12 OF THE BEST PSG JERSEYS OF ALL TIME
From the Hechter Stripe to logomania, an overview of Paris Saint-Germain’s greatest jerseys.
Paris, 1970. The revolutionary spirit of the ’68 student riots still permeates the city. Jane Birkin dominates newspaper kiosks on the front cover of Vogue and Kenzo Takada has just opened his first boutique in the Galerie Vivienne. In cafes, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre discuss existentialism, while Sam Gilliam and other artists debut their inaugural exhibitions. There is glamour. There is style. There is culture. Curiously, there is no reputable football team.
Dismayed, Guy Crescent and Pierre-Étienne Guyot of Paris FC and Henri Patrelle of Stade Saint-Germain set about bringing elite-level football to the French capital by merging their lower-league entities. Paris Saint-Germain is born.
The club’s early years are respectable, but it isn’t until 1973 that the PSG of today begins to take shape. Fashion designer and ready-to-wear innovator Daniel Hechter is named the new president and immediately sets about revolutionizing the club’s image. Hechter revamps the home jersey, introducing a red vertical line—colloquially referred to as the “Hechter Stripe”—inspired by the Ford Mustang’s racing stripes and the colors of Johan Cruyff’s Ajax.
In 2012, global names such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, Neymar Jr., Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi began to arrive in Paris, carrying the club’s colors from Paris to Buenos Aires to Seoul and cementing the PSG kit as an icon of global style. Today, PSG’s design language is as synonymous with the French capital as any number of houses, from Louis Vuitton to Hermès.
As the Hechter Stripe enters its 50th year, we revisit 12 of the club’s most memorable home and away jerseys.