From the world's very first international match, in 1872, right through to the present day, the team we call England has consistently turned out in white shirts. Apart from a brief period in the late 1870s when players often wore their club shirts with England badges sewn on, it was not until the 1930s that there was any reason to wear anything other than white shirts, but as England began to broaden their horizons in the international football world, they were forced to introduce a change kit for use against the other countries that wore white; namely Austria and Germany.

That first international also saw England kitted out in white knickerbockers and blue caps. The caps were soon discarded and the knickers changed to navy and became shorts. Players provided their own socks in the early days and these could be any colour, in fact they were used to identify individual players, but navy eventually became the norm, with red provided for colour clashes.

Blue shirts were initially used as change shirts, but these were replaced by red in the 1950s, a period which saw big changes in the England kit. Lighter, short-sleeved, v-neck shirts replaced the old woollen, collared and buttoned shirts. Shorts became shorter and the socks, too, were made of a lighter material. Red replaced blue as the first-choice sock colour as the navy pair was clashing with too many other countries' kits.

The 1960s saw further refinement, with white becoming the new sock colour, and the very plain white and navy combination became forever associated with England's most successful period, but in the 1970s, commercialism arrived to drastically overhaul the traditional design.

Manufacturers' logos broke through onto the chest and shorts, and England's uniform was suddenly edged with red, white and blue piping. A more flamboyant design appeared in 1980, before Umbro recaptured the contract and returned the kit to a more traditional style, at the same time adding more fashionable embellishments to entice the fans into buying replica versions.

Red continues to be the popular second-choice shirt colour, but different shades of blue have been experimented with on a number of occasions, usually without success. On even rarer occasions, England have also been seen in yellow.

In the 1990s, Umbro established a pattern of introducing a new kit each year; white one year and red, the next, each shirt incorporating the latest breathable fabric technology, whilst to the chagrin of the traditionalists, yet another in the seemingly endless succession of tinkering was the verdict of each new design.

As if in response to these feelings, a sudden about-turn was experienced in 2009, when the kit took on a retrospective feel and reverted back to a 1950s-style collar. It became a plain all-white kit with only minimal design features, proving once more that although England's outfits have to be fit for the purposes of playing international football in the 21st century, the proud heritage and traditions can never be completely discarded.

Since then, Nike have taken over from Umbro, but they have maintained the basic style, with the occasional nod to the kits of the past.

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PY/JB/CG/GI