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Editor’s Letter
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83 Taste London chef Andrew Wong goes to war with China’s cuisine traditionalists; three hampers to fill you up with festive cheer; Maida Vale’s new Hero; a members’ club fit for purpose.
Foreword All filler, not enough killer: why Netflix et al are losing their chill. By Stuart McGurk
31 Details
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99 The 50 Best-Dressed
Boots Riley for the (Oscar) win; winter hots up, thanks to unseasonal patterned shirts; from Idris Elba to Rafael Nadal, London’s celebrity restaurateurs; how GQ threw the party of the decades.
Men In The World 2019 We honour this year’s sartorial heroes (and zeroes), the dapper duos defining #couplegoals and ten captains of industry who work their wardrobe.
54 Preview
This month’s events, products and garms.
143 The GQ Drop
59 House Rules Before you read our Best-Dressed Men, check out the first ever GQ Best-Dressed Toons; the Maga cap and you; Style Shrink; plus, dress like Paul Manafort.
It’s time to swear off the c-word; TV’s new marvel (and not a superhero in sight); elite sports’ gravest danger; why tech’s smart set will focus on the factory floor; the supersonic rise and fall of Concorde; why Brexit’s impact will rattle through the centuries.
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73 Cars And the award for longest overdue celebrity tie-in goes to: Lawrence Of Arabia for the new Rolls-Royce SUV. We’ve driven it and, trust us, it was worth the wait.
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219 GQ Travel 2019 From rugged retreats in Ireland and Namibia to Indonesia’s otherworldly outposts, GQ goes to the ends of the earth to uncover the must-visit destinations your new year’s diary needs to know. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 9
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Richard Madden rumbled, revved and romped his way to the top of “next best Bond” lists thanks to record-breaking BBC thriller Bodyguard. Is he shaken? Stirred? No chance... Story by Stuart McGurk Photographs by Matthew Brookes
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 11
Cuvée Rosé, chosen by the best.
Illustrated by Quentin Blake
The Royal Albert Hall
MAISON FAMILIALE INDÉPENDANTE laurentperrierrose
Photo credit: Iris Velghe / Illustration credit: Quentin Blake
CONTENT S 261
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Features & fashion 52
Check mates! Riccardo Tisci x Vivienne Westwood – Burberry’s new capsule collab. By Teo van den Broeke
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GQ spars with the heavyweight boxing promoter who made AJ world champion.
261 Life Go beast mode with superstar personal trainer Magnus Lygdback; keep your new year resolutions with the help of the GQ life coach squad; live your best life with a little help from Michael B Jordan; Teo van den Broeke is ready to face his public, thanks to Chanel’s new line of male make-up.
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The pariah prince Mohammed bin Salman was briefly the Trump-backed hope for Saudi Arabia’s youth. But did he let down the president or was he set up to fail? By Richard Spencer
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Pop! goes the ego Lobster-loving artist Philip Colbert welcomes us inside his bright new London atelier. By Dylan Jones
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Coach class How Yorkshire’s Stuart Vevers took the best of the West to reshape a classic American label. By Teo van den Broeke
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Out To Lunch Over cheese toasties at London’s Cora Pearl, comedian Katherine Ryan on why chauvinism is no laughing matter.
Alastair Campbell vs Eddie Hearn
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If you only buy one wardrobe filler this winter... We’re talking Burberry and Berluti kicks, Louis Vuitton bumbags and Michael Kors PJs. Choose carefully or, hell, why not choose them all?
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EDITOR’S LETTER
Richard Madden in (from left) Cinderella, Game Of Thrones and the acclaimed Bodyguard. Truly, he looks good in anything...
he torture and brutal murder of Saudi Arabia’s best-known journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, has become an increasingly totemic event in the fraught recent history of the US’s most influential Middle Eastern ally. Ever since the start of the two countries’ special relationship – in 1933, when full diplomatic relations were finally established – the tensions between them have been predictably attritional, with the US seemingly always prepared to overlook many of the Saudis’ archaic, controversial and fundamentally conservative aspects in exchange for the creation of an institutionalised oil supply system and the continued promise of political and military support in the world’s most complex, conflicted region. Over the past 20 years, this relationship has been tested many, many times, and while on the surface the progressively strained relationship appeared to be (perhaps remarkably) temporarily assuaged by Donald Trump’s visit last year (his first overseas trip as president), the global outcry over the callous assassination of the outspoken Khashoggi has shattered any suggestion of détente, at least in the eyes of the US’s Western partners. In this issue, Richard Spencer, the Times’ Middle East correspondent, on a special assignment for GQ, catalogues the media furore surrounding the killing of Khashoggi and investigates the inner workings of the world of Mohammed bin Salman, known colloquially as MBS, the crown prince who despite describing the killing as a “heinous crime” has since become something of a global pariah. Spencer’s report is a fascinating insight not only into the closed
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world of the Saudi royal family, but also gives an indication of how things could now evolve. “His fellow Saudis are undoubtedly in a state of panic,” writes Spencer. “Many are as outraged as anyone else by what has happened. No one believed the country was a liberal place, but most thought there were limits to the ruling family’s authoritarianism. Its jails and secret police do not have the reputation of, for example, Syria’s or Egypt’s. On the other hand, many of the youth – two thirds of the population is under 30 – are also terrified that an end to MBS would be an end to the social reforms and a return to the old order.”
lsewhere, when we started discussing who we wanted for the cover of our annual Best-Dressed issue, there was only one response. By which I mean there was only one person we all wanted. And you can see him now, on our cover, looking for all the world like the coolest man in the world. I think it would be fair to say that six months ago he was principally known for his role as the inspirational Robb Stark in Game Of Thrones (although there are some who claim to have seen him in Disney’s most recent version of Cinderella), before becoming the talk of the
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We live in a world where it’s so easy for men to look well dressed
town in the BBC thriller Bodyguard. Since then, he’s become the latest heartthrob to be fingered as the next James Bond, Bodyguard has been bought by Netflix, he’s got a juicy role in the Elton John biopic Rocketman and – pertinently – he’s got his first GQ cover. Plus, according to those who know and who have been asked, he is also the fourth bestdressed man in the world. Which, frankly, is no small feat – especially as he has spent most of his screen time covered in chain mail and beard oil. The GQ Best-Dressed list always causes something of a stir in the office, not least because the team are lobbied relentlessly and inundated with bribes. Nevertheless, it is taken so seriously that, for weeks, there are heated arguments in the boardroom as those in charge sit around and shout at each other; never let it be said that GQ doesn’t care about the sartorial shortcomings of the great and the good. Of course, the Worst-Dressed list generates almost as many arguments, although mostly it generates a lot of laughter. Maybe because we live in a world where it’s so easy for men to look well dressed that it comes as something of a shock when they look so tired and disrespectful. Predictably, both Justin Bieber and Paul Hollywood have made the list, but then I’m fairly certain they make it every year. Perhaps what is more surprising is the appearance of both Paul Manafort and Jacob Rees-Mogg. Didn’t Manafort spend more than a million dollars on clothes in just five years? And while Rees-Mogg has objectionable politics, isn’t the whole point of him that he looks like an unreconstructed buffoon? One thing that does surprise me is the sudden appearance of our >> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 21
EDITOR’S LETTER
for the Spectator. I mean, seriously? What is Liddle doing now that he didn’t do five years ago when he worked for us? I suspect that he has become demonised because those who voted for him don’t like his politics, which is a pretty passive-aggressive way to get your own back. One thing that always appealed to me about Liddle’s appearance was the way in which he obviously didn’t care that he looked as though he was about to collapse in front of you. o many crimes against menswear are committed by men who are obsessed with what things cost. And while we may like to kid ourselves otherwise, almost every consumer decision we make – whether we’re buying a doughnut from Manchester’s Siop Shop, a pair of trousers or a new car – is entwined inextricably with how we see ourselves and how we want other people to see us. So many are obsessed with letting everyone know how much they’ve spent on their clothes, their cars, watches and houses. I suppose it’s why God invented the 50-pound note. And the Centurion Amex. Six hundred years ago, only royals were allowed to wear purple silk, while servants had to sport cloth that cost less than two shillings a yard. A hundred years on, parliament anticipated the arrival of bling, blaming excessive dress on the “perverse and forward manners and usage of the people”, and acknowledged that, unless supervised, overspending on clothes would bankrupt “light persons” with more money than sense. And in those days they didn’t even have Westfield. Or Kanye. Today, we all go to ridiculous lengths to try to let people know how cool and rich we are, without actually saying so. It might be the make of your watch, the width of your chisel-
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toed shoes (exactly one inch, according to the people here who know) or the contrasting colour on your Chaos iPhone cover (white and black, seeing that you asked). But aren’t you getting tired of all this? A few years ago I came up with a solution, and although I was unceremoniously ignored at the time, this is the one issue in which the entire staff takes an interest in what we all look like, so I’m going to try again. My suggestion, which I think would be willingly embraced not just by consumers but also by fashion-forward designers from Paris to Shanghai, is simple: instead of beautifully designed, perfectly printed silk labels hiding inside our jackets or on the collars of our shirts, what say we have huge great labels on the outside telling everyone how much everything costs? That way you could take your jacket off in the middle of a business meeting so everyone in the room can see the label on your shirt sleeve: “£520” it would say, loud and proud. You could walk into a restaurant with “£3,200” plastered all over your jacket, “£380” on your shoes and “£120” on your tie. And if you looked closely you could see “£4,500” on your watch (although, in my case, this would be a lie, as I’m currently wearing a Swatch). You wouldn’t need to limit the conceit to clothes either. Imagine driving around in your spanking new designer car – hubcaps as shiny as the buttons on a Ralph Lauren peacoat – and instead of a discreet little Mercedes logo you have a great big sign that says, in no uncertain terms, “£85,000 (four cylinders, manual, paid in full)”. Wouldn’t that be more impressive? Of course my plan isn’t foolproof. I’m sure there would soon be fashion imposters walking around with “£2,500” on their jackets when they had simply picked them up for a song in the local Oxfam, but frankly some people will do anything to appear rich. G
London Fashion Week Men’s
We bring you the very latest trends, street style and insider diaries from LFWM and beyond.
New year, new you?
Start the new year as you mean to go on, with our handy personaltrainer guides and healthy food that actually tastes good. Yes, really.
The best interiors
Give your home the furnishings it deserves with our weekly lust list, compiled by Eleanor Davies, each Sunday at 3pm.
On the cover: Richard Madden wears shirt, £270. Trousers, £500. Belt, £410. All by Giorgio Armani. armani.com. Vest by Sunspel, £33. sunspel.com On the subscribers’ cover: Richard Madden wears suit, £645. Shirt, £89. Bow tie, £65. Pocket square, £35. All by Boss. boss.com Photographed by Matthew Brookes
Follow us @britishgq @dylanjonesgq 22 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Richard Madden behind the scenes
Dylan Jones, Editor
Watch footage of our shoot with the Bodyguard star.
Photographs BBC/World Productions/Sophie Mutevelian; Disney; Sky
>> old columnist Rod Liddle, who now writes
CONTRIBUTORS
Matthew BROOKES Matthew Brookes shot this month’s cover star, Richard Madden, in an old warehouse, inspired by pictures from the Sixties of Sean Connery and Marlon Brando. “We wanted to make him look dangerous in a suit,” says Brookes. “He’d make a great James Bond, and is the kind of guy you’d want to have a pint with, though he’d probably drink you under the table...”
Stuart McGURK
Eleanor DAVIES
The finale of BBC’s Bodyguard was the UK’s highest-rated drama ever and Richard Madden’s performance triggered a frenzy of Bond rumours. GQ Associate Editor Stuart McGurk sat with Madden to talk Game Of Thrones, fame and a certain 007. “Bodyguard showed he’s got the chops for Bond,” says McGurk, “but in person – sardonic, gruff, unaffected – he has the charm too.”
Online Production Co-ordinator Eleanor Davies will be working throughout London Fashion Week Men’s on GQ’s daily “Style Diaries”, offering the best fashion tips from the most stylish men about town. “We want to open up London Fashion Week Men’s to our readers,” says Davies, “bringing them the inside scoop on what the best-dressed men in the business are wearing.”
Jessica PHILLIPS
Tanya GOLD
Teo van den BROEKE
GQ Social Media Co-Ordinator Jessica Phillips will be sharing the best street-style photographs and essential show reports from London Fashion Week Men’s across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. “Men’s fashion is moving in an exciting and dynamic direction,” says Phillipps. “It’s great to see London at the forefront of the industry.”
It’s been almost two years since Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States, so GQ Contributing Editor Tanya Gold reflected on his time in office for a column on GQ.co.uk. “I tried to make sense of all the drama and the madness,” says Gold. “It wasn’t easy.”
This month, GQ Style And Grooming Director Teo van den Broeke compiled our annual Best-Dressed list, which includes the world’s most stylish businessmen, fashionable couples and – the juicy bit – the ten worst dressed. “GQ Best-Dressed Men is the most recognised list of its kind,” says Van den Broeke, “so you can imagine the pressure and power I felt being asked to edit it for 2018.” G
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO .UK 25
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F O R E WO R D
Netflix and Amazon: enough already! They still call it streaming, but today it’s a raging flood – and quality control is being swept away Story by
here’s a point in The Romanoffs, the new Amazon Prime Video series from Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men, when you will say to yourself, “What exactly is... the point... of this?” It won’t come straight away. After all, this is the great Matthew Weiner we’re talking about. You’ll watch and at first you’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. Why would you not? And so what if the setup is so simple as to be meaningless. Each episode is an independent story, with no connection to the rest, save the fact that in each setup there are people who believe they are descended from Russian royalty. But hold your horses if you think that is remotely important, because it isn’t: The Romanoffs is essentially a cluster of standalone films, each around 90 minutes in length, that needed to have some kind of title in order for Amazon to claim it’s a TV series. In truth, it is actually a blank cheque for Weiner to make eight films about whatever he wanted. As Weiner himself told the New York Times, “It was a wildest-dreams scenario.” He had told Amazon, simply, “These are the things I would like to do that I couldn’t do on Mad Men.” And what did he want to make films about? It’s... really quite hard to say. The first episode, set in Paris, is about a racist aunt, her Muslim carer and her nephew and his girlfriend who
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Stuart McGurk
Illustration by
Bruno Mangyoku
want her grand apartment. I guess it’s about racism and identity, but only in the way a black doctor treating a racist patient in an episode of Casualty is about racism and identity. The second episode is a slow-burn meditation on a couple’s disintegrating marriage as they attend therapy, which is better, but says nothing new about marriage or therapy. The third episode is like an episode of Black Mirror if it had twice the budget but half the brains. “Self-indulgent and wrong-headed,” said the BBC, in a review of the series that summed up the critical feeling. Two things struck me watching The Romanoffs. The first, as mentioned: what is the point of this? The second: that our prevailing notion of streaming services is almost entirely wrong. The idea goes like this: because these sites collect so much big data on our viewing habits, they can “Moneyball” the commissioning process and so only these machine-designed shows get made. It’s also why, the logic goes, they produce lots of good shows but few great ones. It’s how we end up
‘Do what you want. Have all the money you need. Just come to us, not them’
with “four-quadrent” shows such as Stranger Things – so-called because, with its mix of sci-fi, melodrama, adolescence and nostalgia, it appeals equally to both male and female audiences and those both under and over 25. But look at the other end of the commissioning process, the big-name showrunners with hits behind them, and it’s a fight to the death between the upstarts (Netflix, Amazon), traditional cable (HBO, AMC, Showtime) and the soon-to-launch streaming services from Apple and Disney (which is why the latter is acquiring 21st Century Fox for a cool $50 billion). Money, as you’d imagine, plays a large part – Netflix famously kicked off its self-made revolution by outbidding both HBO and AMC for House Of Cards to the tune of $100 million for the first two seasons alone – but just as important is freedom. In order to woo TV’s biggest names, they essentially offer them carte blanche. Make what you’ve wanted to make, they say. Have all the money you want to make it, they add. Just come to us, not them. As Weiner said to me in an interview while he was making The Romanoffs, he wanted to make a show that was something of a throwback to when TV began, where “you didn’t have any ground rules” and where “you’re never going to see those people again”. But watching The Romanoffs, you have to wonder: is this a good thing? >> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO .UK 27
GQ FOREWORD f you want an example of how streaming behemoths Netflix and Amazon have turned TV’s power dynamic upside down, look no further than Ryan Murphy – the man behind Glee, American Horror Story and The People V OJ Simpson: American Crime Story. He’d just written a pilot script for a show called Ratched, a loose prequel to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and while he usually made all his shows for Fox (he had four on air), he’d just seen the incredible deal Netflix had made for another showrunner: a staggering $150m for Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. So he sent his script to Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Hulu instead. All wanted to make it, so he did the tour. Instantly, he knew it had flipped: he wasn’t pitching to them, each was pitching to him. He sold the show to Netflix and soon moved there on a five-year contract for an unheard-of $300m. Who knows how successful Murphy’s Netflix shows will be, but its commission of Ratched is typical of its method. Rather than commission a pilot episode – the traditional first step to see if the idea works or not – it commissioned two full series off the bat. That doesn’t mean Ratched will be bad, but it sure does allow more of a chance of badness. Take the example of Game Of Thrones. A storming success, right? Well, not at first. The pilot was a notorious disaster. The actors wore wigs that kept falling off. The costumes were end-of-the-pier panto. The dialogue was joyless and sombre and saw characters wanging on about liege lords and wine flagons. It would have been a stone-cold flop. But HBO saw potential and helped it start over, retooled and reimagined. The script was rewritten, feedback was fed back on and Game Of Thrones as we now know it was born. But to repeat: Netflix doesn’t do that. It sees making pilots as waste, so everything is a series (those digital shelves need filling, after all). Amazon, when it’s luring a big name such as Weiner or Woody Allen, does the same. And it might – whisper it – be quietly ruining TV. I know, I know. It’s easy to counter this argument. What about Stranger Things, you’ll shout? Or Making A Murderer, you fool? Or The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, you dimwit? Or The Crown, you idiot? Claire Foy’s portrayal is a joy for the ages! Look, I’m not arguing Netflix is evil or that all Amazon shows are rubbish (The Crown and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel are worth the relevant subscriptions alone), just that, well, the likes of Netflix and Amazon are essentially set up to create more rubbish than not. A recent cover story in New York Magazine divulged that Netflix is churning out so many shows – its annual budget is a gargantuan $8bn, dwarfing HBO’s $2bn – it’s ditched the
I
28 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
traditional hierarchical process in order to commission them all. In fact, so many people at Netflix can greenlight a show that the company effectively acts like ten to 15 independent production companies: when an agent gets a no from one, they move on to the other. “I’m building a team that’s orientated to say yes in a town that’s built to say no,” explained Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer. Most remarkably, Netflix executives can not only commission a series without Sarandos’ approval, but against his wishes. He points out that true-crime podcast spoof American Vandal, a sleeper hit, is one of these. But what about the ones they’re less proud of? Well, chances are, you’ll never know they exist. Use Amazon Prime or Netflix for any period of time and unbeknown to you, you will soon be categorised into one of an unfathomable number of subcategories of viewers. In Netflix’s case, there are almost 20,000 of them, known as “taste clusters”. And which cluster you’re in will determine what Netflix shows
More flops are made than hits but, unlike TV, they don’t stink up the schedule you. The idea is obvious: to highlight what you might be into. But it works the other way too, effectively hiding what it knows you won’t. Ever spotted Amazon original JeanClaude Van Johnson on your home screen, the “comedy-drama” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a retired action-movie star who decides to become a private undercover investigator? No? How about Netfllix recommending you The Good Cop, which sees a former lawman who’s done time for corruption team up with his straight-laced officer son? You sure? Surely you caught historical epic Marco Polo, which ran for two seasons and cost Netflix $200m? No again? Then how about... I really could go on. The reality is the streaming giants produce far, far, far more flops than hits, but, unlike regular TV, they don’t stink up the schedule. The personalisation algorithms of Netflix, by the way, don’t stop there. The Observer recently reported that their “artwork personalisation” means that not only will Good Will Hunting, say, be represented by a shot of Matt Damon and Minnie Driver for romcom fans or Robin Williams if you watch a lot of comedies, but the same film will also be promoted by different races, depending on your ethnicity – the most remarkable example being Like Father, a Netflix original film starring Kelsey Grammer
and Kristen Bell, which is sometimes promoted by a shot of two of the film’s minor black characters as if they were the stars. Still, perhaps worse than the turkeys are the shows that could have been good with more care – decadent-but-oh-so-indulgent dramas such as Godless, or interesting supernatural nonsense-fest The OA, or great-idea-shameabout-the-stupidity sci-fi Altered Carbon, or The Get Down, with which zero people got down. ou know how every so often an oligarch will buy a Premier League football team and the first few transfer windows are batshit hilarious as they try to buy a whole team in four days, but end up with four Brazilian sweeper-winger benchwarmers bought for so much money that their clubs thought the bids contained typos? That’s streaming sites right now. I mean, sure, it’s not my $8bn, is it? It’s not me that’s almost $9bn in debt, as Netflix is. But what else explains Netflix’s multimillion deal to make shows with the Obamas? Don’t get me wrong, I love Barry as much as the next liberal, bedwetting Remoaner, but I don’t want to watch a show made by the guy. But, hey, the Obamas, right? Netflix! And the Obamas! Make something! What something? Doesn’t matter! Just more something! Must! Make! More! Something! And what else explains the reality-bending Maniac, in which Emma Stone and Jonah Hill played everyone from mob stooges to Forties mediums to elves on epic quests, all in the space of ten episodes? Apart from, of course, the fact it was a show solely designed to lure two A-list actors by letting them play mob stooges, Forties mediums and elves on epic quests, all in the space of ten episodes. So what if it doesn’t make sense? It’s the big-screen’s funny-boy loser Jonah Hill on your tellybox! It’s America’s big-eyed sweetheart Emma Stone on your flatscreen. She’s won an Oscar, you schmuck. It doesn’t have to make sense. Surely – surely – this will all calm down; the content arms race will cease. And Netflix and Amazon might finally say to each other, “Shall we only make things that are, you know, good? Or, at least, should that be the aim?” After all, they’re not only stocking a library for people to watch now, but for new customers to rediscover in the future, in the way a millennial might watch The Sopranos or The Wire. Because you know what they won’t ever say? They will not say to each other, “What, you’ve never seen Netflix’s Gypsy starring Naomi Watts? But she plays a New York clinical psychologist who oversteps personal and professional boundaries as she begins to develop relationships with people close to her patients under the alias Diane Hart!” Trust me, I’ve seen it and they will not say that. G
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THE
MOVIE Photograph Ilona Szwarc
MAKER
Boots Riley
Surf the headlines about Sorry To Bother You, the debut film from Chicago hip hop artist/activist Boots Riley, and you will likely see it called “this year’s Get Out”. Granted, both are mixes of the satirical and the fantastical, both from black first-time writer-directors and, yup, both say urgent things about race in America today, but while Get Out was written at the tail-end of the Obama administration (with an eye on Trumpism), Sorry To Bother You was written back in 2012 (with a
Boots Riley’s directorial debut, Sorry To Bother You, includes ‘just enough insanity to be totally relevant to our time’
more general eye on pessimism). “Unfortunately,” says Riley, “the world hasn’t changed enough to make the movie irrelevant.” A wild blend of Charlie Kaufman smarts and Spike Lee social conscience, it sees Lakeith Stanfield’s down-on-his-luck Cash find success at a call centre by perfecting a “white voice” (actually dubbed over by David Cross). His job? To sell the labour of the swaths of people signed up to lifetime-employment contracts at controversial company WorryFree, becoming, along the way, a modern-day >> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 31
>> slave trader – and that’s before it gets really weird. But the high satire has a serious point: “It’s about capitalism rather than Trump,” says Riley, who describes himself as a communist. “People think the way to fix things is to get Trump out... My hope is in the people getting organised. That’s where the real power lies.” Look at history, he adds: “We got affirmative action in the US under Nixon, not because he is super right-wing, but has one little part of him that’s progressive. It’s because there was a movement.” Sure. But you can vote too, right? No, says Riley, “Because you put so much hope and energy into that day and then it doesn’t exist afterwards.” So you don’t vote? “Only on propositions.” Not presidents? “No.” Really? You didn’t vote in the last election? “No.” Riley was similarly stubborn when it came to getting the film made in the first place. “It was like the ‘stone soup’ method. If you have a vision that you’re passionate about, you can get sucked into that.” Yet, for a while, no one was getting sufficiently sucked in. In desperation, after bumping into novelist Dave Eggers one day in San Francisco, Riley asked him to read the screenplay. Eggers loved it so much (“It had just enough insanity to be totally relevant to our time”) he published it in McSweeney’s. From there, Riley collected film-making mentors (Guillermo del Toro, Spike Jonze), found funding from Sundance “labs”, made the Sundance Film Festival and is now an outside Oscar bet. With so much in the film that’s out-there (there are animal-human hybrids at one point), was anything taken directly from his life? “The opening scene”, which sees Cash bag the call-centre job via a counterfeit employee of the month trophy and fake workplace stats. Really? “Yeah, my friend Rob. That’s how he got all his jobs!” Stuart McGurk
They call Billy Schenck “the Warhol of the West”, and not just because the pair have subject matter in common: Warhol attended Schenck’s debut show in 1971 and, this year, both shared a retrospective. While Schenck’s pieces – an implosion of Navajo culture, modern cowgirls, apocalyptic imagery and Greek mythology – can be seen at major US institutions such as the Smithsonian, in the UK he is relatively unknown. Castle Fine Art aims to change that with its show The New West; after 48 years Schenck tells GQ that this thematic wellspring has still not run dry. “The work continues to unfold new ideas, more avenues. There literally is no end to the myth of the American West.” CB
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU IS OUT ON 7 DECEMBER.
THE NEW WEST IS AT CASTLE FINE ART GALLERIES NATIONWIDE FROM 7 DECEMBER. CASTLEFINEART.COM
THE
ARTIST
‘Loose Lips Will Kill You’ (2012) by Billy Schenck
TO KNOW
A brush with the wild
Turn of Stranger Things
Turn on Nightflyers
Ever watched Stranger Things and thought, “This retro sci-fi is all well and good, but couldn’t someone buzz saw their own neck open in the first few minutes?” No? Well, Game Of Thrones author George RR Martin doesn’t care, as his new series brings his crimson sensibility to the stars. Expect mutant psychics and a high body count. Nightflyers is on Netflix this month. 32 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Put away your smartphone
Pull out your folding phone
As phones have got bigger in order to do the job of tablets, one problem remains: you’re basically cramming a Roman army breastplate into your pocket. Thank God, then, for Samsung’s folding phone, which becomes a 7.3-inch tablet via “Infinity Flex Display”. Others are on board too – Huawei’s version is due in 2019 and Apple will likely follow suit if they’re hits. samsung.com
Don’t attend any other football stadium
Rock up to Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium
Next month, Spurs’ new £850m, 62,062-seater stadium (hopefully) opens. Not only is it London’s biggest club ground, but, like American football stadiums, the aim is to keep you there the whole day and so boasts many bespoke bar and lounge spaces, with everything from gourmet junk food to Michelin-level dining. Also: there’s a “cheese room”. SM
Photograph Getty Images
+Augment your life Three substitutions to make this month
DETAILS
THE
STYLE PAG E S
Photograph by Alexander Kent From top: Shirt, £675. Shirt, £675. Shirt, £745. All by Dolce & Gabbana. dolcegabbana.com
Aloha, Santa Claus! Why you should still wear your summer shirts into the colder months Edited by Teo van den Broeke You know it’s summer when Thomas Magnum and Ace Ventura start to look like style icons. The Hawaiian shirt is a warm-weather staple, after all. Winter wardrobes, by comparison, with their inevitable proliferations of navy, charcoal and burgundy can be depressing. It’s a point that seems counterintuitive when you think about it: surely we should be wearing clothes that uplift us during the most miserable months of the year. That’s why we’re advocating the new wave of bright, winter-ready shirts, the best of which have been created by those dual masters of pattern, colour and bonkersly brilliant fashion, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Push the (banana) boat out and wear yours with a classic worsted suit or jazzy oversized overcoat. Either way, this winter it’s all about tackling SAD with your clothes.
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ .CO.UK 33
Can’t decide between your favourite Med small-plate restaurant and local Japanese sushi bar? Worry no longer, Zela has you covered
Bye-bye, showbiz. Hello, hospitality... Time was, celebrity-owned restaurants and bars were all the rage – until they weren’t. But now they’re back, bigger and blingier than ever
4 Conway Street, W1. gritchiepubs.com
Owned by: Guy Ritchie, who has been busy refurbishing The Lukin in Fitzrovia with plans to reopen it as Lore Of The Land before the end of the year. It’ll be a trad pub with luxe polish. The lowdown: Ritchie famously owned The Punchbowl in Mayfair until 2013, but this will be a foodier afair, with a menu of farm-to-fork classics made from scratch and sourced from local farmers, butchers, fishmongers, bakers and cheese makers. Suppliers include Ashgrove Farm, Ritchie’s own piece of rural heaven. Insider tip: Look out for products from Gritchie Brewing Company, a microbrewery Ritchie set up at his farm. All its beers are made from Maris Otter barley, including the pale ale English Lore.
34 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Zela
Waldorf Hilton, WC2. theparrotldn.co.uk
ME London Hotel, 336-337 The Strand, WC2. zelarestaurants.com
Owned by: Idris Elba. The Hollywood heavyweight has just opened this cocktail bar and live-music venue at the iconic Waldorf Hilton in Aldwych.
Owned by: Rafael Nadal, Cristiano Ronaldo, Enrique Iglesias. A MediterraneanJapanese restaurant, opening hot on the heels of the flagship in Ibiza.
The lowdown: This tiki bar is a tropical paradise with an on-trend twist, serving a selection of small plates and resort-style drinks. All eyes are on the stage, though, where a house band plucked from the West End performs sing-along favourites every night. Elba also organises impromptu shows, with big names from theatre, comedy and music – including the man himself, a regular fixture on the decks – performing to intimate crowds.
The lowdown: Secreted away behind velvet ropes on The Strand, the sweeping restaurant includes a dining room, sushi counter and cocktail bar, with cosy booths in the arch windows and bamboo furniture, plant-print walls and intricate tiling throughout. Michelin-starred chef Ricardo Sanz is the man behind a menu of “meppon” cuisine (Japanese techniques applied to Mediterranean ingredients).
