Inspired by its native Madrid, the heritage and beauty of football shirts, Pompeii CF is about to set the record straight when it comes to aesthetics over performance. Joining forces with Kappa, we think their statement around being the 'best dressed club in the world' might just be correct.

As Kappa continues their journey of re-writing the collaborative rule book, we can only look on and wonder what is next for the Italian brand. Each collaboration making bigger waves than the last. They appear to have become the 'cool' in the football shirt world and who are we to disagree.

However, this status ultimately relies on the visions of those they collaborate with. Madrid based streetwear brand, Pompeii – and their creative team appear to have extended the Kappa brand reputation once again. But this time through the guise of Pompeii CF, (a fictitious football team) who place aesthetics at the heart of their creations. Their team is only interested in one title, not leagues or cup, but simply reputation. The best dressed club... 

We caught up with Pompeii creative director and co-founder of Pompeii, Cosme Bergareche to hear more about the launch of Pompeii CF.

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CK: So tell us, how did the collab with Kappa come about?

 CB: As a brand we decided to bring football into our universe a few years back, basically because we love it and believed we could add in helping bring the sport closer to fashion. We started by just uploading some football inspired carousels to our Instagram feed and the reception was beyond expectation. We then did a whole collection inspired by football and what it represents in our eyes, then came a small capsule collection for the World Cup. We felt like the next step had to be to collaborate or partner with a brand or entity that already had a name in football. It's great for us to do stuff aswell, but we felt like going hand in hand with someone like Kappa would help put us on the map. We thought about Kappa for obvious reasons, approached them, and fortunately they were changing their team here in Spain and were really open to doing new things.

Shop ALL Kappa shirts here.

CK: 'The best dressed club in the world'... tell us about the idea behind this statement?

CB: Haha well, we'd like to build on the Pompeii Club de Fútbol concept, and for it not just to be this one-time drop. Our idea is to build a fake club where the aesthetics and product come first. When designing the kit our aim was to make something that could be worn in any situation. The intention behind the "Gran Sastreria Madrid" sponsor was to give the idea that the kit had been tailored, building on the "best dressed" concept. When your club isn't real I think it's easier to use a claim of this sort (real fans wouldn't be happy with that being your biggest asset), and we just wanted to occupy that space.

CK: We know Kappa have a place in football shirt heritage, but what else made you want to work with the Italian brand?

CB: We think they really understand the transition football is currently going through, and the fact that football shirts are mainly worn by supporters, not footballers. They've been doing a great job obviously with Venezia and Athens Kallithea (amongst others), and we thought it wouldn't be hard to convince them of our idea. That, and that at this time for Pompeii there wouldn't have been a better partner. They're as big as it gets when talking of football fashion.

CK: Tell us about the shirt's design – what's the inspiration behind it?

CB: Surprisingly, the inspiration behind the design has nothing to do with what we've then communicated. At all times, our ethos when designing the shirt was the "best dressed club in the world" claim, so we knew we wanted elegance to be the first thing it screamed.

What first came to mind of how we believed our players could dress pre and post-match, was the Wimbledon Championships uniforms. I've always loved the colour palette, the blazers, ties, etc. that all the staff at Wimbledon wear. So we built from there. We flipped the colour palette to make green the main colour, but our moodboard was built around the Wimbledon Championships and schoolboy uniforms, which are quite similar to each other.

CK: The shirt is beautiful, how much of the shirts design is based off of that of other famous Kappa shirts?

CB: As I said previously, most of the inspiration came from outside of football, so we didn't take a direct approach of designing off of other shirts. Having said that, I've been a football shirt collector since I can remember, so I'm sure my subconscious had a lot of shirts in mind. The iconic omini-tape along the sleeve was something we knew we wanted, i can think of quite a few kits that have had it along the years, like Man City 97/98 home shirt or the Italia training tracksuits in the 2000s.

Shop ALL jackets and tracksuits here.

CK: Kappa as a brand has seen quite a comeback over recent years... Why do you think that is and what makes your partnership with them so apt?

CB: In my opinion, I believe they've understood that the shirts are mostly worn off pitch. Kappa have done some iconic kits in the past, especially when they began doing all those tight lycra kits which when worn by the italians made them look like gladiators. The issue with those shirts, which were beautiful, is that you were either in perfect shape or you couldn't wear them. With the resurgence of blokecore, which has existed for a long time but simply didn't have a name, it looks like Kappa have understood that there main runway is the streets. Kappa's understanding of this and how football and fashion intertwine, is what makes our collaboration be so natural. We understand football in a very similar manner.

CK: What else can we expect from Pompeii FC x Kappa – will you be adding more shirts or benchwear to the list?

CB: At the moment it's a one shirt exclusive collaboration, but we'd like to build on that. We're a small brand and I think firstly we have to show Kappa what we're capable of doing, and earn the possibility of continuing with something larger. Our big picture would be to design pre-match, match, and post-match gear, and we'll work towards making that happen.

CK: Pompeii is known for its understated, yet beautifully crafted lifestyle – what's inspired the creation of Pompeii FC?

CB: When you talk about Pompeii here are you talking about the brand or the city? - The creation of Pompeii CF was 1+1=2 for us. We have a brand, we love football, we believe football can be depicted differently to how it's traditionally been done, why not try and do that? In August we dropped a collaborative football shirt with Pacha and sales were far beyond expectations so for now we're just gonna roll with it.

CK: Where can people find the latest release? 

CB: The shirt is available at our physical store in Madrid, and also online at either pompeiibrand.com or kappa.es .

CK: When can Pompeii and Cult Kits expect to collaborate?

CB: Hahaha I hope soon. We're football junkies and Cult Kits fanatics so we'd be open to study the possibilities of a collaboration for sure.

CK: Watch this space then... (?)