‘The only thing I haven’t got are the underpants. Everything else is Arsenal,” says Shane, a memorabilia and kit collector perched outside north London’s Clissold park with his daughter, Erin. Known online as Highbury Gunner JVC, the 47-year-old wore an Arsenal-buckled belt, a club tie in a player pattern and a club shirt with a red and white vintage-style duffel bag. The showstopper, though, was his bespoke jacket made from curtains by the designer Joe Brim, finished with an Arsenal medallion and watch, and yellow customised Dr Martens. A collector since the 1970s, he says: “I could complete a catalogue from the 90s; my house is like a museum.”

Hundreds of thousands of fans turned up for one of the biggest parades in English sporting history. Along a five-mile route stretching from the top of Seven Sisters road, along the Petherton and Holloway roads cutting to the centre of Upper Street, metal barriers spanned as far as the eye could see. The sound of hundreds of party horns filled the air along with beeping cars and blaring music.

As the red smoke from flares drifted through the air, north London was a sea of Arsenal fits. Riders weaving up and down Essex Road on Lime bikes wore sweatshirts from the streetwear collective A-Places+Faces, while many fans streaming out of Finsbury Park station wore the derby scarf made by the industrial sportswear brand A-Cold-Wall. All indicators of the magnitude of the club’s first Premier League title in 22 years.

Fans had travelled from far and wide. Originally from north London, Liv Samuels flew in from Orlando, Florida, where he has lived since 1993. He went to the parade with his nephew and a few friends, wearing an Arsenal badge-embossed Hawaiian shirt, blue checked swim shorts and Arsenal trainers with his nickname “Gooner Liv” on them. Samuels is a big fan of designs that are unconventional; he likes the recent men’s Ian Wright pre-match jersey. “It’s different and not too common; I really like that. He’s the man of the moment for me.”

Hallin Li, who flew in from South Korea with her husband, Marco, carried a red tote bag from the Arsenal Women’s collaboration with the accessories brand Good Squish, alongside a red scrunchy in her hair.

Collin Ross Robinson travelled from Atlanta, Georgia. He came dressed in a maroon 2006 away kit from the club’s last season at Highbury – a jersey that many in attendance said was their favourite retro top, challenging the 1991-1993 bruised banana shirt – along with Uniqlo jean shorts and Adidas Sambas. For him, keeping up is simply what you do. “I probably spend £200 or £300 every other month, we’ve got so many collabs out.”

There are many ways, it seems, to prove your fandom: good old-fashioned jerseys (vintage, current or lifestyle), badges, belts, footwear, or even how you tie your hair – if you have any. The club knows this, and has given its followers numerous ways to demonstrate their dedication.

The Parade Day fit phenomenon kept social media abuzz from the moment a celebration was a certainty. On TikTok and Instagram, creators jumped on a trend of videos titled some variant of “Day x of posting Arsenal fits for the parade” or “Which fit combo are you wearing to the parade?”

It helped also that the zeitgeist is supremely Arsenal-centric right now. When the New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, was spotted wearing a custom-made Arsenal thobe during Eid al-Adha celebrations, it opened up endless possibilities for parade-goers – many wearing custom get-ups of their own.

Islington and its surrounding areas is one of the most diverse places in the country, and its connection to Arsenal made it a place for all colours and creeds to bask in the celebratory mood.

Like Shane, several parade-goers preferred to wear collectibles. Wearing a raving jacket is Robbie John Allchin, “given to him by a brother in Wales”. He prefers to adapt his existing clothes by collecting badges and sticking them on his jacket. The first occasion was 30 May 1996, the last game of the 1995/1996 season, when Bruce Rioch was manager. He can’t count how many he’s collected because he tries to give some away every day, he says its an act that has origins in the “spirit of roots and culture and that’s what Arsenal is for me”.

Sustainable fashion was represented too. Aman Bains, 26, wore a piece from the Bristol-based zero-waste custom designer Bees Knees Apparel: a cotton dress with its bottom half fused to an Arsenal shirt cut from the bottom, paired with white socks and Grenson shoes. “DIY, proper DIY,” she says, having snagged it from the Depop shop for £50. Inspired by Naomi Osaka’s extravagant French Open appearances, Bains sees no contradiction. “I like to bring the feminine vibe to football,” she says.

Pooja Popat and Nisha Mistry wore outfits designed by the British-Pakistani textile artist Hadiyah Hussain, who is also an Arsenal fan. Mistry, who praised Hussain’s “amazingly unique pieces” as steeped in culture, wore an asymmetrical dress cut from Arsenal’s blue 2025/26 away kit, paired with gym shorts and Adidas trainers. Popat’s dress followed the same design but in this season’s home kit fabric, worn with Asos capris. Both chose Adidas on their feet. Pieces from Hussain’s custom range start at £100.

For some, the parade was less about football allegiance and more about the occasion itself. Charlotte Andrews, introduced to the club three years ago by her boyfriend, says she feels as if she’s “jumping on the hype.” She wore an AWFC classic offset one shoulder top from the Armoury, vintage bottoms from Asos and Havaianas flip-flops. Despite the Arsenal women’s team’s past collaboration with the LA-based tailor 424 – with former men’s player Héctor Bellerín involved – Andrews feels “there’s so much room for someone to come in and really disrupt women’s streetwear in football”.

With the World Cup on the horizon, some brands have pushed the boundary between sportswear and streetwear further still, launching cropped versions of their shirts. Aurelie Rivkah embraced the trend, wearing a cropped training jersey to the parade with jorts and Adidas, colour-matched to her cream bag. “I just love how girls are styling the tops to suit their personality,” she says. “Everyone supports the same thing but expresses it in their own way. The way women do it, exceptional. I’m glad to be one of them.”

Arsenal has worked to connect with communities locally and globally. The designer Foday Dumbaya’s Labrum London produced the pan-African-inspired 2024/25 away kit and warm up kit as part of a collaboration, while Declan Rice made his catwalk debut modelling for the boutique at London fashion week. Having worn a Jamaica patterned Arsenal shirt, released in 2022 as a tribute to fans from the island and in north London, Nicole Gooden, raised in Highbury, says it “reminds me of home – St Catherine Parish in Jamaica. I wanted to wear it not only for Arsenal but for my culture.”

Among those linked to the club through the generations were Tommy and Carmel Fallon, who have lived in the area for 50 years and used to hear the cheers from Highbury.

Hailing from Galway, Ireland, their love for Arsenal emanates from the Irish connection – especially in the 70s. Tommy and Carmel enjoyed the parade with their sons Andrew and David, daughter Priscilla and granddaughter Emily. Tommy liked the simple 2007-08 Nike polo shirt these days but identified Alan Sunderland’s 1979 red home kit as the pinnacle of style, not least because of Sunderland’s perm. David, in the blue away kit of 2017-2018, opted for Freddie Ljungberg as his icon. “When he came with his red hair and his looks, he brought fashion to Arsenal.”

Different entry points, different relationships with the badge, but all with the same feeling under the Islington sun.