Right around this time last year, with the dregs of summer circling the drain, David Beckham made one final, memorable push to break out the linen. In classic Beckham fashion, that push took the form of an impeccable suit accented by a pair of rose-tinted shades from DB Eyewear, the footballer’s own sunglasses line. (The brand synergy, to paraphrase Yoda, is strong with this one).
Beckham is no stranger to the specific, sometimes freaky intricacies of suiting up during the summer. But eagle-eyed appreciators of his style were quick to ID this particular two-piece as an ecru-hued number from Percival, the British brand with a surplus of equally A-list devotees stateside. Beckham’s flaxy suit puts him in the company of Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and Michael B. Jordan, a roster of Percival fans we’d pay good money to see in the next timeline-collapsing MCU blockbuster.
Beckham is far from Percival’s only celebrity booster—but when it comes to the brand’s assortment of linen suiting, he’s actually a little late to the game. GQ named this exact suit one of the best in its category long before the Becks cosign, and it’s not hard to see why. No one does mid-priced, laissez-faire tailoring quite like Chris Gove’s London-based label, and nothing says “effortless” quite like David Beckham strolling through the desert in a monochromatic, dusty-toned get-up.
At a hair above the $500 mark, Percival’s chilled-out linen suit imbues the silhouette with a cosmopolitan twist just as indebted to Italian sprezzatura as it is straight-laced British sartorialism—a sweet spot, it turns out, that’s exactly right for the dwindling days of a New York summer. Days much like this one, when the afternoon sun refracts off of the skyscrapers and even the hardos ditch their jackets, loosen their ties, and decide to take their lunches en plein air, thank you very much.
To do the suit justice, make like them and toss on a rumpled striped shirt and loafers, or follow Becks’ lead with a plain white T-shirt and your own tinted specs. A year after David Beckham reminded us of its virtues, Percival’s linen suit is still the most stylish reason to pray for a very balmy fall.
This story was originally published on British GQ with the title ‘Even David Beckham can’t resist Percival’s linen suit’.
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