It was not, to pull deep from the well of understatement, your average young footballers’ holiday.
This is a story about two friends who fly to New York and go to fashion shows, classical music recitals and trendy restaurants there, while creating a buzz over social media about their clothes and style, a travelogue documented playfully via their own Instagram accounts, celebrating individuality in a profession high on big salaries but low on originality.
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It’s a story that could be a Netflix mini-series.
As Premier League footballers from across the country used the winter break to head for luxury beaches in predictable destinations such as Dubai, Everton duo Tom Davies and Dominic Calvert-Lewin planned a different trip.
Earlier this month, The Athletic revealed how players such as Ross Barkley, Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Jesse Lingard lapped up the 30-degree heat in the Middle East with private zoos, VIP training, gold leaf steaks and £25k bottles of champagne.
But after Everton’s 3-1 win over Crystal Palace on February 8 — in which Calvert-Lewin scored his side’s third goal — the 22-year-old striker, whose burgeoning form has played a key part in the Merseysiders’ revival under new manager Carlo Ancelotti, had other ideas.
Along with Davies, 21, who had replaced Bernard in the game and helped Everton see out a triumph which put European football back on the agenda with three months of the season to go, the pair headed for Manchester airport and boarded a flight to New York.
Like his guitar-playing, literature-loving team-mate Leighton Baines, Davies has a reputation for not conforming to footballer stereotypes.
Unlike most Everton players, who live away from Merseyside and commute to the club’s Finch Farm training ground by motorway, Davies lives in Liverpool’s city centre, in the elegant and historic Georgian quarter.
He relaxes in coffee shops such as Rope and Twines and BSC on the ever-busy Bold Street, skateboarding and taking photographs around the area in his downtime.
Davies drives a Tesla, in line with his thoughts about preserving the planet, and became a vegetarian last year.
He also likes clothes; with a penchant for high-end fashion usually seen on catwalks in London, Paris and Milan, much akin to Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin, the Premier League’s primary trailblazing fashionista.
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The timing of the winter break meant Davies and Calvert-Lewin could attend New York Fashion Week, a biannual series of events where international fashion collections are shown to buyers, press, and general public.
Upon arrival, they headed to their hotel near the Soho district in Lower Manhattan, and by Monday morning, they were out sightseeing.
Stopping for a coffee on Prince Street, which is lined with boutiques including Michael Kors and Moncler, Calvert-Lewin posed for a snap in a black and white pinstriped suit, black Gucci hat, brown Louis Vuitton bag and white and red Off-White trainers, captioning his post on Instagram “Satchel not handbag”.
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A post shared by DCL (@domcalvertlewin) on Feb 10, 2020 at 9:16am PST
The trio’s trip was a heady mix of under and overstatement.
Instead of using a private chauffeur to get around, they rode the subway and hired Citibikes, publicly-shared bicycles, enjoying the relative anonymity afforded them in the Big Apple.
They shopped at expensive stores but also exercised their minds with a visit to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Midtown Manhattan, where they took in exhibits by Depression-era photojournalist Dorothea Lange and abstract Latin art from the collection of philanthropist Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
Next was the Brooklyn Museum, for exhibitions on African Arts and Environmental Change in the Indigenous Americas.
But it was their sartorial choices which got people talking back home. On Wednesday, the last day of Fashion Week, they attended the autumn/winter show of designer Kors.
They were VIP guests, courtesy of fashion bible Vogue, and watched from front-row seats alongside actors Blake Lively, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Conde Nast’s artistic director Anna Wintour. Supermodels such as Bella Hadid and Kaia Gerber walked the runway at the American Stock Exchange on Wall Street, alongside a stage where Canadian musician Orville Peck and his band performed. As is his style, Peck wore a Lone Ranger-style fringed mask hiding his face.
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By comparison, the players’ outfits were not as surreal — but their eye-catching choices still sparked stories in the British tabloids.
Both in tinted sunglasses, Davies wore a cravat and a £3,500 Gucci robe, beige pleated trousers and purple cuban heels. Calvert-Lewin a wide-collar open-necked shirt over a blazer and similarly cut trousers, reminiscent of a 1970s US TV detective.