Insider tip: Can’t get an Uber? Not a problem. The bar ofers a chaufeur-driven car, emblazoned with The Parrot logo, for their favourite guests.
Wahlburgers 8-9 James Street, WC2. wahlburgers.com
Owned by: Mark Wahlberg. The man does love a burger, hence his new venture co-owned and run by brothers Paul and Donnie in Covent Garden. The lowdown: With branches in more than 20 cities stateside and its own reality show, it was only a matter of time before Wahlburgers landed in London. This first British outpost (50 more are planned for these shores over the next five years) is supersized, at 6,000 square foot on two floors. But the patties are worth battling tourists for: a balanced combination of Angus brisket, short rib and chuck. Insider tip: The Impossible Burger has gained cult status: it’s made with a plantbased patty and smothered with smoked cheddar, caramelised onions and Paul’s signature “Wahl” sauce.
Insider tip: It’s all about the 48-hour braised wagyu teriyaki – an oyster-blade cut served with stufed courgette flowers, a celeriac purée and lotus root crisps. Nicky Rampley-Clarke
Illustrations Sam Gilbey
Lore Of The Land
The Parrot
DETAILS Edited by Bill Prince Photograph by Joel Stans Defy Classic Range Rover Edition by Zenith, £6,100. zenith-watches.com
Partners in time Zenith’s El Primero and the first ever Range Rover turn 50 this year. To celebrate? One very special birthday gift Born in 1948, Land Rover was just coming of age when Zenith launched the first fully integrated automatic chronograph, the El Primero, in 1969. Not to be outdone, that same year the world’s most intrepid carmaker launched the Range Rover – a joint celebration the two companies marked with a partnership in 2016. Since then, Range Rover has added the Velar (named for the 1969 prototype vehicle) to its line-up and Zenith has delivered the world’s
first series-produced mechanical watch capable of measuring to one hundredth of a second. And now it’s time to celebrate again, with a limited-edition Zenith Defy, released to mark the all-new Range Rover Evoque, which made its official debut in November. Featuring a 41mm case and folding clasp in titanium, the handiwork of Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern is clear to see, with a skeleton dial representing the rims of the new
car and a black rubber strap that mimics its tyre tread. Meanwhile, for Julien Tornare, CEO of Zenith, the benefits from such a collaboration are clear: “In the car industry, customer configuration service is unlike anything in the watch world. So, developmentally, there is still a lot to be learned. And that is a challenge, not only for traditional watchmakers, but the entire industry. A new consumer is inspired by the past but is looking to the future. As are we.” BP JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 35
SANDCOPENHAGEN.COM
JAKOB WIECHMANN FOR SAND COPENHAGEN
DETAILS Photograph by Alvin Kean Wong
Eiza González, whose name means ‘unpredictable’. It also describes her latest film...
Eiza González
Illustrations Dave Hopkins Photograph The Licensing Project
Mexican actress/singer Eiza González (it’s pronounced “Ay-za”) is the kind of woman you want on your side. Well, it must have taken guts to step into Salma Hayek’s high heels in the From Dusk Till Dawn TV series, especially with the snake-wrangling required. “I quickly discovered snakes like the heated areas of your body, so it was a bit uncomfortable to be wrapped in them,” she says. “But I was so proud that I conquered one of my biggest fears.” It’s not the only thing she’s bossing. Based on a 2010 documentary, Welcome To Marwen, perhaps the year’s hardest-to-synopsise film, sees her taking on the Nazis – albeit in toy form. González plays a friend of a traumatised photographer (Steve Carell), who reimagines her
(and others) as Dirty Dozen-style action figures protecting Marwen, the obsessively detailed model Second World War town he creates in his garden. Though director Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future, Forrest Gump) is no stranger to the uncanny valley, González and co are far from passive CG participants in the film’s extraordinary fantasy sequences. “It’s really us in mo-cap suits bringing the performance alive,” she says. “Whether shooting Nazis out of windows or drinking at a bar.” With Baby Driver behind her and James Cameron-penned Alita: Battle Angel next, González is truly living up to her name, which means “bold and unpredictable”. “And I think the word ‘crazy’ should be attached as well,” she says, “but a good kind of crazy.” Duly noted. Matt Glasby WELCOME TO MARWEN IS OUT ON 1 JANUARY.
No48 How to play Texas hold’em like a poker pro Daniel Negreanu is one of the highest-earning tournament players of all time. These are his tips 1 Watch the eyes “If the flop comes and the first thing your opponent does is glance at their chips, beware. They saw something they liked. If they stare at the flop, they likely don’t have anything.”
HOW TO WIN AT LIFE, A BOOK OF EXPERT MASTERCLASSES INSPIRED BY THIS COLUMN, IS OUT NOW (£14.99).
2 Don’t over-bet “I believe in what I call small-ball. If there are 10,000 chips in the pot and you think you can take it for 6,000, don’t bet 8,000. You want to win the hand for the best price available.”
3 Know when to get involved “Amateur players generally play too many hands. And they don’t play them aggressively enough. They just call the bet when they should be raising.”
4 Consider your bankroll “You could be the best player in the world but if you play way above your bankroll, you’ll go broke. If I have 20,000 chips but you have a million, my skills are not going to matter.”
5 Bluf with caution “Make sure you could actually have the hand you’re pretending to. And pick the right people. If you know a guy thinks you’re a blufer, don’t bluf him!” Alfie Baldwin
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 37
3 Thermostat E by Nest
THE
LAB
£199. nest.com
A more afordable version of the original Nest, it lets you control the temperature of your house from your smartphone – or with a voice command via Google Home.
TEST
Now this is room service These days, we all live like Tony Stark. In fact, the smart-home sphere is so saturated with connected gadgets that it’s hard to know what’s actually worth buying. The answer? These ones...
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Edited by Charlie Burton & Stuart McGurk Illustration by Mike Ellis
3
1 Hektar Work lamp by Ikea
2 Home Hub by Google
£50. ikea.com
£139. store.google.com
The base of this simple, stylish lamp is a wireless charger. You can juice up two devices simultaneously and for non-wireless phones you can jack in via USB.
This central control point for compatible smart devices has a great USP: put it in your kitchen and it will upskill your cooking with specially formatted recipe videos and cooking tutorials.
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4 Smart Lock Pro by August £175. august.com
The Smart Lock Pro automatically opens when you get to your door and allows you to unlock your door from anywhere, thus granting access to friends and family.
5 360 Eye by Dyson £800. dyson.co.uk
Use your smartphone to let this robot vacuum loose on your house. It maps rooms in real time, avoiding obstacles and ensuring it has cleaned every inch of floor space. 38 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
DETAILS 6 Smart Smoke Alarm by Netatmo £90. netatmo.com
Smoke alarms are invaluable if you’re in your house, but what if you’re away? This one will send a smartphone notification to you and your family when activated.
7 Hue light bulb by Philips £85 for two. meethue.com
8
This Wi-Fi-controllable LED bulb lets you adjust the colour and brightness of the lights in your home and creates preset “scenes”. Now with deeper, richer colours.
8 Arlo Q by Netgear £170. arlo.com
7
When this security camera detects sound or motion, it films what’s happening, uploads the HD video to the cloud and sends you a notification.
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9 Hello by Nest
5
£229. nest.com
This video doorbell is reassuring (capture footage of whoever’s at your door) but also useful (talk to whoever’s there over the app – great if you get a delivery while you’re out).
10 Beam by Sonos
11 WeMo Insight Switch by Belkin
£399. sonos.com
£50. belkin.com
The latest Sonos soundbar is not only more compact than its predecessor, while still making TV audio crystal clear, but also doubles as an Alexa-enabled general-purpose speaker.
This smart plug lets you turn appliances on and of from anywhere and collects data on power usage to help save energy. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 39
R
emember when British men were utterly unapologetic in their idiocy, when buffoonery seemed like a national sport, when being a dumb hooligan on a Saturday night was a positive lifestyle choice? Peak lad ran for a 24-month period. Between 1994 and 1996 a man could resemble a chauvinistic pork scratching, drink warm, flat Foster’s in a Fila polo shirt with the collar popped, use the word “c***” a lot in board meetings, listen to “Parklife” by Blur at least once every hour and not only was it celebrated, but for many it was seen as some sort of rite of passage. Laddism began life as a joke gone too far by Chris Evans and Billie Piper, who were bored down the pub one afternoon. That or by a musical movement called Britpop. Either way, what started as a cultural blip was then fuelled by men between 20 and 40 and their wanton desire to never grow up. Lads wanted to be Peter Pan, albeit Peter Pan with a 20-a-day habit and a love of Ellesse windbreakers. Yet men were really just pretending. Being a lad, or a “New Lad” as it became known in the early noughties, wasn’t so much about where you came from as where you wanted
people to think you came from. It was a movement peppered with pseudo-isms: fake working-class roots (Jamie Oliver!), make-believe braggadocio (Liam Gallagher!) and really bad trousers (everyone!). It was a bewildering period of time, one that, frankly, we’d rather not be associated with any more. Still, after years of repression it seems a “New Old Lad” might be resurfacing. A New Lad, but rebooted for 2019. Though, naturally, there has been a metamorphosis; indeed, the New Old Lad’s outward appearance is entirely different. The soundtrack, the clothes and, thank heavens, the hairstyles have changed. Yet the ethos of inner twatishness and outer misbehaviour remains intact. For starters, his clothing is a lot tighter. Like, blood-arrestingly tight. He might still be in a polo shirt, but this time said polo is at least two sizes too small. This is mainly to show off his body, you understand. If the pub
was where the old New Lad once congregated, today’s New Old Lads cluster and fuss over one another in gym locker rooms. It isn’t that they are really any healthier, just after a different physical silhouette. Of course, it’s all about one thing, just as it was in the mid-Nineties: collective vanity. Lads are stronger together; pulling iron in the local Virgin Active has replaced pulled pints in the local public house. Just as men in 1996 all looked like identikit mini Damon Albarns – or wished they did – today’s New Old Lads feel better about themselves if they follow a certified and preapproved aesthetic, or ladsthetic, if you like. Tight polos, a Love Island fade and jeans so skinny a bank card in a back pocket stands out as much as Errol Flynn in someone else’s tights. “Why all this vanity?” you scream. All this steroid-amped misogyny and brutishness? Well, the same reason men such as Jay Kay (of Jamiroquai) walked around in ’96 as if he had a broom stuck up his backside: sex. Men just want to get laid. Lads, after all, will always exist – it’s about genetic legacy, stupid. Evolution? We’re mad for it, mate.
How to spot... the New Old Lad They may have swapped pints for protein shakes, but the lad has been reborn (again)
By Alex Wickham
Labour insiders reveal Chuka Umunna is regularly on the phone to Canadian heartthrob PM Justin Trudeau as the pair plot a transatlantic partnership to save centrism – and oust Jeremy Corbyn this year. “Once Brexit is done, Chuka plans to finally make his move as the British Macron and Trudeau is right behind him. They’re always in talks,” says a source.
Commons tea room chat puts Harriet Harman in the clear lead to replace John Bercow. “Harriet has been busy visiting MPs, quietly building support,” says one parliamentarian, “especially among the Tories.” What does controversial Ukip leader Gerard Batten get up to when he’s not defending Tommy Robinson or criticising Islam? Well, he’s working on a book about... Mozart. Batten was furious last year when a party crisis meant he had to interrupt a research trip to Salzburg. “There is a scholarly side to him that doesn’t always come across”, said one Ukip source. Quite.
Story by Jonathan Heaf Illustration by Gavin Reece
40 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Friends of Nigel Farage say he is now actively considering a 2020 shot at London Mayor. The Brexiteer’s idol thinks he would mop up rightwing votes in the capital and would “relish the challenge of fighting Sadiq Khan”.
DETAILS
You’ve had 70 years to buy this jacket...
Jacket, £550. Jumper, £375. Both by Belstaf. belstaf.co.uk
THE
STYLE PAG E S
But there’s never been a better time to invest in Belstaf’s history-proof Trialmaster
Photograph Elliott Morgan Styling Angelo Mitakos Grooming James Oxley using Wella Professionals and The Ordinary Model Tom Hutchinson at Nevs Models
B
elstaff’s Trialmaster jacket is arguably one of the most influential outerwear pieces in the annals of British style. Originally designed in 1924 by Eli Belovitch and his sonin-law Harry Grosberg, who began producing motorcycle jackets for off-road racers across the country, it wasn’t until 1948, after 24 dogged years of trialling different jackets, that the pair struck on the Trialmaster design we know and covet today and it’s changed very little since. Defined by a waxed outer shell of 6oz cotton, four bellows pockets on the front and a belted waist, the jacket’s construction was revolutionary at the time of its conception. Featuring a slanted map pocket, pivot-friendly armholes, a waterproof lining and pre-curved sleeves, the Trialmaster was worn by Sammy Miller (one of the world’s most successful motorcycle riders) in more than 1,000 races; he was, in his words, “the only dry guy out in the field”. It wasn’t long before the jacket was met with off-track interest too. Most notably, Che Guevara wore a Trialmaster during his motorcycle tour of South America, pre-revolución, while American actor Steve McQueen is perhaps the most well-known wearer, sporting one for 1963 classic The Great Escape. For this, the 70th anniversary of the Trialmaster, Belstaff has rereleased the style in three chic new colourways – black, faded olive and mahogany – and if we were you, we’d grab them all. Zak Maoui
In 1948, Belstaf struck on the Trialmaster design we know and covet today From left: Before his famous Trialmasterclad motorbike tour of South America, Che Guevara rode a motorised bicycle across Argentina, 1950; British rider Sammy Miller at The Scottish Six Days Trial, 1962
+ Hackett x Swatch (a pet project) Hounds meet horology as the British tailoring stalwart designs the latest timepiece of the people
In the Chinese zodiac, 2018 is the year of the dog. Fitting, then, that it’s also the year in which one of fashion’s most famous hounds has been immortalised in a watch. The new Sistem 51 Limited Edition is a partnership between Swatch and Hackett and features the silhouette of cofounder Jeremy Hackett’s dog, Muffin. “My Sussex spaniel is starting to become a bit of a brand ambassador,” says Hackett. “She is becoming more famous than me, damn it.” Available in an edition of 1,983 (1983 being the birth year of both brands), it features a robust leather strap, a date complication and Super-LumiNova hands. “For me, it’s the perfect collaboration because everyone can own a Swatch; it’s very democratic.” CB £148. hackett.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 41
DETAILS
Nefer Suvio and Nick Rhodes
Luke Evans
Greg James and Bella Mackie
THE
PARTY PAG E S
Anthony Joshua
GQ at 30
Photographs Getty Images
To celebrate three decades of GQ, we threw a huge party sponsored by Gillette at Sushisamba Covent Garden. Editor-In-Chief Dylan Jones arrived in style in an orange Ford Mustang and our many celebrity guests were ferried to the event courtesy of Audi. The room was packed with GQ friends and family, including the cover star of our anniversary special, Anthony Joshua. Guests enjoyed drinks courtesy of Laurent-Perrier, Patrón and Copper Dog, as well as Bird In Hand wines and Whitstable Bay Blonde Lager. Thanks to everyone who made the night so memorable...
Jack Guinness
Photographs by James Mason
S E E M O R E PA R T Y P I C T U R E S AT G Q . U K /G Q 3 0
Andrés Velencoso
Tracey Emin
Peter York
Jodie Harsh
Paloma Faith JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 43
Miles Kane
Oliver Spencer
Le Gateau Chocolat
Ella Eyre
Neelam Gill
Professor Green Napkin by Tracey Emin
Charlie Casely-Hayford
Fat Tony and David Furnish
44 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Luke Day and Tom Daley
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx Photographs Getty Images
Matthew Thomas
Alice Chater
Jonathan Newhouse and Suzy Menkes
DETAILS
Oliver Cheshire and Josh Parkinson
Nick Sargent, Chris Robshaw and Camilla Kerslake
Katherine Ryan
Claudia Winkleman and Kris Thykier
Caroline Rush
Raw Silk
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
Dylan Jones
Reggie Yates and David Gandy
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 45
DETAILS + Book now
All About Eve at Noël Coward Theatre Lily James and Gillian Anderson star in Ivo van Hove’s West End adaptation of the Academy Award-winning film by Joseph L Mankiewicz. FROM 2 FEBRUARY – 11 MAY.
+ For the nightstand
+ Listen to
Mr Five Per Cent
Merrie Land
by Jonathan Conlin
by The Good, The Bad & The Queen
The life of oil tycoon and art collector Calouste Gulbenkian, who at the time of his death in 1955 was the richest man in the world. Draws on unprecedented access to Gulbenkian’s private archive. OUT ON 10 JANUARY.
Damon Albarn’s Brexitland project is a masterclass in sublime songwriting. OUT NOW.
There Is No Planet B
Diarise these! From books to theatre via your next television binge, get ahead of the water-cooler chat and set your cultural compass to this month’s pole stars...
by Mike Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee’s brother is behind this everything guide to climate change, presented in Q&A format and written with a healthy dollop of wit. OUT IN FEBRUARY.
+ Stream it You In this psychological thriller series, Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl) plays an obsessive New York bookstore manager who uses modern technology to manipulate a young aspiring writer (Elizabeth Lail) into going out with him. ON NETFLIX ON 26 DECEMBER.
+ In cinemas
The Wilco frontman’s accompaniment to his memoir is tender like a bruise. OUT NOW.
Electric Lady Sessions by LCD Soundsystem
Vice
James Murphy’s disco punks cap a superb comeback with a live album featuring Heaven 17 and Chic covers. OUT ON 21 DECEMBER.
Christian Bale has piled on the pounds to play Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s awards-bait biopic of the former vice president. OUT ON 25 JANUARY.
Delta
by John Lanchester
Spotify Teardown
The Mule
by Maria Eriksson et al This investigation into “the black box of streaming music” argues for an urgent re-evaluation of how we think about this powerful media giant. OUT ON 5 FEBRUARY.
Bryan Cranston stars in this remake of the brilliant 2011 French film The Intouchables, a buddy comedy about a paralysed billionaire who befriends an ex-convict. OUT ON 11 JANUARY.
The true tale of a 90-year-old Second World War veteran (Clint Eastwood) smuggling cocaine for a drug cartel. Bradley Cooper plays the DEA agent hunting him down. OUT ON 25 JANUARY.
+ Check out The Moth StorySlam An open-mic night of fiveminute, real-life short stories, all written around the theme of “instincts”: tales of premonitions and sixth senses. AT RICH MIX, 35-37 BETHNAL GREEN ROAD, LONDON E1, ON 18 DECEMBER.
46 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
by Mumford & Sons
With Paul Epworth on production, the band broker a deal between folk and arena rock. Dorian Lynskey OUT NOW.
+ One for the cofee table Rocky: The Complete Films Taschen’s XXL-format deep dive into Rocky Balboa includes new interviews with Sylvester Stallone, who has signed all 1,926 copies of the edition. OUT NOW.
Photograph Landmark Pictures
The Upside
There’s been a six-year wait for Ora’s second album, on which Ed Sheeran and Cardi B keep the hits coming. OUT NOW.
by Jef Tweedy
Etan Cohen directs Will Ferrell and John C Reilly in this comedy about a murder attempt on Queen Victoria. OUT ON 26 DECEMBER.
In the near future, a wall protects an island nation from “Others”. A young man, Joseph Kavanaugh, must do his national service patrolling “the Wall” – if he fails, he will be exiled. A novel for these Trumpian times. OUT ON 17 JANUARY.
by Rita Ora
Warm
Holmes & Watson
The Wall
Phoenix
The winner of
73
major awards
GQ is the only magazine in Britain dedicated to bringing you the very best in style, investigative journalism, comment, men’s fashion, lifestyle and entertainment. British GQ is the brand to beat 2018 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2016 2016 2016
Comment Awards Popular Columnist Of The Year BSME Editor Of The Year Lovie Best Website For Lifestyle Digiday Publishing Awards Europe Best Use Of Facebook Live Digiday Publishing Awards Europe Best Branded Content Program PPA Writer Of The Year AOP Audience Development Team Of The Year CNI Best Brand Financial Performance In Native Advertising CNI Best Native Campaign Of The Year BSME Editor Of The Year Digiday Awards Europe Video Team Of The Year Shots Awards Brand Entertainment Of The Year - Series
2016
Ciclope Festival Finalist, Best Direction
2016
Lovie Long Form Or Series Video First Place
2016
Lovie Long Form Or Series Video People’s Choice
2015
DMA Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Of The Year
2015
FMJA Stylist Of The Year (GQ Style)
2014
BSME Digital Art Director Of The Year
2014
DMA Designer Of The Year
2014
TCADP Media Award
2014
FPA Feature Of The Year
2014 2014 2014 2014 2013 2013 2013 2013
FPA Journalist Of The Year Amnesty International Media Award PPA Editor Of The Year FMJA Online Fashion Journalist Of The Year EICA Media Commentator Of The Year DMA Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Of The Year BSME Editor Of The Year FMJA Outstanding Contribution To London Collections Men PPA Magazine Writer Of The Year Mark Boxer Award BSME Editor Of The Year DMA Lifestyle Magazine Of The Year Help For Heroes Outstanding Contribution Px3 Prix De La Photographie Paris Gold Medal Foreign Press Association Media Awards, Sports
2013 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2011
2011 2010 2010 2010 2010 2009 2008 2007 2007 2007 2007 2006 2006 2006 2006 2006 2006 2005 2005 2004 2004 2003 2002 2002 2001 2001 2001 2000 2000 1999 1999 1999 1995 1995 1995 1994 1991
Amnesty International Media Award Amnesty International Media Award One World Media Press Award The Maggies Magazine Cover Of The Year P&G Awards Best Styling (GQ Style) PPA Writer Of The Year BSME Editor Of The Year BSME Magazine Of The Year BSME Brand Building Initiative Of The Year MDA/MJA Press Gazette Awards Best Cover P&G Awards Best Styling (GQ Style) P&G Awards Best Grooming Editor (GQ Style) P&G Awards Best Styling (GQ Style) MDA/MJA Press Gazette Awards Interviewer Of The Year MDA/MJA Press Gazette Awards Best Designed Consumer Magazine MDA/MJA Press Gazette Awards Subbing Team Of The Year PPA Writer Of The Year PPA Writer Of The Year Magazine Design Awards Best Cover Association Of Online Publishers Awards Best Website BSME Magazine Of The Year PPA Writer Of The Year BSME Magazine Of The Year PPA Writer Of The Year BSME Magazine Of The Year PPA Designer Of The Year Printing World Award Total Design Award Jasmine Award Winner Printing World Award Jasmine Award Winner PPA Designer Of The Year Ace Press Award Circulation Ace Press Award Promotion PPA Columnist Of The Year PPA Publisher Of The Year British Press Circulation Award Best Promotion Of A Consumer Magazine
THE
STYLE PAG E S
O, Solomeo! Already a school, salon and the global HQ for his billion-dollar brand, Brunello Cucinelli’s Umbrian estate is now a farm and winery too Photographs by Gavin Bond
B
eyond the hard-charging world of high-end fashion, few may have heard of Solomeo. But this tiny Umbrian hilltop hamlet, picture-perfect above a plain that tells its own story of post-war Italian industry, is a style-with-substance statement in itself: the pale-stone redoubt of Brunello Cucinelli, the “king of cashmere”, whose concept of “humane capitalism” has seen Solomeo recast as not only a global headquarters for his billion-dollar brand, but also the physical expression of his commitment to its workers – and thus a beacon for anyone wishing to learn from the designer’s iron grasp of luxury with gravitas. In September, to celebrate both his 65th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the founding of his namesake label, Cucinelli threw a party for 500 of his friends and family, at which he unveiled the latest tranche of his work/life project: the restoration of land surrounding Solomeo once destined for light-industrial development into a working farm and winery, complete with its own spectacular neoclassical monument: “Tribute To Human Dignity”. Constructed using traditional techniques in three shades of travertine and guarded by statuary honouring “wisdom” and “philosophy”, it stands as both a testament to the ethical dimension of the designer’s endeavours – and, in its regard for the sagacity of the ancients, a neat reminder that even here, in the vanguard of “sustainable luxury”, there’s nothing entirely new under the sun. Left: Cucinelli fields journalists’ questions in a Solomeo vineyard; (right) the monument ‘Tribute To Human Dignity’ stands watch over the restored Umbrian hamlet
48 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
DETAILS
Above: Cucinelli with daughters Carolina (left) and Camilla; (below) guests at the 40th anniversary of his label
Brunello Cucinelli’s School Of Arts And Crafts is housed in the village’s 14th-century castle; staff (right) join Italian textiles magnate Matteo Marzotto (below, centre) with partner Nora Shkreli (below, left) at the event
This is a beacon for those who wish to learn from Cucinelli
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 49
Meet the scientists, practitioners and researchers transforming the landscape for health providers and patients. Join us for a one-day symposium of thought-provoking keynotes, engaging ďŹ reside chats and a Test Lab showcase of next-gen health tech.
Save 20% on the full ticket price. Book with code MAG20 online at wired.uk/ health-tickets.
WIRED Health. March 26, 2019. London, UK
HEADLINE PARTNER
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DETAILS
Daniel Ramot The cofounder and CEO of Via Transportation, a carpooling service that has raised almost £300 million in funding, reveals what he has learnt... Stanford University
Age 43 Based New York
EDUCATION
1993 - 1996 BSc in physics and mathematics at The Hebrew University Of Jerusalem
It’s who, not what
“I think who you spend your time with can be more important than what you’re working on. When launching Via, I had a network of the smartest people [from university] I could hire to build our algorithm and technology.”
It’s never too late to change track
“I realised in my third year that academia wasn’t for me. I was reverse engineering when really I wanted to build things. I still finished my degree and my experience working with data has proved very useful.”
1997 - 2001 MSc in electrical engineering at Tel Aviv University 2002 - 2007 PhD in neuroscience at Stanford University School Of Medicine Daniel Ramot at Via’s original headquarters CAREER IN BRIEF
Don’t rush 1996 - 2002 Engineering and product manager for the Israeli Air Force 2008 - 2012 Director at biochemistry research company DE Shaw Research
Prove your product
“We thought we could build the technology and that every city in the world and every public transportation authority would want to use it. We soon realised we had to build the product to show them it actually worked.” ViaVan launched in Milton Keynes in October 2018
2012 Cofounded Via Transportation with Oren Shoval April 2018 Via launches ViaVan in London
Via’s oice in Greenwich Village, New York
Nothing is above your pay grade
“I’ve started to hear the phrase ‘above your pay grade’, which I dislike. I expect people at Via to try to engage with every problem. If you’re ambitious, then your goal should be to engage with problems one or two levels higher than you.”
Stop talking about it
“We took six months to convince ourselves that our idea would work. But we should have launched right away. You think you’re reducing your risk by doing diligence around your idea, but actually the risk of someone else launching your idea increases.” JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 51
Text Eleanor Halls Photographs Daimler AG; Via
From left: The ViaVan app; Daniel Ramot and Oren Shoval
“I didn’t rush to start a business, because, as a graduate student, I was financially unstable, but also none of my ideas were good enough – and I didn’t have the right partner.”
Burberry king Riccardo Tisci goes head-to-head with punk queen Vivienne Westwood in a capsule collaboration that’s full of win
Check mates! Story by Teo
52 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
van den Broeke
Photographs by Elliott
Morgan
BURBERRY Coat, £1,150. Shirt, £750. T-shirt, £290. Tie, £160. Beret, £250. All by Burberry x Vivienne Westwood. burberry.com
ou’d need to have been living in fashion Siberia to have missed the furore around Riccardo Tisci’s first collection for Burberry in September. A 134-look extravaganza that combined Burberry’s all-British heritage with the designer’s slick Latinate streetwear, the collection took the label into the stratosphere – an injection of energy the likes of which the brand hadn’t received since the inauguration of Christopher Bailey 17 years previously. Although the runway collection won’t be available to buy in its entirety until early 2019, you can get your hands on a unique piece of Burberry brilliance this month, in the shape of a capsule collection designed in collaboration with another titan of British fashion, Vivienne Westwood. Combining Burberry’s iconic check with Westwood’s unique, punk-inspired aesthetic, the collection consists of a series of key Burberry pieces reimagined for 2019, including a classic double-breasted Chesterfield coat, a shirt finished with one of Westwood’s trademark oversized collars and a selection of short shorts, one of the forthcoming season’s microtrends (boom, boom). “Vivienne Westwood was one of the first designers who made me dream to become a designer myself and when I first started at Burberry I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to approach her to do something,” Tisci told us of the collaboration. “She is a rebel, a punk and unrivalled in her unique representation of British style, which has inspired so many of us. I am so incredibly proud of what we will be creating together.” G
Styling Angelo Mitakos Grooming James Oxley using Wella Professionals and The Ordinary Model Dylan Karm at Select
Y
‘Vivienne Westwood made me dream of becoming a designer. I knew I wanted her to do something at Burberry’ Riccardo Tisci JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 53
The GQ Preview: Jan/Feb Bringing you the very latest in fashion, grooming, watches, news and exclusive events Edited by Sophie Clark
1
XO Cognac by Rémy Martin, £140. At selfridges.com 2 Boots by Russell & Bromley, £195. russellandbromley.com 3 Bomber jacket by Paul Smith, £630. Card case by Church’s, £175. church-footwear.com 5 Watch by NOMOS Glashütte, £3,420. nomos-glashuette.com paulsmith.com 4 Waist satchel by Valentino Garavani, £645. valentino.com 7 T-shirt by Vivienne Westwood & Burberry, £290. burberry.com 6 Boxer briefs by CDLP, £29. cdlp.com 9 Dr. Carver’s Miracle Repair Serum by Dollar Shave Club, £9. uk.dollarshaveclub.com 8
54 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
PREVIEW W We
Love The Saddle bag by Dior Men For his debut collection as creative director of Dior Men, Kim Jones breathed new energy into the Parisian house, proposing a new take on contemporary luxury in menswear. In particular, Jones’ interpretation of the iconic Saddle bag for men is set to cause quite the storm. Originally an “It” bag favoured by noughties poster girls such as Paris Hilton, the SS19 Saddle bag is now ofered in an array of menswear variations too. From belt bags to backpacks, the Saddle bag is finally having its menswear moment. Sling it over your shoulder or wrap it across your body – but take note: the saddle bag is back, and it means business.
