After revealing the new England Away shirt, we’ve asked some of our favourite football bloggers and writers to give their opinions on it. We begin with our regular kit correspondent, Loaded writer and football shirt collector Jeff Maysh, who is examining the new shirt in relation to high fashion.

“There is something of fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier in Umbro’s tailor Aitor Throup. The futuristic tailoring; the high-tech uniformity. You should see what he used to get up to at Stone Island, before this gig: Think Fifth Element costumes, made for hooligans. So before Umbro pulled off the black sheet to reveal their latest away strip, I was half-expecting it to be the black sheet.

In fact, Umbro were about to unveil, in a World Cup year no less, a Vermillion red England away shirt. I was there, and somehow, they didn’t mention 1966, once. Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore, Pickles the dog, Nobby dancing and the Jules Rimet were a massive elephant in the room, as Umbro’s designers talked at length about ‘human movement’ and ‘performance fabric technology.’ Minds started wandering. Some people are on the pitch… ‘it’s constructed of three fabrics’… They think it’s all over… ‘Impeccable English tailoring’… It is now!

Arguably, the kit is the most avant-garde football shirt in history. The design process for Throup involved a complex ‘study of human movement,’ taking in anatomical studies of how Wayne Rooney sprints, gobs and argues with referees. As such, England’s new away shirt is the most imaginatively cut piece of couture this side of Paris fashion week, or the little black dress of football design: Simplicity and functionality, perfected. Gok Wan will want one.

Interestingly, while Gaultier is famous for dragging his models off the street, Throup’s creation will be worn by England’s most unsightly line-up ever: Rooney, Lescott and Neville. Oh, and Fabio loves it. Fabio Capello even sounds like a fashion house, doesn’t he?

Anyway, do I like it, and does my opinion even matter? Well, I was invited to the launch, and asked to write this as one of the country’s foremost match-worn shirt collectors, (I’ve got muddy shirts on display in the National Football Museum) making me not only an enthusiast but also a very sad person. Yes, I absolutely love it. It’s the football shirt that is more than a football shirt: It’s transcended the five-a-side pitch and become ‘proper fashion.’ Throup told me that he wanted to make a shirt that ‘you wouldn’t throw on the floor.’ And he has. You’ll want to hand wash it, and probably learn to iron it. This might be the shirt that’ll turn you into a woman.”