Paul Mescal is the unofficial poster boy of thigh-grazing gym shorts, Adidas Spezials, wired earphones, and tiny watches. But when he’s not driving up sales of elevated gym class staples, he’s probably on the red carpet. And with his latest black-tie ensemble, the Gladiator II star is leaning into a new century entirely: the Renaissance.
At last night’s Governors Awards in Los Angeles, Mescal wore a single-breasted, full-cut tuxedo courtesy of Gucci. But rather than a run-of-the-mill dress shirt, the actor went for a collarless, lace-up top beneath his otherwise formal tailoring.
The shirt looks like it came from a time when people churned their own butter and appeared happy and cherubic in paintings by Italian masters. But the stripped-back nature of the rest of his fit, with its semi-relaxed pants and sleek ankle boots, helped keep things from looking too overly period costume-y. Where previous outings have seen Mescal double down on tiny accessories, including bracelets, rings, and brooches, the actor went without this time around.
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Pairing a lace-up shirt with a single-breasted tuxedo delivers a welcome bit of visual tension. It’s like wearing a T-shirt with a suit (a look Daniel Craig nailed at the Queer premiere in LA), but a touch more elevated. The soft arty shirt brings a romantic air to an otherwise a structured and buttoned-up dress code.
This isn’t Mescal’s first rodeo in Renaissance shirts. At last week’s Gladiator 2 world premiere in London, the actor wore a white version with a princely loose necktie. And, on the Irish leg of the film’s press tour, it was a grandad collar shirt with tails that extended below his waist with a wool overcoat.
We already knew Paul Mescal was a Renaissance man—now, though, he’s also got the clothes to prove it.
This story originally appeared on British GQ.
