do you keep beating us, but you have also finally found yourselves a coach with a real sense of style. That much was clear from the opening match, when you trashed the Australians and Löw appeared in a well-cut suit and, most intriguingly, a sheer cashmere V-neck. Which was not only chic, but had a certain avant-garde, risqué pizzazz. Most importantly, fitted his torso and looked damned good; most intriguingly, we wondered, had a vest underneath? We’re not saying that all your Bundestrainers were sartorial disasters. Kaiser Franz had a decent wardrobe, but it was always a tad too formulaic. One sensed his wife most have picked out his clothes. And poor Helmut Schon…. A great coach admittedly, with a certain charm in his workers flat cap, but had he nothing else in the closet besides his tracksuit with the German eagle crest? Löw, on the other, has clearly thought about his image, and his physique; and he clearly checks our men’s fashion magazines. He hangs scarves around his neck like a Parisian, i.e. doubled up, and tied through; and favors high-collared body conscious white shirts, like a Milan luxury brand CEO. Plus, as the men’s fashion critic of The Financial Times, and thus pretty familiar with mega designer dress habits, I can report meeting John Galliano, creative director of Christian Dior no less, in a V-Neck cashmere pullover, and even wearing them myself, personally favoring Malo, my vote for the best Italian cashmere label. More galling still, we’d thought by hiring an Italian, it would maintain our sartorial status. Instead, Fabio Capello’s Mark & Spencer’s £200 gray suit also came off a poor second to Löw’s latest V-Neck – in steel blue no less - and a suavely cut single breasted jacket. In a word, a middle manager brushed aside by a stylish entrepreneur. And, Jogi’s got a good sense of grooming, the just a tad too long hair imbues him with that creative touch, a sense that he reads interesting novels, which women always like. He even looks like the big brother of the current model in Dior’s current Eau Sauvage cologne ad campaign, for chrissakes! And that hint of gray hair imparts a certain youthful gravitas. The frauleins must swoon. Moreover, Jogi is clearly setting trends, just ask the folks at Strenesse. That label’s CEO Gerd Strehle has been telling me for years that Löw has been a vital force in driving business for the brand. All told, his new cosmopolitan style seems a perfect metaphor for the multi-ethnic New Germany that has been grabbing so much attention. On June 15, when I landed in Florence for Pitti Uomo, the world’s biggest men’s wear trade show, Italian daily La Repubblica heralded “La Nuova Germania… la squadra mille colori.” Translated: “The New Germany, the team of a thousand colors.” “Addio Panzer,” the paper continued, welcoming a Mannschaft that was “between a kebab and a paella.” Now that you Germans have whipped us again in South Africa, we’re grasping at straws like a drowning man. And, casting our minds back through Hollywood iconography we did find some consolation in that mega hit Basic Instinct, especially the scene where Michael Douglas has his erotic dance in a nightclub with Sharon Stone. He wore a clinging, tight-fitting cashmere V neck jersey too. Douglas, you might recall, ended up killing his lover and being prepped by Stone for an ice pick death… Small comfort, I know, after losing in football and fashion this summer.

]]> http://www.sepp-magazine.com/thebeautifulgame/Deeny+on+Deutschland%27s+Jogi office@sepp-magazine.com (Ebner Markus) http://www.sepp-magazine.com/thebeautifulgame/Deeny+on+Deutschland%27s+Jogi Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:45:23 +0200