The World Cup, Kit By Lanvin. No, Really.....

The German stylist, editor, and writer Markus Ebner isn’t exactly overwhelmed with free time—he’s the contributing fashion editor of Die Zeit, writes reviews for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and edits Achtung, the fashion magazine he founded and now runs from Paris. That makes it all the more impressive that every four years, for every World Cup, Ebner—along with his co-editor, Godfrey Deeny—manages to produce another journal: SEPP, the original fashion-meets-football publication. Founded in 2002, when, Ebner says, “few designers, except maybe Armani with the Davids—James and Beckham—and Dirk Bikkembergs cared much about football,” the magazine commissions designers to create jerseys, sketches, and shoots inspired by the beautiful game. (Its first supporter? The diehard Inter Milan fan Donatella Versace, who contributes a jersey design to every issue, almost always in Milan blue.) For the 2010 installment, designers such as Alber Elbaz (above), Giambattista Valli (below), Giorgio Armani, and Dries Van Noten lent their talents, as did Karl Lagerfeld, who sketched a few of his favorite stars as well as one player who we could only hope would take the field. That fellow’s name? Karl Lagerfeld (bottom).

PLUS: Don’t miss our roundup of the World Cup’s best-looking players.

—Matthew Schneier

Left: Giambattista Valli. Right: Versace.

Karl Lagerfeld by Karl Lagerfeld.