Olivia Singer, the executive fashion news editor of British Vogue, was impressed, featuring pictures of them on her Instagram. US fashion site The Cut used pictures of the “soccer players”, which featured a short line from each on their outfits.
Calvert-Lewin said his style is “to stand out from the crowd” while Davies professed to being “head-to-toe in Gucci”, wearing “what makes me happy. Colours inspire me”. They trended on Twitter and some football fans were irked, complaining about their spending and style. The Daily Star ran a piece about those mocking them online.
Most, though, applauded them as followers of haute couture and football found a rare shared talking point.
Sam Diss is head of content for Mundial, a football magazine and creative agency based in Hackney, London. He feels the duo’s sense of fun and adventure should be celebrated, not criticised.
“As much as we all like to talk about ‘best dressed footballer’ lists, the truth is, few players are very cool at all,” he says.
“The money and the yes-men ensure that nobody will ever tell them they look like shit, even when they do — because the shit they own is inherently expensive and, therefore, ‘good’.
“Bellerin has been an exception, purely because he seems to really, really enjoy playing with fashion. There are still times when things don’t quite land — but you can’t harbour a grudge when he’s making everything look that fun. He’s dressing for him and not you.
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“When we spoke to Hector for a piece with Mundial, he was clear to make the case for the importance of expression, a freedom which is rarely afforded to professional athletes because they’re so much placed in the public eye.
“It opens up your perception of what you want players to be.
“It’s a joy to see the two young Everton lads doing the same. You can say their outfits verge on wacky, that they’re not your cup of tea, but they’re young and having fun, what is known on the internet as ‘living your best life’. Who wouldn’t want that?
“New York is traditionally a city of expression, of weirdness, of culture. Football is a sport which too rarely allows it on the pitch these days: seeing Tom Davies and Dominic Calvert-Lewin — two players who, by all accounts, seems like really sound people — cutting about town wearing exactly what they want, enjoying anonymity, enjoying their youth, is what they should be doing.”
Diss thinks the trip likely offered the Everton players a chance to take their minds off the pressures of Premier League football.
“The nature of football means that criticism is everywhere and could hardly be more vocal,” he adds. “Yeah, they’re millionaires doing millionaire things, but there are plenty of players who look miserable with their money. Like it’s just a burden.
“Those two lads are at least enjoying what they have. God knows I would.”
The trip could even lead to future commercial opportunities.
The Athletic understands that some fashion brands have expressed an interest in collaborating with Calvert-Lewin in the future — in December, the former Sheffield United man modelled for football lifestyle magazine Soccerbible.
We sit down with @CalvertLewin14 to talk about his footballing journey from #sufc to #everton, fashion and leading the line at Goodison Park. Read the full interview here: https://t.co/PIRVbcUsrL pic.twitter.com/DuH9GBsQRT
— SoccerBible (@SoccerBible) December 11, 2019
Sources close to both insist the attention generated by the trip did not faze the players and their focus is now firmly back on performing for Everton.
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Calvert-Lewin has his sights set on being included in Gareth Southgate’s next England squad and desperately wants to be in the mix to play for his country at this summer’s European Championship.
Either way, it is not the first time footballers and fashion have made the news.
“Some of George Best’s clothes are in the National Football Museum and David Beckham made major headlines when he wore a sarong,” says Sarah Collins, a senior lecturer in Fashion Design and Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
“But it’s not just about wealth and having the disposable income to buy these clothes. It doesn’t matter if it’s a CEO, office worker or bin man — anyone can have an aesthetic and an opinion.
“You normally associate footballers with expensive athleisure [clothing designed like athletic wear] but it’s great that Dominic and Tom have the confidence to do their own thing.”
It’s likely Calvert-Lewin and Davies, now back to the day job at Finch Farm, would agree. As the former said in one of his Wall Street photo captions: “Brothers on and off the pitch — just do you.”
(Photo: Cindy Ord/WireImage)
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