Photograph Matthew Beedle
Saddle bag in All-Over ‘Dior Oblique’ jacquard and black grained calfskin by Dior Men, £1,700. dior.com
PREVIEW
Where to stay in: Milan The Four Seasons Milan has got your luxury city break covered
O
h Milan. A city rich with art, history and culture. It’s certainly not shy of luxury offerings, especially when it comes to hotels – and the Four Seasons is definitely up there with the best of them. The hotel building was a former fifteenth-century convent, which is spread over three interconnecting buildings. Featuring frescoes among original granite columns and vaulted ceilings mixed with modern details of marble and glass, the hotel interiors cleverly bring its history into the modern world. Elegant guest rooms are mostly set around
A private suite in the Four Seasons Milan spa
the tranquil courtyard while others overlook Via Gesù and private gardens – either guarantee you a peaceful stay. Where to eat? La Veranda offers a scenic retreat where you can dine on authentic Italian dishes among a chic, local crowd. Finish the evening next to a crackling fireplace, listening to live piano music in Il Foyer, an ideal setting for a postdinner glass of wine. The spa, offering signature treatments, Turkish baths as well as a steam room and 14ft lap pool, is a welcome refuge for anyone seeking a slice of peace and serenity. The Four Seasons really does have you covered – but although there’s no reason to leave, remember its famous location. The hotel is nestled in the heart of Quadrilatero district, home to the city’s most exclusive designer boutiques. Be sure to make the most of it and indulge in a day of shopping (or two). VIA GESÙ, 6/8, 20121 MILANO MI, ITALY FOURSEASONS.COM/MILAN
What to wear? Copy the Milanesi and pack with elegance in mind Here’s our go-to shopping edit to gain you extra street style points 1
2
5 4
6 3
1. Watch by Longines, £1,460. longines.co.uk 2. Jacket by Farah, £110. farah.co.uk 3. Sunglasses by Hackett Bespoke, £125. hackett.com 4. Carpet embroidery travel bag by Etro, £1,125. etro.com 5. Trousers by Oliver Spencer, £180. At mrporter.com 6. Boots by Kurt Geiger, £139. kurtgeiger.com 56 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Explore the wide world of videos at GQ.co.uk
Campbell vs Hearn Alastair Campbell talks business, boxing and billion-dollar deals with promoter Eddie Hearn.
GQ’s action replay Richard Madden gives a blow-by-blow, post-match analysis on the notorious Red Wedding scene from Game Of Thrones.
GQ meets Jordan Peterson (1hr 42mins) Helen Lewis grills the controversial academic about the patriarchy, Me Too and his all-beef diet.
Designs by Dele Alli The England footballer talks style heroes and horrors and what to expect from his fashion line.
GQ talks watches... London Fashion Week Men’s (21mins) Watch Teo van den Broeke interview musician Loyle Carner and more stylish men at LFWM.
(7mins)
In the first of a series looking through A-listers’ watch collections, U2’s Adam Clayton shares his favourite timepieces with GQ’s Charlie Burton.
WELLMAN.CO.UK ®
“I’ve been taking Wellman since my twenties to support my health and hectic lifestyle.”
David Gandy
Made in Britain From Boots, Superdrug, supermarkets, Holland & Barrett, health stores, pharmacies *UK’s No1 men’s supplement brand. Nielsen GB ScanTrack Total Coverage Unit Sales 52 w/e 8 Sept 2018.
+ Leather trousers: rock made them hip; now hip hop makes them rock – p.62 What ‘Brand You’ can learn from Trump’s Maga cap – p.63 Style’s Hot Index – p.64 what makes a Manafort – p.69 This month’s manssential is the Connolly beach cardigan – p.71
Photographs Alamy; Van Partible; Warner Bros
Welcome to the inaugural GQ Best-Dressed Toons, featuring (from left) Clyde, Johnny Bravo, SpongeBob SquarePants and Fred Jones – p.61
Dolce & Gabbanimated Why our real Best-Dressed Man is a cat. Sorry, SpongeBob Edited by
Jonathan Heaf JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 59
WEAR IT
Don’t eat cereal.
Story by Jonathan Heaf
60 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Sunglasses by Moscot, £325. moscot.com
Tux shades! (Yep, they’re a thing now...)
Story by Jonathan Heaf
We all know most actors can’t dress themselves, right? The one thing we have always applauded here at House Rules, however, is the way movie stars (or, indeed, their stylists) employ sunglasses on the red carpet. Bono is a fan of wearing a big, bold pair of shades whatever the weather, though, for me, it was always Jack Nicholson (above) who got the sunglasses-at-night-trend bang on. It’s a trend that, for whatever reason, feels wonderfully bacchanalian. A pair of tinted shades from, say, Moscot, the excellent NYC brand, worn at night with a sharp bit of tailoring, or even better with a tuxedo, is an elegant way to pump up the energy of one’s outfit, making even the humblest of dinner guests feel like Ol’ Nick. They also go some way to hide all manner of eyeball indiscretions, a result either of overwork or, indeed, overconsumption. Blink and you’ll miss ’em. moscot.com
Photographs Alamy; Peter Carter; Getty Images; Instagram/@Harris_Reed; Alexander Kent; Harris Reed; Warner Bros
Blue used to be your thing, didn’t it? It was the colour you could always rely on, especially when it came to winter knits. Whether getting geared up for an important meeting or about to embark on date night with the hangover from hell, that navy-blue fine merino wool sweater could be pulled on like a life vest. Well, enough is enough, I’m afraid. This new year is all about change; a change of UK government (fingers crossed), a change of US president (fingers and toes crossed) and a change of our oicial stance towards oppressive, murderous regimes such as Assad’s in Syria Jumper by Loro Piana, (everything crossed). £1,150. loropiana.com Still, if that is too much to ask of the new year gods, then changing your wardrobe’s default colour palette is at least a step in the right direction. So no more navy jumpers. Instead, can we suggest you put all your trust in griege? Jumper by Dunhill, Actually, the colour £425. At mrporter.com you’re after is not griege so much – that’s too cold, too John Pawson, too clinical, too Nineties – it’s more like the colour of a fresh bowl of Cheerios. Or what Farrow & Ball might call “Damp Hay”. Here at GQ, we always hit Uniqlo at least once a year to stock up on Jumper by new layers and its range Ami Alexandre Mattiussi, of cereal-coloured £250. amiparis.com jumpers and rollnecks is near unbeatable. Chew on that, navy lovers. Blue, for one year at least, isn’t the warmest colour.
G House Rules Story by Jonathan Heaf
cartoons!
GQ’s Best-Dressed...
‘When I design, I try to make people stop dead in their tracks and wonder’ – Harris Reed
Because Choo-Choo from Top Cat has some serious knitwear game
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Choo-Choo (above) from Top Cat Fred Jones from Scooby-Doo Mark from Battle Of The Planets Clyde from Wacky Races SpongeBob SquarePants Lion-O from ThunderCats Johnny Bravo Mr Benn (right) Tintin Penfold from Danger Mouse
You will get SICK of hearing this designer’s name in 2019* *So best get used to it, suckers
Story by Jonathan Heaf
I could try to explain what fashion means to Central Saint Martins graduate Harris Reed, but he’s far better at it himself: “Fashion is truly revolutionary,” he tells House Rules. “Clothing, style and what you choose to put on your back is the first introduction to everyone’s idea of your identity, beliefs and what role you play in the ever-changing landscape of today.” And you thought you were just keeping warm, right? If he sounds full of overambitious, youthful hyperbole, then you’re not taking his talent, nor his fresh take on style (and gender), seriously enough. Having just bolted out of university and already collaborated with the likes of Harry Styles (Reed designed several of the musician’s outfits for his recent arena tour), Reed’s aesthetic might best be described as glam-rock romanticism gone nonbinary. Or just really cool. Bell sleeves billow, trousers flare and many looks are finished off with oversized headpieces that command attention. Sex, in whatever way you chose to interpret it, is front and centre. “Meaning and statement are essential to my design process,” he adds. “I have always been very intrigued by what is going on in the world. Being someone who came out as gay at nine years old, I have always held LGBTQIA+ issues very close to my heart. When I design, I always try to have a strong narrative about sexuality, issues being faced in the LGBTQIA+ community, or make people stop dead in their tracks and wonder.” And, boy, what a wonder it is.
From left: Harris Reed with Harry Styles, 12 April; Styles wearing Reed on stage in 2017
The problem with all “best-dressed” lists (well, most; flick to page 99 for GQ’s latest and greatest) is that the sartorial prowess celebrated is often a team efort rather than down to an innate, individual skill. All these “winners” have stylists/groomers/pant flufers, no? So, does that make them stylish or does that make them well stafed? Now, there’s nothing wrong with a little professional help, and great style, thankfully, comes to us in a variety of guises. (One only has to gawp and chuckle at the emo peacock aesthetics of Post Malone’s wardrobe fireworks to get an idea of the bonkers eclecticism out there.) Still, here at House Rules we believe in representing those who have yet to have their time on the podium. We like to think of ourselves as the Martha Gellhorns of style reporting: bearing witness to the first draft of historic wardrobe choices. Great style is about where you lie on the “axis of influence”. And who are more influential in 2018 than cartoons? (And, no, Marvel characters do not count, Mr Stark.) Cartoons have given us some of the best-dressed men, women, cats and dogs since Walt Disney picked up his pencil and decided to put Donald Duck in a little smock and beret from Jean Paul Gaultier. (That’s a fact, OK? You can look it up on the internet.) Cartoon characters such as Choo-Choo (left) from Top Cat, with his rakish cream rollneck that brings an air of élan to his pink fur, or Tintin and his trench coat or Mr Benn, in his perfectly tailored pinstripe suit and bowler hat, all have fantastic style. Not only that, they know what works for them and they stick to it; nailing that one killer outfit until it becomes their thing. We could all learn from such conviction, such confidence. Either that or just pass this on to your stylist. There’s a good chap.
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 61
Jim Morrison, 1968
If you want to play, you need skin in the game
(Clue: more big dick energy, less talk…)
Story by Alfred Tong
Iggy Pop, 2000
62 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
superannuated rockers. Yes, they look amazing on Lenny Kravitz and Keith Richards, but for them it’s a case of fashion coming back round to how they’ve always dressed. In 2018, the real rock stars are rappers and it’s hip hop that has given leather trousers newfound swag. Migos, A$AP Rocky, Kanye West et al have turned leather trousers into serious “grail” pieces, with sites such as Hypebeast and Highsnobiety running pictures of your favourite trap stars wearing them with Air Jordans and those “fugly” Balenciaga trainers. Meanwhile, the godfather
How fashion watches (finally) got fashionable Lenny Kravitz, 2014
“Best left to...” That’s what they always are, aren’t they? “Best left to...” Ricky Martin, members of the Medellín Cartel, fetishists, mid-tier management having a midlife crisis, Jon Bon Jovi... And naturally, whenever we hear the words “best left to” we start to ask ourselves, “What about moi?” Because there’s always a point at which “best left to” turns into “totally right for right now” (see also: anything from Palace’s new collection), and this AW18 we’re at the tipping point with leather trousers. Leather trousers rarely feature in “how to” guides, so a little myth dispelling is required. First, forget the talc. Almost all the nice ones from Saint Laurent, Coach, Givenchy et al come lined in cotton and are buttersoft exercises in serious luxury. However, do not make purchases down the dustier end of the high street. That way pleather lies, and you are better than pleather. The other myth to dispel is that they are the exclusive province of
As much as you love your mother, can you face nuked turkey again? Well, if your awful, thoroughly deserving family are coming round to yours this Christmas, how about you dial up the bloodshed a little and serve ortolan? Once a rite of passage for French gourmets, these tiny, sweet songbirds are caught with nets during their autumn migratory flights to Africa. They are then caged in the dark so that they feast on the grain below their feet (it’s believed some Roman emperors stabbed out the birds’ eyes, thinking it would make them eat more) and, once plumped to double their size, thrown into a container of Armagnac, which both drowns and marinates them, then roasted. Yum! If you do decide to do it, three things: 1 Remember to place a napkin over your head while chewing in order to “shield your shame from God’s eyes”. 2 Eating ortolan is, in fact, illegal in the UK. 3 If you’re even considering this, you’re going straight to hell. Or, better still, will be reincarnated as a freshly caught ortolan. JH
of hip hop fashion, Dapper Dan, showed full-leather tracksuits for his Harlem-based Gucci collaboration. Finally, Ralph Lauren’s 50th anniversary reminded us this year that cowboy fashion has always been a key to his reimagining of the American Dream and that includes, of course, leather chaps. Remember: if they chafe, it’s because they fit.
Watches for men were once derided by those who know nothing about anything as mere wealth signifiers. “Powerful men wear watches because they can’t wear Chanel broaches into meetings,” scofed some dolt once. Our thoughts? Fake news. Guess what: men have aesthetic standards too, duh, and some men like the idea of wearing a watch because, quite simply, it looks cool. And Gucci is the coolest cat in the biz at the moment so its range of maximalist watches demand to be worn, noticed and adored. Strap in. JH Gucci ‘Le Marché Des Merveilles’, £680. gucci.com
Photographs Alpha; Geof Kern/Trunk Archive; Getty Images; Xposure Photos
Alternative Christmas lunch: drowned songbird
How to wear:
UP Nabhaan Rizwan Bodyguard, shmodyguard. This actor’s debut television performance in the BBC’s Informer was outstanding. Big things await.
Almond butter It’s around £20 a jar, but it might just save your life.
Sainsbury’s own sex toys Looking forward to Tesco Value orgasms.
Oatly’s awesomely human packaging Turning plant-based milk into a lifestyle choice, one Tetra Pak at a time.
Royal baby fatigue I mean, we’re all thrilled and everything... but let’s pace our excitement somewhat, yeah?
A 12-hour news cycle Irreversible climate change? Trump’s dodgy fiscal past? Who cares? Within a few hours we’ve moved on. Nothing sticks.
BAROMETER Daylesford Organic ‘merch’ Staf are allegedly selling their branded work tees of their own backs, such is demand.
Non-disclosure agreements Remember: whoever wants you to sign one never has your best interests at heart. Don’t.
Socks ’n’ sandals Fashion folk! Stop trying to make this a thing!
Titanic II An exact replica. Built in China. Ready by 2022. I think we all know how this ends...
IGTV Anyone actually used this yet?
The half-zip pullover Route-one “hedgie” attire as its most basic.
DOWN
Story by Alfred Tong
MAGA CAP
G House Rules
Trump’s ‘This generation’s Ku Klux hood’ Or a brilliant piece of political branding? Has there ever been a piece of headwear as contentious as the “Make America Great Again” cap? In October, the story of the red cap took another strange turn when Kanye West wore it to a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump, saying it made him feel like Superman. In fact, West wore a specially customised version with what looked like a sportier brim – more baseball, less trucker, than the original. Unsurprisingly, the hat and his ten-minute long rant did little to endear West to black America. His collaborator, the rapper Pusha T, called the hat “this generation’s Ku Klux hood”. Ouch. Where does the Maga hat derive its peculiar power from? “It’s a brilliant piece of political branding,” says Daniel Finkelstein OBE, political columnist for the Times, former advisor to John Major and William Hague and also, coincidentally, a major collector of American presidential campaign merchandise. “It’s unusual that the candidate wears it. I’ve got tons of political memorabilia, but I can’t think of another example of the candidate wearing his own merchandise.” The Maga hat is yet more evidence that Trump gets his message out harder, faster and more effectively than any of his rivals. If political campaigns are essentially a war of communications, then the Maga hat is an Exocet missile, which laid waste to its competitors, cutting through the
visual clutter of social media and 24/7 television news with a single iconic image. It makes Obama’s “Hope” poster seem positively pedestrian and showed up a distinct lack of ideas from Hillary Clinton’s camp. Can you summon up a single “I’m with her” image? “We like to think of Trump as a terrible businessman, and while it’s true he has been bankrupt, one area in which Trump has been hugely successful is that of personal branding,” says Finkelstein. “His ‘Success’ fragrances, ties and so on have been hugely popular. His business is himself and the Maga hat is yet another extension of his personal brand.”
In terms of political comms, the Maga hat is an Exocet missile
Meanwhile in fashionland, the postmodern appeal of ”merch” is hotter than ever. Demna Gvasalia of Vetements and Balenciaga has made millions turning corporate symbols, most notably the DHL logo, into ironic high fashion – all sold at a titanic markup, of course. Which is, ironically, not dissimilar to the Trump business model: “The key word on the hat is ‘Again’, closing the door on the outside world. The fact that the hat is made in China runs totally against the spirit of that,” says Finkelstein. So what does this mean for your wardrobe? Well, for a start, any kind of red baseball cap is now a no-no. I recently posted a picture of myself on Instagram wearing a red Ferrari baseball cap signed by Sebastian Vettel, which I got for my birthday. A friend commented, “For a minute there I thought you’d gone full Kanye!” Has this cap helped make America great again? There’s a ‘Made in China’ label inside the brim that suggests not
Illustration by Kasiq Jungwoo JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 63
Photographs Getty Images; Instagram; Shutterstock
11. Vanessa Friedman Fashion director, the New York Times
12. Rihanna Under her style umbrella-ella-ella... Michele
13. Alessandro Creative director, Gucci
14. Katie Grand Stylist and creative director
15. Intern 1 (no name) Fashion assistant
16. All the ‘K’s Kim, Khloé, Kylie, Kendall, Kourtney
17. Ye West’s World
18. Hedi Slimane Creative director, Celine
19. Natalie Massenet Cofounder, Imaginary Ventures; non-executive co-chairman, Farfetch
20. Camilla Lowther The OG agent
21. BTS Boy band
22. PAQ Top Gear for hypebeasts
23. Lila Moss A model daughter
24. James Jebbia Founder, Supreme
25. Serena Williams Tennis champion
Fashion journalism can be as frivolous as some of the silliest catwalk trends that emerge. Not Friedman’s. In a world awash with rumour and hype, this writer always cuts through, using industry flex to focus on style’s real obsession: “What next?” Bold and smart enough to see a $100 million gap in the make-up market (that’s how much her Fenty beauty range made in its first 40 days), with her newly launched lingerie label, Savage x Fenty, Rihanna’s cultural influence goes way beyond her music.
Sworn in at Gucci by Tom Ford, Michele’s time at the helm, from 2015, has seen brand desirability (and revenue) rocket. His maximalist imaginings have been a mood board for most major trends. An artist in residence with a wicked commercial eye. Adoration! Reverence! Envy! Just some of the reactions Grand’s work ignites. Despite an encyclopaedic knowledge of fashion history, contemporary trends and magazines, she creates rather than copies. We all (still) want to be in Grand’s gang.
Fashion editors’ entire reach depends on a) their working reputation and b) their assistants’ ability to land key looks. Want to shoot Gigi Hadid in Look 33 from Balenciaga’s SS19 show? Only an assassin of an assistant can make this happen. From trashy reality TV stars to lauded front-row queens and now business figureheads that command, collectively, revenues well into the hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s their beautiful, twisted reality, we just live – and shop – in it.
It was in 2007 that West first flew into Paris Fashion Week. He had a hunger to soak up the business. He watched. He listened. Then he launched a billion-dollar fashion brand with Adidas called Yeezy. Has any collection been as eagerly anticipated as Slimane’s recent debut for Celine? Well, not since Slimane’s last collection for Saint Laurent, no. His commitment to imbuing a youthful energy to his clothes, both dark and light, must be celebrated.
Having transformed how the world shops via Net-A-Porter, then revolutionised British fashion as chairwoman of the BFC, it’s no surprise @nat_mass’ name is always in the mix. The truth is she’s far more interested in taking startups to the next level. In an industry full of frothy hyperbole, Lowther’s journey is one that deserves to be studied in colleges. Her agency, CLM, represents the very best stylists, photographers and hair and make-up artists. A raw, no-frills talent, as wise as she is loyal.
Go mental for Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook, aka the K-pop band who make Little Mix look like a struggling indie group. Less MTV popular, more McDonald’s popular – what these pop puppets wear will shape future generations. Where did all the funny, erudite TV presenters go? YouTube, duh. And PAQ, a series covering fashion and streetwear, presented by hyped-up twentysomethings Shaq, Danny, Elias and Dexter is screen crack for youthful style hunters.
With a supermodel mother and publishing mogul father, the cool gang have long wondered which way 16-year-old Moss Jnr would sashay. Now the face of Marc Jacobs Beauty, the world is this youthful entrant’s pearly oyster. The old French fashion houses have been dealing in exclusivity and authenticity for years, but Jebbia has achieved something harder, taking Supreme from a niche skate label to the “billion-dollar Hermès of streetwear”.
Williams has taken it on herself to volley tournament dress codes into the nosebleeds. First it was the black Nike catsuit at the French Open in May, next a black tutu (designed by Virgil Abloh) at the US Open. Ace!
36. Mohamed Alabbar Business mogul
37. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez US congresswoman
38. Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane Joint chief executives, Boohoo.com
39. Google’s Pixel 3 Phone
40. Gosha Rubchinskiy Designer
41. Halima Aden Trailblazing model
42. Jun Takahashi Designer, Undercover
43. Joe Holder Style’s secret PT
44. Andrew T Vottero Stylist
45. Chitose Abe Designer, Sacai
46. Andrew Rosen CEO, Theory Inc
47. Takashi Murakami Artist
48. Josh Luber CEO, StockX
49. Yoko Ono Artist
50. Influencers Significant but waning?
Relations might be cooling somewhat on the Saudi side, but thanks to this man, business is booming for fashion in the Middle East. A major investor in the Dubai Mall, an enterprise that makes up almost half the city’s luxury-goods consumption.
Ocasio-Cortez is one of youngest women to be elected to the House Of Representatives. Whip-smart and empathetic with the most needy in her district – the Bronx and Queens – many already talk about her one day running for president.
Although once sneered at for their lower-than-low price points (£37 for a new suit?), the Boohoo brand have taken over where bricks-and-mortar chains have failed to change tack, with revenue doubling to £580m in 2018.
Remember 2005, when style folk wouldn’t stop going on about the Contax T2 camera? The future’s coolest fashion camera – it shot GQ’s Anthony Joshua cover last month – isn’t a camera at all. Less point and shoot, more point, shoot and check Twitter.
Those new to streetwear might think label collabs, weekly “drops” and limited-edition reworks were ideas born this year. For those there at the beginning, Rubchinskiy is a Russian original, remixing staid labels and street silhouettes since 2008.
A black, Muslim, Somali-American from Kenya, Aden was the first to wear the hijab in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant and also wore it on the runways of New York and Milan. A powerful woman breaking down prejudices, one elegant stride at a time.
Who taught Kim Jones about design, creation and collaboration? Who does Virgil Abloh credit with pushing street styles into the luxury fashion business? That’s right: Taskahashi. Patient Zero for the current casual, cool epidemic.
Think it’s odd you never see top designers or supermodels at your local Virgin Active? It’s because Holder is training them somewhere secret. He takes a 360, holistic approach, a workout for mind, body and, if you’ll let him, soul.
Having started as an assistant at GQ, LA resident Vottero hot-footed to Europe to work on influential magazine Fantastic Man. Today, he’s back home and has become know as the mind behind Jef Goldblum’s wardrobe. “Style, uh, finds a way...”
When you have been a student of Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe, the shoes you must fill are as large as the shadows they cast. This Japanese designer applies an esoteric eye to familiar cuts and shapes. It doesn’t get any trendier than this.
As a third-generation garmento, fashion is woven in Rosen’s DNA. He inherited a lot from his father, Carl (who invented designer jeans), but Rosen Jnr won big by banking on technical fabric. Today, he’s a hero investor for many young entrepreneurs.
To be honest, if you’re a designer and you haven’t collaborated with Murakami you can’t really be taken seriously. Japanese influence has always held sway with the smartest in fashion and this artist has been many a luxury brand’s gateway drug.
StockX is what happens when a mortgage lender (Dan Gilbert) gets together with an obsessive sneakerhead (Luber). In 2015 they built a site that connects shoe nuts to buy, sell, collect and make cash out of premium trainers. Silly shoes, serious business.
The fashion industry loves a muse. But rather than a subservient, mute clotheshorse, Ono is a cultural figurehead who inspires creators who want a dialogue of ideas with their customers, rather than a one-way transaction.
There is no denying their impact having taken over our IG timelines like the hashtagging, paid-for-partnership poseurs they are. Yet, as social audiences increase their demand for authenticity, can this new breed of ad men and women survive?
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO.UK 64
House Rules presents...
Style’s Hot I ndex * Runner, father and hyper-savvy brand strategist. Before Balenciaga, he helped Hedi Slimane re-conjure Saint Laurent, slashing the “Yves”. You wouldn’t want anyone else in charge of rebooting your luxury brand.
A key, if not the key, to LVMH making deep successful inroads into the digital universe. He has made nimble, smart, earto-the-ground moves as chief executive of the famous suitcase maker Rimowa. Dismiss his position as nepotism at your peril.
After the e-commerce company’s IPO, Neves became one of the few fashion billionaires, his personal stake valued at £1.1 billion. Smart, sharp and refreshingly friendly, no wonder his online retail site is one of the biggest, and most loved, out there.
Responsible for zoning in on top-tier luxury – shedding its interest in Puma and selling its stake in Stella McCartney – thus seeing profits (and reputation) leap. Kering’s portfolio (Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga...) is, as ever, enviable.
To be cool used, for many, to mean “artifice”. That was before Gvasalia brought his strain of reality to fashion and engaged in contemporary conversations with his savvy, eager audience. His notions of cool are complex, intelligent and fearlessly original.
Some might argue that the complete commercialisation of style has snufed out the romance, others that big money has unleashed creativity and opportunity like nothing else. Arnault remains at the very top of the corporate food chain.
You might be able to sketch like Yves Saint Laurent, but unless your nearest and dearest can support you through endless years of penniless toil and slog, your future in fashion is limited. If they can help, call and thank them. Every. Single. Day.
Where do you start with Abloh? Those who tut, “Well, he’s not a designer,” don’t understand how he works. Be it at Of-White, Louis Vuitton or laying down bangers at DC-10 in Ibiza, Abloh is a one-man, 24/7/365 creation engine with a full tank of fresh.
When you talk to Jones about his influences he continually refers to those who have inspired him: Nigo from A Bathing Ape or brands such as Neighborhood and Gimme 5. Today, Jones’ collaborations lift up others. A unique talent, with more to come.
26. Charles Jefrey Designer, Loverboy
27. Jo Ellison Fashion editor, the Financial Times
28. Anya Yiapanis Agent, Intrepid
29. Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler Diet Prada
30. Jess Mulroney Stylist by appointment
31. Stefano Pilati Designer, Random Identities
32. Erik Torstensson and Jens Grede Cofounders, Frame Denim
33. Izzi May Strategist extraordinaire
34. Fat Tony Meme machine
35. Ilaria Urbinati Stylist
G House Rules
What’s hot and what’s not: it’s an idiom that fuels fashion, an industry worth about £1.8 trillion pounds. So who has the most influence? Truth is, no one knows. Not even you. Power lists are all subjective, political and, well, driven by ego. Yours. Ours. Instagram’s. So don’t take it to heart if you don’t see your name/brand/boss below. It’s just a bit of fun. Keeping of these lists – now that’s the really cool thing...
Story by Jonathan Heaf
Red-carpet styling for men used to mean a trad tux. When Urbinati’s A+ clients – Donald Glover and Armie Hammer – appear on best-dressed lists, it isn’t so much down to their panache as her picks. Taste levels set to stun.
Tony Marnach once raised hell in the nightclubs of London. Today, his IG feed is the funniest (and at times cruellest) online, giving followers (including Kate Moss and Edward Enninful) mischievous relief from all the fawning.
Those that know, know about Izzi May. Having been mentored by savvy industry brains, 2017 saw May leave Burberry where she ruled global comms. Clients now include... some very important industry figureheads. If you know, you know, right?
The Swedish “brothers from diferent mothers” who once rubbed alongside one Tyler Brûlé have come a long way since dreaming of becoming magazine editors. The next Calvin Klein? Ambition + talent + status anxiety will make it so.
Pilati’s name is always whispered in reverence by the chic insidery insiders, those “fashion headz” that understand elegance and are wary of merch. Pilati’s true skill is his singular vision, earthy tones and bloody-mindedness.
The oicial BFF, yet unoicial stylist, of HRH Meghan Markle. You may not agree with some of Mulroney’s outfit picks, but there’s no doubting the influence of someone so close to such a progressive royal. Mulroney is “The Megan Efect”.
This duo have built an empire – well, a hefty social media fiefdom – on calling people out for aesthetic plagiarism. Causing embarrassment, panic and even pulled product, no one is safe. Brutally honest in an industry known for clawing sycophancy.
Quietly strategic, doggedly ambitious and with eyes and ears everywhere. This Greek super agent’s client list of six stylists and one writer might be short, but the influence reverberates far beyond the head count.
The style press is so obsessed with telegraphing the latest millennial-endorsed piece of pop-up merch (guilty!) that it’s easy to forget fashion is a multitrillion-dollar industry. Ellison’s is a lone voice of clarity amid the shouty circus.
True artistry is about bringing the designer’s secret hidden worlds to life, about taking a vision and spraying it all over the walls. It’s about saying, “This is who I am. This is what I stand for.” No one else does this more creatively than Charles Jefery.
*Of super-duper incredibly important people in fashion, all of whom we love equally, pretty much, well, except for XXXXXXX , whom we love more than having XXX XX on a XXXXXX with XXXXX 1. Kim Jones Artistic director, Dior Homme
2. Virgil Abloh ‘Creator-in-chief’
3. The bank of mum and dad A debt of gratitude
4. Bernard Arnault Chairman and CEO, LVMH
5. Demna Gvasalia Creative director, Balenciaga; head designer, Vetements
6. François-Henri Pinault Chairman and chief executive, Kering
7. José Neves Founder and chief executive, Farfetch
8. Alexandre Arnault Chief executive, Rimowa
9. Cédric Charbit Chief executive, Balenciaga
10. Naomi Campbell Model; activist; icon
As one of very few black models to get continual coverage in what is primarily, and outrageously, an industry dominated by rich white people – from the models to the CEOs – Campbell’s role of not asking, but demanding diversity is still, sadly, vital.
