Turning his incredible artistic talents to the national team, artist and designer Christian Jeffrey has created an incredible custom England shirt design, combining Sir Geoff Hurst’s 1966 World Cup jersey and a knight’s armour.
Christian Jeffrey is a former senior designer at adidas football, but has since turned his very talented hand to a different take on jersey culture. His fairly unique ability has seen him carve a niche in creating bespoke works of art, based around – or on – football shirts. Back in 2023 his work caught the attention of NWSL side Orlando Pride, who commissioned him to create a bespoke take on their ‘Highway Woman Kit’. More recently, his work has been present in OOF’s ‘Tops Off: A Century of Football Shirt Art’ exhibition. Now, he’s unveiling his latest passion piece, and it’s another work of art.
Having already created a beautifully bespoke floral take on a St. George’s Cross-infused England shirt, and now that’s followed up with another floral England design. Inspired by a drawing of knights armour that he had seen and Sir Geoff Hurst’s England World Cup jersey, Jeffrey went about painstakingly creating the piece, which features over 66 hand painted gold roses, over five months.
“A long time ago I saw a picture of a knights armour and I loved the rose stripes, I thought they could could look great on a jersey. But I had really no idea what I was getting myself into,” Jeffrey explained on an Insta caption. “At the beginning I thought it would take a few weeks, maybe a month, but five months later I was only just sitting down to paint the crest. Desperately trying not to spill any paint on the white fabric was a journey of pure anxiety and worry with occasional sprinkles of excitement.”
Five months later and this one-of-one passion project is complete. It sees a white shirt as the canvas, with the hand-painted details covering almost its entirety. The England crest sits centrally on the chest, above the Umbro logo, while on the reverse, Hurst’s number sits in red. The rose banding, presented in vertical stripe formation, breaks only for the rear number and the logos on the front. A true work of art in football shirt form.
Check out more of Christian Jeffrey's projects at christianjefferyprojects.com
