{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1769025"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1769025/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NV1891/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NV1891/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2024NV1891","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2024NV1894","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1769025/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1769025","accessionNumber":"T.86-2023","objectType":"Shirt","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Manufactured by British sportswear brand Admiral, the shirts are made  from polyester and printed using sublimation, a process which transfers  pattern with heat and pressure. Each shirt features logos from  collaborators and community partners: (front) William Morris Gallery,  Walthamstow F.C., Admiral, (sleeves) Wood Street Walls, No Space for  Hate, (reverse) Urban by Nature and Exhale Brewery. The shirts are the  signature items from a wider collection of Walthamstow F.C. kit, together  with a long-sleeved, zipped tracksuit ‘walk-out jacket which aims to build a strong visual identity. The collection adapts the textile design ‘Yare’  from the archive of the William Morris Gallery. The pattern was created by John  Henry Dearle for Morris & Co., in about 1892. The Walthamstow F.C. shirts reimagine ‘Yare’ in two colourways: the ‘away’ shirt is closer in  colourway to the original design, while the ‘home’ shirt echoes  Walthamstow FC’s traditional team branding, in blue. Designed over a  period of three years, this is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between a  football club and a museum. The initial concept was conceived by Mark  Clack, founder of Walthamstow-based design collective Wood Street  Walls.\r\n\r\n\t“I came up with the idea for the design because I wanted to find a creative way to generate funds for the team, to use the revenue from shirt sales to create a woman’s [sic] team.” (BBC interview, August 2023)\r\n\r\nClack’s initiative draws together Walthamstow F.C., William Morris Gallery and British sportswear brand Admiral. The collection celebrates  William Morris’ deep-rooted connection to Walthamstow, his birthplace and childhood home, and speaks to the enduring legacy of his work to  the local community. \r\n\r\nMark Clack co-founded the local design organisation Wood Street Walls  in 2014. The collective has developed numerous public art projects in  the Waltham Forest borough and beyond. They aim to empower local  artists and enrich the built environment with art relevant to contemporary  issues. This project is their first foray into textile and product design.  However, it is not their first engagement with Morris’ legacy: Iin 2016,  Wood Street Walls led a community project to create a mural of William  Morris on Bedford Road in Walthamstow. Speaking of this, Wood Street  Walls artist Matt Dufour (known as ATMA), commented “The spirit of  William Morris is ever-present in Walthamstow today, and the reason  why there is this huge community spirit is because people share a  common love for beauty and for caring\r\n\r\nFounded in Leicester in 1914, Admiral was the first  manufacturer of replica football kits (i.e., for fans) in the world.  They now manufacture in the UK and Portugal. Clack approached them with the idea of the football kit and WSW designers advised on the selection of the archival pattern from  the collections of the William Morris Gallery. This involved adapting colourways to the sublimation printing technique rather than the hand-printing of the original Morris & Co. design. Admiral advised on fit and patch placement. \r\n\r\nBased at William Morris’s childhood home in Walthamstow, and  opening in 1950, the William Morris Gallery played a key role as  museum partner in the project, granting Wood Street Walls access to  their archive of Morris & Company designs. The ‘Yare’ textile design by John Henry Dearle became the chief inspiration for the kit. \r\n\r\nBorn in Camden (London), John Henry Dearle (1859-1932) became  William Morris’ first apprentice aged 19, having worked as a shop  assistant at the Oxford Street showroom. Dearle was taught tapestry  weaving by Morris at the Queen’s Square workshops, before moving to  the Merton Abbey Workshops in Surrey (now Greater London). In time,  Dearle trained apprentices himself, with George Wardle, once business  manager of Morris & Co., reflecting: \r\n\r\n\t[…] it is however fair to add that in putting Dearle to the work in the first  instance, Mr Morris was influenced by the evidence, intelligence and  brightness of the boy. Dearle was the teacher of all who followed him…”\r\n\r\n\t(‘Memorials of William Morris,’ c. 1897)\r\n\r\nDearle would go on to produce some of Morris & Co’s most successful  pattern designs, working across tapestry, stained glass and printed  textiles. From 1890, Dearle was head designer of Morris & Co. and,  following Morris’ death in 1896, he became Art Director of the company. \r\n\r\n‘Yare’ was designed by Dearle, in about1892, as a cotton block print.  The V&A holds a small swatch of this (T.34C-1982) from the twentieth  century, and several other woodblock print cottons attributed to Dearle,  including ‘Daffodil’ (c. 1891) and ‘Eden’ (1909). The V&A also holds  several of Dearle’s designs, woven furnishing fabrics, and tapestries  (e.g., T.459-1993), carpets and a screen (CIRC.848-1956).\r\n\r\nIn recent years, scholars have begun to reexamine the attributions of  Morris & Co’s designs, reappraising the role of apprentices and  associates. Figures such as Dearle have been understood increasingly  as creative agents in their own right, rather than mere hands executing  Morris’ vision. Dearle is, currently the subject of a monographic exhibition at the William Morris Society, ‘Morris’s Successor: John Henry  Dearle,’ (April 13, 2023 – December 17, 2023.)  The choice of his  designs for the Walthamstow F.C. kit project is timely considering this wider resurgence of interest in his work. \r\n\r\nDuring his life, William Morris was linked to the museum in many ways: designing the ‘Morris Room’ in the visitor café, in his roles as an Art  Referee from 1884 advising on acquisitions, and as an examiner at the  South Kensington Museum’s art school. Morris also drew inspiration for  his own work and writings from the collections. \r\n\r\nThe legacies of Morris himself, the companies he led and his daughter  May Morris are represented in over 900 works across the collections. In recent decades, acquisitions that reflect on Morris’ enduring relevance –  whether as comment, critique, or celebration – include prints and  posters by David Mabb (2006 – 2019, e.g., E.12-2011), Giles Deacon  and Jeremy Deller’s ‘wearable art ensemble’ (2012, T.90:1-5-2013) and  Kehinde Wiley’s ‘Portrait of Melissa Thompson.’ (2020, E.59-2021).\r\n\r\nSince the 1970s, British fans have worn replica shirts to watch matches,  and increasingly, for sports and leisure wear. The second-hand market  in shirts and releases of archive and limited editions have contributed to  a growing intersection between fashion and football, further  demonstrated by the unprecedented hiring of a creative director by  Crystal Palace F.C. (2023) and commercially successful collaborations  including Virgil Abloh’s Nike x Off-White’s World Cup Collection (2018),  Dior's collection for Paris Saint-Germain (2021) and Adidas by Stella  McCartney’s kit for Arsenal (2022). \r\n\r\nOn their release in July 2023, the  Walthamstow F.C. shirts sold out in a matter of days. Kit sales will also  raise money to establish a women’s football team in the borough of  Waltham Forest, an approach that evokes Morris’ own ethos of social enterprise and community-building. \r\n","physicalDescription":"Football shirt, sublimation printed polyester, with  design adapted from 'Yare' furnishing fabric designed  by J. H. Dearle in 1892 and logos, blue 'home' colourway. 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H. Dearle in 1892 and logos, blue 'home' colourway, 2023.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["T.86-2023"],"accessionNumberNum":"86","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":2023,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-26","recordCreationDate":"2023-11-07","availableToBook":false}}