Style of Saquon

Hours before Saquon Barkley dazzled in his Eagles debut against the Green Bay Packers, he had already made a statement in the spotlight without saying a word.

It happened when he stepped out of the hotel in São Paulo, Brazil, on his way to board the bus to Corinthians Arena for the Eagles’ season opener. In a sea of sweatsuit-clad teammates, Barkley stood out with a carefully curated outfit consisting of hot pink Chrome Hearts jeans, a vintage Led Zeppelin band tee, white Nike Air Force 1s, and a supersized Hermès Birkin bag that could practically fit all the balls from the 15 touchdowns he was on the cusp of producing this season.

Barkley doesn’t take time to toil over his outfits. He would rather spend his spare moments poring over film. That’s why he relies on Joshua McPhearson, his stylist, to set the tone from head to toe before he takes the field.

“I just wanted to be a little bit loud,” McPhearson said. “Let people know that he was here. And he obviously did that with having three touchdowns. I knew it was going to be a game for him.”

He was confident in Barkley’s prospective performance because of the play he previously witnessed. McPhearson was a sophomore running back at Penn State in 2015 when Barkley arrived as a freshman. From the moment Barkley hurdled a defender in his first extended action against Buffalo as a freshman, McPhearson had a hunch he was in the presence of a future great.

So when Barkley signed a three-year, $37.75 million free-agent contract with the Eagles in the offseason, McPhearson expected the 27-year-old running back to step up his game. After six seasons with the New York Giants, Barkley joined a team with a well-oiled offensive line that could help unleash his potential. In turn, McPhearson, who has served as Barkley’s stylist since 2020, knew that he had to meet the moment, too.

“I just knew that he was on a bigger stage,” McPhearson said. “More eyes are on him, and I think that this season, we just kind of turned it up a little bit in terms of his looks, because we knew attention was on him. Not only because he was with a new team. It was really because of how he’s playing.”

In a world where tunnel walks are scrutinized on social media and personal brands beget business opportunities, Barkley trusted his former teammate and close friend to get him right for each game day throughout his historic season.

“He does a really good job of making sure I feel comfortable and putting me in things that I feel comfortable in,” Barkley said. “You’ve got to know the person really well for that to happen.”

An affinity for athletics connected all eight of the McPhearson siblings at a young age. Six of the seven boys played college football, including Zech, the former Eagles cornerback who also spent time at Penn State. McPhearson’s younger brother, Matthew, was a fourth-round pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2013. His younger sister, Kimberly, played soccer at Jacksonville State.

A sense of style set McPhearson apart. His parents, Gerrick and Kim, told him that he always loved showing off in his outfits since he was a kid. Whether he was wearing an all-denim set or a unique pair of glasses, McPhearson said he often stuck out from his peers.

“I was never afraid to show my personality in my own style, and that helps me when I style others now,” McPhearson said. “I know how to locate their personality and add that to what they wear.”

For McPhearson, the key to styling clients is getting to know them, understanding what they feel comfortable in, and finding a way to elevate their look in a way that suits their personality. Not only did he know how Barkley liked to dress long before they began to work together, but McPhearson also had a sense of trust established with the running back from years of shared experiences on the gridiron.

That trust has been crucial throughout their working relationship. It was how McPhearson landed Barkley as a client in the first place. After McPhearson was laid off from his finance job in 2020, he stepped up in a pinch to style Barkley for the week on a series of commercial shoots in Los Angeles after his initial option couldn’t be there.

“I was never afraid to show my personality in my own style, and that helps me when I style others now.”

McPhearson solidified Barkley as a client and launched his fashion career through the founding of his styling agency, PEAEK. Since working with Barkley, McPhearson has added players such as San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey and New Orleans Saints tight end Juwan Johnson to his NFL clientele list.

For all of his clients, McPhearson stresses the importance of honesty. If they don’t like something he dressed them in, McPhearson wants to hear their thoughts. Barkley is open-minded about trying new styles and transparent about his comfort level in each garment. Sometimes, Barkley gives McPhearson full creative control so he can focus on football.

“Full transparency, we have some games where I trust him so well in his style where there’s sometimes I won’t even try the clothes on,” Barkley said. “I’ll just be like, ‘Just send it to me.’ And I know it’s going to be what I want. And I know it’s going to fit how I want it to fit. ‘Cause his sense of style is amazing and sometimes those are our best looks.”

McPhearson starts the process of styling Barkley and his other NFL clients three to four months in advance of Week 1, when he discusses potential collaborations with different brands. He doesn’t solidify all 17 outfits at once, though. He plans out complete looks, plus multiple backup options, three to four weeks before each game to leave some flexibility for the players.

