They are Huddersfield Town shirts like you’ve never seen before.
Fashion students from the University of Huddersfield teamed up with Town to give some of the club’s shirts a daring makeover.
The customised kits were weird and wonderful with one featuring the iconic Castle Hill in silhouette and another featuring bridal-style lace, perfect for Town fans planning to tie the knot this summer. A third had a corset-style lace-up at the back!
Town contacted fashion lecturers Kathryn Brennand and Debbie Allsop and donated dozens of Umbro shirts and training kits, kept as spares for the first team, some dating back to the Premier League days.
First and second year fashion students got to work and produced some amazing creations.
Other designs see the famous blue-and-white striped home shirt merged with a yellow away top, and a poem about the club on the back. The project also gets the students working with different fabrics, while also thinking about a sustainable approach in an industry that is reducing its carbon footprint.
Kathryn Brennand, course leader in Fashion Design, said the students took on the design work as they would a commission using a material they may not normally choose.
She added: “The students have learned that football shirt designs are many and varied, and that the background to the shirt as a representation of the club is important as well.
“And it’s vital that students think with sustainability in mind. Football shirts can be seen as a disposable item, given how often that clubs come up with new designs, but this project is demonstrating that they can have an extended life.
“The students are also learning about the club, and it’s important that their work has some context to it.”
The club will also sponsor the university’s student fashion show in July, and Huddersfield Town director of global brand, Domenic Notarfrancesco, said: “Seeing the club and university collaborate within Huddersfield is extremely rewarding, and we couldn’t have been happier to sponsor this event.
“A fantastic place to learn, it’s important to us to work with like-minded institutions locally to show what is available and possible right on our doorstep.
“One of the most recognisable parts of the Huddersfield Town brand is our kit, home or away, with so many iconic iterations over time.
“To see how the fashion students have re-imagined that, showed their creativity and created pieces that are new and fresh has been a real joy.
“Expanding the horizons of what Huddersfield Town is, who we are and what it means to be a Terrier is of the utmost importance to us.
“I look forward to taking us into spaces that you wouldn’t usually associate with football, and teaching more people about the club – and it’s a hope that the University of Huddersfield continues to play a role within that.”
