It was the fashion faux-pas that was talked about decades later.Going against the grain in a high-profile environment as football has to be backed up with success. There can be no other outcome.Legendary designer Giorgio Armani worked closely with Liverpool in the mid-90sAFPIn the early 1990s, it started with the introduction of red and later white boots in a controversial move away from the traditional black.But worse was to follow and Liverpool were the guilty party on one of English football’s grandest stages.The FA Cup final had always captured the imagination of the British public with the player’s attire as they walked out onto the hallowed turf in the pre-match preparations, a particular attraction for fans.But on May 11, 1996, the Reds took things a little too far left field with the help of iconic fashion designer Giorgio Armani who sadly passed away earlier this week.To make matters worse, Liverpool were facing bitter rivals Manchester United with Alex Ferguson’s men on the cusp of a domestic double after having wrestled their title back out of the grasp of Blackburn Rovers.There was no room for error and even more so when the Reds decided to ditch the traditional dark coloured suits for a cream one with a light blue shirt and a red and white striped tie.Stan Collymore was one of the ‘victims’ of the cream brigade and part of the team that slipped to a 1-0 defeat that day thanks to Eric Cantona’s 85th-minute winner in an otherwise forgettable final.And the former Reds striker revealed that it was teammate and Armani model at the time David James, who came up with the not so bright idea.“David James was modelling for Armani. You know when you go into the shop and you see the model’s torso, beautiful torso on the box and it was David James and he had some torso on him, trust me and he was modelling for Armani,” Collymore told talkSPORT.“So, we have a conversation, he comes in one day and he says, ‘Giorgio Armani wants to make the suits for the FA Cup final.’ All the lads went ‘brilliant, amazing.’Stan Collymore did his very best the rock the Armani suit before the 1996 FA Cup finalJohn Barnes also donned the suit on the Wembley turf prior to kick-off“John Barnes was known for his rather garish choice of suits,” he added. “I remember him coming into Anfield. When we played away games, we would wear official club tracksuits. When we played at home games at Anfield, you could wear your own suits.“And I saw John Barnes turn up in a canary yellow suit that had designer rips all the way through. So, that’s the bar we’re kind of looking at. John Barnes is the captain of the club.“So, Jamo said, ‘people from Armani are going to come into Melwood and measure everybody up for the suits Monday morning, just before we go out for training, 10 o’clock.’ Didn’t think anything else of it.“We get in about 10 o’clock and there’s all these swatches on tables of different colours, navy blues, greys and there was cream.“So, all the lads are having a look and going, well, summertime, last game of the season, a bit different. And in walks, Giorgio Armani.“And I’ve been very fortunate in my life to meet some very famous people, you two included, and Giorgio Armani walking in and I can see him now, black shirt, he had his belt classically very tight and his jeans quite high and that beautiful permatan.Collymore pinned the blame on goalkeeper David James for the choice of FA Cup final suit“And I stood there as Giorgio Armani and one of his flunkies measured my fit to whatever it was.”Collymore was approaching the end of his first season at Anfield having shattered the British transfer record the previous summer with an £8.5million switch from Nottingham Forest.It soon became clear that the Cannock-born striker had reached the holy grail as he found himself surrounded by football and fashion royalty ahead of what ended up becoming the closest he ever came to winning silverware during his career.“It’s just one of those life experiences where, firstly, I’m at Liverpool Football Club, secondly, I’m the national record transfer, thirdly, I’m around all of these players like Ian Rush that I remember watching from the Holte End, (Ian) Rush scored a hat-trick for Liverpool against Villa when I was about 13, 14 and Giorgio Armani. And I’m like, ‘does life get any more surreal?’,” Collymore said.“So, we knock it around, have the debate about what we’re going to have. Roy Evans, Doug Livermore and the legendary Ronnie Moran probably saw the writing on the wall if we lost the game.“So, they chose a very, I think it was a very sober grey or navy blue for their suits. And Jamo said, ‘what does everybody think about cream?’AFPCantona struck late at Wembley to hand United a Premier League and FA Cup double[/caption]“We went for cream and lost the game. That was against Man United, Eric Cantona scored late and it was forever used as the reason that we lost the game. If we’d have won it, nobody would have cared. Whereas it was, we’ll be remembered on that day as looking like Larry’s Jazz Band.”Legendary United boss Ferguson later revealed that it was “1-0” to his team from the moment he saw the cream suits.The Scot considered Liverpool’s attire as a display of arrogance and over-confidence from the ‘Spice Boys’.But if there was to be one saving grace for Liverpool, it was that the suit inadvertently stole the spotlight from Cantona and United’s double-winning exploits.And just maybe for Liverpool’s stars, it was a price worth paying.