World cup finale 2014
Thus the BBC managed to dress both more formally, and more appropriately for the occasion, and at the same time more playfully than did their poor relations over on ITV. Lineker’s shirt had a tab collar, from which protruded a thin white-on-black Macclesfield dot tie. Its provenance, according to accrued information, is the Savile Row tailoring house Spencer Hart – which advertises itself, via a quotation on its website, as ‘A new strain of British Luxury that is far removed from the old-fashioned backdrop of Savile Row tailors’ and which has been worn by such luminaries of the entertainment world as Benedict Cumberbatch, Robbie Williams, and Sean Combs. Meanwhile Gary Lineker’s slim-fitting suit was of a dark blue pinstripe, with peaked lapels. His white shirt had a cutaway collar and he wore several bracelets in tones of brown around his left wrist.Īlan Hansen – for his final turn on Match of the Day after twenty-two years as the programme’s chief analyst – took the most conservative route, wearing a black suit, with notch lapels and a rope shoulder with padding. A gold tie bar appeared just above the right lapel, just below his BBC-supplied microphone. The suit’s buttons seemed to be mother of pearl, and he partnered it with a bright orange knit tie. His 4×2 double-breasted, indigo blue suit had a shawl collar and decidedly thin lapels. To his right, Rio Ferdinand sought almost to revolutionise menswear, with one idiosyncratic choice after another resulting in a challenging complex of popular fashion. The only member of the BBC team who deigned to wear a pocket square, its vivid purple and white pattern unbecomingly mirrored the purple and white diagonal stripes of his necktie. Saturated, and significantly hidden by the BBC’s stacked tabletop, it was difficult to discern the precise colour of his trousers, which were certainly dark, but may have been black or a deep shade of charcoal.
His white shirt sleeves emerged prominently from the arms of his blazer, and showed French cuffs and cufflinks. Boldly yet subtly different, Alan Shearer wore a blue blazer, slightly ruffled, with notch lapels, a natural shoulder and little or no padding. Three of the men – Lineker, Hansen, and Ferdinand – wore suits.
Their wardrobes were highly distinct in form, cut, and colour. In a studio located further up the beach, with Ipanema’s mountains providing the backdrop, Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand were not merely wearing suits, staid and nondescript, as Germany faced and ultimately defeated Argentina. As their counterparts on ITV opted for a more casual presentation, sans jackets and ties and with open-collared long and short-sleeved shirts and sunglasses – seated at three bar or garden tables somewhere along Ipanema beach – the BBC’s pundits for the World Cup final came dressed in an array of formal ensembles.