Pedro Politics: Julie Vision

Before you get stuck in, one of the most iconic pieces Pedro has worn this year is the "ADULT CONTENT" Tee from his appearance on Kimmel, designed by the legendary Pippa Garner. And the tea on that is, you can buy it AND support the Trans Justice Funding Project through Mother Daughter Holy Spirit.

Well, someone had to do it, right?

As you can see from the length of this piece, we have a lot to cover – I don't just want to go ~waow, hot guy, and call it a day. There is an alchemy and intention behind Julie Ragolia's styling and Pedro Pascal's public image that deserves rapt and detailed attention. I want to provide true value, things you might not have noticed or didn't know, insight, potential readings into the artistic material.

This is OBSCURAE after all, and we take this sh*t seriously.

As this piece is so long, and has taken a lot of work and time to compile, the first section (1500 words) will be free to all, but our in-depth analysis of each look will be for paid members only. Membership is only £5 a month, but you can cancel the recurring payment after reading if you wish. This helps us keep the site running and provide you more coverage just like this, across our Website, TikTok and YouTube Channel. Thank you in advance for your support 💕

My heavy thanks to @styleofpascal on Instagram for collating some of the looks into one easy and convenient (and permanent) place 🙌🏽.

My thanks also to past me, who is such a nerd, and would screenshot Julie Ragolia's Instagram stories for fear I'd forget which designer made what. True parasocial hero, past me.

Let’s start with this - as a naturalised political refugee, Pedro Pascal does not have to be this loud. Anyone, from any perspective, would consider it way within his rights to keep his head below deck for the next few years (at least), and I fear even writing this article may shake the table a little too much.

There is a tenuous position that Pedro teeters over right now — he’s popular enough that people have a lot of space for him to be him, and nothing ever really blows up around him, about anything, like, ever. I’m thinking of the Mandalorian Lawsuit, and the many attempts i’ve seen in online spaces to start a cancel mob or violating conversations over this, that, and the other.

There has to be a level of this balance, this lack of issue, that is manufactured (in which case, a gargantuan mission accomplished, team), but so much of it is based on the fact that, in general, when he’s here, he’s here — and when he’s gone, he’s silent. The last living movie star, or something or whatever.

I wasn’t due for an academic Pedro dissection until the summer, but to ignore the mission he and Julie Ragolia have been on in the past few months, with the internal reasoning of not being too parasocial on my very serious culture website, would at this point actually be more conspicuous than just going for it.

At the risk of writing an article on Tuesday night that everyone will have released by Wednesday afternoon — we’re going to go through each statement Pedro and Julie have made since the F4 Launch, and throwing my parasociality to the wind.

(Editor's Note: The Tuesday I am referring to was last Tuesday. Don't judge me, you see how long this article became!)

A “little” context

We are living in an era of so-called strongmen and the rise of right-wing fascism. This is indisputable. As the clock turns back, so too does the progress and the freedoms we all so desperately clawed for. It is no longer clear who is speaking, why, how, and in what number - how popular is this tyranny? Are we surrounded by enemies or allies?

The internet, owned by technocratic broligarchs, is an ever more complex maze of mirrors obfuscating and overwhelming us with input at a rate that is not sustainable, and is meant to confuse us all out of action. Within this mirror maze, we throw trends and ideal modes of being at each other with increasing frequency and speed, in an attempt to control ourselves, our bodies, our realities. To be loved, to be favoured by the algorithm, to find our audience, to find our identity within the whole. Nothing lasts, every message rings hollow. Very few people have the means, or the need, to be brave.

It is within this context that general civilian and commercial fashion is actually regressing. One might argue, it has been regressing for a while. With the rise of brands such as The Row, an innocent urge toward simple, well made staples (which is the urge of all fashion-minded people to be honest, since time immemorial) has merged with a renewed minimalist impulse rooted in traditionalism and control, an anti-trend existence, which is driving both popular culture and the “online underground” into a sameness, a flattening of style and taste.

I have witnessed it myself — those who attempt, in person and online, to break visual rules and attempt to reimagine the conversation around personal expression in 2025 are being beaten back into submission through fear, ostracisation and shame.

One of my examples, when I explain this phenomenon to others, is Pedro himself. Watching people's strong reaction to the boots (oh, we'll get there) was enough to radicalise me – I'm sorry, you're drawing the line at leather boots, beloved? I have half a mind to shout "Did you Vote, though?" in their faces, but my better impulses win out.