Come rain or shine, don your suede again this winter season (umbrella still advised)
Style Shrink By
Teo van den Broeke
I’m in the market for some really good shirts. Not average shirts, no middling shirts, not even nice shirts. Really, really good shirts. It’s almost impossible to find anything that lives up to expectation fit-wise, lasts more than a few washes and maintains its colour at the same time. I’m happy to spend a bit of money on something good (so long as it’s really good). Rob, Northampton Dear Rob, Shirts are notoriously tricky. Buy something that fits and it will invariably end up shrinking in the wash (and thereby rendered unwearable after one outing, assuming your hygiene is up to scratch, Rob), buy something too big and you’ll look like you inherited it from your father. And then there’s knowing which style to go for. Concealed placket or exposed? Cutaway collar or point? Slim or casual fit (never muscle)? The options are endless, and that’s before you even get to such trivialities as 68 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
colour and pattern. My advice, Rob, would be to have something made specially for you. British shirtmaker Turnbull & Asser’s off-the-peg shirts are famously high quality and hand-finished. One step up from this is the company’s new custom-made facility. Essentially a made-to-measure service, a block shirt is modified to suit your specifications rather than being built from scratch, as is the case with prohibitively expensive bespoke services. You can shift everything from body length to cuff length and every element is customisable, from fabric to collar style and from buttons to cuff shape. Shirts start from £235 a pop, but given that one will most likely last you a lifetime, it’s a savvy investment. I recently invested in a suede jacket, it looks great and I would love to wear it more. Apart from nervously checking the weather forecast or constantly carrying an umbrella, how can I protect it? Nathan, Chelmsford
Every winter I buy a rubbish pair of knitted gloves and every year I lose them almost as quickly as I got them. I think the primary reason my gloves never stick around for very long is because I hate them – and they know that I hate them. This year, I want to invest in a forever pair of gloves, a pair that will last the test of time, not make me look like a serial killer or the mum from About A Boy and that I’ll actually want to keep on my person for longer than a week and a half. Any ideas? Simon, Leeds Dear Simon, I’m assuming by the fact that you want something that will last you a lifetime that you don’t want something knitted. What I’ll also assume from your letter, however, is that you like the feeling of wool or cashmere against your skin. The solution to this conundrum is to buy a pair of cashmere-lined leather or suede gloves (you’re probably better off going with the latter if you want to avoid the strangler look). If you’ve got money to burn I would recommend paying a visit to the master of casual cashmere, Brunello Cucinelli. BC does a lovely line of cashmere-lined suede gloves, which look as ready for a weekend skiing in Gstaad as they do for an afternoon of autumnal gardening. They come in at just shy of £500, but for that price you’ll never allow yourself to lose them. At the mid level, British brand Hackett has a great pair of shearling-lined brown suede gloves for £150, while UK-based glovemaker Dents does an affordable line of cashmere-lined leather gloves. A snip at £75, they’ll look great should you not have a passing resemblance to Peter Sutcliffe, though not so good if you do. SEND YOUR MENSWEAR-RELATED STYLE QUESTIONS TO STYLESHRINK@CONDENAST.CO.UK
Illustration Joe McKendry Photographs Jordan Barrett x Frame; Maggie Shannon
Dear Nathan, First things first, Nathan: never wear your suede jacket when it’s raining. Or snowing, for that matter. Second, don’t worry too much if you do get caught in a sudden downpour – if the suede your jacket is cut from is of a high enough quality, it should be able to withstand a spot or two of rain. Third, brush your jacket regularly with a soft-bristled brush to remove spotting and maintain quality. And fourth, if you’re particularly mucky and/or unlucky, have your jacket protected by a specialist dry cleaner that you trust – never spray it yourself. If you’re a messy sort, like me, you’ll probably get it wrong.
G House Rules The apocalypse is COMING* *And you can’t run from ZOMBIES in skinny jeans** **Can you? Show me your hands. Why are they so soft? You’re 30 years old, perhaps a little younger, yet your hands are as smooth as a Marvin Gaye record. What’s up with that? Well, I’ll tell you what’s up with that: you haven’t done an honest day’s graft in your life. Have you gathered kindling? Chopped wood? The closest you’ve got to being a hunter-gatherer is perusing the meat counter at Daylesford Organic. Listen, I know being a COO at an ad company/digital content agency doesn’t always require hands like moose knuckles, but even the meekest of us have the odd blemish, the odd small scar, a touch of avocado finger. Still, fear not: this spring you can walk around in workwear – specifically these army-green Frame overalls, a collaboration between the denim brand and male model Jordan Barrett – that will telegraph your practical skills, even if in reality we both know you couldn’t change a fuse if your life depended on it. Hey, you’re welcome. JH
Overalls by Frame, £287. frame-store.com
Tyrant Chic!*
Story by Jonathan Heaf
Stealth wealth, this ain’t. Inside the Beverly Hills showroom of Nicolas Bijan (pictured), costumier to former Trumpian fraudster Paul Manafort
*The one-stop shop for billionaires and world leaders I know what you’re thinking: where did cartoon gangster and Sopranos stunt double Paul Manafort get that $48,000 blue lizard jacket from? What’s clear is Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, likes the good things in life. And by “good” we mean “brash”, “gaudy” and “despicably flash”. Or at least he did until he got put on trial on bank fraud charges over the summer. Some of the juiciest details to come out of the case include the amount of cash this bozo dropped on his personal wardrobe, a wardrobe rivalled only by Colonel Gaddafi and Uday Hussein in the bad taste stakes. Over a five-year period, Manafort spent a total of $520,000 at a store called The House Of Bijan, a shop located on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It’s fashion (if you can call it that) for men who think “toxic masculinity” is a new perfume scent, rather than an industry-wide problem that needs to be snuffed out. Along with the
bonkers lizard jacket, other Bijan pieces – or “wearable art”, as the store likes to call it – that caught Manafort’s snake eyes were the $12,000 pink pinstripe suit, a $21,000 limited-edition titanium “Royal Way” wristwatch with crystal, an $18,000 beige suede coat and 18 cotton shirts totalling $24,600. It’s like Manafort’s spending habits were downloaded from the Eighties: unapologetically vulgar and comedically overpriced. Opened in 1976 by the late Bijan Pakzad – and now run by his son, Nicolas Bijan – the store is the antithesis of stealth wealth. It is the ultimate style brand for world leaders and petro/crypto billionaires. Although it’s appointment only, once inside clients find a shop clad almost entirely in marble, with walls painted in the brand’s signature “Mediterranean yellow”. A Baccarat chandelier swings from the ceiling, adorned with more than 1,000 crystal bottles of Bijan’s fragrances, and parked
outside is the store’s own branded Bugatti Veyron. The appeal for customers, one must assume, is that such tyrant chic goes beyond what you find on the high street. The number of men who can afford to shop here is tiny and its exclusivity gives Bijan an air of desirability. Where Supreme makes its product hard to get by putting out very lean collections, Bijan aims to serve only an exclusive, wealthy universe. “This is a unique business,” explains Nicolas Bijan. “If we have more than one client in the boutique at the same time, it’s chaos.” So if you’re ever in need of a pair of bright-coloured loafers in alligator skin – perhaps as a house-warming gift for a colleague who has just moved to the nearest state penitentiary – you know where to go. Luckily for Manafort, they also do home visits. bijan.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 69
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G House Rules
1,001
Nick Foulkes
manssentials With
(Because who doesn’t need, well, everything?)
This month: Beach cardigan by Connolly
Photograph Tony Frank
See and be seen in a CBC, à la Alain Delon, 1966
I can only describe Clifford Street as a sort of “Sniper Alley”. It is definitely not the sort of all-out retail battlefront that you see on nearby Bond Streets New and Old. There, you know where you are – the big guns of international luxury, fashion and generally desirable stuff are trained on you from plate-glass windows filled with ammunition – the hottest looks, runway collections, limited editions and fruits of the latest collaborations between a grand old name and a cheeky “street” label. Occasionally things get a bit frenzied: velvet ropes are deployed, entrances are policed by burly, cuff-talking men and the threat of civil unrest hangs ominously in the air as overseas visitors and out-of-towners are made to queue for the latest branded trophy. On Clifford Street, on the other hand, one’s assailants lurk almost unseen, behind shopfronts so discreet that you hardly notice they are there until, wham, like a first-person shooter it’s game over before you know what happened. That’s how it is with me in Connolly. There I am minding my own business (sort of) when manager Ivan says he has got something to show me and kapow... Connolly does it again. I am introduced to a garment for which I have absolutely no need, little use, even less chance of justifying financially, but am unable to get out of my mind. It is like someone claiming squatters’ rights inside your head and, currently, the uninvited occupant of the space between my ears is called the Connolly beach cardigan (or CBC to those who know). If you think the name suggests the summer collection
(Starsky of Starsky & Hutch), wore shawl-collared, belted cardigans that combined a louche casualness with the latent action-readiness of the martial arts garment known as the karategi or judogi. There is something about the shawl collar that makes anything knitted glamorous; maybe it’s the suggestion of a dinner jacket. Steve McQueen had a fondness for the buttoned variety and John F Kennedy carried the style off with aplomb. But the real master of the shawl-collared mega cardigan is Alain Delon. Admittedly, Delon would look great wearing a refuse sack, but with his tousled hair kept in place by a judiciously positioned pair of wraparound sunglasses he makes McQueen’s attempts at casual-cool seem positively laboured. In keeping with the conventions of the genre, the CBC features some vaguely Navajo intarsia dec-
This is the most important cardigan since the earl who led the Charge Of The Light Brigade then you would be correct, but I have to say I find that name a teensy-weensy bit misleading: you’d have to be on a beach in Iceland to make full use of this multi-ply cashmere monster of a piece of knitwear. It is sinfully soft, warm and enveloping. This is a cardigan on a Wagnerian scale. It is blue, and I don’t mean just blue, I mean variations on cobalt and Klein. Also, the term cardigan is used in the loosest way, figuratively and literally. I am too out of fashion to know if cardigans are still considered a symptom of pipe-slippers-anddaytime-TV elderliness. Anecdotal evidence suggests not, but the CBC
is neither a garment for a woke androgyne fashionista/o, nor a betokener of sunset years. No, this knitwear is quite probably the single most important cardigan since the earl who led the Charge Of The Light Brigade gave his name to the garment. Except, when my eye alights on the CBC, I do not think of the bewhiskered earl, whose rackety private life makes Flashman seem like a model of propriety. Instead, my mind’s eye gazes backwards to the golden age of American law enforcement drama in the Seventies, a time when the good guys drove Ford Gran Torinos and, in the case of Paul Michael Glaser
oration that runs from biceps to biceps via the chest. And there are patch pockets into which to thrust one’s hands when in philosophical contemplation of the existential agony of being. You wear it like a blazer, but feel as comfortable as if in a dressing gown. Such is its versatility that I would wear the CBC almost anywhere – anywhere except the beach. If by any chance I were to fall into the sea wearing it, such is the voluminous and cossetting luxury that it would become waterlogged and pull me down to a watery grave. Still, it would be hard to think of a more elegant way to drown. G £1,800. connollyengland.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 71
Edited by
Paul Henderson
At last!
Rolls-Royce goes
upwardly mobile
The marque that knows more than most about all things Plutusian has just bought in to the latest licence to print money – a new luxury SUV. We took it to the wealthiest mountain range on earth to see if it makes the gradient Story by
Jason Barlow
Lawrence Of Arabia took nine Rolls-Royces on campaign, but thanks to its new SUV you only need one (although armour-plating is still an option, we assume) JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 73
performance meets art
Turn heads with the style of Premium Touch velour sidewall detailing. Available on larger MICHELIN Pilot Sport 4S fitments (21� and above). michelin.co.uk
#Ps4s
CARS
H
oward Hughes. Field Marshal Montgomery. John Lennon. Lenin. Queen Elizabeth II. Keith Moon. When the latter wasn’t driving his into a swimming pool – although that’s probably apocryphal – he was one of a handful of big names for whom only a Rolls-Royce would do. With the Cullinan SUV, though, our thoughts turn to an even earlier adopter. “More valuable than rubies in the desert,” Lawrence Of Arabia noted of his nine-strong fleet, several heavily fortified for obvious reasons. His personal car was called “Blue Mist”, allegedly commandeered from its previous owner outside a Cairo nightclub. Rolls-Royce has dutifully waited an entire century to cash in on this historical A-list celebrity firepower, but a stentorian SUV is the car with which to do it. A Rolls-Royce 4x4 – how you respond to those words will dictate how you feel about the Cullinan. This is either an exciting development or the end of days and the “statement” design – unusually deep windows, “Parthenon” grille and a gallant adherence to Rolls’ boldly surfaced proportions – is another polarising factor. What’s indisputable is the intimacy of the relationship RollsRoyce enjoys with its patrons; if they build it, they will come. And now the world’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals (by which we mean a minimum of £25 million in disposable readies) have a car that can drive not just over the field of dreams, but up and over
Need to know Rolls-Royce Cullinan Engine: 563bhp, 6.75litre twin-turbo V12 Performance: 0-62mph, 5.2 seconds; top speed, 155mph (limited) Price: From £250,000 Contact: rollsroycemotorcars.com
The Cullinan will drive over the field of dreams, then up and over the mountain on the other side
the mountain on the other side, in almost unimaginable luxury. Rolls-Royces have always been robustly engineered, but there’s still a perverse pleasure in pointing the Spirit Of Ecstasy off the beaten track, knowing that neither she nor the rest of the car is going to flinch. The location of a first drive is usually incidental, but Jackson Hole in Wyoming isn’t just cowboy country, it’s also the wealthiest corner of America per capita (Harrison Ford has a ranch hereabouts). It’s also 6,000 feet above sea level, so it strains your lungs until you’re acclimatised. The Cullinan is less bothered: it’s powered by a reworked version of the engine used by the Phantom limousine, making 563bhp and 627lb ft of torque from 1,600rpm (a more powerful hybridised version is coming). While our test route, framed by the magnificent Teton mountain range, isn’t particularly demanding, the Cullinan still elevates Rolls’ ride and refinement to a whole new plain – literally, in this instance – smothering off-road ruts and rocks in the same way the Phantom pulverises regular roads. Selflevelling air suspension, which has a bigger >>
It might rove on the range – in Jackson Hole, Wyoming – but the Cullinan is most definitely a Rolls-Royce
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 75
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CARS GQ measured the Cullinan’s credentials against the rough ‘roads’ of America’s wealthiest wilds
>> volume for miraculous bump absorption, is crucial to its deportment. Electronically controlled dampers crunch body and wheel acceleration data in milliseconds, aided by a camera system that reads the road ahead. An adventure mode, meanwhile, is accessed via the “Everywhere” button, which jiggles the traction control and uses hill descent software to tackle rutted track, gravel, wet grass, mud or snow. Its wading depth is 540mm, the deepest, claims Rolls, of any super-luxury
What fits inside is up to you, your bank balance, but most of all your imagination
SUV. The Cullinan also has four-wheel steering and a 48-volt anti-roll system. Its structure is a reworking of what Rolls dubs the “architecture of luxury”, a modular aluminium spaceframe, with castings in each corner and extrusions in between, reconfigured here in a form that sits higher and shorter than the Phantom’s, with a split tailgate for the necessary versatility. The Cullinan lacks the crazy axle articulation you need for really committed off-roading and relies
mainly on increased ground clearance and cleverly networked ones and zeroes to get you places nothing as sybaritic as this has ever been before. This is an extreme manifestation of experiential luxury. That high body means an equivalently higher centre of gravity, which hurts handling. But not by much, and if that’s what does it for you, you’re clearly in the wrong place. The transmission is the same velvety, satellite-aided ZF eight-speed automatic used by every other Rolls. The Cullinan doesn’t really like to be rushed, but again that’s missing the point. This is an environment that promotes the old adage about it being better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Pretty soon, you realise that rushing is a terribly recherché concept anyway. It’s majestic inside. Real metal pillars connect the centre console and fascia and there’s water-resistant “box grain” black leather on the dash-top, doors and even the back of the key. The instrument dials have beautiful analogue graphics and the central multimedia display now gains a touchscreen. Rear passengers sit higher than those in front, either in lounge configuration or sumptuous individual chairs (what fits in the space between is up to you, your bank balance, but most of all your imagination). Behind the split rear tailgate, the back can be specified with a “Recreation Module”, a motorised drawer designed according to the owner’s preferred pastime, or a “Viewing Suite”, which stores a pair of folding, leather-clad rear-facing seats and cocktail table in a special cassette. This is, in so many ways, a ludicrous car. But in an era when the SUV is about the only sure thing for an embattled industry, creating the ultimate luxury off-roader is an opportunity Rolls-Royce had no option but to take up. The Cullinan is as meticulously engineered as you’d expect and a sublime place to lose yourself. But it’s curiously hard to love. G
+ Mercedes-Benz G63 Originally conceived for the German military when the Cold War was peaking, Mercedes’ “G-Wagen” defied all conventional wisdom by having its most successful year in 2017. That the new car looks almost identical is fabulous sleight of hand: beneath its monolithic form almost everything has changed. There’s a new body, chassis, steering, suspension, gearbox and interior and in range-topping G63 guise, Mercedes’ sublime 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 preserves the incongruous performance – 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds in something resembling a small building is no mean feat – and side-exit exhausts bring the noise. By mixing steel and aluminium in its structure, Mercedes has slashed the G63’s weight while improving its stifness. The new one also uses modern electromechanical steering so doesn’t need the constant correction the old one required just to follow a straight line, never mind anything as demanding as a corner. And contemporary suspension kinematics mean it no longer rides like a truck. The dawn of civilisation doesn’t hamper the G-Wagen’s of-road prowess: ground clearance, wading capability and approach and departure angles are all mighty, and there are three fully locking diferentials and a low-range gearbox. We always loved the G-Wagen. Now we don’t have to apologise for it. JB FROM, £143,305. MERCEDES-AMG.COM JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 77
Rubber soul The countdown to GQ’s 2019 Car Awards has begun, and few contenders are better at getting the most out of Michelin’s brilliant Pilot Sport tyres than the Alpine A110. As chef Tom Kerridge discovered... Story by
Jason Barlow
Photographs by
Charlie Surbey
T
he MICHELIN Guide and its endorsement of the world’s finest restaurants has helped elevate an unexpected destination to new levels of fame. Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, is a fine place for sure and home to Shelley Lodge, where Mary Shelley completed work on her masterpiece, Frankenstein. But foodies will know it better as the epicentre of MICHELIN Star action: there are no fewer than eleven within striking distance of the town, although there’s one we’re particularly interested in. It’s either self-indulgent or simply common sense for GQ to head to the venue that put Tom Kerridge firmly on the culinary map, given that the man himself has joined our annual Car Awards host Nicki Shields for the first film ahead of the 2019 gathering, once again being held in association with Michelin. The MICHELIN Guide itself
From top: Driving to Marlow; GQ Car Awards host Nicki Shields and Tom Kerridge in the Alpine; the Alpine outside Vogue House at the start of the trip
was first published in 1900 when brothers Édouard and André Michelin had the clever marketing idea of producing a handbook with maps and hotel/restaurant recommendations to encourage motorists to travel further afield. This wasn’t just helpful, it was good for Michelin tyre sales too because the more motorists travelled, the more they wore out their tyres and needed to replace them. The MICHELIN Star rating system for restaurants was introduced into the Guide in 1926 and it is still relevant today as an independent point of reference for travellers worldwide, one that you can’t pay to be included in. Fundamentally the Michelin Guide works alongside Michelin’s tyre ranges and mobility services to assist motorists with their journeys. GQ HQ Vogue House to Marlow is a distance of only 33 miles, but that’s still far enough to amplify the key characteristics that make the Alpine A110 one of the Car Awards contenders. In an automotive world in which everything is getting bigger, this two-seater, mid-engined sports car has embraced the power of downsizing and weight reduction. Much like the chef himself, who managed to shed 12 stone and added a best-selling diet book to his cookery tomes.
G Partnership
Need to know Alpine 1955 Alpine was founded by Jean Rédélé and named after this favourite sort of road. Its seats are 13.1kg each – half the weight of normal sports seats. Tyre tech The MICHELIN Pilot Sport tread is adapted from motorsport and reacts to demands of the road surface.
The restaurant
Rebooting the British pub The Hand and Flowers marries the warmth of a traditional hostelry with Michelin-Starred food “We weren’t expecting to win a MICHELIN Star,” Tom Kerridge (above) says of the accolade that followed the opening of The Hand & Flowers back in 2005. (A second star was awarded in 2012.) “What we wanted to do was cook great food, the sort that you’d normally find in a MICHELIN Star environment, but in a pub.” Kerridge’s profile rose after his winning – in every sense – appearances on the BBC’s Great British Menu, but he wears his celebrity status lightly. Instead, it’s his adherence to British pub staples that have made The Hand & Flowers a Michelin favourite. You can find dishes such as glazed omelette of smoked haddock and parmesan, and warm carrot and cheddar tart among the starters, steak and chips and half beer roast chicken as a main, and chocolate cake or apple tart for dessert. But don’t be fooled: these are stunning reinventions that burst with flavour, and the slow-cooked duck breast with peas, duck fat chips and gravy remains a treat. Kerridge refuses to dazzle his customers with complex-sounding dishes, and has focused instead on reimagining the pub as a go-to destination in an era when the idea of grabbing a couple of pints at lunchtime – or even after work – has seemingly disappeared from the cultural menu. “Food is the one thing that still brings people together,” he says. Never more so when two MICHELIN Stars are factored into the equation. O The Hand and Flowers. 126 West Street, Marlow SL7 2BP. thehandandflowers.co.uk
Clockwise from top: The bridge at Marlow; Michelin Pilot Sport tyres; half beer roast chicken with sweetcorn & potato royale, spiced tomato mayonnaise and oak gravy; Tom Kerridge and Nicki Shields
The Alpine is roomier inside than it looks, and its compact size enables it to weave through central London traffic with appealing dexterity. Alpine might be a new name to you, but the French marque has been around since 1955, when it was founded by a guy called Jean Rédélé. “Alpine is probably best known for rallying and then the Le Mans 24 hours [where it won in 1978, using MICHELIN radial tyre technology],” lead designer Antony Villain says, “I have a clear image in my mind of a really light, agile car drifting in the Monte Carlo rally.” Starting from a clean sheet theoretically reduces the compromises, and the A110 makes a great case for itself. The key metric here isn’t power, (although 250bhp is plenty), it’s how much the car weighs: the Alpine is only 1080kg in base form, which translates to a power-to-weight ratio of 232bhp-per-tonne. The chassis is an all-new bonded and riveted one, and the heaviest bits – the engine, fuel
tank and passengers – are located centrally. Power comes from a 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, the brakes are supplied by racing specialist Brembo and the MICHELIN Pilot Sport tyres have been specifically developed for the A110’s set-up. “These tyres have benefitted from technologies developed from Michelin’s motorsport experience and you can really feel the difference they make,” explains Nicki Shields. “They help the Alpine respond round corners but remain safe and predictable. The MICHELIN Pilot Sport tyres are good to look at too, so they tick every box.” The Alpine A110 is one of those cars in which the journey is as important as the destination. Even if that happens to be one of Britain’s best pubs – complete with two MICHELIN stars. For an exclusive video about Nicki and Tom’s drive visit GQ.co.uk
GQ Car Awards 2019 The GQ Car Awards enters its 10th year and for 2019 we are proud to have Michelin as our headline partner again. We will announce the winners in the March issue on sale 8 February. Keep an eye out for GQ Car Awards content on GQ.co.uk
In association with
shopping destination of choice this season. Looking to add a new timepiece to your collection? Bremont, Georg Jensen, Mont Blanc, and Omega all have superb offerings while Watches of Switzerland and Watchfinder have an array of brands to choose from too. Not to forget Tiffany & Co, Searle, Tateossian, Boodles, for help hunting down the perfect piece of jewellery for someone special this Christmas. And the luxury doesn’t stop there. The Royal Exchange is also home to a wide range of accessory and lifestyle brands. If you need a leather diary for 2019, Smythson has the perfect range. Or consider paying Hermès a visit for a new tie. There is also Aspinal Of London, Halcyon Days and Sage Brown for all your gifting inspiration. If you want to treat yourself look to Jo Malone, Penhaligon’s, Bamford Grooming Department and L’Occitane for anything from fragrance to skincare that will shake up your New Year grooming routine. Or head to Church’s and Crockett & Jones who
This luxury destination in the heart of the city is home to more than 30 boutiques The Royal Exchange
Saturday shopping at The Royal Exchange A trip to this iconic location can solve all your present problems this year – and it’s even open at the weekends in the build up to Christmas
S
tarting to feel the pressure of the festive season? Have you exhausted all your usual gifting faithfuls? It’s OK, you just need a new location. The Royal Exchange, a luxury shopping destination right in the heart of the city, home to more than 30 contemporary boutiques as well as a brand-new Fortnum & Mason retail and dining space. Even better news is that The Royal Exchange will now be open on Saturday. Housed in one of London’s most iconic buildings, for the first time in history The Royal Exchange will be opening its doors from 10am-5pm on Saturdays over the Christmas period. Whether you’re looking to invest in a new watch for yourself, in search of an extra special gift for someone or determined to tick off everyone on your Christmas shopping list in one go, The Royal Exchange should be your
The Royal Exchange is the perfect place to source the finest watches, jewellery, grooming and footwear plus a wide range of other gifts
will make sure you’re putting your best foot forward into 2019. And for a limited time only Christian Louboutin have opened a Royal Exchange pop-up shop along with Bucklesbury & More and Melissa Odabash. The Royal Exchange has got your Christmas gifting covered. Shopping is thirsty work after all, so recharge your batteries with a seat at the newly opened Fortnum & Mason and enjoy an exclusive Royal Exchange tea blend. It’s the perfect way to recoup and make sure you haven’t forgotten anyone off your Christmas list. Make Christmas shopping an experience to enjoy at The Royal Exchange – as well as an opportunity to spoil yourself too. We’ve even given you a head start. Check out our edit of watches, shoes, accessories and fragrances to pick up during your shopping trip. This is shopping at it’s finest. FOR MORE INFORMATION AND FOR INDIVIDUAL STORE HOURS, HEAD TO THEROYALEXCHANGE.CO.UK
G Partnership
1 Limited Edition Supersonic watch by Bremont, £16,995. bremont.com. 2 CT60 Stainless steel watch by Tifany & Co, £4,075. tifany.co.uk. 3 Boodles 220th Anniversary Patek Philippe World Time Special Series watch, POA. boodles.com
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Ready, set, shop! 5
2
Ideas to ensure you are well on your way to winning Christmas this year – all with the help of The Royal Exchange
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4 Koppel GMT Power Reserve watch by Georg Jensen £8,400. georgjensen.com. 5 Seamaster Diver 300M watch by Omega,£3,600 omega.com. 6 Driver Skeleton Automatic watch by Links of London, £450. linksoflondon.com
+ Flex your gift-wrapping muscles Our ideas won’t disappoint – you’ll find something for just about anyone
Halfeti Eau de Parfum 100ml by Penhaligon’s, £168. penhaligons.com
Bracelet by Tateossian, £240. tateossian.com
Silk scarf by Hermès, £355. hermes.com
Mortimer shoe by Christian Louboutin, £725, christianlouboutin.com
Cufflinks by Halcyon Days, £95. halcyondays.co.uk
Hand Cream by L’Occitane, £21. uk.loccitane.com
+ Charles Heidsieck’s ‘underground’ Champagnes p.84 Bassoon brings the
Photograph Gavriil Papadiotis
Big Easy to London p.85 The Hero Of Maida rescues the capital’s best roast p.88
‘Chinese food is traditional and conventional. People won’t accept variations. I want to change that.’ The re-Orientation of Andrew Wong at Kym’s - p.84
GQ Taste Celebrating the art of comestible luxury one mouthful at a time Edited by
Bill Prince & Paul Henderson JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 83
Recent London dining destination Bloomberg Arcade hosts Kym’s by Andrew Wong (below)
The Restaurant
Kym’s, London If you thought Chinese cuisine was only for takeaways, think again... Andrew Wong is having a moment. His eponymous modern Chinese restaurant in London’s Victoria is one of the most exciting in the capital, he already has a Michelin star to his name and he has just opened his second place, Kym’s, in Bloomberg Arcade, also in London, to rave reviews. According to Tom Kerridge, “The guy’s on fire.” Wong, however, is having none of it. “I’m actually pretty boring as a person,” he says. “I do the same thing every day: wake up, get told off by my wife, go into work and start making Shanghai pastry for the dim sum chefs.” He laughs... “When I am carrying a box of dumplings on the underground from A Wong to Kym’s every day, I don’t feel like I’m on fire, just a bit overheated.” Wong’s journey to get here – generally speaking, not the one on the Circle line – however, has been anything but boring. Born in Britain to parents who owned four traditional Chinese restaurants, as a boy Wong had to be cajoled into helping out the family business with the promise of batteries for his Walkman. “I was,” he admits, “the kind of kid who did extra maths to avoid having to work in the kitchen.” The revision paid off, though, and to his mother’s and father’s delight he won a place at Oxford to study chemistry. “Because there was still a certain stigma attached to Chinese restaurants back then, my parents wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer,” Wong says, “but that wasn’t
O 19 Bloomberg Arcade, London EC4. 020 7220 7088. kymsrestaurant.com
my ambition. I don’t think I had a clue what I wanted to do.” Fate, however, did have plans for him. When he was 22, Wong’s father died and he reluctantly found himself at the helm of the family business. He went to catering college to learn the basics he had studiously avoided in his youth and while he was there, purely as a joke, he entered a cooking competition. He didn’t do any prep and he was up against chefs from some of the top Chinese restaurants. He won, and that was Wong’s eureka moment. “I didn’t cook ‘Chinese’ Chinese food, but the idea behind every dish stemmed from what I understood to be Chinese. That’s when I thought: actually, people might go for this.” He didn’t look back. After college, he spent six months exploring the cuisine of China, returned and opened A Wong in a little-loved part of the capital with his wife, Nathalie. “I had two things in the back of my mind when I started,” he says. “Firstly, I wanted to achieve things that my parents had never achieved. And I also wanted to achieve everything that Ken Hom had achieved!” He giggles infectiously. “The first six months were tough, but after that people started to understand what we were trying to do.” Wong discovered that not only did he love cooking, he also loved learning: from his chefs he has developed new techniques for cooking and roasting, he has expanded his knowledge of the vast Chinese region and also started to grasp its huge potential, hence the opening of a second, larger restaurant. “Every other cuisine in the world, be it Italian, French or whatever, has been allowed to develop over time, except Chinese food,” he says. “Chinese food is traditional and conventional and people expect certain things from it and won’t accept variations. I want to change that.” He continues, “The biggest thing that I have achieved in the six years at A Wong is that people no longer come into the restaurant and think about ordering the number 66, the 72 and a number 12. That took years. But if I can do that and then get across to people how clever, creative and inspiring Chinese food can be, anything is possible.” PH
The Bottle
Charles Heidsieck’s ‘Collection Crayères’ A time capsule, asleep below Champagne’s rolling hills, is ready for oenophiles to awaken Down in the chalky depths of Champenoise earth, millions of bottles are ageing gently in cellars (or crayères) to produce sparkling wine that has become the stuf of celebration and legend. Declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2015, Charles Heidsieck’s crayères lie directly underneath their stylish gardens and tasting rooms on the outskirts of Reims. The wines that form the new “Collection Crayères” have lain here for decades, letting the expertly blended Champagne reach dizzying heights of perfection. The collection comprises six bottles: the Blanc De Millenaires from 1983, 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2004, and Blanc De Blancs from 1982. This is a truly extraordinary selection, with each bottle exploring a completely diferent expression of chardonnay. If you can’t travel to the crayères, Hedonism Wines has an installation at its Mayfair shop to re-create the spectacular cellars; or invest in the collection yourself and you’ll only need to pop a cork to travel back in time. Amy Matthews
O £2,700. At Hedonism Wines and The Finest Bubble. hedonism.co.uk; thefinestbubble.com 84 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
TASTE The Bar
Bassoon, London
An orchestra of Louisiana decadence comes to town Dim lighting, sumptuous leather furniture and spirit bottles lined up on mirrored shelves behind the bar, at first glance the newly revamped Bassoon at London’s Corinthia looks like your standard swanky hotel bar. Drink in your surroundings for just a second, however, and you’ll soon notice the monochrome Art Nouveau-meets-Mondrian decor, the piano built into the end of the shiny black seven-metre bar and jazz-era modernist paintings of dancing musicians mounted on the walls. The vibe is akin to a super-luxe speakeasy, which is no doubt what bar director Marcis Dzelzainis (of East London’s award-winning Sager + Wilde) had in mind when the hotel brought him on board. The theme, you see, is Twenties New Orleans. The Big Easy-inspired cocktail list features 16 revamped classics, from the Ambrette Sazerac to the Rhizzle, a rum and Aperol-based serve sweetened with “capillaire”, an old-fashioned sugar syrup from Louisiana’s cane country. A particular highlight is the Wild Strawberry Ramos, Dzelzainis’ take on that iconic New Orleans cocktail, the Ramos Gin Fizz, in which gin, strawberry, neroli, coconut water and lime are shaken with a touch of cream. It’s deliciously sharp, silky smooth and dangerously drinkable. The Champagne list is also quite something. Curated by Dzelzainis’ business partner and wine connoisseur Michael Sager, small-batch producers such as Jérôme Prévost feature alongside recognisable names such as Dom Pérignon. Slightly less imaginative – but still well executed – is the bar menu, which includes nduja arancini, courgette fries and padrón peppers. The portions are massive, so go easy here. After a couple of drinks you’d be mad not to try the Corinthia’s other new killer collaboration, Tom Kerridge’s Bar & Grill. Kathleen Johnston
The Book
Fresh Start: How To Cook Amazing Food At Home by Tom Kerridge Enlist the super-star chef to give your menu repertoire a new-year revamp
If there was ever a chef to get us amped up for a fresh start this New Year it’s Tom Kerridge. And having lost eleven stones a few years back, he knows a thing or two about starting over. And while his new book, Fresh Start (Bloomsbury Absolute, £26), is absolutely not a diet book, it is about recalibrating your lifestyle choices and breaking patterns of behaviour that are all easily slipped into, particularly with regards to processed convenience food. Lots of us are quick to grab a takeaway after a long day at work or a ready-made roast on a Sunday to keep things simple, but with Kerridge’s help you’ll be replacing fast food with his chicken and bacon ranch burger and that morning muffin with his Indian scrambled eggs in no time at all. There is even an excellent vegetarian chapter if you’re needing more greenery in your life too. Cass Farrar O Out on 26 December.
