First the chain he wore in Normal People gained a cult following, then he went viral for the tiny shorts he’d been papped wearing while running through London and Dublin.
Paul Mescal’s latest fashion fixation is the cardigan, and fans will no longer have to admire them from afar or flock to buy the same pieces before they sell out, as he has started selling off clothes to raise money for charity.
On his Gladiator II press tour, Mescal sported pieces including a custom hand-painted silk knit jumper by the Scottish knitwear designer BW Marks, a cotton cardigan from the AW24 collection of British designer AV Vattev, and some E.L.V. Denim jeans.
A blue-and-white vintage T-shirt will also be included in the collection, with the garments reflecting Mescal’s “strong connection to vintage and pre-loved fashion”, according to his stylist, Felicity Kay. “He’s often eager to rewear pieces we’ve styled before or items from his own wardrobe.”
A red AV Vattev lace-up cardigan, which normally retails at £210, is available for £400. The collection also includes a Hades wool cardigan for £285, an Extreme Cashmere crewneck jumper for £575 and Jimmy Choo black leather boots for £800. An additional Vinted buyer protection fee is added to the price of each item.
If all of the items are sold at full price, they will raise a total of £3,545, which will be donated to Pieta, an Irish suicide prevention charity. It is unconfirmed whether the clothes have been washed since the actor last wore them.
Not everyone is a fan of the star’s wardrobe, the body-con cardigan look in particular. A Reddit thread was created to talk about his cardigan choice on The Graham Norton Show in October, described by one person as “absolutely horrible”, with another calling his shirt “broken”.
On social media, others joked that the cardigan was “holding on for dear life”, as the buttons were stretched across his torso as if they might pop open.
This is not the first time the star has given up his possessions for charity. In 2020, Mescal sold the chain worn by his character Connell Waldron in the hit series Normal People for a reported £62,590 (€70,340 at the time), with donations from across the world.
In the Normal People book, the simple silver chain is described as “Argos chic”, yet an Instagram account dedicated to it, aptly named @connelschain, has more than 130k followers.
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At the time, he tweeted congratulations to the winner and said the money would go towards supporting the charity’s “vital services”.
“Congratulations Eadaoin !!! Thank you so much to everyone who participated…70340 euro is a huge amount of money and will go a long way in supporting Pieta’s vital services x,” he wrote.
The collection will go on sale via the Vinted account felicitykaystudio on 16 December.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
