Nice to meet you, Calcetto Eleganza
Interview with the Milan crew that mixed perfectly fashion and football
A regular field half splitted, a well defined aesthetics and a sense of affiliation closer to that of a family than the one of a football team. Calcetto Eleganza is, above all, this, but also more. If you live in Milan you maybe come upon one of those scarfs, real trademark of a reality destined to grow and bring the amateur football on another level. We have met them to ask some question in order to know something more of that you can already understand through their, beautiful, Instagram account.
Hi guys, I would start from the most obvious question: how has Calcetto Eleganza been born and why?
Hi nss, Calcetto Eleganza born at the end of 2014, when a group of friends with the same passion for streetwear and sneakers, against all the odds, decided to organize a football match. Inside the locker room we realized that none of us were fit for the game, but we all were dressed perfectly. And so there was born our mission: to elevate a world made of Legea suits and Kipsta shoes. Then we started to play every week, the team grew up and so did the technical level.
If you should explain in one sentence what Calcetto Eleganza represents…
Calcetto Eleganza is an amateur football team, an enlarged family made of people who don’t have to apologize.
Is your motto, “Not for sport, but for fashion”, a break from the usual noble and pure sports rhetoric? How have you thought that?
“Not for sport, but for fashion” is one of the many slips we exchanged in the past two years. Many of us came from the Italian stands and this slogan is also a way to ironize about our past, made of stadiums, and our presents, made of fashion. A few weeks ago, for example, we didn’t show up for a league game in order to attend the new Silver launch and we lost for walkover. Luckily, we had a few points margin from the second.
How did you become football enthusiast?
As the 99% of the Italian kids, we grew up as football enthusiast from the very firsts steps. Maybe not so many knows that, but the first wailing is very similar to a 90th minute goal’s celebration.
In the last few years, the return of football, apparel and the cultural consciousness linked to it has set a trend that’s being followed by some VIPs, like Drake or Kendall Jenner, from the more commercial mainstream. Do you think that’s a trend destined to hold on in the future or to be contaminated?
Well, in Italy everything comes a little be late. This connection between football and coolness is nothing more than another cyclical repeats of a trend happened with other sports and other nations. Probably, it’s going to be temporary, but we’re glad to go out wearing football shirts.
Why did you choose black and white as association colors?
The fashion has chosen the colors. Our team was born in the nothing ninja boom, so everyone was wearing only black and white. We had to choose that colors for the team as well.
This year you produced a collection of football scarves, one of the most antique symbols of football acknowledgment and part of the trend we were talking about. Who designed that?
Scarves are designed by Stefano Innocenti (https://www.instagram.com/satamorte/SATAMORTE), but the logo is Domenico Romeo’s, they’re both part of the Calcetto Eleganza’s family. You can buy the scarves on Collater.al.
From which teams you take inspiration?
As idea of team, we’ve looked at City Boys FC, Atletico Paris and all the teams from Le Ballon Football League. Among the pros, we took inspiration from Titì Henry’s Arsenal and Jorge Sampaoli’s Sevilla, but also Julian Ross’ Mambo and Southampton’s supporters.
