Equally likely to headline for his outfits as he is for his football skills, Héctor Bellerín is at the intersection of the sports and fashion discourses.
There’s two types of people who know who Héctor Bellerín is. On the one hand there’s those who admire the Spanish footballer’s skilful plays as FC Barcelona‘s wing-backer. On the other, slightly more unusually, there’s those who might recognise him from the Louis Vuitton 2019 fashion runway.
With a trajectory nothing short of ordinary, Bellerín is a Spanish born footballer who’s career has seen him play for teams such as Arsenal and Barça. Although he is known for his speed, technical ability, and versatility on the field, he is also a trendsetter within the world of fashion, a man named by GQ as one of the most stylish footballers around. But it isn’t just a good fashion sense Hector Bellerin has. He has also been featured in numerous publications, walked a myriad of shows and collaborated with big names such as Nike or Hugo Boss.
When it comes to discerning Bellerin’s unique style, we often see the footballer combine streetwear and high fashion, as he frequently experiments with different textures, patterns, and colours. His instagram is populated with shots of him in accessorised sportswear paired with suit-pants, purple crochet tops and neck-tie scarves. The people, it seems, love it. “Your dressing is incredible” some say. Others instead prefer to praise the footballer’s hairstyle, recently always cut to a trendy mullet which he combines with various degrees of shaved/unshaved beard.
Bellerín’s relationship to fashion isn’t merely fruit of good dressing sense. The footballer grew up in and around sowing machines, as his mother and grandmother owned a confectionary workshop in Barcelona. When he didn’t have anyone to kick a ball with in the streets, he’d often offer to help clean the workshop in exchange for some Spanish pesetas.
Being surrounded by fashion since his early days has certainly paid off and made Bellerín stand out. With very few footballers seeping into the fashion discourse (with the exception of Beckham, of course), he is one of the few which grant importance to dressing, as opposed to piling on as many luxury brands on as possible. This is a fact Bellerín himself acknowledges, and will continue to build upon, as he owns up to his title of best-dressed footballer.
