Andrew Groves is a Professor of Fashion Design at the University of Westminster and Season ticket holder in the East Stand.

 

He discusses how football has a unique ability to bring fans of various teams together through a shared love for style.

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13th March 2013

Manchester City V Newcastle United.

Congratulations, you’ve just met the BSFC.

 

Despite team rivalry, it was socks that brought many of us together a decade ago. A craze for fancy footwear became a common bond between dressers or casuals from across the country in the early days of Twitter. The British Sock Fetish Council was soon formed as a sort of club, hence BSFC. It wasn’t actually a fetish club, which I remember made for some awkward exchanges early on.

 

Suddenly something that was a joke, became something much more real. We first met in 

Manchester, 13th March 2013, before a Newcastle match. There was about 60 people there. Fans from all over the country came to the Tib Street Tavern for a drink and to meet in person. But there were other City lads who I’d never met before but who also like to dress smartly were there as well. “Fancy meeting someone you don’t know off the internet!” most of our partners thought. Strangely, I don’t recall anyone ever mentioning socks.

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I’m wearing a beautiful pair of Burlington socks in these pictures, they’re an orange and blue argyle pattern; you can’t see them. That’s the point. I definitely have lucky socks that I wear watching City. They work; look at us now, a decade on since that first sock meet,

champions of Europe!

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