“I’m a Sampdoria supporter. And I really don’t feel much like talking about them right now. No-one likes to see a grown man cry.”

Fortunately for Graham Chmylowskyj, Destination Calcio has no intention of upsetting anyone. We’ve got plenty to discuss without diving into Samp’s fall from a great height, a fall so dramatic they could still crash land in the third tier of Italian football. Time will tell…

Graham is no different to any of the Blucerchiati supporters struggling to come to terms with their current situation. But there can’t be many of them who started their lifelong love affair with the beautiful game as a nine-year-old in Scotland, supporting Hearts “in the days of standing on the terraces among thousands of men packed together, singing, drinking, smoking, pissing, and swaying about in an uncontrolled wave of bodies.”

Graham says: “I should’ve been terrified, but for some reason I was electrified by it.”

That was the 1985-86 season when Hearts pushed Celtic all the way in the league and lost to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final.

“We had arguably one of the best teams in our history that season, and lost the league title on goal difference on the last day, which was no mean feat for Hearts in a league dominated by not just the usual suspects but teams like Aberdeen and Dundee United, who were fresh from beating the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona in Europe,” Graham says.

“We then lost the cup final. It should be the most disappointing football experience of my life but it was honestly the best football time I can remember.”

Yet it was another, slightly later, golden era that left its mark on Graham and would eventually lead him to where he is now. The 49-year-old is the man behind The North Curve, a Scottish company designing clothes inspired by retro football kits, music and popular culture.

With a background in retail and positions in government departments on his CV, Graham retrained as a graphic designer in Manchester in 2011.

He started working on ideas and has been creating the t-shirts, sweatshirts and headwear since 2019. The calcio presence is heavy, with Sampdoria (of course), Lazio, Inter Milan, Bologna, Roma, Napoli and Palermo represented. There’s also room for Boca Juniors, some French teams and Scotland, among others. The t-shirts go for £30 with the sweaters £50.

“I was 14 years old and fell in love with all things Italian football via the Italia 90 World Cup and Football Italia on Channel 4. Me and every other middle-aged football fan in the UK. It’s a beaten-to-death narrative.”

Maybe so, but it’s true. Scotland fans remember their team’s adventure at the 1990 World Cup, featuring Brazil and Sweden after kicking off with a calamity against Costa Rica.

But Tartan Army members of a certain age also get misty-eyed over Toto Schillaci, Roberto Baggio and Azzurri heartbreak in Naples, 35 years ago when the hosts bowed out at the semi-final stage to Argentina.

The Scots’ horror show against the Costa Ricans took place at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, a ground Graham knows well.

“The pull for me is much stronger towards Samp than Scottish football and has been for a few years. I’ve watched every Samp game for the past five years – on club websites, betting sites, Facebook… wherever they are broadcast. I’ve even managed to catch pre-season friendlies.”

When asked about his best calcio experience, he says: “Going to the Marassi to see Samp vs Genoa in April 2019 was magical.

“We won and the genius that is Fabio Quagliarella scored. It was a perfect day. The ultras, the choreography, the noise, my god. I’ve never been in an atmosphere like it.

“Cheering along the scooter procession afterwards, and nearly unwittingly getting into a fight with Genoa fans while walking home, that pretty much covered the full Italian football experience for me.”

It was around that time that the business, now boasting over 20,000 customers, got going.

Graham says: “It’s been about six years since I concentrated exclusively on clothing.

“There seemed to be a market for people like me, who loved particular football shirts from a certain era (70s-90s), but couldn’t afford to buy the replicas, as they were trading for hundreds of pounds. And still are.

“Designs that nod to teams/shirts that evoke memories of European Cups, World Cups, Cup Winners’ Cups… from the 80s mainly, have proven to be very popular as a substitute, luckily.

“Customers who have been with me from the beginning will remember that I started out printing shirt designs onto cushions. Mostly old-school Italian teams, and a few national and Brazilian/Argentinian club teams.

“They sold well but it became clear that the t-shirts and sweatshirts, which I added around six months after starting the business, were by far the more popular products, so I wound down the cushions.

“Everything up to that point was being printed to order. Basically, a customer pays for a t-shirt, the order is electronically pushed through to a print company, who prints the t-shirt and sends it to the customer for you.

“Covid shutting down my print supplier basically forced me to choose a new manufacturing process that I had been considering for a while anyway, which was to have my designs screen-printed – the highest standard of t-shirt printing available – and hold stock myself.

“This was a huge initial financial outlay at an incredibly uncertain time, but luckily it proved to be the right decision in the long run.”

The business is mainly online although some designs are sold in two shops – It Started In The North and The Retro Football Room – in Edinburgh and there are plans to move into other cities and countries sooner rather than later.

What about the name?

“It was either going to be The North Curve or The South Curve,” says Graham. “I’m Scottish and I live in Scotland, so north made more sense. I toyed with La Curva Nord but I worried people would think it was an Italian company, so went with The North Curve.”

So, is there an all-conquering design, outshining and outselling its rivals or is it a level playing field in terms of numbers?

“Every design usually has its day in the sun at some point. I can’t claim to have done designs for every team, but I’d say that Napoli designs are probably the most popular generally,” he explains. 

“They’ve certainly lasted the longest as a design I’ve kept stocking. Palermo seems to be the ‘cool kid’ at the moment.

“Around national tournament times, the national team stuff sells more, but they’re pretty popular year round generally. Club-based stuff doesn’t seem to be affected by what’s happening tournament-wise though.

“I’ve noticed an unusual trend for Italian customers buying Scotland designs recently. Not sure what to make of that, but I’m happy to encourage it.”