The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has stepped off the soccer pitch and onto the runway by launching their first “functional luxury” fashion brand.
Called “FIFA 1904,” the clothing line features cashmere overcoats, sheath dresses and crisp office-appropriate shirts and tailored blazers, according to Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times, who broke the story.
FIFA 1904 “was created in collaboration with the masterminds of VFiles,” a New York-based fashion platform. While plenty of clubs have their own brands, this is the “first time that a league has taken a page from the playbook.” The line is the brain child of VFiles chief exec Leonardo Lawson and founder Julie Ann Quay, who also happens to be the owner of EFL League One club Barnsley FC. The duo sold the brand concept to FIFA for an undisclosed amount of money. Says Quay, “It can be a billion-dollar brand by the 2030 World Cup.”
As The Times reports, Quay herself pitched the project to FIFA, convinced that its executives were the best possible brand ambassadors due to their numerous business trips. Initially, the proposal did not convince FIFA’s board, which was then in negotiations with adidas. However, FIFA was persuaded to launch its own clothing line by the fact that more and more football clubs were founding their own fashion brands, and that more and more sports leagues, from the NBA to F1, were signing deals with luxury brands.
The new brand is based in N.Y. and L.A. and will be designed by Marcus Clayton, the former design director of Fenty. FIFA, a nonprofit, will license its name and logo to VFiles and get a royalty of sales in return, as well as the right to approve each design. Specifically, FIFA will license the name and brand to VFiles, while retaining veto power over what can and cannot be sold, effectively maintaining creative control.
The official debut of the first FIFA 1904 collection, which includes garments for both men and women, will take place at the end of the month on the most prestigious stage of all: the Paris Fashion Week. After that launch, the VFiles store in SoHo will be transformed into the FIFA 1904 flagship store, start with 10 wholesale partners and “hold a proper runway show next year.”
Prices will range from $55 for a cap to $995 for a cashmere blend overcoat. Quay “believes so much in the project’s potential” that she and Lawson have created VFiles Unlimited, which will become the parent company of an entire suite of brands.
—
Photo Credit: Master1305 / Shutterstock.com