About

About the Kit, Project & Sponsors

In a world first collaboration between a museum and football club, William Morris Gallery and Walthamstow FC have teamed up to launch a new kit and training apparel for the 23/24 season, produced by British sports manufacturer Admiral, to support the club’s journey as it climbs the football pyramid and establishes a new women’s team in the area.

The project, devised by Wood Street Walls, a London based art collective, selected the pattern “Yare” from the museum’s archives for both home and away kits - designed by John Henry Dearle sometime after 1892. It was block printed on cotton at Merton Abbey and features scrolling green leaves with flowers in shades of pale blue, red and yellow on darkblue background. John Henry Dearle (1859-1932) was a British textile and stained-glass designer trained by William Morris who was much influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Dearle designed many of the later wallpapers and textiles released by Morris & Co. and contributed background and foliage patterns to tapestry.

Photographed by Jake Green, a East London based photographer and funded by Wood Street Walls and Urban by Nature, a Local Trust initiative has been licensed through the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, near the home of the football club.

The sponsors also included on the home & away kit complimenting the gallery’s front of jersey identity are:

● No Space for Hate - a programme which brings together several community-led
initiatives led by the Council to tackle hate in the community, as part of their ambition that it will be a place where everyone feels safe and welcome.
● Wood Street Walls - producers of the WM Gallery & Walthamstow Fc kit collaboration and club sponsors.
● Exale Brewing - the last two season's season's front of shirt sponsor and current alcoholic drinks supplier
● Urban by Nature - a “Creative Civic Change” collaboration with William Morris Big Local funded by the Local Trust