One of London’s most infamous queer grassroots football teams has teamed up with one of the city’s cult dyke bag designers, and the result is Lez In Training – a limited-edition collection of 11 one-of-a-kind football bags that are part kit gear and part party bag.
Ex-Girlfriend FC, the notorious Sunday League squad who’ve been making grassroots football gayer, louder and far more fun, have joined forces with The Lezbag’s Mr Lez (aka Marlo Mortimer) for a drop that lands somewhere between football, fashion and queer culture.
Photo by Jessie McLaughlin.
The team tell us that the idea started years ago as a joke: what if there was a gay football bag big enough for your ball and your nightlife fit? Which has now turned into a serious piece of design. Lez In Training is built to carry everything you need for a five-a-side session and the club afterwards. Think less “sports bag” and more “main character of my own queer sports film”.
Each of the 11 bags is unique, a proper one-off loaded with art history references and subcultural nods. There’s Saint Judith (yes, the one with the sword), Magritte’s masked lovers, Claude Cahun’s anti-fascist, gender-defying photography, and even a wink to Dick Whittington and his cat.
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On one side of the collaboration, you’ve got Ex-Girlfriend FC, fresh off starring in Mundial’s doc about the gayness of the grassroots scene and quietly (and not-so-quietly) turning Sunday League into an art form. On the other side, you’ve got The Lezbag, Mr Lez’s cult label that’s carved out a space for butch and dyke aesthetics in London fashion. Known for bold shapes and tongue-in-cheek storytelling, Mr Lez takes the everyday bag and gives it a radical, wearable-art makeover.
For this project, the duo also brought in artist and physicist Jennifer Crouch, whose experimental textiles are as brainy as they are beautiful.
Whether you’re a player, a supporter or just someone who loves a bit of dykey design history, this is one for you.
Nonchalant x
This article was written by one of our creative team writers here at Nonchalant Magazine.