The Roundup
+ Festive favourites Eat, drink and be merry with these hampers of tipples and treats Best for the big day
Best for an Italian Christmas
Best for luxury
The Christmas Celebration Hamper from Fortnum & Mason
Limited Edition River Café Gift Box
The Breakfast Hamper from The Wolseley
What’s great? Sorry, what’s fantastico? Keeping things authentic this vibrant box includes exquisite Italian ingredients (dried porcini, Gentile pennette, Sicilian honey) plus, with Volpaia vinegar and ortiz anchovies to complete the package, you’ll wonder why you ordered that turkey.
What’s great? As AA Gill once said, “Breakfast is everything,” so it’s no surprise that his book Breakfast At The Wolseley features in this perennially popular hamper. Packed with a selection of the finest breakfast produce, the star of the show is without doubt the gift card for breakfast at The Wolseley.
The expert opinion: “We have created something that we think will be a fantastic present for the home cook, packed full with our favourite ingredients, which we have spent the past 30 years sourcing,” says River Café’s Ruth Rogers. £600. rivercafe.co.uk
The expert opinion: “Whilst I covet the Christmas Hamper, for deeply sentimental reasons, I have to say the Breakfast Hamper is my favourite,” says Wolseley restaurateur Jeremy King. Eleanor Davies £150. thewolseley.com
O Corinthia Hotel London, 10 Whitehall Place, London SW1. 020 7321 3200. corinthia.com
Marcis Dzelzainis’ Miso Milk Punch
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
What’s great? For a start, the sweet treats – fruitcake, spiced biscuits and dark chocolate florentines – are outstanding. Then there is the traditional stilton jar and waxed chedder truckle. You even get a set of crackers for extra merriment. The expert opinion: “For centuries, our iconic parcels have been on Christmas wish lists worldwide. I am particularly fond of The Christmas Celebration Hamper, which delivers everything for a jolly festive gathering,” says Fortnum & Mason’s CEO, Ewan Venters. £250. fortnumandmason.com
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 85
G Partnership
Belvedere Vodka exemplifies excellence, provenance and purity
Belvedere
Black magic The Belvedere Espresso Martini is the perfect choice when you want a cocktail with a sophisticated kick Whether you’re at the end of a long day of meetings or you have just finished a perfect meal and want something a little stronger than a simple coffee to cap it off, the Espresso Martini is always a felicitous choice. Invented in London during the heady days of the Eighties by bartender Dick Bradsell, it was originally the request of a model who wanted a drink that would wake her up while still keeping the party going. Ever since, the Espresso Martini has been associated with luxury and effortless style. That’s why connoisseurs know that a true Espresso Martini should always be made with Belvedere Vodka, the spirit synonymous with luxury vodka. Belvedere is the product of 600 years of high-end Polish vodka-making tradition, and is crafted in a distillery that was first
The Espresso Martini has always been the pick-me-up with style
LEARN MORE ABOUT BELVEDERE AT BELVEDEREVODKA.COM
established in 1910 called Polmos Zyrardów, located in the heart of Poland. Every drop of the Belvedere Vodka is crafted using Polish Dankowskie Rye and blended with water from their own pristine local source. Each step of production occurs on Polish soil using locally sourced raw ingredients and no additives, in accordance with strict “Polska Vodka” regulations. The result is a taste profile that is soft with a subtle sweetness and a smooth, clean finish. That makes it the ideal choice for the Espresso Martini, especially when paired with the award-winning coffee liqueur Mr Black. Just like all-natural Belvedere Vodka, the Australian-made Mr Black exemplifies excellence, provenance and purity. So whether you’re ordering in a bar or mixing yourself a little pick-me-up at home, if you’re drinking an Espresso Martini – make it a Belvedere Espresso Martini.
Espresso Martini with Belvedere and Mr Black Want to mix your own Belvedere Espresso Martini at home? Here’s how:
Ingredients:
Method:
40ml Belvedere Vodka,
Step 1 Make your fresh espresso and then pour it into an ice-filled shaker along with 40ml of Belvedere
25ml Mr Black Cold, Press Cofee Liqueur, 1 shot fresh espresso
Vodka and 25ml of Mr Black Cold Press Cofee Liqueur. Step 2 Shake and then fine strain the liquid into a chilled Martini glass.
Step 3 To complete the look of the cocktail, garnish the drink by placing three cofee beans in the centre of the glass.
The Hotel
Rockliffe Hall, Darlington
Let of steam at this northern star The Truscott Arms returns as The Hero Of Maida with chef Henry Harris at the helm
The Pub
The Hero Of Maida, London Though rescued, renamed and relaunched, fear not: the roast remains Maida Vale’s Truscott Arms, whose Sunday roast was named the best in the 2014 British Roast Dinner Week awards, closed in 2016 after eye-watering rent hikes. The pub was rescued from the jaws of luxury flat development by Harcourt Inns, the group behind Three Cranes and The Coach, both under the direction of Henry Harris, formerly of Racine. Renamed The Hero Of Maida, it has been given a smart refurb that makes the most of the Victorian building’s expansive windows – it’s flooded with light and further brightened by giant chandeliers and lots of shiny zinc and marble. While it serves many ales and keg beers, this is less a community boozer and more a neighbourhood brasserie. Nobody is complaining – it is Maida Vale, after all.
Harris is at the helm here too, alongside head chef Steve Collins (Les Deux Salons; Bellanger). Despite being known for their French cooking, the chefs have reinstated the Sunday roast, including a seven-hour slow-roasted shoulder of lamb. The rest of the menu is dotted with Harris’ signature dishes, but changes daily, bypassing ubiquitous pub grub and focusing on seasonality. It’s here the French accent emerges – it may include coquelet with purple polenta or a grilled onglet and chips. Save room for pudding, though: Harris’ famous crème caramel, originally created for Racine, makes a welcome cameo appearance. Jennifer Bradly
O 55 Shirland Road, London W9. 020 3960 9109. theheromaidavale.co.uk
Small Bites
+ Where we’ve been eating this month...
Kerridge’s Bar & Grill
The Hind’s Head
The English Grill
Tom Kerridge presents all the flavour of The Hand And Flowers in the luxurious five-star setting of the Corinthia Hotel London.
Heston Blumenthal’s celebrated gastropub is now better than ever following last year’s interior refurb and menu makeover.
Old-school opulence, style and service with modern British dishes and South African wines.
Standout dish
Standout dish Glazed omelette lobster thermidor.
Oxtail and kidney pudding with triple-cooked chips and green beans.
Himalayan salt-aged British T-bone with Josper-grilled jumbo king prawns.
10 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2. 020 7321 3244. kerridgesbarandgrill.co.uk
High Street, Bray SL6 2AB. 01628 626151. hindsheadbray.com
88 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Standout dish
The Rubens At The Palace, 39 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1. 020 7834 6600. rubenshotel.com
According to Google, Darlington is famous for two things: 1) its popularity with Quakers in the 17th century and 2) the world’s first steam-powered passenger train journey, which began in the town in 1825, with 600 people taking the first opportunity to leave Darlington for the sunnier climes of Stockton-On-Tees. How about that for a recommendation? Have you ever heard anyone say, “Hey, how about a relaxing, get-away-from-it-all weekend in Darlington?” No, of course not. Rocklife Hall, however, may change all that. Owned by Middlesbrough FC chairman Steve Gibson, this awardwinning hotel set within 375 acres of countryside on the banks of the River Tees has become the North East’s destination resort since it opened in 2009. With three restaurants (including the Orangery, overseen by Michelin-starred chef Richard Allen), a 50,000 square foot luxury spa (with a stunning new hydrotherapy pool and a decking area that overlooks the grounds) and an 18-hole championship golf course, it ofers all the amenities of a modern country house hotel housed within a grand 18th-century red-brick mansion. Of course, it won’t be to everyone’s tastes. With 61 rooms and a selection of self-catering houses/apartments, it is certainly not a boutique or bijou experience. But for a romantic retreat, a family visit or even as a stop-of en route to Scotland, it’s outstanding. Thanks to Rocklife Hall, a relaxing, get-away-from-it-all weekend in Darlington actually starts to make a lot of sense. You heard it here first. PH O From £220 per room per night, including use of the spa. Hurworth-On-Tees, Darlington DL2 2DU. 01325 729999. rocklifehall.com
TASTE The Recipe
Roasted duck glazed with spiced honey, juniper and stewed red cabbage (serves four) by Merlin Labron-Johnson A perfect alternative to turkey, this is a lovely festive dish that needs very little preparation, with roasted potatoes and chestnuts making the ideal accompaniments
Ingredients 1 medium to large duck, giblets removed 1 large red cabbage 1 glass of red wine ½ glass of port 100ml red wine vinegar 150g dark brown sugar 90ml cider vinegar 1 pinch of allspice 120ml good-quality honey 10 juniper berries, toasted and lightly crushed Sea salt Cracked black pepper
The Club
Method
The Conduit, London
Preheat the oven to 150C. Find a casserole dish or frying pan large enough to fit the whole duck. Season the duck generously and place in the pan breast-side down. Now turn the heat to medium and colour the bird on all sides until it is browned and a good amount of the fat has rendered.
Photographs Charlie McKay Illustrations Joe McKendry
Where doing good never felt so, well, good... Groucho Marx famously summed up the inherent problem with members’ clubs – namely that he wouldn’t want to belong somewhere that would accept him as a member – but the new Conduit club has single-handedly reversed that conceit. Because not only is this well-designed and charming work/dining space a truly pleasant place to be, it is also aimed at NGO leaders, charity-sector workers and philanthropic investors. In other words, it is a social members’ club for those like-minded individuals who want sustainable social change. Spread over eight floors and covering 40,000 square feet in a central London neoclassical building, this invitation-only club has been founded by Paul van Zyl, Rowan Finnegan and Nick Hamilton and, true to their environmental ethos, features recycled materials, energy-saving fixtures and biophilic design schemes. There are work areas, a library, outdoor spaces and a speakeasy bar. Plus, the ecologically minded theme continues in the kitchen, where The Conduit’s executive chef, Gary Robinson, has developed menus that support regenerative and conscientious farming, and executive chef of its fourth-floor restaurant Merlin Labron-Johnson (the Michelin-starred cook behind Portland and Clipstone) produces modern and inspired dishes that feature ingredients grown using organic and biodynamic practices. It’s an inspired concept that will put other members’ clubs to shame. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of somewhere like that? PH O Membership from £800 per year (plus joining fee). 40 Conduit Street, London W1. 020 3912 8400. theconduit.com
Rescue the fat, as you will need it for the cabbage. Once you are happy with the colour on the duck, pop it on a roasting tray and into the oven for 70 minutes. Cut the cabbage in half or quarters and slice it as finely as you can. Warm the rendered duck fat in the casserole dish or large saucepan. Add the cabbage and sweat it over a medium heat for 15 minutes. Now add the wine, port, red wine vinegar and brown sugar, cover with a lid and leave to braise gently until the duck is ready. Check it from time to time and give it a stir. For the glaze, put the cider vinegar, allspice and honey in a pan and boil together until it is reduced by one third. Leave to cool. After the duck has cooked for 70 minutes, remove it from the oven. Turn the oven up to 200C. Brush the duck with the honey glaze and sprinkle with the toasted junipers, sea salt and cracked black pepper.
From top: The Conduit’s glazed roast duck (see recipe right); executive chef Merlin Labron-Johnson; and the fourth-floor restaurant and bar
Return the duck to the oven for 5 minutes, then remove it again and leave to rest for 20 minutes. To serve, carve the duck and divide between four warm plates. Save any juices from the bird and put into a sauce jug. Remove the lid from the cabbage and add a little sea salt to taste. Place the pot in the middle of the table with the roasting juices. G JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO .UK 89
The gift that wise men give Forget gold, frankincense and myrrh. This year Creed Aventus and Aventus For Her make the ultimate power couple Story by Kevin Perry Photograph by Matthew Beedle
I
t’s that time of the year already. Christmas is coming and this year your true love won’t settle for any old partridge in a pear tree. That means you’ve got two lists to make: the one of things you’re hoping that kindly old Father Christmas will bring you, and another of gifts to buy for your significant other. Now, if you’re a gentleman of discernment, you’ll already have Creed Aventus at the top of your list. Adding Aventus For Her to the other list is the obvious next move. Give that person what they really want this Christmas. Aventus, of course, is a classic fragrance that you’re no doubt already familiar with. A scent that feels modern without compromising its timeless qualities, it’s the attention grabbing choice for men who want a big bold scent. It boasts hints of juicy blackcurrant, expertly blended with sensual bergamot from Italy, while Caville Blanc apples mix with pineapple. It’s the sort of fragrance that’s sure to get people talking at the Christmas party. It’s so good, in fact, that it would be rude to keep it all to yourself. Aventus For Her provides the irresistible counterpart to Aventus. Top notes of Egyptian green apple mingle with pink berries, while Indonesian patchouli mixes with Italian bergamot. That multicultural blend is brought out by middle notes of Bulgarian and Turkish roses, Indian sandalwood, styrax and musk. It is at once powerful and feminine making it the perfect gift for that unstoppable woman in your life who embodies inner strength and radiance. So this Christmas, whatever else you’re hoping to find under the tree, make sure you have Aventus For Her wrapped up alongside your own Aventus. At least this way nobody will have to steal yours.
Aventus is the fragrance of choice for men who want a big, bold scent
CREED AVENTUS COMES IN FOUR SIZES AND IS AVAILABLE NOW AT CREEDFRAGRANCES.CO.UK
G Partnership
Creed Aventus for Her, 75ml, £240. Creed Aventus, 100ml, £250. Both by Creed. creedfragrances.co.uk
THE
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL I N T E RV I E W
Meet boxing’s ‘Silver-Spoon Kid’. Brought up around the toughest heels in sport and business by a man whose life lessons were given on the canvas, he’s now one of prizeighting’s biggest – read, loudest – promoters. The father’s domain was snooker and darts. But for the son, who took Anthony Joshua from promising amateur to an unbeaten record and record pay-per-views, the billion-dollar deals are being won in the ring Charlie Gray
I was half hoping to avoid Barry Hearn when I turned up at the Matchroom Sport HQ in Essex to interview his son, Eddie. But when I saw Hearn Junior’s Rolls-Royce with personal numberplates alongside an even bigger Bentley I guessed Hearn Senior was there. The political argument broke out the second I was through the door. By his own admission the older Hearn, a Thatcher fanboy and hard-core Brexiteer, is “to the right of Ghenghis Khan”. Eddie waited patiently, checking his phone, as our dialogue of the deaf erupted – not the first time. I tried to tell Barry how his business would be hit by Brexit. He countered with Jeremy Corbyn wanting to tax him at 90 per cent. Apparently. I guessed from his son’s roll of the eyes that he might not be quite so far along on the Ghenghis scale. The elder Hearn conceived of sports empire Matchroom in the mid-Seventies, when the then-chartered accountant became chairman of a British chain of snooker clubs and, in 1978, began managing snooker prodigy Steve Davis. As the game exploded in popularity, it allowed him to develop a portfolio of sporting interests that extended to boxing, pool, darts, golf and even fishing. Eddie joined his father in 2000 and has been at the forefront of boxing’s resurgence, promoting some of the biggest fights in Britain and overseeing the rise of Anthony Joshua from Olympian to world heavyweight champion. It was good-natured conversation all round: politics, sport, father-son relationships. Father, 70, calls the son “the silver-spoon kid”. Son, 39, tells Dad he let himself down in a recent radio 92 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
interview in which he had a very public spat with fellow promoter Frank Warren. Father asks interviewer why the son, not him, is getting the GQ treatment. “You had the cover of Snooker Scene once, Dad. That’s your level.” It’s hard not to warm to both of them, despite some of Barry’s views, and harder still not to admire what they have done to a succession of sports: snooker and darts (Barry’s empire) and expanding into others, such as gymnastics. Boxing is now very much Eddie’s domain and he also has his eye on rugby league. With Joshua on the books and a $1 billion deal to stage fights in the US, it’s fair to say they have both made a success of what they do. But there are more plans for the future. And the competition between them, I learn, is real. It’s what drives the son – probably as his father intends. >>
Grooming Pete Burkill at S Management Photography assistant Phil Banks
Photograph by
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
Eddie Hearn shot for British GQ, Brentwood, Essex, 1 October
‘Anthony Joshua didn’t want to be world champion. He wanted something to hope for’
AC: You’ve got your personalised
Rolls-Royce outside, smart clothes, smart watch... How much do you like money? EH: I think for a silver-spoon kid I’m a hustler for a pound note. We’ve always been motivated by money. Doesn’t matter if the target is 10,000 or 20,000 or 100,000. It’s not really about the money, but having a target and winning. AC: If you didn’t have a Roller would you think you were a failure? EH: No. I’ve not really been obsessed with materialistic things, but I’m approaching 40. I’ve done all right, grafted hard, so to buy the odd nice thing... AC: Your father sent you to a private school, so how come you’ve got the same accent? EH: I had my early years following him around the world, as it was the only time I could spend time with him. He’s always taken the piss out of me for being a silver-spoon kid. But he’s the only one. AC: Tyson Fury did. EH: Yeah, but I’ve got a bit more respect for the old man than [for] Tyson Fury. He’s instilled the working-class mentality in me. He’s off a council estate in Dagenham. He was petrified of me being that horrible spoilt kid with no working-class mentality, didn’t wanna work, didn’t wanna graft. And my work ethic is the same as his. AC: What’s this about him having a fight with you when you were 16? Was it a proper fight? EH: Yeah. Well, with gloves. I grew up in the gyms. I’d finish school, go to Romford, sit in the gym, waiting for him to finish work, go to all his shows, and I always felt that I could fight a bit, so I said, “I think I could.” And he said, “Son, you’re a silver-spoon kid. You can’t fight! These kids would take your head off.” So I went to Billericay Boxing Club. When I was getting introduced in the ring they said, “From Billericay, Eddie Hills!” I was gutted they got my name wrong. In the next fight they did it again. I went to my dad and he said, “I couldn’t let them know that you’re my son. You’d get a pasting!” But he always said to me, “When you get to 18, I’m going to teach you about life.” I got to 16 and I was about 6’2” and 13 or 14 stone. He said, “I think now is the time. We won’t wait until you’re 18.” We did three minute rounds and he came out like a lunatic. I just remember keeping my guard up and looking at his face. He really wanted it. AC: Did he ever hit you outside of that? EH: No, no. He’d give me a good clipping. He was big on discipline. He had a bad temper back in the day, because he was working in boxing, the worst business in 94 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
the world to work in. It’s a very, very, very hard world. AC: You seem passive compared to him. EH: He’s not got a temper any more. He’s the best person in the world to go to with a problem, because he’s come through the peaks and troughs of a company that’s had its ups and downs. AC: Do you see him as your boss? EH: Probably. I respect him in that way, as a father and a boss. AC: What is the division of labour now? EH: I do boxing. He does darts, snooker. We’ve got different multi-sport partnerships – gymnastics, golf, table tennis, pool – but his main focus is the darts and the snooker. He sits at the top and delegates. AC: Are there any sports you two wouldn’t get involved in? EH: He always says, “No passion, no point.” So he gets involved in sports... AC: Do you like gymnastics? EH: No, but he does. He thinks it’s great.
‘McGregor vs Mayweather was genius, but it was a con job’ Me, not so much. It’s the same with fishing. He is mad for fishing. For me, not at all. AC: So what sports would both of you just not touch? EH: Esports is a good example. But we’re talking on esports and we’re quite close to it. It’s a new world, even for me. In boxing I’m seen as the innovator. In esports I’m an old git. And it fascinates me that we live in a world where 17,000 or 18,000 people will buy tickets to watch people playing a computer game. You can’t ignore it. AC: You are going to get into that? EH: We’re looking at it. We’ve changed the face of many sports. AC: Darts is the biggest, isn’t it? EH: Huge. Boxing has always been a great sport. Darts is the one where if you’d have said ten years ago it would be the secondhighest-rated sport on Sky, selling 10,000 tickets a week... With the boxing, we’ve just launched our American project and they’re saying to me, “How do you do it in the UK?” The atmosphere is just not the same in
America. I think the British have a much stronger passion for their own [fighters]. America is such a vast country, so you could get a guy from Atlanta fighting in LA – how much do they care about that bloke? Doesn’t matter to a Brit if he’s from Liverpool or London. He’s one of us. We’ve made boxing sexy again. Whether that’s promotion from me or the old-school promoters, who are 70, and maybe the British public don’t want to listen to them any more... AC: “Shut up, Dad!” EH: “Shut up, Dad.” I say it to him all the time, especially when he went on the BBC the other day. I said, “Leave it!” AC: Great radio, though. What about snooker? There don’t seem to be any big characters. EH: No. And that’s the problem. I think when you go back to AJ, he’s probably one of the first guys in boxing where I pick my daughter up from school and her friends say, “I watched Anthony Joshua last night.” That’s the difference. AC: And Tyson Fury’s the bad guy, in a kind of caricature kind of way. EH: In the drama of boxing he’s the bad guy. He’s actually not a bad guy. But he chooses to sell himself in a way where he will be a bit outrageous. He’ll say some controversial stuff. You’ll never get Joshua playing up to the camera. When Joshua went to the gym he didn’t say, “I want to be the next heavyweight world champion.” He said, “I want something to hope for.” AC: Do you think if people didn’t drink they’d enjoy watching boxing as much? EH: Probably not. There’s no point in papering over it. It’s part of their enjoyment. Some people live a boring, depressing life; they like to go out and enjoy themselves and have fun. If that means going to the boxing, having a few pints, dressing up, having a dance and getting a smile on their face, we’re all winning. AC: I want to ask you about rugby league. Is that happening? EH: We’re talking. It all started on social media. Someone said, “Why don’t you do rugby league?” I said it was on its knees. Next thing, Ralph Rimmer called me, chief executive of the Rugby Football League. Next thing, we’re at the cup final. But it’s the same thing we talked about earlier in snooker. Tell me the stars in rugby league. I couldn’t tell you one rugby league player. You tune in to watch a star, but with the wage cap you’re not giving clubs a chance to achieve. Our players are going to Australia. AC: What about UFC and MMA? EH: Big admirer of the brand, not of the actual sport. The McGregor/Mayweather
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL
fight was one of the greatest hit-and-runs in terms of a cash grab. It was genius, but disgusting for the sport of boxing. Anyone in the sport of boxing knew what it was, knew that Floyd Mayweather held him up for eight or nine rounds. AC: You think he could have put him down in round one? EH: It’s like Mayweather going into a cage with McGregor; he would get absolutely eaten alive by McGregor. I was there. I was thinking, “I can’t believe what I’m watching here.” But I’m looking around at the media tours, the pay-per-view numbers, and thinking this is absolutely genius. And McGregor is absolutely brilliant. Talk about characters in sport. Love him or hate him, he’s a complete genius. AC: Are you saying that there was an element of a con in it? EH: Yeah. I think it was a con job. He was never going to win. I think the world knew that, but everyone involved knew it was going to break pay-per-view records. It was the fascination of the bizarre. In all sports, but particularly boxing, circus sells. But you have to find the line between the circus and what’s going to be good for the sport. Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather had zero interest in the good of the sport. AC: Mayweather as well? EH: Yeah. He’s done in the sport of boxing... AC: Would you say it was boxing? EH: It was boxing because they were in a four-corner ring, but it was a mismatch, a farce. AC: Is Ali the best trash talker ever? EH: Without a doubt. AC: So who’s the second best? EH: Deontay Wilder is very good. Tyson Fury’s a very good trash talker and hype man. AJ looks at that and cringes. If someone put his nut on him it could go off there and then. AJ don’t mess about. My fear is you would get a full-blown brawl at a press conference and that’s not what he wants for the sport. Joshua feels the responsibility on his shoulders. I’m sure there are times he’s sat in a press conference and looked at a fighter and thought, “I’ll rip your head off.” But he knows there are kids watching, that he is that guy that carries the sport on his shoulders. AC: My son Calum, who is a big boxing fan, says the only question I’ve got to ask is “Why is AJ bottling Wilder and Fury?” EH: Well, he’s definitely not bottling Tyson Fury. It’s a game and a negotiation. They’re the two biggest stars in the division, Joshua and Wilder. Fury is great, [but] he’s not on the level. He beat Klitschko, so he
deserves a lot of credit, but he’s awfully boring to watch. AC: Because he’s so defensive? EH: He doesn’t really want to fight. He’s a non-puncher. Wilder against Joshua is the biggest fight in the sport. So the problem is, in terms of commercial draws, Joshua is up here and Wilder is down here. Wilder is on about $3 million a fight. That’s his average purse. He sells 5,000 or 6,000 tickets for a fight, whereas Joshua is on ten times the money. You have to get the deal right. AC: Wilder and Fury are going to fight? EH: Supposedly. AC: It’s not confirmed yet? EH: It is, yeah, but Fury has got a 50/50 pull-out ratio on big fights. If they get in the ring, Fury, because he’s the challenger, will have a rematch clause if he wins. So if he wins he’ll have to fight him again, which scuppers us a little bit. AC: So you want Wilder to win? EH: Well, as a Brit I want Fury to win,
‘My dad said, “Son, you can’t fight! These kids would take your head off”’ but it doesn’t help us get that undisputed fight. So in an ideal world, for Joshua’s career, Wilder would win and we fight in April for the undisputed championship. AC: And if Wilder beats Fury in a rematch? EH: We have to wait till another time, so it could be the end of next year. Joshua wants it. People don’t understand about fighters. They aren’t scared to fight fighters. But the deal’s got to be right and that’s our job. AC: How big would Wilder vs Joshua be in terms of money? EH: Absolutely huge. An old-school promoter – my old man – would say, “That fight’s going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.” But the new school is saying, “Let’s make it now.” Look at Mayweather/Pacquiao. They [usually] box for $30m or $40m each. They ended up getting $250m and $180m for that fight. But we can’t wait too long, because the fans will lose patience. And they pay the wages.
