Paul Mescal Unlocked the Formula for Perfect Casual Style

Paul Mescal has proven time and time again that, when it comes to menswear, he’s pretty advanced in the curriculum. From big, big suits to tiny, tiny shorts, the Irish actor can do serious, weird, and everything in between—a fact made all the more evident by the cardigan he wore earlier today.

Spotted in London, the All of Us Strangers star’s fit looked like Famous Man business as usual. Black suit and a slim white T-shirt layered under a double-breasted winter coat. He also jumped into some white dress socks and a pair of Gucci horsebit loafers. So far, so solid.

But on the paparazzi-filled stretch from his car to the BBC studios, Mescal sufficiently Mescal-ified his fit with a bright red knit: the very appropriately named Mega Shred cardigan by Charles Jeffrey. Released as part of the LVMH Prize nominee’s Loverboy line, this gender-fluid piece looks inspired by Frankenstein’s monster, with contrasting colors and stripes making their way throughout. If you want colorful but haunted British weirdness, Charles Jeffrey is your boy.

The classic fit plus one bit of weird is a textbook Mescal formula. Take, for instance, his white tee and blue jean combo at a Gucci party last year; sounds simple enough, but the white tee was cropped and slightly micro and just weird enough. Then, there are all those sharp suits he makes sexy with nothing but a white tank underneath—another slight switcheroo that keeps Mescal ahead of the curve. And for that, you can largely thank his stylist Felicity Kay, who told Vogue in a 2023 interview that she “quickly got a sense that Paul had great taste.”

She’s right. He does. And if you follow the same combo, you can be a little bit more Paul Mescal too.

This story originally appeared on British GQ with the title “Paul Mescal’s wild, wild cardigan is textbook Paul Mescal”