THE much talked about 1874 Northwich away shirt will be handed its ultimate showcase from next week.

Blue, with a tip of the hat to the town's heritage, this season's travelling top is to feature in one of the UK’s largest ever curated exhibitions of football jerseys from Friday, November 22.

Recently ranked in a list compiled by FOOTY.COM as one of the best designed footy shirts of the year, it will hang proudly alongside Premier League and international garments in the National Football Museum’s new exhibition, STRIP! How Football Got Shirty.

READ: 1874 Northwich away kit among 100 best football shirts of 2019

The 2019-20 change shirt was designed by Kingsmead artist Phil Galloway, and features a unique all-over pattern inspired by the town’s heritage.

The colours were chosen beforehand by members of 1874, who opted for a two-blue and white combination.

A short film shot at Townfield, providing further details on the shirt’s conception and design, will also be shown as part of the display.

READ: More background on the rise of the 1874 Northwich away shirt

The museum’s latest exhibition unpicks the global fascination with football shirts and how they have influenced football culture, design, fashion and technology.

With well over 200 shirts on display, STRIP! is one of the largest curated exhibitions of football shirts ever assembled in this country.

It will examine how football shirts have developed from mere kit to genuine objects of desire, looking at the design of the football shirt, from the functional to the aesthetic, influential designers and manufacturers and the rise of the football hipster, as well as detailing iconic shirts and shirt disasters.

Shirts from the museum’s own collection will be on display, alongside loans from Classic Football Shirts, kit manufacturers including Adidas, Admiral, Hummel and Umbro, specialist collectors and enthusiasts and football clubs.

It will also feature interviews with designers including Jürgen Rank, Senior Design Director at Adidas (who is overseeing the design of their Euro 2020 range) and Bert Patrick, formerly of Admiral and credited in 1974 with pioneering the replica shirt industry with the first commercially available England shirt.

Shirts created as high fashion items will also feature including those by cult label Fokohaela, designers Christopher Raeburn and Yohji Yamamoto and Dutch streetwear brand Patta.

Illustrator Mark Johnson will be designing shirt mash-up collage terrace banners to complement the exhibition and John Devlin, designer and author of the True Colours book series, is acting as a consultant.

Jon Sutton, National Football Museum’s lead curator for the exhibition, said: “Football shirt culture has become a huge phenomenon and has devotees across the world.

"While fans will still buy a shirt to show support for their own team, there is a huge interest in international sides, special editions and a nostalgia for classic designs of the past.

"Fans will obsess over the details of colour combinations, placement of logos and even the sponsors of the shirt.

"While many of the shirts on display will be remembered with affection there will also be a few disasters in there too!

“We’re sure this exhibition will appeal to anyone with an interest in design, fashion and technology.”

Iconic shirts on display will include England’s home Umbro shirt as worn by the Three Lions at Italia ’90, Brazil’s classic 1970 World Cup shirt as worn by Pele and West Germany’s 1988-1990 designed by legendary Adidas designer Ina Franzmann.

The National Football Museum is England’s only national museum for football.

It is a registered charity and was established and its collection acquired thanks to £9.3m investment by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Its vision is to become a leading national museum by 2022, exploring why football is the game of our lives.

The museum’s social purpose is to provide equal opportunity for all to enjoy football culture.

Opening Times:

Open every day, 10am-5pm, excluding Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Address: Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, M4 3BG

Website: nationalfootballmuseum.com