AC: How much does Joshua fight for? EH: Tens of millions. He’s a commercial
freak. Walk down Fifth Avenue, he’s got big Under Armour billboards. He’s in Lucozade campaigns. He has a commercial team that he’s built – very bright guy, unbelievably commercially savvy, a dream to work with. As a fighter, he’s so exciting. He speaks so well. He’s intelligent. He’s disciplined. He’s got the perfect story – kid in trouble, looked like going down the wrong way, found boxing, saved his life, became world heavyweight champion – and we’re very lucky to have him. AC: Wilder said you’re “just another white man milking a black man”. EH: I know. And I said, “Well, you need me to do some milking of you. You’re making $3m a fight. You’re the world heavyweight champion and in America nobody has heard of you.” He is a character. He’s a dangerous fighter. He’s exciting, speaks well, looks the part. He should be a superstar across the US. AC: Why is he not? EH: Because he ain’t got a promoter. He’s got three different managers who don’t want to be promoters. You need the mouthpiece. AC: In America is Mayweather the only household name? EH: Pretty much. Pacquiao, because they had that rivalry, De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield. Don King had many, many bad points [King has been charged with killing two people, for one of which he was convicted], but he was a great promoter. If he had a show in town, you knew it was in town, because he was a loudmouth who would go around the whole town, sometimes with a megaphone, screaming and shouting from the rooftops. And you need someone working for you 24/7. AC: You mentioned Tyson Fury has quite a high pull-out rate. Do you think boxing takes mental health seriously enough? EH: I think it’s starting to. A lot of sports are starting to realise that when an athlete leaves there is an immense void in their life and a lot of them struggle. I think the sport is starting to come to terms with that side. AC: When you see what happened to Ali, for example, and plenty of others, as your dad was saying, when Joshua lands a punch, bone on bone, you hear the crunch... EH: You can’t paper over it. It is a brutal, brutal sport. And we have a responsibility – promoters, managers, trainers – to act in the best interest of fighters, particularly when a fighter is at the end of their career, to make sure when they do leave the sport they’re OK. We’re working now with the [British Boxing] Board Of Control and >> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 95
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ALASTAIR CAMPBELL
>> charities to try to provide some kind of support for fighters who leave the sport. And I think the awareness of mental health is changing. I’m probably guilty of the wrong mentality five, ten years ago. “You’ve got depression? You roll your sleeves up and work harder.” That’s what my old man would say. But people are understanding it a lot more. It’s not unusual for someone today to step out and say, “I’m struggling.” AC: Fury said you are a “daddy’s boy, bitter little spoiled punk”. EH: Probably fair. I said he’s probably the most unentertaining heavyweight world champion in the history of the sport. So that was his comment on that. AC: Why do the fans boo you? EH: I don’t know. People always tell me it’s a pantomime. Every time my dad gets on the stage at the end of the darts they boo him. And he’s always told me, “That’s a great sign. You don’t want to be getting cheered.” AC: But you are giving them what they want. EH: Yeah, but I’m a bit of a loudmouth, a bit of a Jack The Lad. AC: Would you boo yourself? EH: I would, 100 per cent. AC: Why do you do it then? EH: I don’t get booed and go home at night worrying, but my mum, it really upsets her. “Why do they boo you so much? Do they not know how hard they work?” I say, “Yeah, don’t worry about it. It’s a pantomime!” But I never get booed and leave and go, “I wish I got cheered.” AC: Do you care about what they think? EH: It sounds cheesy, but when I put on a great show I’m so happy. I don’t care about the booing, but I like acknowledgement for what we do for the sport. So when people say to me, “Can I just say, what you’ve done for the sport is unbelievable?” and then I say, “Thank you,” and I turn around and they go, “Prick.” But it means a lot to me. AC: The “Prick” bit? EH: The bit where when I’m done, and it might be three years, it might be 30 years in boxing, but my legacy can only be making an impact on the sport. And, actually, probably trying to outperform my old man. AC: Revenge for the 16-year-old’s fight? EH: Yeah. But that’s how I can be measured. AC: Tell me about this streaming thing in America. How big is that? EH: Massive. We’ve signed a $1bn deal with DAZN, a massive company owned by a guy called Len Blavatnik, the Netflix of sport. They launched in Japan, Italy, Germany, Canada. All sports. In Italy, they own Serie A rights. [Cristiano] Ronaldo is their
global ambassador. They came to us and said, “We’re launching in America and we believe that boxing is a great opportunity. We’d like you to create 16 events a year across America, with the biggest budget in the sport.” I tried to hide my keenness. We start our first show in Chicago next week [6 October]. It’s a massive job, because now we’ve got 24 events here and 16 over there. AC: How many fighters does it involve? EH: We’ve probably signed 20 fighters since being in America. We’ve got 30 fighters here. But the plan really is to establish Matchroom as a global brand, which creates events in the UK, America and coming up in Italy, Japan, China. AC: What sort of numbers will you get? EH: Five or six thousand live. AC: And on DAZN? EH: Couple of hundred thousand, because they’ve just launched. AC: So quite small? EH: Yeah, quite small. It’s a streaming service
‘My legacy will probably be trying to outperform my old man’ with a monthly subscription. They feel that your cable subscription, which might be $240 a month in America, should become fragmented. So get rid of your cable and get Netflix and DAZN and Amazon Prime and you’ll pay a tenth of what you will for your existing cable product. And that’s what they’re banking on, that the future is on stream. And you only have to look at our children to know that they’re right. AC: In the more traditional Olympic sports, is there a culture that resists you? EH: Oh, very much so. Gymnastics! When we moved in we could see the red-blazer group looking at it and saying, “We’re not sure about you.” Darts was the same. Snooker as well. We don’t do things the traditional way. AC: How worried are you about organised crime in boxing. Is that still a problem? EH: No. We don’t see it. I think that’s a very old-school mentality. Boxing is not dodgy at all. It’s more regulated than ever.
The bigger problem now is doping and performance-enhancing drugs. There might be testing on fight night, which is the biggest waste of time going. The idea of boxing is to hurt your opponent, to knock him out. A fighter is on performanceenhancing drugs to get stronger, to get faster, to hit harder. Cheating through performance-enhancing drugs in sprinting is one thing, but doing it in boxing is a whole other level. AC: Why? EH: Because you’ve got an unlawful physical advantage. You should be imprisoned for cheating in boxing if you’re on performance-enhancing drugs. We’re trying to get it out of the sport and, actually, now a lot of fighters are failing tests because there’s a much wider testing problem. AC: What are the drugs? EH: Anything, any kind of steroids, any kind of weight-cutting drug, anything that increases oxygen flow to the body, to be able to train harder, to make you stronger than someone who is not. AC: How widespread is it? EH: It’s a problem, but it’s solvable and it’s being dealt with. It just comes down to costing. A big fight, it costs £40,000 to test both fighters, continuously, through the camp, probably twice a week for ten or 12 weeks. It’s a lot of money. On the smaller shows, how can a promoter pay that sort of money when the show might be losing £10,000 or £20,000? AC: Is it happening more at the lower levels of the sport? EH: Probably not. It’s access to the drugs, access to the knowledge of what they can do. It rarely comes from the fighter, by the way. Like in athletics. I remember I used to hang out with Dwain Chambers growing up. Lovely guy. When he got done for doping I couldn’t believe it. I thought they’d got it wrong. And it’s because he went somewhere, went to camp, all of a sudden he’s taken these and they don’t know any different. It’s something we’ve got to get on top of. G
More from G For these related
stories visit GQ.co.uk /magazine Olly Alexander (Alastair Campbell, December 2018) Matt Hancock (Alastair Campbell, November 2018) Caitlin Moran (Alastair Campbell, August 2018) TO WATCH THIS INTERVIEW AND OTHERS BY ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, VISIT YOUTUBE.COM/BRITISHGQ JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 97
T H E
O F F I C I A L
L I S T
Plus! Ten stylish couples who always look better together
In association with
The
PANEL
You would be forgiven for believing that being well dressed is a preordained attribute: like being intelligent, having a nose for fragrance or possessing a superlative palate. Should not an awareness and appreciation of style be carved onto the double helix of our character well before we come bawling into the world? The reality, however, is that style is learned and, in fact, entirely subjective. It’s a point we learned the hard way in the process of choosing the 50 Best-Dressed Men In The World. For some members of our esteemed panel – which this year includes Giorgio Armani, Donatella Versace and Kim Jones, to name a few – the ability to wear clothes that fit, in muted shades of navy and grey, was the ultimate definition of style. For others, a palpable sense of bravery and boldness combined with an ability to team outlandish hues with garish patterns was the epitome of being well dressed. For those in the more conservative quarters of the GQ office, Daniel Craig and Richard Madden – this month’s elegant cover star – were natural frontrunners in this list. For those with more outlandish tastes, the obvious winners were Lil Pump and Post Malone. But what is clear from this year’s list is that the world’s men are dressing more brightly and brilliantly than ever before. From the effortless tailored looks pulled off perfectly by this year’s No3, Timothée Chalamet, to the Seventies-inspired brilliance of The GQ Best-Dressed Man 2019 (read on, no more spoilers here...), we are living in an age when men are spending more than they ever have on clothes. And it shows. Dylan Jones Editor-In-Chief
Haider Ackermann Giorgio Armani Gary Armstrong Lisa Armstrong Jason Basmajian Charlie Casely-Hayford Oliver Cheshire Ben Cobb Brunello Cucinelli Andrew Davis Luke Day Domenico Dolce Nick Foulkes Stefano Gabbana David Gandy Stefano Gaudioso Tramonte Patrick Grant Jack Guinness Jodie Harsh Giles Hattersley Jonathan Heaf Paul Henderson Richard James Elgar Johnson
Dylan Jones Kim Jones Zak Maoui Simone Marchetti Daniel Marks Stuart McGurk Angelo Mitakos Sarah Mower Dermot O’Leary Tony Parsons Bill Prince Julie Ragolia Chris Robshaw Carine Roitfeld Eric Rutherford Paul Solomons Sir Paul Smith Raven Smith Oliver Spencer Tom Stubbs Eric Underwood Teo van den Broeke Donatella Versace Keith Waterfield
Editor-In-Chief Dylan Jones Editor Teo van den Broeke Managing Editor George Chesterton Associate Editors Zak Maoui; Angelo Mitakos Writer Nick Carvell Creative Director Paul Solomons Art Director Keith Waterfield Chief Sub-Editor Aaron Callow Photographic Director Robin Key Photographic Editor Anna Akopyan Publishing Director Nick Sargent © Conde Nast Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is strictly prohibited. Printed in the UK by Wyndeham Group. Colour origination by williamsleatag.
In association with 102 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
GQ BEST-DRESSED
Hu Bing Model and actor (LAST YEAR No48) In his native China, Hu Bing is one of the most successful actors and male models, with a career spanning 20 years and moviestar levels of followers across his social media accounts. Here in the UK, you might recognise him from the front rows at London Fashion Week Men’s as the show’s first ever international ambassador. Dylan Jones, Editor-In-Chief, GQ: “Hu Bing is China’s secret style weapon, a man who is never underdressed. He is a genuine menswear icon and has become a quintessential part of LFWM.”
Prince William Royal (RE-ENTRY)
49 Edward Sexton
Photographs Getty Images
Tailor and designer (NEW ENTRY)
Edward Sexton has dressed everyone from Seventies superstars (Sir Elton John, Sir Mick Jagger, John Lennon) to Harry Styles and, over five decades, has weathered every antisuit trend to become Britain’s tailoring titan. Ben Cobb, editor-in-chief, Another Man: “One of the last true masters of tailoring, Edward is the best advert for his own craftsmanship. Fusing classic style and timeless glamour, he is the epitome of sharp sophistication.”
With a schedule of events that’s expanding as rapidly as his family, the Duke Of Cambridge is doing his duty by showing that dads can still turn it out. While his love of a navy-blue suit is well known, we enjoy his dressed-down moments, such as Wimbledon earlier this year, where he went of-piste and wore superlative tailored separates: navy trousers and tie, a max-textured light-blue jacket, sky-coloured shirt and squared-of shades. Smart-casual done right. Oliver Spencer, designer: “William always looks impeccable yet totally accessible. This is a real trick and very difficult to do – to be seen and not heard.”
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 103
46 Héctor Bellerín Sportsman (NEW ENTRY) One of the first footballers to make an appearance on the front row since David Beckham, Arsenal’s right back is a man who takes fashion seriously. Rather than go for flashy materials and eye-gouging branding like many in the sport, the Spaniard chooses on-trend pieces from Balenciaga, Of-White, Fear Of God, Palm Angels and Loewe. Elgar Johnson, Deputy Editor, GQ Style: “Bellerín is the perfect role model for the modern-day footballer. He has made it OK to have a creative interest in fashion of the pitch and still run a player ragged on it.”
Blondey
McCOY
104 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
“The man invented undone sartorial elegance and I stole the billowing-scarf-under-tailoring idea right out from under him.” Tom Stubbs, stylist and writer
Photographs Getty Images; Luke Hodges; Shutterstock/Rex; Sipa USA; Splash News
The archetypal gen-Z slasher, Blondey McCoy started off in streetwear designing his own label, Thames, and collaborating with Fred Perry and Palace Skateboards before hitting the collective fashion consciousness as the poster boy for Christopher Bailey’s penultimate Burberry collection (AW17). What we appreciate about McCoy is his uncanny ability to bring fashion to every aspect of his life: a Palace Skateboards dressing gown at home, a Burberry tartan scarf at his local greasy spoon, a pair of floral trousers for hanging out with his gran. Gary Armstrong, Senior Fashion Editor, GQ Style: “McCoy is the ultimate leader of his generation, straddling the worlds of art, skate and fashion with a refreshing do-it-yourself attitude. His blend of sportswear and it-brand streetwear captures the attention of hype-savvy tastemakers.”
The stylist behind Jude Law and The Rolling Stones doesn’t just arrange excellent wardrobes, he wears one too. At over 6” tall with a rakish frame, Gilchrist’s vibe is one that, while precisely tailored, always feels louche and relaxed. We’re talking sharpshouldered suits over fuzzy knits, wide-pleated trousers with a V-neck cashmere sweater tucked in and slim, unlined DB blazers cut from light fabrics. He’s also the undisputed master of the summer scarf.
GILCHRIST
(LAST YEAR No23)
Stylist (NEW ENTRY)
45 WILLIAM
Artist, designer, model and skateboarder
GQ BEST-DRESSED
43 Antoni Porowski Chef, actor and TV personality (NEW ENTRY) While it’s tough to choose the best dressed of the Queer Eye bunch, Antoni Porowski is our pick. Not only is his leather jacket game second to none, but anyone who can pull of a Balmain matador suit has it sussed. Eric Rutherford, model: “Antoni has been splendid in his style, with choices that perfectly fit his charisma and Prince Charming looks. He and his stylist, Matt Bidgoli, have embraced fluidity and fun in their sartorial expression both on and of the show.”
44TEMPAH Tinie
Musician (LAST YEAR NO19)
Tinie Tempah started the year strong, in a blaze of pink: a raspberry-sorbet rollneck at a Paul Smith launch followed by a bold rose shearling jacket at the Burberry show. These were the precursors to a year of colour for Britain’s biggest rapper. On the catwalk, he wore a floral and gold-lamé embroidered suit during June’s Dolce & Gabbana show and, the very next day, an equally eye-popping red jacquard DB at the Cartier Queen’s Cup polo final.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, designers: “We like Tinie’s style, his personality and his own way of wearing our pieces. He isn’t afraid to take a risk when it comes to fashion, just like us.”
42 Stefano Pilati Designer (LAST YEAR No46)
Stefano Pilati has been keeping relatively quiet since he left Ermenegildo Zegna in 2016. But after almost a year of eschewing public events, he turned up at Kim Jones’ first Dior show in Paris in an outfit so good it made us forgive his extended absence. Welcome back, Stefano. Nick Foulkes, Luxury Editor, GQ: “Pilati seems to treat designing clothes as if it was a manifesto for a new artistic movement.” JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 105
4O
Simon Porte
JACQUEMUS
Designer (NEW ENTRY)
Simon Porte Jacquemus epitomises the sexy, slouchy chic that has become the signature of French fashion right now. A mix of proportion play and subtle sex appeal, his style is dominated by relaxed trousers cropped at the ankle (allowing his sneakers to show of), oversized cosy sweats and relaxed tailoring. Parfait. Luke Day, Editor, GQ Style: “Jacquemus’ sexy, clean aesthetic and personal style has inspired his eponymous menswear line, which will influence the way men dress in 2019 and beyond.”
41 Eddie Redmayne Fans of Eddie Redmayne’s style are most likely also fans of tailoring. Over the past few years, the actor has made suiting his signature – and there were some excellent examples on show over the past 12 months. What we enjoyed most in 2018, however, was Redmayne’s commitment to casualwear – namely the embroidered track jacket he wore with jeans at Comic Con, the buttery-brown suede Western jacket, plaid shirt and denims he wore to surprise fans at the launch of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald in London and, our personal favourite, the grey cardigan layered with a white V-neck T-shirt and denim buttondown on Good Morning America. Sir Paul Smith, designer: “Eddie is a wonderful clotheshorse. He wears tailoring so well. His broad shoulders, his very British look and the characters he plays means he suits a suit perfectly.” 106 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photographs Getty Images; Frederike Helwig; Alexi Lubomirski; Press Association
Actor (LAST YEAR No38)
Actor (LAST YEAR No7) After being quite possibly the most stylish of the 74 men in Charli XCX’s “Boys” video in 2017, Riz Ahmed has kept up the good work. Not only has he experimented with grungy, Nineties bleached-blond hair, he also appeared again and again in a series of seriously good suits. Stefano Gaudioso Tramonte, style director, Corneliani: “Riz always looks well groomed, efortless and sophisticated. He looks impeccable in a tuxedo or a suit and at the same time sexy and masculine when wearing more flashy items.”
GQ BEST-DRESSED
37 Charles Jefrey Designer (NEW ENTRY) The Charles Jefrey Loverboy show is the hottest ticket at LFWM right now – both to see the clothes and the spectacle the designer stages to show them. Sarah Mower, chief critic, vogue.com: “Less a Glaswegian gang leader than a conductor who has brought a formerly unheard orchestra of LGBTQI+ voices into mainstream fashion, Jefrey’s a charmer whose ever-changing looks we all anticipate with relish. He has his antecedents, obviously, and that makes the Eighties elders appreciate him every bit as much as their sons, daughters and every person who identifies with whatever.”
Ben
COBB Editor-in-chief, Another Man (NEW ENTRY)
A regular on street-style blogs and one of Fashion Week’s most photographed men, Ben Cobb was doing a sleazy take on Seventies style before it hit the mainstream. Masculine, sleek and enviably well executed, his low-buttoned shirts, cascading brown hair, moustache and kick-flared, wide-lapelled suits all nod to the disco decade, but, crucially, never feel like a parody of it. Charlie Casely-Hayford, designer: “For a man who determines what the style cognoscenti wear from season to season, Ben Cobb has honed a very specific look and doesn’t waiver from it. It evokes sex, sophistication and swagger. What more do you want from your wardrobe?”
Actor (RE-ENTRY) Yes, he’s taken a leaf out of Bond’s book when it comes to suiting, but he wears styles and colours 007 would never dream of (see this year’s Night Of Opportunity Gala for one of our favourite looks). That said, we also dig when he goes full dad-dressing normcore. Brunello Cucinelli, designer: “Craig’s life story, choices and successes are a living testimony to the fact that ethics and determination, like two fond sisters, help one another out and enable people to scale the heights.”
Daniel
CRAIG
36 JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 107
Dressing well for work isn’t only about knowing how to put on a beautiful bespoke suit. Herewith, the most brilliantly dressed men in business. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho...
HACKETT As you might expect from the founder of one of Britain’s most notable tailoring brands, Hackett is king of the chalk-stripe wool suit (and master of the tie dimple).
9 Ayman Hariri The Saudi billionaire behind social media platform Vero has the kind of style more men in power should share.
8 Gerry McGovern Another man known for his accessories. His suits are stellar but it’s his eyepopping pocket squares we’re rewarding him for.
Dumi Oburota 5 Thomas Kochs London’s foremost hotelier is also the hospitality world’s foremost sporter of superbly elegant tailoring.
4 Marco Bizzarri If the president and CEO of Gucci can’t be a little more outlandish with his wardrobe (check suits and thick-rimmed glasses) then who the hell can?
108 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
3 José Neves As the man in charge of Farfetch, Neves sits at the crosshairs of high fashion and high finance – as does his wardrobe.
Tinie Tempah’s right-hand man wears suits on the clock and streetwear of the clock, but he wears trainers with both, whatever the occasion.
7 Nick Jones While the dress code at Soho House is famously tie-free, we loved the knitted blue neckwear he wore to the royal wedding.
6 Neil Prosser The Flannels founder is proof that sometimes all a man needs to stand out in a sea of business suits is a cool, colourful scarf.
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx Photographs Alamy; Getty Images; Rex/Shutterstock
Jeremy
GQ BEST-DRESSED
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
1 One of the youngest CEOs in the world (he’s 26) and the best dressed of the whole damn lot. Wears sneakers in the boardroom like a boss. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 109
34 David Gandy Model (RE-ENTRY)
33 John Cho Actor (NEW ENTRY)
Marc Goehring Fashion director, Hybrid 032C (NEW ENTRY) Hired at the start of this year as the fashion director of much-hyped German magazine and fashion brand Hybrid 032C, Marc Goehring gained not only a new job but also an instant extra layer of cool. Raven Smith, journalist: “With a neck tattoo of ‘style’ in Russian, Goehring looks perpetually en route to give a Ted talk on the importance of hi-vis utilitywear.” 110 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
This year, thanks to his role in Searching, John Cho became the first Asian-American actor in history to headline a Hollywood thriller. This also led to us seeing way more of the actor’s superb style on his promo rounds. Daniel Marks, fashion PR: “It takes a confident man to make the Star Trek uniform work – especially in mustard. John Cho does that and more.”
Photographs Christina Fragkou; Getty Images Set design Julia Dias
Let’s face it, Britain’s foremost male model would look good in anything – which makes the fact that he actually dresses superbly all the more satisfying. When it comes to clothing, the Gandyman can. Chris Robshaw, rugby player: “A man who looks great whether he is wearing a Speedo or an overcoat, he’s been bang-on trend for 15-plus years.”
GQ BEST-DRESSED
From left: Coat by Burberry, £1,550. burberry.com. Coat by Boss, £469. boss.com. Coat by Loro Piana, £4,505. loropiana.com
The Trend
TRENCH COATS Thanks in no small part to Riccardo Tisci’s recent reinvention of British brand Burberry, the trench coat makes a welcome comeback for the forthcoming season. Whether you opt for classic stonecoloured gabardine or are feeling more adventurous and fancy something in cashmere, here are three of the best. Photograph by Luke Kirwan JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 111
31 Chadwick Boseman Actor (NEW ENTRY) Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman wore a lot of curveball tailoring on the red carpet this year. However, he managed to top even his own sartorial greatness by being chosen by Virgil Abloh as the man to debut his new Louis Vuitton line in public.
Lil
PUMP
Oliver Spencer: “Contemporary dressing at its best. He’s pretty efortless and always looks super stylish and sharp.”
Musician (NEW ENTRY)
Fun fact: the Miami rapper’s breakout hit “Gucci Gang” is, at only two minutes and four seconds long, the shortest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 top ten for over 40 years – and yet mentions the word Gucci a rather impressive 49 times. In short, the man loves Gucci – so it will come as no surprise that his wardrobe is a riot of tiger-emblazoned jumpers and floral tracksuits, all worn with his trademark dreads in an everchanging kaleidoscope of colours. Jodie Harsh, DJ: “He’s sort of a multicoloured, pink-fur version of a real rapper, so it’s all quite camp and fun.”
30 Roger Federer Sportsman Rodge the dodge is by far the most elegant player in his sport. A dab hand at tonal dressing, whether he’s sporting a shearlingcollared bomber with an on-trend pair of cords, or a natty cricket sweater beneath a deconstructed grey suit, tennis’ No3 is our No30 for his unwavering dedication to proper, occasionappropriate dressing. Paul Henderson, Associate Editor, GQ: “The greatest male tennis player of all time is always impeccably turned out on court, so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that he carries that same efortless sense of style of it.”
112 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photographs Backgrid; Getty Images; Maciek Kobielski; Peggy Sirota; Startraks Photo
(NEW ENTRY)
GQ BEST-DRESSED Teo van den Broeke, Style And Grooming Director, GQ:
“Neat, elegant and perfectly put together, Rami Malik’s looks tend to appear experimental on the surface, but underneath they’re also surprisingly approachable.”
Haider Ackermann
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
Designer (NEW ENTRY)
Rami Malik Actor (NEW ENTRY) The king of the air tie (buttoning your formal shirt all the way up), for the past 12 months Rami Malek has been pushing the no-neckwear agenda. His crowning sartorial achievement is being selected to premiere Kris Van Assche’s new work for Berluti at the LA premiere of his movie Papillon: a beautiful, slim-cut black suit and a graiti-style shirt with, you guessed it, the buttons fastened all the way up to his neck.
Haider Ackermann’s abrupt exit from Berluti early last year was a blow to many fans of the brand. His time at the helm of the Parisbased house, although brief, was special because it allowed him to take the unique, sleek aesthetic he has cultivated in his own label to its most luxurious and covetable conclusion. What Ackermann does better than anyone else, with his own outfits and those he puts down the catwalk, is show just how sleek smart-casual can be, by using formal pieces in a dressed-down way. Instead of jeans, he’ll wear tailored trousers, tuck in his T-shirt and wear Chelsea boots instead of trainers. It’s relaxed yet polished. What’s the French for sprezzatura? It’s that. Tom Stubbs: “He’s like a swashbuckling pirate of the (South) American Seas.” JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 113
Tyler, The
CREATOR Musician (NEW ENTRY) This year, the rapper has proudly worn a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Jesus Freak”, wore a hammer and sickle-emblazoned Russian fur hat to the Grammys and dyed his hair leopard-print. As a designer himself, he also regularly wears his own Golf Wang streetwear line on stage. Oliver Cheshire, model: “I’m a big fan of Tyler’s style, which can only be described as Nineties college dropout with a hint of skater, geek chic.”
27 Shawn Mendes Musician (NEW ENTRY)
Luke
EVANS Actor (RE-ENTRY) Clearly a man who’s no stranger to the gym, Luke Evans wears clothes that best accentuate his frame. Plus, he chooses the sort of muted palette that feels incredibly luxurious. Donatella Versace, designer: “I’ve met and dressed all sorts of men in my life, but Luke exudes a charm and elegance that’s very rare and unique.” 114 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photographs Getty Images; James Mason; Van Mossevelde
Shawn Mendes has achieved a lot in his short two decades. Originally spotted on Vine, the Canadian musician has released three albums, staged three world tours and won 63 music awards. Perhaps his greatest work, however, is his service to the party shirt, which (often slipped under a black suit and worn with a pair of Chelsea boots) is now his artfully billowy unbuttoned signature. Giorgio Armani, designer: “Shawn is a genuinely talented singer capable of touching his audience’s heart. This is why it is a great pleasure to dress him. He exudes an incredibly positive energy and perfectly embodies my values of authenticity, professionalism and commitment.”
GQ BEST-DRESSED
Caleb
McLAUGHLIN Actor (NEW ENTRY) In character as Stranger Things’ Lucas Sinclair, Caleb McLaughlin is limited to a fairly conservative throwback Eighties wardrobe – so it makes sense that, out of character, the 17-year-old actor wants to dress as creatively as possible. This has resulted in some impressive experimentation with patterns and styling and, as the youngest man on our list, proof that advanced style doesn’t just come with advanced years. Eric Underwood, dancer: “Caleb has defined his own unique sense of style at an early age. When most children are following trends, he’s setting them.”
24 Jack Guinness Model (LAST YEAR No31) Good news: the man with the best beard in the business has also got the best fashion sense. What’s great about Jack Guinness is his uncanny ability to make anything he wears look like it belongs, wherever he’s wearing it. For example, a three-piece green velvet suit behind the decks (as he wore to a party in April) or a plaid blazer with gold buttons (at a Ralph Lauren event in December). Jason Basmajian, designer: “He’s a style icon in the making. I have known Jack for many years and love how he has developed his own personality and style.”
22 Zayn Malik Musician (LAST YEAR No29)
The ex-Directioner’s finest work of the past 12 months came when he arrived at the Tom Ford show in February wearing a guacamole-green knitted polo, layered over an off-white Henley and under a coordinating suede jacket worn with jeans and round-rimmed shades. Cool as a cucumber – or should that be avocado? Giles Hattersley, features director, Vogue: “Zayn is the only former boyband member in history, including all four Beatles and Justin Timberlake, who is instinctively good at fashion.” JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 115
OFFSET Musician (NEW ENTRY) Considering Atlanta hip hop/trap three-piece Migos had their first big hit with the crowd-pleasing “Versace”, it’s hardly surprising that they became as known for their style as their music. Out of the trinity, Ofset (AKA Kiari Kendrell Cephus, AKA Mr Cardi B) is our pick for best-dressed, as he can wear suits and sports gear like no other. Donatella Versace: “Omg! Ofset and Migos have a special place in my heart. He doesn’t care about rules. He’s unapologetic. He does what feels right for him. This couldn’t be more Versace!”
19 Alessandro Michele Creative director, Gucci (LAST YEAR No10)
21 Brunello Cucinelli Designer (RE-ENTRY) There’s no denying that Brunello Cucinelli is the best possible advertisement for his eponymous soft-tailored, cashmere-swaddled fashion label. Paul Solomons, Creative Director, GQ: “The king of understated, soft-shouldered luxury, Brunello Cucinelli is the ultimate figurehead for the brand he so elegantly helms. No one better wears (or makes) deconstructed suiting with such chic Latin flair. A master among us.”
116 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photographs Getty Images; Rex/Shutterstock Set design Julia Dias
Bold and boundary-pushing, the man at the helm of Gucci (with the most glorious head of hair in the business) has an ability to accessorise as no other man can. Simone Marchetti, fashion editor, La Repubblica: “The symbolic strength of Alessandro Michele’s style has two values. On the one hand, it represents a crystallised adolescence, with all the emotional fragility of those moments. On the other hand, it has the evocative power of a wunderkammer, as if it were the uniform of a serial accumulator of history and stories.”
