Ever since Mescal and his “Connell chain” first graced our screens in Hulu’s 2020 adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, the Irishman has been as heralded for his acting chops as for his refreshingly regular off-duty wardrobe of hand-cropped tees, just-snug-enough denim, fraying Carhartt jackets, and, most crucially, quad-baring short shorts. (The actor himself remembers the exact outfit that broke the gammy dam: vintage windbreaker, O’Neills shorts, and Stan Smiths, with a bottle of Crabbie’s alcoholic ginger beer and some prawn-flavored Lay’s in hand.)
But even if Mescal’s sporty shorts—a relic of the actor’s previous career as a competitive Gaelic football player—lured the stans in, it was the floppy, fashion-forward suits he began wearing to red-carpeted events that kept everyone hooked. We took notice of his charmingly dirtbaggish fashion mullet and double-breasted jackets, as well as his new habit of layering those laidback suits over ribbed undershirts. (It was a welcome coincidence that Mescal happened to be playing the Marlon Brando role—albeit sans Brando’s famous white tank—in a West End production of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire during that same time.) By late 2022, and rolling into what would become Mescal’s first big-league awards campaign around his role in the Charlotte Wells drama Aftersun, he and stylist Felicity Kay, who also dresses stylish ascendants like Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa and Heartstopper’s Kit Connor, turned out a run of heaters. He wore a sheer, pearl-festooned jacket by Irish designer Simone Rocha to the 2023 SAGs; a groovy Giuliva Heritage suit on Late Night With Seth Meyers; a killer Gucci ivory double-breasted tuxedo jacket to that year’s Oscars. Each look—like all of Mescal’s onscreen roles—felt coolly masculine, yet soft around the edges. Red-carpet formalwear had grown shaggier and stranger since the pandemic, and Mescal managed to make the whole charade seem sexy again.
Getty Images
Getty Images
Meanwhile, Mescal’s off-the-carpet wardrobe elevated him into an internet boyfriend, mostly by virtue of him continuing to dress like Some Guy You Know. He was a scruffy heartthrob who wore great blue jeans and teensy T-shirts and niche outerwear and normie trainers, plus the occasional merch to reflect his fondness for poetically online musicians such as Mitski and Clairo. (He also dated stars from this dulcet milieu: previously, Phoebe Bridgers; currently, Gracie Abrams.)
And yes, he was still wearing short shorts—and thanks to a shiny contract he inked with Gucci last year, he was even getting paid for it. “I’m a fan of the short inseam,” Mescal told my colleague Samuel Hine at this summer’s Gucci menswear show, to which the actor wore a pair of glorified cotton boxers with the Italian luxury house’s horsebit loafers. “I’m a big advocate for men wearing shorter shorts.” His most memorable outfit this year was a post-workout ensemble—generously cropped hoodie, micro shorts, wired headphones—worn during an evening Sweetgreen run in Manhattan. (Look ma, a meme!) Not without Mescal’s influence, short shorts became the menswear trend of the summer. To close the loop on the whole shorts discourse, GQ recently gifted Mescal a pair of customized O’Neills Gaelic football shorts to celebrate his most-stylish win.
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