Barkley has an “elusive” sense of style, according to McPhearson. It can’t be characterized by one particular aesthetic.

“Saquon can be seen wearing a suit and look very normal just as much as he can wear all the streetwear clothes,” McPhearson said. “Some people don’t look good in suits. Some people don’t look good in streetwear. He looks good in both.”

Still, Barkley has gravitated more toward “classy” and “chic” high-fashion looks this year, reflecting his elevated mentality amid a dominant season in which he became the ninth running back in NFL history to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards.

“I just think that’s where his mood is right now,” McPhearson said. “Things have just been about business and he’s just been focused on ball.”

“Some people don’t look good in suits. Some people don’t look good in streetwear. (Saquon Barkley) looks good in both.”

The crown jewel of the outfit that Barkley wore for his Eagles debut was a Hermès Haut à Courroies coup de soleil Birkin bag from the spring-summer 2024 runway show. The body of the bag featured a twist on the classic Birkin — the shadows of a lock and a clochette meant to look as if they were faded by the sun on the gray leather.

The French luxury fashion house known for its leather handbags has a history with Barkley dating back to his tenure with the Giants. He made his runway debut at Hèrmes’ New York Fashion Week show in 2023 that showcased the brand’s fall-winter collection for men. For McPhearson, this Week 1 look helped set the bar for the rest of Barkley’s season in more ways than one.

“I think that was the mark to start, one, for his fashion selects all this year, and also, two, for his play on the field,” McPhearson said. “He jumped out and in every aspect in his look, and he’s jumping out on the field now.”

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The team at Isabel Marant, the French designer whose menswear has become associated with androgynous, relaxed styles, sent Barkley an oversize red leather jacket from their 2024 fall-winter show at Paris Fashion Week. Before Barkley acquires a piece from a brand, McPhearson scours the internet to ensure that a professional athlete hasn’t worn it previously, making it exclusive to his client.

McPhearson paired the jacket with gray Louis Vuitton monogram pants and black leather shoes, Prada sunglasses, and a white Goyard tote bag. In an effort to help Barkley look like he was walking the runway as he arrived at the Linc, McPhearson instructed him to carry the tote bag between his arm and his torso without hooking the straps to his shoulder. McPhearson said the small detail helped tie the look together.

“He knows that some high-fashion looks with some brands that we wear, you’ve got to just go all out with it and just not be scared,” McPhearson said. “That’s the main advice I have for people when it comes to style. That’s my fashion advice. Just don’t be scared. If you like it, wear it. I think that goes a long way.”

When McPhearson began to plan for Barkley’s return to MetLife Stadium, he viewed the game as an opportunity for the running back to clean up unfinished business. That’s why he assembled a clean, simple, and relaxed look for Barkley from Bottega Veneta, an Italian luxury fashion house known for its woven Nappa leather bags.

For Barkley’s first game against the Giants since he signed with the Eagles, McPhearson dressed him in a charcoal gray double-layered T-shirt, straight-leg black trousers, and coordinating leather shoes, belt, and messenger bag in the brand’s signature woven leather. McPhearson also matched the white sleeve cuffs of the shirt with wired Apple EarPods. McPhearson likened the aesthetic to that of a “stylish janitor.”

“I think just the wired headphones with this look just brought out a different vibe for him,” McPhearson said. “That he was just chilling. He was in this space. He wasn’t worried about much, and that game, he wasn’t. We can tell from the stats in his performance that it was one of the best games he had this year.”

That mindset came through in Barkley’s performance against the Giants. He finished the game with 176 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries, his second-best output on the ground this season.

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McPhearson drew inspiration from another runway show for Barkley’s Week 8 look against the Bengals, this time from Kenzo, a French luxury fashion house known for its streetwear. He saw the brand’s 2024 fall-winter menswear show on Vogue Runway, the magazine’s subscription-based digital archive of photos from fashion shows across the world, and was intrigued by a matching denim set.

To go with the denim jacket and pants, Barkley carried a black and white canvas duffel bag from Moynat, a Parisian trunk-maker heralded for its luxury leather goods. Barkley incorporated Moynat bags in several of his pregame looks this season.

“He’s one of the only people in the league who has or is even carrying the Moynat bag,” McPhearson said. “So I think it was a perfect touch for him being exclusive.”

Over the last four years of their working relationship, McPhearson said he had never styled Barkley in a hat for a regular-season game until Week 9 against the Jaguars. McPhearson said the addition of the red Punk and Yo snapback hat complemented a casual streetwear look that featured a black Martine Rose bomber jacket and a pair of dark-wash jeans from The Row.

Barkley, however, had a different motivation for wearing the hat.

