James Geraghty's graduate collection for Kingston University in 2016 was a striking menswear collection that stood out for its playful yet obsessive focus on football fan culture and branding. The collection, which was a highlight at Graduate Fashion Week, was praised for its clever reworking of classic tailoring with highly unconventional, sports-related details.
Concept & Inspiration
Geraghty's collection centred on the theme of obsession, using the passionate devotion of football supporters to their teams as its primary inspiration.
Positive Fan Culture: The designer specifically aimed to focus on the positive side of football fandom—the passion, loyalty, and celebration of branding—rather than the negative aspects like hooliganism.
Branding as Identity: Fascinated by the way a team's branding can shape a fan's identity, Geraghty took the logos of well-known clubs (like Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal) and playfully replaced their names with his own, such as "Geraghty United," to illustrate how deeply a club can become part of a person.
Lighthearted Approach: He aimed for the whole collection to feel lighthearted and less "serious," drawing parallels to the ironic, playful spirit of houses like Moschino.
Key Design Elements and Execution
The strength of the collection lay in the unexpected marriage of luxurious materials and tailoring with the ubiquitous, often cheap, acrylic football scarf.
Reworked Tailoring: Geraghty used classic men's tailoring fabrics—Italian wools, suitings, and English shirting—as the foundation for his garments. This juxtaposition created an element of surprise, as the traditional materials were worked in completely new ways.
The Scarf Motif: The most distinctive feature was the heavy integration of acrylic football scarves. These were either loosely seamed into jackets, shirts, and trousers, allowing them to flow with movement, or used to construct entire garments. This directly referenced the look of a devoted fan draped in team scarves.
Signature Pieces: The collection's most sought-after pieces included the "Gezza football scarf" (featuring his own branding) and a statement top made entirely out of scarves, which gained significant traction with stylists post-show.
Technical Detail: He incorporated details like using selvedge scraps from shirting to create a fringing effect along seams, mimicking the look of a football scarf fringe. The actual football scarves were digitally knitted on campus at Kingston University to maintain a level of quality and control.
Critical Impact
James Geraghty's collection was a highly memorable highlight of the 2016 Graduate Fashion Week. Tutors and critics praised his ability to take iconic elements of menswear and give them a fresh, witty spin while saying something meaningful about modern obsessions and identity. It successfully transformed a highly specific subculture into compelling, contemporary menswear.