aris heat is different to London heat”, I think as I walk through the French capital’s 2nd Arrondissement.

It’s 28°C this side of the Eurostar and it feels a lot warmer than the 28°C I’d left behind. The fug that blankets London in the summer is awkward and sticky – a surprised adolescent given a late-season chance from the bench. This, though, was a confident bake. It was a solstice warmth that sat long and heavy over the Seine, laughing silently at my decision to wear double denim: “Well?”, it seemed to say, “isn’t this what you’re always asking for?”. I adjust my collar and resume, following the glowing blue line to my destination.

I had travelled underground from one heat to the other to spend the summer solstice with Trevoh Chalobah. It was Paris Fashion Week and the young Chelsea defender had flown in from Milan to continue the sartorial festivities. Like the rest of the West London squad, Trev, as he likes to be called, had experienced an awkward 22/23 season. The club underwent change both on and off the pitch, resulting in an unusual season for the twice European champions. Trev had been using his off-season to try and regain some equilibrium – relaxing, resetting and spending some time exploring his great love away from the pitch: fashion.

An unremarkable sedan rolls to a halt on the Rue du Mail and Trev emerges with his friend and stylist, Algen Hamilton. They are 20 minutes late but, if you work with footballers, they are basically 25 minutes early. Both are quick to apologise and introduce themselves to myself and our photographer, Agathe Breton. Their near-punctuality is even more impressive given the heaving traffic and their attendance at the previous night’s Louis Vuitton afterparty, getting together Marcus Rashford, Jude Bellingham and Memphis Depay at one of the week’s most talked about shows.

We join Trev and Algen at their first appointment of a packed PFW day: a fitting at local menswear label, Blue Marble. As we wander into a stifling basement filled with anxious PR chatter, Trev tells me how Paris is an appropriate location for our interview.

“It all started here. I was on loan at Lorient in 2020 and used to go to Paris a lot on my days off. I’d go shopping, see how people were dressing and it got me really interested in the world of fashion for the first time.”

Algen, a confident, affable South Londoner, was there from the very start of Trev’s journey in style.

“He was the stylist on the very first shoot I did – an editorial for a bag brand called Valore – and we clicked straight away. We’re from the same country, we understand each other, it just made sense.”

The shoot was the start of a friendship (“I’m round his house all the time, he knows my family!”) but this isn’t two mates messing around. Both Trev and Algen see the collaboration as an opportunity, a space for the player to show the world a more well-rounded version of himself.

“When we first started working together we put together a set of targets for the next two years”, Trev says, feeling out the stretched purple long sleeve he’s just put on. “We wanted to go to shows, build relationships and get deals with brands. We’ve done a lot of that already.”

Together they worked to give Trev a look distinct from the stereotypical footballer. Gone were the full designer, logo-heavy fits typical of a Premier League player’s Instagram. In their place? “Something different”, he smiles. “I like that word. That’s all I wanted. No hate, I used to dress like ‘logo, logo, logo’, but then I started to realise that everyone’s wearing the same thing. I wanted to switch it up. When you go out and someone’s like, “oh what’s that you’re wearing?” I wanted to be that guy.”

You can tell. Fitted out in a tonal mix of browns, reds and blacks, Trev doesn’t dress a typical footballer. His style decisions are more considered. A knitted bucket is paired with a faded brown Cactus Jack tee and a pair of 1/1 shorts from Westminster fashion student Joseph Brimicombe. Players rarely stray from the first floor of Selfridges, never mind braving the depths of London’s student fashion jungle. Together, Trev and Algen are making something different.

As we travel to the next fitting, with looks approved and bagged for the show later that day, Trev reveals one goal that’s yet to be realised. “I want to walk for a brand I love. I had the opportunity to walk for Off-White in March but had to pull out because I had training the next morning.”

It’s a reminder of the contrasting worlds he lives in. Elite sport requires enormous levels of commitment and sacrifice. Clubs, fans and media voices have little time for players operating outside of the traditional mould. Any drop in form is quickly attributed to lack of concentration, desire or mindset. ‘Footballers should stick to football’, the establishment demands. Any deviation – creative, political or otherwise – from the singular goal of winning games and trophies is seen as blasphemous and ungrateful.

Earlier this year, Bayern Munich winger Serge Gnabry attended Paris Fashion Week on a rare day off from the gruelling schedule of modern football. The German, who ended the season as Die Roten’s top goalscorer, was publicly lambasted by the club’s hierarchy. Sporting Director Hasan Salihamidzic described Gnabry’s behaviour as “amateurish” while CEO and club legend Oliver Kahn wanted him to learn his lesson and “respond by scoring goals”. The fact that Gnabry, one of Bayern’s best performers, broke no rules by flying to Paris on a club-sanctioned day off didn’t seem to matter. The fact he wasn’t ‘sticking to football’ and attempting to exist outside the mould did.

“He’s just doing something he loves, expressing himself – I don’t see anything wrong with it”, explained Trev, who unsurprisingly is in Gnabry’s corner. “Back in the day players were allowed to have lives off the pitch, and now people get mad when we just have a hobby. You see football is changing and some of us players want to bridge that gap, make fashion normal for example. Just because I’m doing fashion doesn’t mean I’m not focused on football, the game will always be my main thing, but I like to express myself in other ways too.”

As we flick through the new collection at Nanushka, the second stop on our tour and one of Trev’s favourite brands, his passion for this world is evident. Materials are touch-tested, seams checked, thoughtful questions asked of our excited PR liaison. “This is a vegan leather, their own unique material”, he shows me, holding out the arm of a chocolate brown trench. He and Algen take turns trying out bags and hats, chatting excitedly about what could work for various events. Taking a seat in the showroom’s (mercifully cooler) rear garden, Trev is relaxed, talkative and visibly happy.

“I wish they’d bring those tunnel fits Barça are doing to the Prem”, he says, shaking his head wistfully. “You see it in the NBA too, players are allowed to express themselves and they look sick. Look at Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander, guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder) man!”

“Football is changing for sure. Brands are locking in to the football industry, seeing young players are into fashion and they want to take advantage of that. The younger generation is leading the way.”

Though Trev is optimistic about football’s changing relationship with fashion, he’s under no illusion there is still progress to be made – especially in the UK.

“The media is more intense here, it’s not relaxed about footballers doing other things. It’s not like anyone in the changing room cares about me doing fashion. They all know how hard I work. Thiago Silva jokes with me about it but he’s one of the old heads, so what does he know about fashion?” Trev laughs, “Hopefully one day things can change.”

It seems to me, sweating in a taxi on the way to an African spot of Trev’s choosing, (“don’t trust Algen, I’m the guy when it comes to choosing food”), that this is a man happy in his choices. Of course, he’s obsessed with football – he’s living out a lifelong dream playing for his club in the Premier League – but he doesn’t believe he has to be limited to just that. He wants to exist outside the mould. Why can’t a happier, more well-rounded person make a happier, more well-rounded player? Trevoh Chalobah isn’t your typical footballer but that doesn’t make him less committed or less serious about that game. It just makes him different and that’s exactly how he likes it.

Images by Agathe Breton for VERSUS.