“I really wasn’t in the mood to get a haircut,” he said.

McPhearson told him to wear it backward, a departure from how Barkley typically wears his hats. The decision proved to be prophetic. In the second quarter of the game, Barkley hurdled backward over Jaguars cornerback Jarrian Jones on a 14-yard run, a defining moment from the running back’s Pro Bowl season.

“He didn’t tell me before the game that he was going to, like, jump over someone backward, obviously,” McPhearson said. “I’ve never seen none of that before in my life. I know no one in this world has as well.”

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When McPhearson came across this black lambskin shearling aviator jacket on Instagram, he knew he had to have it for Barkley. The jacket was featured in Gucci’s 2001 fall-winter runway show when Tom Ford was the creative director of the Italian fashion house.

Even though the fur jacket was a departure from what Barkley typically wears to games, McPhearson said he embraced the unique look for prime time.

“His reaction was just, like, ‘Let’s do it,’” McPhearson said. “He liked it a lot. I said, he has a lot of trust. If he didn’t like something, he would tell me. So I think it looked really good on him.”

McPhearson called the light brown Paul Smith suit that Barkley wore ahead of the Sunday night game against the Rams one of his favorite looks of the season. Barkley also carried a brown canvas Moynat bag, which has been a staple in his wardrobe throughout the season. For a prime-time contest, McPhearson wanted Barkley’s outfit to reflect a businesslike mentality.

That approach was evident in his play. Barkley rushed for a career-high and franchise-best 255 yards and two touchdowns that each went for at least 70 yards. He added four receptions for 47 yards, finishing the night with 302 all-purpose yards, the second most in Eagles history.

“Sometimes the games you play better in, the fit definitely goes a long way,” Barkley said.

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For the first game of December, McPhearson dressed Barkley in head-to-toe Loro Piana, an Italian luxury brand known for its ready-to-wear cashmere and wool garments. He layered a dark brown cashmere coat over a tan turtleneck sweater and matching pants to keep Barkley warm in the cold Baltimore weather.

“I think this look by Saquon, the overcoat, the Loro Piana sweater, and the wool pants as well, just was enough warmth for him,” McPhearson said. “We haven’t seen Saquon in a trench coat in a long time. So I think it just was fitting for that game against the Ravens.”

Barkley carried his black-and-white Moynat duffel and a brown trunk from the brand that matched the rest of the outfit. The trunk added to the professional look that McPhearson sought to achieve.

Prada, the Italian luxury fashion house, is one of McPhearson’s favorite designers. He has dressed Barkley in a number of their pieces over the years, but the stylist said that the Week 15 look he assembled ahead of the Eagles’ game against the Steelers is one of his favorites to date.

McPhearson styled Barkley in a black leather Prada jacket accented with an exposed silver zipper and the brand’s signature triangle plaque affixed on top of the chest-patch pocket. Barkley’s black necktie features an identical triangle-shaped logo. McPhearson said Barkley was “super comfortable and felt elevated” in his outfit that week.

A frigid game at Northwest Stadium called for a Hermès jacket from their 2024 fall-winter collection with an exposed zipper and leather accents, both on the collar and on one of the pocket flaps. McPhearson tied the cold-weather look together with a pair of black gloves to match the black pants and leather shoes. In continuing with the season-long theme of a businesslike approach, Barkley carried a matching Goyard travel bag.

“Just a lot of classy looks so far,” McPhearson said. “I mean, they’ve been working well for him. His game play has been exceptional. So, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

After attending the Met Gala in 2019 and walking the Hermès show in 2023, Barkley said he aspires to grow his presence in the fashion world alongside McPhearson.

“I think it’s a fun thing to do and it involves someone who’s a really close friend of mine,” Barkley said. “To be able to help him, too, take off in his career.”

With Barkley on the cusp of 2,000 rushing yards, McPhearson wanted to put the focus on the running back through his pregame outfit while paying homage to the theme of the game. The Eagles wore their kelly green jerseys for the second time this season against the Cowboys, so Barkley dressed in a black hooded Apex One Eagles jacket manufactured in the early 1990s from Jawn Supply, a vintage clothing store in West Chester that specializes in Philadelphia sports apparel.

Barkley also sported a graphic T-shirt bearing his own likeness from Philly Sports Shirts. As the spotlight shifted to Barkley on the field, he rose to the moment, rushing for 167 yards to bring his final total on the year to 2,005.

“Football’s a team sport, but sometimes you come to a place in your career where you’ve got to … not be selfish, but it has to just be about you and your hard work,” McPhearson said. “I just thought that it would be cool to have him wear himself. It’s a testament to what he’s been through. A testament to how hard he’s worked this season.”

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