This Martine Rose Nike Collaboration Pays Homage to the Women of Soccer—and Underground British Subcultures

That “beautiful shape” continues to expand on Rose’s exploration of the Beautiful Game, which was first unveiled with her collaboration with Nike last year; a special soccer jersey inspired by the “Lost Lionesses,” a team of British female players that flew to Mexico in 1971 to compete in the Women’s World Cup after facing almost two decades of being banned from playing the sport in their home country. This time Rose’s designs were partly informed by a trip to the Nike headquarters in Portland. “The team told us some really interesting statistics about women’s football,” said Rose. “One of the things that struck us after the trip was—and I didn’t know this before—most women play for free, and even when they play pro, their pay is so low that they have to have different jobs. They have to be really diverse in their abilities compared to men’s football, which as you know has staggering salaries. The divide is really unbelievable.”

As such, the campaign features nine women from all over Europe, whose love and commitment to the sport is undeniable. “We have a pilot, we have mothers, we have a human rights lawyer… These are the stories we need to tell, that women overcome unbelievable odds to play for free.” There’s Hope Powell, England’s first Black manager, who played 66 times for her country after the ban was lifted in 1971; Maria Romanchenko, a Ukrainian player who fled to the Netherlands after the war broke out and is training to go pro while studying design and working as a bartender; Ruth Ruano, whose picture of her breastfeeding her daughter in a dugout in 2019 went viral (with corresponding vitriol); and Khartoum Dembelé and Founé Diawara, the duo behind Les Hijabeuses, a group of young female Muslim soccer players who grouped together because of the French Football Federation ban on hijabs. 

“We traveled all over to shoot them, and after two years of not meeting people and really staying local, I felt even more privileged to meet these women, to really deep dive into their stories and hear it from them.” Rose continues, “There were endless stories that we could tell; it was really hard to choose, because they really are heartbreaking, frustrating, upsetting, inspiring. So we’ve chosen nine amazing women, but we could have chosen 10,000, so I guess it just shows you how much change is needed.” Rose is always change we can believe in. 

And speaking of change, as the fashion industry anxiously awaits the naming of a new creative director at Louis Vuitton mens—rumored to be happening this week—Martine Rose’s name has been at the top of many a list, especially after Michael Burke, Vuitton’s CEO, was spotted at her spring 2023 show. Rose starts laughing when asked about the rumors, “You’re certainly not the first one to ask, but there’s nothing happening in my future other than the planning of an upcoming holiday.” A well-deserved one, but in the meantime, we’ll keep watching.