Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the iconic 1990 World Cup, Lack of Guidance join forces with Too Hot Limited to create ‘Arrivederchi’; a special collaboration that centres around the greatness that was Italia ’90.
In the summer of 1990 love really did put English football, and the world, in motion. Still cast in the shadows of England’s five-year ban from continental club competition following the Heysel stadium disaster of 1985, the tragedy of Hillsborough in 1989 and the poll tax riots the following spring, four weeks in Italy felt like a holiday for the national game. A sun soaked summer soundtracked by the greatest football record ever released in New Order’s ecstasy drenched Word in Motion. And one made all the more enjoyable by the fact that the best player on planet Earth was a heavy set, baby faced genius from Gateshead named Paul John Gascoigne.
Today, Italia 90 is often reduced to a series of canonical images continually reinforced by our media. But for all the dewy eyed nostalgia of Roger Miller’s snake hips, Gazza’s tears, Bobby Robson’s little jig, Jurgen Klinsman’s diving, Frank Rijkaard’s gobbing into Rudi Voller’s mullet, David O'Leary's penalty against Romania and that goal by Roberto Baggio against the Czechs; these vignettes can not do justice to the impact that the tournament had upon English football, or explain the central space that the game now occupies in mainstream English culture.
To celebrate every facet surrounding Italia ’90, from the rise of rave culture that saw lads in Stone Island jackets and Lacoste polos switching from beating the crap out of each other in the back streets of Bermondsey, to deliriously hugging each other two miles up the road at Cable Club’s Shoom, to the actual football itself, Lack of Guidance reached out to Too Hot’s Ollie Evans. His deep appreciation of both the stylings of England’s football casuals and the Paninaro social scenes of late 80s Italy, made him the perfect partner for creating this very special line.
The collection is comprised of short sleeve and long sleeve t-shirts of various designs, drenched in the nostalgia driven logos, block colourings and, of course, a revamped version of ‘Ciao’, the tournament’s mascot, all combined with the present branding of both Lack of Guidance and Too Hot. Shot around the iconic Fiat Panda Italia 90 edition, this collaboration celebrates all the sentimental footnotes listed above, but also the debt England owes to Italia '90 in making football such a unifying and positive force in the country today.
Arriverderchi, it's one-on-one...
Photography by Eva Roefs.
Shop the Lack of Guidance x Too Hot 'Arrivederchi' collection at toohotlimited.com
