Gap and Malbon Conspired to Spark a Riot at the Country Club | GQ

Too many tee boxes are a parade of performance polos and four-way-stretch slacks, but the soon-to-drop Gap x Malbon collection should fix that. Combining the cheeky sensibilities of the world’s hottest golf brand with the accessibility of the legendary mall staple, the collaboration delivers a 31-piece assortment that will crush on the course and the corner bar. As if this collab needed another ace in the hole, it’s been co-signed by Jesper Parnevik, one of the best-dressed golfers in PGA history.

“Golf has become a very broad kind of fashion statement more recently, and I think that's why Malbon and Gap is, like, the perfect collab,” said Parnevik, a former world top-10 golfer who dominated the links from beneath his signature flipped-up cap brim. “The combo now is perfect, between the country club fashion and things you can wear off the course as well.”

He isn’t wrong. The knit polo, for instance, looks like it should cost at least $200 and will hit hard with high-waisted trousers. The zip polo—which flips the GAP logo into one that reads PAR—evokes the glory of the block striped during its '90s heyday, and pairs as nicely with washed jeans as it will FootJoy spikes. Same goes for the cable-knit vest and the vintage-tinged quarter-zip.

The Gap x Malbon capsule has your bottom half covered, too. A subtly-striped, double-pleated pair of pants is a sneaky contender for Pants of the Summer: Mall Brand Category. You can find the same chambray-adjacent fabric on some big ol’ double-pleat shorts and a zip vest, both of which Parnevik rocks to devastating effect in the collection's campaign shots.

Since Parnevik’s front and center for the Gap x Malbon collab, all the hats in the collection can handle a bit of molding. (Fun fact: he originally flipped it up his hat’s brim to get a tan, but played so well that it became a trademark. “I was pretty pale, being a Swede,” he said. “It was a really stupid thing, but I started putting better when [the brim was] flipped up. And in my very first start with it flipped up, I ended up losing in a six-hole playoff against Seve (Ballesteros), and the crowd kind of loved it. It just stayed from that day on.”)

Drops like this Gap x Malbon collection are slowly but surely dragging the punchline era of golf fashion into something new. They might also drop a few strokes off your handicap, according to Parnevik. “I always would like to stand out a little bit,” said Parnevik about his playing days. "I always felt that the cooler I dressed on the course, I felt like I played better. I mean, I played in pink pants in Texas. That was maybe illegal at the time—but I won the tournament, so I got away with it."

The 31-piece Gap x Malbon collection goes on sale this Friday, June 6th, and presumably will fly off the racks faster than a crushed drive from the tee box.

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