This is fascism, and traditionalism, and conservatism, at its most basic definition. A flattening of style, a flattening of personal identity into the one controlled whole, which is in opposition to the disorganised hedonistic “other”. Blue hair, Pink hair, colour, patterns, rings, tattoos, piercings — these are the mark of the devil (queers, immigrants, protestors, POC, “criminals”) and must be uprooted and displaced, deported, imprisoned, killed.

And god forbid you violate gender roles — that you wear the wrong boots, or the wrong accessories. God forbid you signal Transness or Gender non-conformity in any way. This is considered degeneracy by the zealouts, and; there are also some progressives among us, with the animal sense at the back of their neck that the boat shouldn’t be rocked, who fear losing even more freedoms, worried we will anger the vengeful abusive father of conservatism even more. They are the ones who become the police. In every case - we must resist being the police in each other's lives.

To delight in difference, to find community within a diverse whole, is the future of humanity. It’s inevitable. We didn’t survive as a species this long because of fascism. We survived because of community. Each day, i’m reminded who’s in community with me and who isn’t (not least of which is people who still mask up to stop the spread of preventable airborne diseases to the most vulnerable of us. Trans people are at higher risk of Long Covid).

Every day, I want to make that community a little bigger, I want to learn a little more, I want to celebrate something new. We are only on earth a short time, and humans are fun because they’re different from me.

With all this taken into consideration, class, let’s get to reading…because reading is fun and mental, or something or whatever.

Slay-dro Diva-cal, and other pseudonyms

Pedro as a public figure seems to have a keen sense as to where the boundaries are, and tends to step his foot right up to the line in all matters of public record. An entire essay could be dedicated to these moments within interviews and press lines, which I have studied studiously in my scholarly and righteous stanning - moments of levity that stay just on the good side of “not media trained”. There is a hyperawareness of social mores and propriety, but what makes his public presence so magnetic is he is just this side of breaking everything. It's the Reneé Rapp effect.

A recent example at SNL seems particularly pertinent to mention. You know, the whole thing with Leslie Jones. We need not reprint it here - you were there. You saw it with the rest of us. Phrase one threw the entire universe of “Leading Man Brooding Badass Daddy” off its axis, but his follow up reactions and facial expressions softened the impact. This is the way.

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I want to posit that it’s this very dichotomy that Julie is tapping into when she styles Pedro. Her keen understanding of how he is able to nudge his foot against the line allows her to tap into a juxtapositive and highly political fashion style that often undercuts and deconstructs the context of the roles he has been given, both onscreen and off. Which is fascinating, because that’s also what Pedro does in his own work, conscious or not (see: the last time I wrote about Pedro). The genius of Julie's artistic interpretation mirrors the genius in Pedro's.

Let me explain what I mean.

F4 Launch

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A post shared by Pedro Pascal’s Style (@styleofpascal)

We’re here to see Reed Richards, the literal Father of Marvel Comics. First Family, he’s the head of the family, head of the first family makes him what? Daddy. We feel this, we know this. Matt Shakman seems to have gone for “Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” type daddy, but it’s father all the same.

There isn’t much need to reinforce the vintage aspect of Reed Richards’ character (this is another thing I love about Ragolia) — you’re gonna see him in those fits in the movie anyway. Instead, she innovates. It’s still the Father™ you recognised, but almost Hawaiian shirted, relaxed, casual, but modern. Mr. Rogers on Vacation. When it's Joel time, he softens up. When it's Reed time, he loosens up. It's a subtle dichotomy, but it's potent.

Of course, the outfit holds deeper significance - the uniting of a disparate diverse group into a cohesive whole, the use of patterns and color during a minimalist era. The fuck you of the fit is elite. What it does functionally though, if no one looks any further, is communicate the same character - the same film, the same performance - but within a modern context.

I feel people misunderstand Pedro's style for two reasons - they’re not used to men taking risks like this, and they’re not used to stars making such nuanced statements with their outfits. I’m from the Colman Domingo school of serve, but even I had to take a minute to truly appreciate the levels of meaning that Julie is consciously exploring with Pedro here. A rejection of conformity layered on top of an embrace of multiculturalism, with a subtle nod to the 'ethnic' othering of prints and patterns, and a realignment with the 'ethnic' other as a gesture of solidarity. All in a t-shirt and pants. 👏🏽