The Trend
WESTERN BOOTS You needn’t ride rodeo to get in on this season’s Western boot trend. Defined by an aggressive stacked heel, an angular vamp and an expanded outsole, make like Alessandro Michele and team yours with some sweatpants – or, failing that, a pair of spray-on skinny black jeans. Photograph by Luke Kirwan
Clockwise from top left: Boots by Gucci, £1,160. At matchesfashion.com. Boots by Calvin Klein 205W39NYC, £1,150. calvinklein.com. Boots by Paul Smith, £575. paulsmith.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 117
The Duke and Duchess Of Sussex Thanks to the royal couple’s efortless fashion sense, the most photographed wedding of the year was also the most stylish. 118 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
GQ BEST-DRESSED
For the first time ever, we’ve decided to celebrate the brilliant pairings who are more than the sum of their parts, style-wise. Relationship goals, right here.
Sir Elton John and David Furnish
Photographs Backgrid; Getty Images; Instagram/@barackobama; Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx Splash; Startraks Photo
From Sir Elton’s Gucci-fuelled style to Furnish’s plaid-clad flourish, 2018 has been GQ’s favourite fashion-forward couple’s year.
3 John Legend and Chrissy Teigen While many celebrity couples rely on stylists, this one clearly enjoys dressing for each other more than for the paparazzi.
4 Vincent Cassel and Tina Kunakey Married only last year, these two have swiftly become the poster couple for justthe-right-side-ofedgy French cool.
5 Jay-Z and Beyoncé Because, quite frankly, if you are the most powerful celebrity pairing in the world, this is how you should be dressing.
6 Isaac Carew and Dua Lipa This model and musician duo have that sexy new-wave style down. Hotter than hell? Damn right.
Thom Browne and Andrew Bolton
7 Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander When the oicial face of Louis Vuitton marries the unoicial face of Thom Sweeney, you know you’ve got something special.
8 Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Often headto-toe in Brunello Cucinelli and Ralph Lauren respectively, these guys are redefining dad and mum style for a new generation.
9 Barack and Michelle Obama Remember when we had eight years of a really well-dressed, approachable couple representing the free world? Those were good times.
You don’t get a stronger style pedigree than one of the world’s most influential fashion designers and the man who’s in charge of the Met Gala. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 119
Cashmere bomber jacket by Corneliani, £1,640. corneliani.com. Mercerised long-sleeved T-shirt by Richard James, £95. richard-james.com. Felted wool flannel trousers by Stella McCartney, £390. stellamccartney.com. Suede Wallabee boots by Clarks Originals, £120. clarks.co.uk
G Partnership
Photographs by Styling by
Tomo Brejc
David Nolan
The UK’s hottest young actors, Harris Dickinson and Damson Idris, try on the new A-Class and Mercedes-AMG G 63 for size
B
ritain has a long history of producing the highest calibre actors and part of the exciting new generation are two young Londoners from different sides of the city: Harris Dickinson from Walthamstow in the East and Damson Idris from Peckham in the South. They’re the fresh, homegrown faces of drama and gaining international acclaim with TV and film roles that have seen them working with the finest in the business. And they can dress with the best too. We tasked these rising stars to try on the new A-Class and G-Class for size, and as you can see Mercedes-Benz shows it has that same ability to create a style to suit every vibe. >>
Damson wears flannel jacket (part of suit), £835. Mercerised long sleeved T-shirt, £95. Both by Richard James richard-james.com . Wool trousers by Paul Smith, £325. paulsmith.com Harris wears cashsilk jumper by Ermenegildo Zegna Couture, £860. zegna.co.uk. Felted wool flannel trousers by Stella McCartney, £390. stellamccartney.com
>> Dickinson, who is making a name for himself as the oil heir John Paul Getty III in the TV series Trust will soon be going full-on Hollywood as Prince Phillip in the forthcoming Maleficent 2 alongside Angelina Jolie. Here in the new A-Class, with its “Hey Mercedes” speech-activated MBUX technology, widescreen cockpit, touchscreens and augmented reality satnav, Dickinson could well be sitting in the vehicle from a science-fiction feature film or a neo-noir classic. Style is important to Dickinson, who defines his look as “quite British”. Although he likes to be casual he admits, “It is nice to be in a suit that fits well and makes you feel good” when it comes to his red-carpet moments, award ceremonies and black-tie dinners. It’s a penchant passed down by his grandfather, who always wears a two-piece and who has “effortless style”. >>
G Partnership
Oicial government fuel consumption figures in mpg (litres per 100km) for the Mercedes-Benz range: urban 14.2(19.9)-62.8(4.5), extra urban 25.9(10.9)72.4(3.9), combined 19.9(14.2)-68.9(4.1). CO2 emissions 325-108 g/km. The indicated values were determined according to the prescribed measurement method. These are the “NEDC CO2 values” according to Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). For more information on these values and how they have been calculated please see www.mercedes-benz.co.uk/WLTP. Oicial EU-regulated test data are provided for comparison purposes and actual performance will depend on driving style, road conditions, chosen optional extras and other non-technical factors.
G Partnership Twill wool coat by Stella McCartney, £1270. stellamccartney.com. Shirt by AMI, £200. amiparis.com. Trousers by Paul Smith, £325. paulsmith.com. Shoes by Canali. POR. canali.com
>> The 27-year-old Damson Idris is another of the most celebrated British actors of his generation after his breakout turn as LA drug dealer Franklin Saint in TV series Snowfall and his upcoming lead role in feature film Farming. He knows how to switch up his style according to his environment, swapping the Converse, polo shirts and drainpipe jeans of his various characters for this shoot’s classic, cleaned-lined look of overcoat and tailored trousers. “Where I am always affects how I dress” he says, although he admits that despite loving ripped jeans in LA and tracksuits in Peckham, nothing beats a sharp suit at the Oscars or the GQ Men of the Year Awards. Here, striding out beside the Mercedes-AMG G 63, Idris shows that he’s at home in immaculate tailoring – the perfect complement to the legendary G-Class. The off-roader’s beautifully reworked interior is also more than a match for the star’s contemporary style. “Mercedes” he says, “they really do make the best cars in the world.”
A$AP Olly
Alexander ROCKY
Musician (LAST YEAR No2)
At high-end brands, PRs fight over dressing A$AP Rocky. A look back at the events the rapper has attended this year reveal he’s worn Fendi, Berluti, Gucci and a whole lotta Raf Simons’ Calvin Klein 205W39NYC line. However, what’s been great to see is his transition from maximalist to minimalist. Sure, there’s still the occasional burst of colour, but we’re really digging his take on pared-down dressing, such as the black Berluti suit and shirt with brilliantly bulbous Dior Homme sneakers he wore to Rihanna’s Diamond Ball in September. Kim Jones, artistic director, Dior Homme: “I like the fact that A$AP Rocky wears what he wants, how he wants. It’s on his terms and not on anyone else’s.”
Luke Day Recently, the Sunday Times Style published an issue with the cover line “Meet Luke Day: is he the sexiest man in fashion?” While we’d never be biased on behalf of the GQ Style Editor and GQ Fashion Director, we certainly think his unique ability to pull off a handlebar moustache at the same time as a see-through lace shirt is worthy of celebration. Perhaps Day’s greatest achievement came last season at the menswear shows – or, as it’s come to be known, the summer of short shorts. Whether worn with a Louis Vuitton football jersey or a Balenciaga Hawaiian shirt, Day’s denim bum-grazers were the talk of the town in London, Paris, Milan and New York. Carine Roitfeld, editor-in-chief, CR Fashion Book: “Luke has the best legs in the business and I like the fact he shares them with the world.” 126 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photographs Backgrid; Getty Images; Shutterstock; Robert Spangle
Editor, GQ Style (LAST YEAR No26)
GQ BEST-DRESSED
THE TOP TEN WORST-DRESSED MEN IN THE WORLD It’s the list that everyone wants to read but no one wants to be on. Allow us to introduce the ten most sartorially challenged men of the past 12 months. Fingers crossed you’re not featured, because if you’re famous enough to be on this list, you’re famous enough to aford a personal stylist.
Jacob Rees-Mogg Slender Man in human form, Brexit’s plummy cheerleader is to double-breasted suits what poles are to circus tents. Get yourself a tailor who wasn’t born in 1803, man. We’re certain you can aford it.
2 Seann Walsh The most hated man on this year’s Strictly – thanks to his after-hours snog with his dance partner – Walsh should also be questioned for his taste in suits. And that’s before you get to that nose ring.
3 Donald Trump The lumpen navy suits, the Sellotaped-down tie, the “Make America Great Again” hats he’s forcing poor unwitting rappers to wear, Trump’s style is much the same as his foreign policy: unconscionable.
4 Tyson Fury A poor man’s Conor McGregor, Tyson Fury’s predilection for oversized mink gloves, chinchilla coats and lairy patterned shirts is infamous in boxing circles.
5 Rodrigo Alves The “Human Ken Doll” has spent some £500,000 on 103 cosmetic procedures, but thanks to a proliferation of bubblegum suits and shiny tracksuits, his wardrobe still needs work.
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
Justin Bieber 6 Paul Hollywood Britain’s star baker has been wearing dodgy dad jeans with untucked “going out” shirts on national television for eight years, and for that crime alone he’s made it onto our list (again).
7 Rod Liddle The columnist’s penchant for unironed shirts (worn open-necked or with his tie undone to a slovenly degree), notquite-black suits and that nicotine-soaked mop puts him in at an easy No7.
8 Jason Derulo 9 Paul Manafort The old adage Trump’s former goes that God campaign loves a trier. But chairman spent does he a love a more than “try-too-harder”? $1 million on In the case of clothes (ostrich American bombers, musician and python blazers, DJ Jason etc) over five Derulo, we’re years. His real not so sure. style crime? There are no photos of him wearing them.
The thing about Bieber is not that he’s always terribly dressed. The real issue is that there’s no consistency. One day it’s an xxxxl hoodie with holes in it, the next it’s an on-point rugby shirt and chinos. Beliebers, therefore, we are not. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 127
Ryan Gosling Actor (LAST YEAR No25) Ryan Gosling is like a pair of Levi’s 501s – always in style. What we especially enjoy, however, is that he’s a one-man rehabilitation unit for out-of-favour items (this year saw him revive polo shirts and the V-neck knitted vest).
15 Conor McGregor Sportsman (LAST YEAR No11) Conor McGregor knows he’s the rock star of the MMA cage and dresses accordingly – Gucci tracksuits, silken candy-coloured polo shirts and fat-knotted ties. Hell, he was even given a custom Versace dressing gown with his name on it. Donatella Versace: “Conor certainly doesn’t care or like rules. He doesn’t make ‘safe’ choices in his life, career or in what he wears. This is a quality I admire: the courage to be who you are without caring about people’s judgement.” 128 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
14
Vincent Cassel Actor (NEW ENTRY)
The La Haine star is potentially France’s most stylish export since Alain Delon, with a style defined by an understated Gallic ease. Whether in tailored trackpants and a crewneck sweater or a slouchy Tom Ford two-piece, he’s got low-key dressing down pat. Nick Foulkes: “Cassel has an irresistible Serge Gainsbourg quality that stops just on the right side of artistic dishevelment.”
Photographs Backgrid; Getty Images Set design Julia Dias
David Gandy, model: “Ryan has the rare charm, looks and style of Hollywood greats such as Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. He has an efortless dress sense that never looks overstyled and anything he wears looks instantly cool.”
GQ BEST-DRESSED
The Trend
BOLD BLAZERS One of the biggest tailoring movements right now is toward bold statement suiting, as championed by the likes of Gosling, Chalamet and Glover. If you’re not ready to take the plunge with a two-piece, opt for one of these super-bright blazers instead. Photograph by Luke Kirwan
From left: Blazer by Bottega Veneta, £1,595. bottegaveneta.com. Blazer by Billionaire, £1,300. billionairecouture.com. Blazer by Berluti, £2,640. berluti.com
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 129
12 Post Malone Musician (NEW ENTRY) This hip-hop star is quite possibly the only man on earth who can pull of face tattoos, plaits and a Breton shirt at the same time. Post Malone’s style is unconventional and ever-changing. Andrew Davis, stylist: “At first glance, Malone looks like a Quentin Blake illustration. Then it all goes a bit Hells Angels with the wire tats. Fashion-wise, he’s a designer’s dream. Confident in bold colours and patterns, it’s all about minimum efort for maximum efect.”
“Alexander is fearless, flamboyant and unapologetic. Bold and beautiful.”
Olly Alexander Musician (RE-ENTRY) The thing that makes GQ’s Live Act Of The Year’s style so brilliant is his fearlessness. The embodiment of gender-fluid style, the Years & Years frontman wears items designed for both men and women to create looks that are exciting, vibrant and, most importantly, authentic. On one day, that could be a feathered bustier, on another, it could be something more classic – a turtleneck and dungarees, say. 130 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
11 Matt Smith Actor (LAST YEAR No1) Over the past two years, Matt Smith has been doing the red-carpet rounds as part of his role as Prince Philip in The Crown. The result? Some sublime suiting. But now, as he prepares for his first blockbuster, Star Wars: Episode IX, we can’t wait to see him go full-on Hollywood leading man with his wardrobe. Tony Parsons, author and journalist: “Matt Smith always looks good but he never looked better than when he was sleeping with the Queen.”
Photographs Camera Press; Getty Images; Splash News
Luke Day:
GQ BEST-DRESSED
1O Skepta Musician (LAST YEAR No6) This year, Sketpa was on the front row at Fashion Week almost as much as he was performing on stage. Having become an unofficial poster boy for Burberry towards the end of Christopher Bailey’s tenure, this season he checked in at the Dior, Moschino, Fendi and Moncler menswear shows. If there’s one style move to steal from the man, it’s that you can never have enough hoodies, and when you do invest, go big and go bright. Skepta keeps his streetwear interesting by going for neon or big prints up top, kept under control by being slipped under a multi-pocketed, tactical vest and slouchy trousers (as demonstrated best at Lovebox earlier this year). Your move, Stormzy.
Teo van den Broeke:
“There are few men who look as good in a Nike tracksuit as they do in tartan Burberry suit trousers, but Skepta manages it with élan. Part intimidating, part chic and part, well, sexy, it’s no surprise he has maintained his position in the top ten.” JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 131
Jack Guinness, model:
“Styles is flying the flag for men who aren’t afraid to experiment. He shows guys that they can play with tailoring, pattern and cut.”
9
Harry Styles
Musician (LAST YEAR No4) In an age where sportswear is king, Harry Styles stands out thanks to his passion for tailoring. And we’re not talking any old tailoring, rather the boldest, most brilliantly Bowie-tastic suits around, often kitted out with retro kick-flares, shiny embroidery and all-over flower prints. Styles’ particular brand of next-gen rock star style was perhaps best demonstrated over the past year on his world tour, which, having been outfitted by his good friend Alessandro Michele, featured some superb, custom-made Gucci items, such as an all-leopard-print velvet suit for London, an extraordinary fringe and embroidered matador-style jacket for Mexico City and, perhaps best of all, a pussy-bow blouse for his gigs across North America. 132 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
8
GQ BEST-DRESSED
John Legend Musician
(NEW ENTRY)
The man, the myth, the… you get the gist. John Legend is not only the nicest man in music (at our Men Of The Year Awards 2018, Legend dedicated his Hugo Boss Most Stylish Man Award to his stylist, David Thomas), but his dress sense is always impeccable too. With a penchant for suits just on the right side of jazzy – from the velvet Boss tuxedo he wore to our aforementioned awards to the chic midnight-blue twopiece he wore to this year’s Grammys – he’s also a master of colour, sticking, as he does, to a neat, complementary palette of indigos, sages and Prussian blues.
Photographs Getty Images
Bill Prince, Deputy Editor, GQ:
“It’s not so much how Legend does it as why: he clearly loves clothes and therefore respects those who share that love.” JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 133
Dermot O’Leary, broadcaster:
“David Beckham has a keen eye for understated detail, best displayed in his work with Kent & Curwen.”
National treasure (LAST YEAR No28)
David
Beckham 134 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photographs Matthew Brookes; Getty Images Photograph
There’s a reason David Beckham has appeared on this list over two decades: he’s got the kind of style that is both experimental and relatable at the same time. In the past year, he flirted with what we’re calling “Peaky-Blinder-circaright-now” – a mix of preppy, sporty and mod (a vibe that also ran through his Kent & Curwen line) that’s seen him wear a slouchy tweed overcoat with jeans and a beanie in Paris and, in New York, a parka layered over a cosy shearling bomber and sneakers. He’s also cultivated a Scandiminimal look with all-black suit and T-shirt combinations at formal events, sometimes broken up by a camel coat.
GQ BEST-DRESSED
HRH The Prince Of Wales Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
Royal (LAST YEAR No20)
With two royal weddings in 2018 and a host of public events (including an appearance at our Men Of The Year Awards), the heir to the throne had plenty opportunity to crack out his signature Savile Row suits. The tan DB with pink shirt, patterned pocket square and shades he wore to the Sandringham Flower Show in July was a superbly summery stand-out. If you ask us, he’s already got the wardrobe necessary to become the bestdressed monarch since George IV (albeit with fewer pairs of tights, thankfully). Lisa Armstrong, head of fashion, the Telegraph:
“At 70, Charles is still cutting an elegant figure. He’s the embodiment of style trumping fashion with no embarrassing disasters in his photo albums.” JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 135
Travis
SCOTT
Musician (LAST YEAR No13)
Jodie Harsh:
“He’s almost known as much for his fashion as his raps, a poster boy for that high fashion and street-brand remix vibe.”
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx Photographs Matthew Brookes; Startraks Photo
Having collaborated with Helmut Lang and Maharishi and fronting Saint Laurent’s advertising campaign a couple of seasons back, Travis Scott’s fashion credentials are indubitable. After keeping his relationship with Kylie Jenner relatively quiet, the couple fully debuted on the 2018 Met Gala red carpet (the global style scene’s biggest event), with Scott wearing a superfuturistic Alexander Wang getup. With a penchant for oversized plaid shirts, cargo pants, diamond-studded grilles and even the occasional overall, it’s hard to deny he’s hip hop’s most influential streetwear force right now.
136 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
GQ BEST-DRESSED
Richard
MADDEN Actor (RE-ENTRY) Richard Madden has spent most of this year in superb tailoring (which makes sense if the rumours about him being ofered the Bond gig are to be believed). While the actor remained unwaveringly committed to black suits during the press rounds for Bodyguard, he hit his stride kilted up for fellow Game Of Thrones star Kit Harington’s wedding and dressed here in Versace. However, his most impressive outfit was at GQ Men Of The Year, where he arrived on the arm of Donatella Versace in a tux by, well, three guesses...
“Richard is one of those men from whom you never know what to expect. He looks as dashing in a tuxedo as he does in a fur coat. Winter is coming, ain’t it?”
Donatella Versace:
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 137
Haider Ackermann, designer:
“Timothée leaves us disarmed by his raw nobility. On the cusp of manhood, he intoxicates us with his efortless elegance.”
This summer, Call Me By Your Name became a veritable menswear moment and the movie’s press junket made star Timothée Chalamet a bona fide red-carpet hero. As great as he looks dressed down in a silk bomber or slouchy jeans, he also proves suits are a young man’s game, regularly opting for a series of slim fits in bursting colours or bold patterns, such as the floral Alexander McQueen two-piece he wore to the London premiere of Beautiful Boy (pictured).
138 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photographs BFI; Mega Agency Photograph
Actor (NEW ENTRY)
GQ BEST-DRESSED
Jeff GOLDBLUM
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
Actor (LAST YEAR No3) Last year was Jef Goldblum’s first time on this list and thanks to a year of extraordinary fashion spreads and red-carpet appearances, he’s back at the top of the pack once again. What’s best about Goldblum’s style is the serious “dgaf” overtones. And, by that, we don’t mean he doesn’t care what he wears. Rather, he wears things that a man half his age might struggle to pull of: bold printed Prada and Gucci shirts, a cream rollneck with white jeans and a suede jacket and a whole wardrobe of thick-rimmed statement spectacles. In short, he’s who we want to be when we grow up.
Jonathan Heaf, Features Director, GQ:
“What do think you’ll be wearing aged 66? Jef Goldblum’s style is a gift to all men – a visual reminder that we must all try much harder.” JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 139
GQ BEST-DRESSED
Donald
GLOVER Musician (LAST YEAR No18) Over the past year, not only has Donald Glover won plaudits for his TV show Atlanta and burst into Hollywood as Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story, but he’s also topped the US music charts as his alter ego, Childish Gambino, with “This Is America” (and broken the internet with its instantly viral video). In short, Donald Glover is a new-wave renaissance man – and his style is superbly “wavey” too, providing all the Seventies-inspired vibes a modern man needs in his wardrobe right now. While his array of cheekily unbuttoned silk shirts and soft, striped V-neck knits over the past year get honourable mention, our favourite facet of his personal style has to be his commitment to anything-butblack tuxedos – especially the regal, all-purple Gucci rig he wore to the Emmys in September. Our king.
“On screen and in person, Donald Glover wears his clothes with charisma and style.” 140 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photograph Getty Xxxxxxxxxxx Images
Kim Jones:
Pr in ce Bi ll db y ite Ed
Tony Parsons on why it’s time to drop the ‘c-bomb’ p.144 Stuart McGurk’s marvellous TV medicine p.146 Martin Samuel reveals sport’s deadly mental health crisis p.147 Charlie Burton puts the internet of things to work p.148 Concorde has been consigned to aviation history, but what is the future for supersonic travel? p.150 Matthew d’Ancona looks ahead to the most important year in British politics since 1689 p.153
The 1975 enter 2018 Following an intervention that saw the band’s lead singer, Matt Healy, go into rehab last year, The 1975 return with their third album – and it’s a world away from the bursting confidence of their self-titled, platinum-selling breakthrough. In its place, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships (Polydor, out now) hovers between self-assurance and self-loathing – for the record, “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)” is the “heroin song”, according to Healy – while doubling down on those soaring Eighties influences. By turns impatient and exploratory, it’s a record that ricochets between genres and moods and sounds no less sincere for doing so. Anna Conrad JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 143
Last Man Standing
Is misogyny still with us? In a word, yes At just four characters (three usually asterisked) the foulest exclamation in the English language is more than just a swearword. It’s a reminder how far the next generation of men still has to go Story by
T
hey left the ‘c***’ in then?” Michael Caine asked the journalist. “I asked them to cut it.” Caine was promoting King Of Thieves, a dramatisation of the 2015 Hatton Garden robbery, in which six elderly criminals lifted more than £25 million worth of loot from a vault of safety deposit boxes, and talking about the scene in which Caine’s character, 77-year-old Brian Reader, gives Billy “The Fish” Lincoln (Michael Gambon) a good hiding, pausing for breath only to call Billy a “c***”. Yes, the journalist confirmed. Despite Caine’s request to cut the “c-word” from the final cut, it was still in the film. And the journalist – Ryan Gilbey of the Guardian – asked why. Why did Caine ask the film-makers to cut the “c***” from the final version? “I don’t know,” Caine said softly, staring at his lap. But I think he does know, deep in his heart. Would a working-class hardman born around the time of the Blitz reach for that word when he was handing out a beating? You can count on it. But so what? 144 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Tony Parsons
Illustration by
Marcus Marritt
For it is starting to jar, this use of it as a term of abuse, as a handy epithet for stupidity, venality and all manner of evil. Caine himself once said, “A gentleman is never unintentionally rude.” And a gentleman who uses the term “c***” – even when he is playing an old-school villain – gives offence. Words fall out of favour. Words come and go. They have their time and then their time is done and you wonder how anyone ever used such a word. I remember the “n-word” being bawled at a black player on a rival school’s football team. And I don’t mean once or twice – the abuse was maintained for the full 90 minutes. Even in the openly racist white working-class culture of the Seventies, it was extreme. Now, thankfully, such behaviour would get you arrested. But for years – decades – nobody in this country was ever arrested for shouting “n*****” at a football match. Then the world turns and certain words, you realise, make your skin crawl. They feel – slowly and then quickly – all wrong in the modern world. And
I think that, deep in his wise old soul, Michael Caine knows that we have had our fill of “c***”. If there is one word that is ripe to be consigned to the dustbin of history, then this is it. As a term of abuse, as a means of insulting someone, as a blunt instrument to batter the foolish, no matter: the c-word has had its day.
W
ords get thrown around too freely. Words are drained of their true meaning when they are overused, or used wrongly, or used without first engaging the brain. Such a word is “misogyny” – meaning a hatred, contempt or deeply ingrained prejudice against women. One of the most spectacularly stupid examples of the word misogyny being misused was when Daniel Craig asserted to the Red Bulletin in 2015 that James Bond was a misogynist. “Let’s not forget that he’s actually a misogynist,” Craig pontificated. “A lot of women are drawn to him chiefly because he embodies a certain kind of danger and never sticks around
for long.” But where is the evidence for Bond’s misogyny? In any incarnation, from the character in the Ian Fleming novels to every screen 007 from Sean Connery to Craig, I see zero evidence that Fleming’s fictional spy is a hater of women. Sexually promiscuous? Certainly. Reluctant to commit to a meaningful long-term relationship? Guilty as charged, Your Honour. As old-fashioned as your grandad’s wildest wet dream? Quite possibly. But “misogyny” is so wide of the mark that it is absurd. But what is truly misogynistic, by my lights, is our common and everyday use of the c-word as a term of abuse. Using the vernacular for vagina as the ultimate term of abuse – what could show a greater contempt for women?
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eyond the pious social media hashtags, beyond the woke men tweeting their solidarity with the Me Too movement and beyond all the male promises to try much, much harder to make ourselves nothing like Harvey Weinstein, the use of the c-word suggests that, deep down inside, nothing much has changed about the male heart. The common coinage of “c***” suggests that, if anything, men’s attitude towards women is coarsening, becoming degraded, nastier, more spiteful. For any man born in the last century, all forms of violence against women were taboo. Now that old taboo has vanished. In one week last summer, two stories dominated the headlines. They were both ugly little vignettes that told you more than you possibly wanted to know about the modern British male – someone ritually humiliated in a park, someone else punched unconscious outside a nightclub. And what made the stories news was that both of the victims were women. In a sunny park in the peaceful Suffolk market town of Bury St Edmunds, a pack of leering teenage boys posed proudly for a friend’s smartphone around a cowering 49-year-old woman who they had abused, pelting her with water, flour and eggs until she was white from head to toe and bent almost double into submission. In the heartbreaking words of the woman’s stepmother, the victim is a vulnerable woman “who wouldn’t say boo to a goose”. And what turns the stomach – and makes you ponder what the hell has happened to the young male of the species – is that the boys tormenting this woman look like they are having the best day of their lives. These were not feral kids who never had a chance. They were all well-fed suburban boys, still too young to have their names printed in the newspapers and whose parents love them to bits. Indeed, one of their mothers complained that the backlash
about her son’s bullying had “ruined his 16th birthday”. Also caught on camera around the same time was an assault outside Faces in Ilford, Essex, when a 20-year-old man punched an 18-year-old woman in the face until she lay senseless on the pavement. When she woke up she was inevitably abused in the sewer of social media, informed that “she deserved it” for daring to speak back to a man and gloatingly told that “she had a lesson in true equality”. The old taboo about violence towards women has gone now, and I mean all kinds of violence, from the abuse of women that is such a staple of social media to the sadistic humiliation of that woman in the park to the physical violence that renders a teenage girl unconscious on an Essex pavement. We have changed. Men have changed. Limitless pornography and weak, often absent fathers have not improved our gender. I look at those boys in that park and I look at the young man who knocked out that girl – their acts handily recorded for posterity – and I do not recognise them. Boys were not like this. Men were not like this. For all our faults – and they were manifold – the men born in the last century did not have such unbridled, bullying contempt for women and girls and we did not need to see a woman beaten, belittled or bent double to make us feel like men. In the little corner of Essex where I grew up, “c***” was practically a punctuation mark among men and boys. It was in the foul air we breathed. But it grates now. It feels like the rancid tip of a cesspit that is the modern male attitude to women. And what I find bewildering is that it is not just thick ignorant oafs who use the c-word with such abandon. It is the woke. It is the enlightened. It is the professionally sensitive. It is the Guardian columnist, the BBC-approved comedian who can be guaranteed to dress to the left. “It wasn’t just racists that voted to leave Europe,” Stewart Lee recently quipped. “C***s did as well. Stupid fucking c***s.” Does Lee’s relish of the c-word sound rational or healthy? Does it provoke tears of mirth? Do you think it might persuade the 17.4m who voted to leave the European Union – the largest vote for anything in the history of this country – they were wrong? Some of my best friends are Remainers, but such spittle-flecked fury when using the word “c***” makes Brexit sound like the very least of Lee’s problems. Times change. Words get left behind. The hair rocker Ted Nugent had a song called “Jailbait”. Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who led the Dam Busters raid, had a dog called “N*****”, even when he was risking his life fighting real fascists. Then, they were embarrassing relics of our ignorant past, Ted
Nugent’s song about sex with a 13-year-old girl (released when he was 32), Gibson’s black dog, overtaken by time and a kinder, wiser world. Stewart Lee’s “c***s” are heading for the same oblivion. I have this theory that every man who has a daughter becomes a feminist, that there is a respect and reverence for women that can only dawn when you have held your baby girl in your arms. What women endure – the crap they put up with every day of their lives – is beyond a man’s vision until that moment, and then he understands and he understands completely. But I believe that I would still recoil from “c***” even if I didn’t have a daughter. It feels like you are choosing a side when you use that word, and it is the side of pencildicked inadequates who can only feel like a man by dehumanising women. Last summer, the French press had their own version of the stories about the boys in the park and the man outside the club. Marie Laguerre, a 22-year-old engineering student, was walking past a café in the 19th arrondissement of Paris on a summer evening in July when a bearded young man, in her words, “made dirty noises, commented and whistled” as he passed. Marie told the man to shut his mouth. In response, he hurled an ashtray at her head and then slapped her face so hard she was knocked off her feet. “I knew he was coming to hit me,” Marie told Le Parisien. “I refused to look down. I looked him right in the eyes. I was not going to apologise. I took the blow with the utmost pride just to show him that if he thought he could put me back in my place, it hadn’t worked.” Almost inevitably, the assault was captured on video and displayed on social media, where it has been viewed in the millions and provoked a national debate about the way women are treated on the streets of France, where a law will soon come into effect outlawing “annoying, following and threatening a woman”. But what could be more like harassment than the use of “c***” as the ultimate insult? It is not swearing that I object to. It is not those handy Anglo-Saxon expletives that can express anything from ecstasy to agony and everything in between. It is only “c***” that makes me wince, makes my skin crawl and makes me wonder what is wrong with men that we should choose the source of all life, and many of life’s pleasures, as something hateful. I understand exactly why Michael Caine wanted his producers to take the c-word out of King Of Thieves, even if it was true to the effing-and-blinding hardcase he was playing. We should all be leaving the c-word on the cutting room floor. A gentleman never unintentionally gives offence. And “c***” really and truly gives offence. You don’t believe me? Then ask any woman. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 145
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (the clue is in the title) It’s saccharine, syrupy and, hell, it streams on Amazon. So why is this gleaming slice of make-happy comedy our favourite show on TV? Story by
Stuart McGurk
Michael Zegen as the absconding husband of the titular Mrs Maisel
A
confession: I love a show called The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, and I know it sounds so wrong, but it feels so right. It’s a comedy-drama set in late-Fifties New York but could, perhaps, be more realistically located in that mythical time when everyone didn’t so much put clothes on in the morning as get stitched directly into them. It has a setup – a well-to-do young housewife sees her husband leave her, only for her to discover her real talent lies in truthbombing the patriarchy in the comedy clubs of Greenwich Village – that’s so twee and clearly bulging with the potential for her to sass people while learning big life lessons that it actually makes me angry. And it’s from Amazon Prime Video. Nothing good is made by Amazon Prime Video. Finally, it’s from the creator of Gilmore Girls! Now, granted, I’ve never actually seen Gilmore Girls, but it’s called Gilmore Girls, and I’ve never been more sure about judging a show by its name alone. Even when everyone was talking about it – “You must see Mrs Maisel! You must see Mrs Maisel!” – it only made me want to watch it less. 146 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
And yet, when I finally relented – and you will too – I realised a remarkable thing. I realised, firstly, that it was exactly what I suspected it would be: a slight Mad Men ripoff, a bit of a Punchline borrow, a little bit saucy, a little syrupy. And yet I also realised it didn’t matter one bit. I couldn’t help but be charmed by it. God help me, I think it’s my favourite show on TV. And I’m not alone. Remarkably, it has done something everyone said was no longer possible in this splintered age of network TV, cable channels and an ever-expanding number of standalone streaming sites. At the Emmys earlier this year, it proved a big winner, scooping five major awards: Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series (for Rachel Brosnahan, playing lead character Miriam “Midge” Maisel), Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series (for Alex Borstein, playing Midge’s foul-mouthed friend/manager), Outstanding Writing For A Comedy Series and Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series (both for creator Amy ShermanPalladino). The New Yorker pointed out that it “swept so hard” – the board, that is – “it
could have won the Olympic gold medal for curling, too”. Even Vulture – those high priests of culture snark – ran a piece with the headline “Can We Talk About How Charming The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Is?”
