From Normal People to Gucci Precision: Paul Mescal’s Style Evolution

It started with a chain. When Paul Mescal appeared in the 2020 BBC-Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People—shirtless with just a thin silver necklace glinting against his collarbone—he went from unknown Irish stage actor to generational heartthrob overnight. The chain got its own Instagram account. So did his legs.

Mescal was born on Feb. 2, 1996, in Maynooth, County Kildare, the son of a schoolteacher and a Garda sergeant. He played Gaelic football at the minor level for Kildare, trained at the Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin, and landed Normal People almost immediately after graduating. What followed was one of the fastest ascents in recent cinema: an Oscar nomination for Best Actor at age 27 for Aftersun, a gladiator’s breastplate in Ridley Scott‘s Gladiator II and a turn as William Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao‘s Hamnet, which earned eight Academy Award nominations at the 98th Oscars—though Mescal himself was a notable snub in the Best Supporting Actor category. 

Off the red carpet, his style became a conversation of its own. The O’Neills GAA shorts worn to the pub and the bodega. The white crew socks with Gucci loafers. The cropped tops and tiny running shorts that turned an athlete’s wardrobe into a menswear argument. He became a Gucci ambassador in 2023 and a Cartier ambassador the year before, but the looks that defined him were the ones that cost nothing: a white tee, a chain and the confidence to wear short shorts like they were couture.

On the red carpet, styled by longtime collaborator Felicity Kay, he evolved from an aloof kid in a borrowed cardigan to a man who wears custom tuxedos with the collar undone and the tie loosened—always one gesture away from formality, never quite arriving there. He is currently filming the role of Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes‘ four-film Beatles series, due in theaters in April 2028. The long and winding road from Semple Stadium to Abbey Road continues.