Arsenal ‘Invincible’ Ray Parlour has featured in an ad campaign for the football club that intends to both parody celebrity creative directors and promote Arsenal’s new ‘Retro Collection’.
Produced by Weirdo and Crooked Cynics, the mockumentary-style spot sees Ray Parlour play the part of the creative – sewing, designing and fitting clothes for the likes of Martin Ødegaard, William Saliba, Oleksandr Zincheko and Eddie Nketiah.
Towards the end of the ad, Parlour proclaims: “The thing in fashion, trends come and go. But legends, legends are invincible.”
The campaign will also be supported by fashion pop-ups in Air Street and Brewer Street, staged by Selfridges’ set design company The Lost Boys.
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According to Weirdo co-founder and creative director Louis Persent, the football club’s unique approach to the campaign intends to stand out amongst a crowd largely preoccupied by the FIFA Qatar World Cup.
“We spoke to fans and the collection’s retro focus got us thinking about the way football and fashion have changed over the past 20 years; how intertwined they’ve become,” he added.
“We wanted to connect the opposite ends of this journey – uniting a past legend with the cultural context of 2022, when football clubs release drop after drop of new merch and reality TV stars get parachuted in as creative directors. Being able to work across experiential, stills and long-form storytelling has been a privilege.”
