Scotch whisky brand Chivas recently launched Regal FC – a global concept club for contemporary football culture. To celebrate the launch, Chivas hosted a charity 5-a-side tournament at the impressive rooftop pitch of Hotel Football here in Manchester.
The tournament brought together taste-makers and creatives from around the world alongside four of the world’s most forward-thinking community clubs; Nivelcrack, Alive and Kicking FC, Under the Radar and Grenfell Athletic FC.
By uniting the multiple strands of modern football culture, Chivas is on a mission to highlight the stories and people who are ripping up the rule book and redefining what the beautiful game means to them.
In addition to the launch of Regal FC, Chivas brought in renowned streetwear designer Marc Jacques Burton to design 3 exclusive, limited edition football kits. The first kit from the collection is available now at www.mjb.store with the remaining kits dropping in the coming months.
I caught up with Marc at the event to give us further insight into the whole project.
Hi, Marc, I hope you’re well. For those who may not know you, can you give me a brief overview of who you are and what you do?
My name is Marc Jacques Burton and I am a British fashion designer. I’m the founder of MJB, a British menswear fashion house and co-founder of Starlit a womenswear brand. MJB is closely aligned with the music world as we make stage and editorial pieces for music artists. We show our ready-to-wear collection at Paris Fashion Week twice a year. The MJB brand is sold all over the world, in stores such as Selfridges, Harrods and many others. I am proud to be an untrained fashion designer who decided to follow his dreams and to design full time. The guiding principle of the brand is to: ”Live your dream.” This guides all we do, as we design for musicians and artists who are living their dreams. In doing this, we are living our own dreams. We hope that our story helps others follow their dreams, whatever they may be.
Can you talk me through your inspiration and design process for the collection of Regal FC kits?
Firstly, I was inspired by the Regal FC All Stars concept, which through football brings together a diverse range of people from all over the world. I started the design process by studying the bottles and branding of Chivas XV, Chivas XII, and Chivas XVIII as well as looking at MJB’s core brand identity. I wanted the shirts to marry together key colours of the Chivas Regal bottles and blend both brands’ unique identities. I also wanted to combine the functionality of the shirt so that it could be played in as well as it being a fashion piece that could be worn by musicians on stage and in fashion magazines.
You’ve done some really impressive collaboration in the past, Factory Records x Selfridges to name just one, how did this Regal FC project differ to an outright fashion collab?
Yes, we have been very fortunate to be involved in a lot of collaborations. Over the last year we have collaborated with the Rolling Stones, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Von Dutch. This project differed as it was my first time creating functional sportswear, but was also a great opportunity to highlight how fashion and football crossover. It was fascinating to learn how to design with new materials. This is why I always love to collaborate because it forces me out my comfort zone.
Finally, you had the luxury of captaining your own team at the event. How did you find that and are you an avid sports man?
Captaining my own team was epic. It was fun to bring in friends of mine that work in different worlds. That’s what Regal FC is all about, uniting the multiple layers that make up the beautiful game today – we were a team made up of designers, musicians and athletes, but we all share a passion and interest in the game. Within my team we had Kristen Hanby as our super aggressive attacking midfielder, Not3s up front with his sweet left foot, Maeve our star player and only female on the team, Lona played all over the park and Roger Gracie valiantly guarded our goal. It was such a laugh to play with all of my mates. Yes I am a big sports fan. I used to play a lot of football. Football taught me so much. How to win, how to lose and deal with pressure. I also loved the team dynamic of fighting for my team and supporting each other.
