Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. have done plenty of clever things in recent years. Sensible transfers, smart recruitment and the occasional nice away kit. But now, alongside Percival, they’ve turned their attention to knitwear.
Introducing BHAFC x Percival, a limited-edition lifestyle collection with the London menswear label that began, charmingly, with a podcast admission. Two years ago, Percival’s Creative Director Chris Gove casually mentioned the Seagulls as his team. The club slid into the inbox and has since grown into a fully-fledged collaboration – having already styled kit launches and now delivering a wardrobe that treats football heritage with a tailor’s eye.
“This collection is for the fan who wants to wear their team badge without shouting about it,” says Gove. Quite.
Rather than plastering crests across polyester, Percival has mined Brighton’s past properly. The original 1950s logo, vintage matchday programmes, Sussex travel posters and the club’s blue-and-white palette are reworked into pieces you’d actually choose on a Saturday morning.
There’s a waterproof Greyson mac with a custom club-lined interior, a breezy linen jacket with collaborative labelling, canvas workshirts embroidered with the Sussex coastline and, because this is still Percival, a mohair cardigan.
Then there's the accessories: there's silk ties, trucker caps and embroidered totes that nod to the South Downs in navy and rust tones. The detailing is the point, with vintage crests appearing in fine embroidery and local landscapes screen-printed quietly.
The lookbook features first-teamers including Bart Verbruggen and Maisie Symonds, modelling the pieces with the sort of nonchalance that suggests they’d wear them off-duty too. It’s merch for grown-ups, essentially. The sort of thing that works on the terrace, in the pub, or under a navy overcoat.
The BHAFC x Percival collection is available to buy online now
