Everybody say thank you, Paul.
Paul Mescal has become the undisputed king of the short short, but the fashion It boy and bona fide internet boyfriend just upped the ante—well, the hemline, actually—in his newest cover shoot. In a new shoot with GQ, Mescal posed in the tiniest pleated miniskirt, which appeared to have built-in shorts.
In the photo that has me picking up my jaw from off the floor, the actor stands on metal scaffolding in black combat boots and the aforementioned low-rise skort, revealing his Gladiator-ified abs. A simple black T-shirt with a rolled hem and sleeves finished off the look that is now my Roman Empire, and Mescal's curls were styled in a messy, Brooklyn-approved shag.
In the cover shot, Mescal wore a black leather shirt and shorts combo as he hung from the metal bars.
Mescal's tiny shorts have had such an impact on the culture and men's fashion that even his sister, Nell, has noticed. In the story, the reporter shared that Nell sent him a voice memo complaining about the rising hemline of men's pants.
“Shorts epidemic that you’ve caused…” she said. “Too many men in London acting the bollocks.”
Mescal revealed that he has a close-knit relationship with his family, which includes Nell and their other brother, Donnacha, who have supported him throughout his career and rise to fame. Mescal's shorts aren't the only viral thing that the family has seen on the internet. He shared that his siblings have all shared a laugh about those rumors that Mescal quite literally runs away from one-night stands. However, his mother doesn't find the false claims about his physical ghosting to be funny.
“We were looking at the videos and we were pissing ourselves at it. Categorically untrue. And we were laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing,” he explained. “And the one thing that upset me was that I was in the kitchen, I remember my mum looking at the videos and she was getting upset."
He added, "Isn’t that devastating? I was like, Oh, it’s funny to us—my brother, me, my sister—because we know that this is the way the internet works. It’s hilarious. If it was true, it’d be fucking bad, but as a rumor, it’s funny. Then I was like, Oh, if you’re a mother, her impulse is to come out and be like, ‘He wouldn’t do this.’ ”