H
ow to explain this? It’s not just that Mrs Maisel is more than the sum of its slick parts – and it very much is that – but watching it you realise that it’s doing something that much of quality TV doesn’t even attempt to do any more. Something that has, in fact, gone out of fashion. In the cable TV era of dark antiheroes – that conga line of mob bosses and Wild West tyrants and brilliantbut-complicated advertising men – it actively tries to entertain and be charming. Dialogue is almost never spoken in Mrs Maisel, it’s rat-a-tat-tatted. Everyone is the wittiest person you’ve ever met, but actually witty – not the forced, performative zingers of sitcoms, but the dry deadpan of the genuinely funny. The camera doesn’t carefully set perfect scenes, but is forever chasing the characters around, gliding through perfect Manhattan apartments and down dingy comedy-cellar stairs without missing a beat: imagine The West Wing, only everyone’s clothes fit. There’s even a delicious turn by Luke Kirby as Lenny Bruce, pitching him in the previously unexplored sweet spot between “tortured artist” and The Fonz from Happy Days. It’s not that shows that try to do all of this don’t exist. It’s that they’ve rarely been done this well. The first series ended – spoiler – with Midge’s husband, Joel (played by Michael Zegen), finally discovering her stand-up secret, with the second series – which is out now on Amazon Prime Video – following Midge as she truly strikes out on her own and making it, you guessed it, in a man’s world. Does Mrs Maisel say important, difficult things about the intersection of race and poverty in America like, say, current critical darling Atlanta? Nope. Does it, like millennial “Twilight Zone” Black Mirror, probe and ponder important questions concerning where technology is leading us? No. Does it, like Netflix serial-killer hit Mindhunter... I’ll stop you there. No. No, it does not. But in a world that’s dark enough right now, maybe Mrs Maisel’s medicine is exactly what we need. It goes without saying, it’s all the more charming for it. THE MARVELOUS MRS MAISEL SERIES TWO IS OUT NOW ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO.
Photograph Amazon
Television
Sport
‘She felt she had let them down’ Public funding brings home the gold, but does the burden of responsibilty take too high a toll? Story by
E
llie Soutter revealed her potential at the tender age of 16. It was in February two years ago that she won a medal in the snowboard cross event at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Erzurum, Turkey. She came in third on the kardelen slope behind two French athletes, beating rivals from countries with considerably greater winter sport chops. She was Britain’s only medallist and, consequently, its flagbearer at the closing ceremony. Britain’s snowboard cross programme was new and Soutter was its shining light. On the day she turned 18, she died. Ellie Soutter killed herself after missing a flight to meet the Great Britain squad for training. “She felt she had let them down,” said her father, Tony. “She felt she had let me down and it takes one silly thing to tip someone over the edge, because there is a lot of pressure on children.” Indeed, there is. It is one of the reasons, in the wake of the tragedy, the English Institute Of Sport set up a mental health strategy that included a screening programme for high-performance athletes. Soutter’s death was the nadir of a torrid year for Olympic sport, with cycling, bobsleigh, gymnastics, rowing, swimming, archery, canoeing and taekwondo all facing allegations of abuse and bullying. No one suggested Soutter was bullied; but as a member of an elite development programme she was subject to high expectations. Having suffered previously with mental health problems, these demands and her fear of disappointing the team by not living up to them were considered the trigger. Yet what is to be done? Where is the balance, the safe boundary for duty and responsibility? What is right to expect, given that last July UK Sport announced public funding of £24 million for British Ski And Snowboard up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics? In a country with failing schools and a health service in permanent crisis, £24m sounds quite a lot of money to fund snow sport – no matter the national prestige at the end of it. If Soutter felt inner guilt about missing her flight, chances are she understood the obligation of public funding. Had this episode, this sad teenage mistake, not
Martin Samuel
Illustration by
Giulio Bonasera
ended so horribly, the reaction to her poor timekeeping would have been very different. Yes, the public negatively judge a funded athlete who does not stick to the schedule; yes, they feel short-changed; and, yes, they might even support taking that funding away or at least issuing a final warning. They do not want their money wasted, but, equally, they don’t want individuals to feel so pressured they take their own lives.
I
t is the same with bullying. What if British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton was right about Jess Varnish? What if she was short of the conditioning required to make the most of the cycling programme? However insensitively he spoke, is it so wrong to tell a publicly funded athlete to get fitter? Even at junior level there is a point when little Johnny thumps his corner kick behind the goal and the coach doesn’t say “bad luck” any more. You’re 14 now, Johnny. We’ve been doing this seven years. How hard is it to kick the ball forward, son? Of course, there is the need for greater awareness of mental health issues. Maybe,
in retrospect, elite sport was not a suitable world for a teenager as fragile as Soutter and an effective, efficiently financed screening programme would have identified that. Maybe, though, the very nature of elite sport is going to create victims. Cricketer Jonathan Trott retired mentally hurt from England’s tour of Australia in November 2013. He suffered acute stress and anxiety midway through the first test in Brisbane, just days after Alastair Cook had compared the mood of the Ashes to war. And while it is easy to blame vicious sledging or the intimidation of Australia’s fast bowlers for Trott’s crisis, the debilitating mental weight of modern sport can just as easily be self-inflicted. Derek Pringle’s recent autobiography tells of a time when cricket played out like a stag do, with the odd game attached, but imagine being in a job that is taken so seriously that an 82-page booklet is required just to detail what you are allowed to eat, as happened in Trott’s time. And not vaguely, either, but with 194 highly specific recipes. A brain surgeon can wake up and have a sausage sandwich, but Trott and his teammates were such hothouse flowers that their lunch boxes had to contain avocado, raw slaw and butter beans. All of this tells a person that he or she is doing the most important work imaginable and that even the tiniest compromise, the slightest fall from grace, is catastrophic. During the Tour De France, beds are transported daily so that riders such as Chris Froome never see a random feather pillow or an old saggy mattress, but sleep on the same optimum surface every night, clinically prepared and guaranteed. And that, way down the scale, is the trap in which Ellie Soutter was caught. The comfy bed of public funding and the tossing and turning of the responsibility it brings. Everything about her world screamed importance. The attention to detail, the focus, the public funds. No wonder athletes become tightly wired. No wonder a person prone to stress or obsessive behaviour finds his or her mental state influenced. It’s only a game; but while it is played with public money, it is a game that carries a troubling burden. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 147
Futurism
It’s time smart tech got serious First, it was all about the home – web-connected lights, kettles, locks and, yes, even salt shakers. But ‘things’ are about to change in this joined-up world... on an industrial scale Story by
Charlie Burton
Illustrations by
Neil Webb
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decade ago, I was assigned the cover story for the first issue of Wired UK. The brief was simple: ask a large number of experts to offer predictions for the next 50 years. One of them was Vint Cerf, a pioneering computer scientist who codesigned the fundamental architecture of the internet and is currently vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google. His prediction was this. By 2018, he said, “I’m anticipating that several hundreds of millions of devices will be online. A lot will be very small things – sensors, for example, for local ambient information, such as temperature, humidity and possibly the detection of biohazards. Or they might be used to monitor and control building conditions or security devices.” What he was describing, of course, was the internet expanding its reach to physical objects and appliances, allowing them to communicate with each other and the outside world: the “internet of things” (or “IOT”), as it’s now commonly known. Looking back, Cerf’s prediction seems prescient – although he underestimated it. Today, there are in fact billions of things connected to the internet. Last year, it was estimated that the total hit 8.4 billion, more than the number of people on the planet. Given the pace of growth, businesses are trying to work out how to be a meaningful part of this trend. And many of them are getting it wrong. Right now, there is a booming “internet of pointless things”. Take, for example, the “smart hairbrush” unveiled at CES 2017. Created by Kérastase and Withings, the Hair Coach uses a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a microphone to analyse your brushing and tell you if you’re doing it wrong. As if you haven’t got enough things to worry about. Or how about the “smart salt shaker”? Hold the Smalt over your food, shout the relevant voice command at your Amazon Echo, and the Smalt will dispense salt. Because, erm, twisting the top of a salt grinder is too much like hard work. Microcontrollers are now so cheap that there’s a temptation for companies to turn whatever it is they produce into a connected object. But just because they can do 148 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
something doesn’t mean that they should. Real innovation addresses pain points. It notices the frictions in how people live and work, how businesses function and how industry operates and tries to smooth them over. To use an MBA favourite, real innovation “adds value”.
T
he consumer IOT space has been cornered by big players such as Google, Apple and Amazon and is already saturated with products. So no wonder we’re seeing the emergence of Smalt and its ilk – the gaps in the market are, on the whole, the ones that the tech giants have looked at and thought, “Nobody needs that.” The valuable untapped opportunities right now are in industry. The industrial internet of things (“IIOT”)
was valued at approximately £114.3bn globally in 2017 and is expected to reach approximately £181.9bn by 2023. Its forms are diverse, but it has one end: to help businesses make more money. Take Disruptive Technologies, a Norwegian startup that has raised £8.5 million in funding. It sells wireless mini sensors that can detect things such as temperature, movement and touch. Stick them on existing machinery in a factory and it turns your equipment into smart devices. That’s useful for monitoring how a machine is operating, for instance, allowing managers to identify likely problems and perform “predictive maintenance”, fixing the machine before it breaks down. IIOT startups are also making supply chains much smarter. Some of the most innovative examples incorporate another tech megatrend: blockchain. Blockchain, in the simplest terms, is a database that’s held in a peer-to-peer network; when one person completes a legitimate transaction, everybody’s version of the record updates. That means it’s extremely secure – an immutable ledger. One of the hottest startups in this sector is the US company Filament. To date, it has raised £17.6 million, and has just announced a new product, the Blocklet Chip, to connect industrial devices, say, or shipping containers, to the internet and enable them to record information about themselves – their current state, their location – on blockchains. To see why that’s useful, consider Walmart’s new project. The store is using IBM kit to automatically record everything that happens to a piece of food on a blockchain at every step of the supply chain. So if there’s a food scare, for instance, Walmart won’t have to pull all of one type of product “just in case”. Instead, managers can track and trace where a product has come from and immediately know with certainty if the item on their shelf is safe to sell. These applications are not sexy, but they are enormously valuable. So if you’re tempted to get involved in the booming internet of things, either as an investor or as an entrepreneur, forget the smart home and embrace the smart factory.
Web-ready home appliances are one thing, but the smart money is paying dividends for trade and industry all over the world JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 149
Concorde
The end of the boom years? As a new book recalls the cultural cues that followed in Concorde’s contrails, we ask will we ever again soar through the sound barrier? Story by
T
Charlie Burton
wo minutes after taking off from Charles De Gaulle airport on 25 July 2000, a Concorde bound for New York developed a fire in its left engine. Moments later it crashed into a hotel ten miles north of Paris, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground. It was Concorde’s first fatal accident in its 31-year history, the result of a stray piece of metal on the runway that pierced a tyre and caused it to explode, ultimately breaching the fuel tank. It was also the beginning of the end for commercial supersonic air travel. Concorde was scrapped three years later and, in a rare example of technological regression, no passenger aircraft has since punctured the sound barrier. But Concorde was the future once. Designed more like a spacecraft than an aeroplane, it could soar to 55,000 feet – 15,000 more than a regular airliner and high enough that passengers could see the curvature of the earth – and cruise at Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. That’s so fast that in the time it took to fill a flute of in-flight Champagne, the plane would travel 16km. Aboard Concorde, the journey from London to New York took a mere three hours. This remarkable achievement, however, almost never got off the ground. Its origins stretch back to 1956 when Sir Morien Morgan of the Royal Aircraft Establishment started work on “supersonic transports” with a view to taking on America in aerospace innovation. At the same time, France was working on a similar project, but both countries’ efforts came under threat as objections were raised 150 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
about costs and noise pollution. To salvage their schemes, the two nations signed a treaty: the British Aircraft Corporation and France’s Aérospatiale would work together to make supersonic dreams a reality. Concorde captured people’s imaginations all over the world and a host of global airlines placed orders, from Pan Am to Air India. But, in an unexpected turn, all of them eventually cancelled, due in large part to governments restricting the noisy plane from their airspace. When Concorde was rolled out in 1976, it was left to British Airways and Air France alone to fly the 14 that were put into service. These two state airlines would forge ahead with what was, back then, perceived as the next evolutionary step in commercial aviation. But Concorde was also much more than that. To Britain and France it was a symbol of unity and a beacon of national pride. In the gloomy post-war era, Concorde’s iconic curves became emblematic of optimism and progress. As Lawrence Azerrad puts it in his new book, Supersonic: The Design And Lifestyle Of Concorde, from which the images on these pages are extracted, “Concorde was the promise of tomorrow delivered in the here and now.” To statesmen, it was a way for Britain and France to assert their presence on the world stage. And to passengers, it represented the boom times. “From every perspective,” writes Azerrad, a Concorde memorabilia collector based in Los Angeles, “our history’s sole dalliance with a supersonic passenger plane >>
Concorde’s flight deck, as seen in 2003. Three decades earlier, it was one of the first commercial planes to use ‘fly-by-wire’ controls; (from left) Mick and Bianca Jagger at Heathrow ahead of flying Concorde, 1976; a director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, founded in 1904, with a scale model of the plane, 1964; David Bowie ahead of a Concorde flight from Heathrow, 1978
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Photographs Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images; Chris McCann; Mirrorpix; PA
leather with a cradle mechanism, footrest and contoured headrest for comfort and support. We also wanted to make the interior of the passenger cabin brighter with different lighting, which would change to a cool blue wash throughout the cabin when the Concorde flew through the sound barrier at Mach 1 – that would have been a wonderful sight.” That part of the vision was never implemented due to Concorde’s premature demise.
Supersonic Age magazine was launched to promote Concorde. These covers were from 1974; (far right) an advertisement from a French electronics firm that supplied the planes’ data flight processors, 1968
>> epitomised the most important equation of our age: not E=mc2, but time = money.” Indeed, with a steep ticket price (about £7,000 for a round trip in 2003), it became synonymous with wealth. Attracting everyone from Sirs Elton John, Sean Connery and Mick Jagger to the Queen and Queen Mother, life on board Concorde was outrageously glamorous. The whole experience was designed to telegraph privilege, whether that was the long-stemmed Raymond Loewy cutlery (famously stolen by Andy Warhol for its collectibility), the galleys heaving with caviar and lobster or the Le Corbusier chairs at Charles De Gaulle’s Concorde reception area. As Maya Angelou saw it at the time: “Flying the Concorde is not only convenient, it’s a kind of social circumstance, which makes for a club group. So those who fly Concorde are Concorders. And somehow you smile a little more at people on the plane, and get smiled at more frequently.”
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he flight itself was intrinsically exciting. Azerrad flew Concorde just before it was scrapped. He remembers how even the most jaded frequent flyers seemed to feel the magic, and how the experience began long before the cabin doors shut. “The Concorde lounge at Kennedy, designed by Conran Associates, was very elegant, almost like you were on set in a James Bond movie, surrounded by the greatest furniture of the 20th century: Eames chairs, Bauhaus lamps, all these details,” Azerrad tells GQ. On takeoff, the power of the machine made itself felt in the small of the back. “It did this noise-abatement manoeuvre at Kennedy,” Azerrad continues, “where it would do this sharp turn and roll, and it just kind of rocked like a sports car.” Once in the sky, attentive passengers could feel a gentle bump as the plane went supersonic but the sensation of flight was no different 152 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
from that aboard any other aeroplane. Still, those on board were aware they were enjoying high propulsion thanks to an electronic readout of their air speed on the bulkhead. As the planes aged, their interior designs developed to maintain the sense that passengers were at the cutting edge of sophistication. In the Eighties, after Concorde began to turn a profit, British Airways started a wave of cabin upgrades, such as leather upholstery and more comfortable bathrooms, all the while tweaking the graphic design of the livery to keep it looking up to date. In an industry increasingly defined by no-frills airlines and cattle-class cabins, Concorde became the last vestige of the golden age of travel. “You’d always dress for it,” Cindy Crawford remembers for Azerrad’s book, “because you never knew who you were going to meet.” That said, Concorde began to diverge from emerging notions of prestige flying. In the Nineties, airlines began their journey towards an idea of luxury travel that was about creature comforts such as lie-flat beds, the logical conclusion of which are the “sky suites” and in-flight showers of today. Concorde’s interior was modestly sized, with 40 people in the front cabin and 60 in the rear. Yet somehow it didn’t seem outmoded because it symbolised a different kind of luxury: the design language was all about sleekness, efficiency and refinement. “The seats were tight and compact but upholstered in the finest supple leather, like in a top-of-the-line sports car,” says Azerrad. More Porsche, in other words, than Rolls-Royce. BA’s most significant retooling started in 1999, when it commissioned Factorydesign, in partnership with Sir Terence Conran, to give the insides a major overhaul. In an article from 2011, Conran recalled his vision thus: “We wanted to create an interior that was as light and elegant as the exterior and a feeling of comfort and luxury... We selected chairs that took inspiration from my idols, Charles and Ray Eames – they were ink-blue Connolly
he scrapping of Concorde is often blamed entirely on the accident of July 2000, but economics was just as significant a factor. While Concorde was designed to fly passengers point-to-point in the fastest manner possible, the prevailing vision for the future of aviation had changed tack. The “hub and spoke” model had come to the fore, whereby passengers are bussed into key cities on large airliners and then flown out to their specific destination on smaller craft. This, overall, was more cost efficient. And by the early noughties, many of the high-net-worthers who once populated Concorde’s flight manifests were migrating to private jets. Throw in the reduction in air travel post 9/11, plus the high maintenance costs and R&D being shouldered solely by BA and Air France, and the writing was on the wall. If other companies had developed their own supersonic aircraft, it might have been a different story. The economies of scale and sharing of expertise might not only have kept it economically viable – and solved the perennial problems of noise – but normalised supersonic travel around the globe. “There’s no question in my mind,” says Azerrad, “that if the geopolitics didn’t put that damper on the evolution, supersonic travel really would have been the next step for us.” But all is not lost. Recently, a small number of boutique aerospace startups have emerged that want to take passengers beyond the sound barrier once more. The most promising is Boom, an American outfit designing a Mach 2.2 55-passenger plane; as of 2017 it had raised $51 million in venture capital, from backers including Japan Airlines. To aviation nostalgics, it’s a glimmer of hope – but it’s still not Concorde. So what was it about that original craft that so captured the imagination? “There’s something in the human spirit to go out and make things better and discover more,” says Azerrad. “Concorde represents, for me, the pinnacle of this idea that design can make life and the world better.” SUPERSONIC: THE DESIGN AND LIFESTYLE OF CONCORDE BY LAWRENCE AZERRAD IS OUT NOW (PRESTEL, £27.50). THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES, AND INFORMATION FOR THIS ARTICLE, WERE TAKEN FROM THAT BOOK.
Photographs The collection of Lawrence Azerrad
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Politics
Behind the bluster, the true scale of Brexit is being forgotten However you view next year’s Article 50 Rubicon, it will start the biggest constitutional shift in 300 years Story by
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hatever else you experience in 2019, know this: you will be living through a truly historic year. There may be a general election, a Conservative leadership contest, a new PM – conceivably all three – but such disruptions will be of small significance when set beside the main event. On 29 March at 11pm, the UK is set to leave the European Union. It is conceivable – just – that this moment of departure will be averted by the People’s Vote, for which 700,000 people marched through London in October. Or that an extension on the Article 50 process of negotiation with the UK will be granted by our 27 soon-to-be-ex EU partners and that the date will be postponed by a few months. But, at the time of writing, this island nation is set to weigh anchor and sail off into a future that is, to say the very least, uncertain. The sheer scale and importance of Brexit has been disguised by the tedium of the talks in Brussels and the pettiness of Westminster politics in the past two-and-a-half years. Dull and juvenile is not an appealing mix and the opinion polls have shown for many months that what most voters want is for the whole damn thing to be over as soon as humanly possible. Which is as mistaken as it is understandable. So feeble has been the planning for this moment, the political debate over its character and the public diplomacy surrounding its approach that it has been all too easy to miss the enormity of what’s about to happen. Forget for a moment such trivialities as whether Boris Johnson will ever be PM or Jeremy Corbyn’s precise views on the EU (does he even know?) and the determination of hardline Brexiteers to see betrayal everywhere. Focus instead on the simple fact that Britain is about to make the greatest change to
Matthew d’Ancona Illustration by Daria Kirpach
its commercial and institutional arrangements in living memory. We fought long and hard to join what was then the EEC, twice denied entry by Charles de Gaulle’s vetoes of 1963 and 1967, before our formal admission on 1 January 1973. The referendum of 1975 sealed our membership – until the vote in June 2016. You may regard Brexit as an act of collective self-harm or a long-overdue moment
of national emancipation, but whatever emotion the prospect stirs in you, do not lose sight of its basic immensity. Uncoerced – and in many cases joyfully – we are leaving the world’s largest single market and one of its most important supranational alliances of liberal democracies. For good or ill, the transformative quality of what lies behind is breathtaking. The real benchmarks for comparison are not, say, the Single European Act (1986) or the contentious Maastricht Treaty (1992) or the Lisbon agreement (2007). To get a sense
of Brexit’s constitutional scale, one must revisit the Second Reform Act (1867), which radically extended the right to vote, or its predecessor (1832), regarded by traditionalists at the time as the end of what was best about the established order. In decades to come, Brexit will be compared not to the small potatoes of devolution to the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly in 1998, but to the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9, which, with the replacement of James II by William and Mary, laid the foundations of our constitutional monarchy. It’s a much greater upheaval than our entry to the EEC. It’s a change not only to the rules of the European game, but to the very institutional shape and character of this country. It bears comparison with the 1706-7 Acts Of Union, which established the modern UK. Exaggeration? Not at all. Brexit will compel the UK to negotiate more than 750 international deals, trawl through 19,000 EU laws to decide which to replicate, rearrange its immigration laws and redefine its role on the global stage. Again, this may thrill or dismay you. But now, at the end of 2018, is a good moment to pause and absorb how extraordinary the next few months are going to be in the life of this country. We are encouraged by social media to live in the digital moment. Instagram is not good at measuring change across days, let alone decades and centuries: it nurtures the illusion of impermeable “nowness”. We suffer from a cultural and historical amnesia that makes us impatient, uninterested in the past and more closely wedded to networks than to traditional citizenship. But history has a way of creeping up and biting those who neglect its power. In 2019, prepare to be bitten. G JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 153
What makes a good James Bond? British? Of course. Scottish? Even better. Can he play brutish but vulnerable? It worked for the last one. Does he look sharp in a tux? See right. But what about a wry, natural humour? Because we haven’t seen that for a while. And yet far from the troubled action man he built for Bodyguard – and even further from the princes and pretty boys that was almost his typecast – it’s his knowing wit and bone-dry quips that explain why Richard Madden is odds-on to make Double-O status. Oh, and guess what? He even drinks Vodka Martinis
Story by
Stuart McGurk
Photographs by
000 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Matthew Brookes
Styled by
Luke Day
RICHARD MADDEN
Scandal! Sex! Assassination! Terror! Corruption! And at the heart of it all: Richard Madden
Suit, £645. Shirt, £89. Bow tie, £65. Pocket square, £35. All by Boss. boss.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 155
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ichard Madden has a habit of putting himself in situations that are, if he’s to tell you honestly, the worst possible situations he can possibly imagine himself being in. For instance, he hates singing, says he can’t sing, says being forced to sing is pretty much one of his worst nightmares, says, “Thank fuck for autotune!” when I point out he’s in an upcoming Elton John musical, Rocketman, that requires him to sing rather a lot. And yet tomorrow, he says, he’s doing “Carpool Karaoke”, where he’ll be singing. When I say I thought that was only for actual singers, he corrects me. “No. Stupid people too.” By which he means: people who say yes. People. That’s another one. Madden has an issue with them. He thinks, he says, that they’re all looking at him. Of course, he’s right about that. They are. We meet for lunch in The Wolseley in London’s Mayfair – a venue he selected, though one, you might argue, that’s not ideal for paranoid agoraphobics – and as Madden walks across the floor to me, wearing a chunky-knit navy rollneck and the expression of a man bracing for impact, the heads of diners left and right turn like spectators following a tennis point. Is that... Yes. It’s the bodyguard from Bodyguard, the man who a week ago was reported to have been offered the role of 007 to succeed Daniel Craig, the star of a show whose finale was confirmed by the BBC a few days earlier as the most watched drama episode since records began, an actor who was already TV famous after his starmaking turn as Robb Stark in Game Of Thrones, but is suddenly Coca-Cola famous thanks to something everyone said had died: appointment TV, water-cooler TV, Twitter-trending-no-spoilers-please-for-thelove-of-God-no-spoilers TV. And that is all well and good and great and, of course, it is why we are here. But also: people. “It does no favours to the old paranoia and general anxiety,” he says once he’s sat down. “Your paranoia is actually real.” Another paranoia that’s actually real: photographers in the trees outside his flat. Photographers hiding underneath the cars outside his flat (“So you can’t see them”). But they’re there, he says. They’re really there. To combat them, Madden has set up various WhatsApp groups of friends and neighbours, who act as a spotter network, effectively papping the paps. You see: proof! (“They send me pictures of them and say, ‘This one’s outside. Here’s his car.’”) “You can think that in your head,” says Madden, “and then there’s literally photographers in the trees. My biggest fear has become real.” 156 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Fire. That’s another big fear. And he must keep entering buildings that could potentially catch on fire. So for every building he enters, Madden will first check where the fire exit is and only then can he settle down, safe in the knowledge he has an escape route. When he checks into a hotel, the routine is always the same: no sooner has he thrown his bags on his bed than he’s striding back down the corridor to find the fire escape. This is a habit, he says, that comes primarily from his father, who’s a fireman, but also, you suspect, from his nature as someone not particularly fond of long goodbyes or, indeed, goodbyes of any length. When he finishes a job, he refuses to say goodbye to the people he’s worked with and got close to, but rather, just says, “See you tomorrow”, even though he knows he won’t see them tomorrow and even though they know they won’t see him tomorrow. But “See you tomorrow” is what he says, because it’s just too painful for him to do the other thing. And then, finally, there’s this interview, of which he says at one point: “I’m shit at inter-
‘I was sobbing and covered in blood. I looked like I’d murdered someone’ views. I’m terrified. I’m terrified of myself, that I’m not interesting enough.” Which, of all the unexpected and interesting and sometimes slightly strange things that Richard Madden will say to me, might actually be the most unexpected and most interesting and most strange, as nothing could be further from the truth. Madden is not shit at these things. He is actually great at these things. He’s candid and unpretentious and wry and speaks in paragraphs built to be quoted in full and possesses the kind of offhand wit only possessed by the genuinely funny. But, as he’ll tell me, he is often terrified. So who knows? He might be right about that.
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ow the hell did that happen?” says Madden, once we’re settled and he has ordered his lunch: an eggs Benedict where the poached eggs, once arrived, won’t so much be carefully sliced into as mixed, like a plasterer preparing paste, and spread like an eggy jam. It is, quite frankly, a heroic way to eat eggs Benedict. It is also a fair question. Before Bodyguard first aired on BBC One,
there was the kind of polite anticipation for it that generally comes with a Radio Times cover (it was, after all, from Jed Mercurio, creator of the popular Line Of Duty series), but hardly saw people stripping in the streets in excitement. The setup seemed simple enough. Madden was to play Sergeant David Budd, a former Afghanistan war vet turned bodyguard for the home secretary, played by Keeley Hawes. It did not remain simple. Bodyguard crammed so much into each episode it occasionally felt like a series of newspaper front pages that all happened to one guy. Suicide bombs! Scandal! Sex! Assassination! Terror! Corruption! The action was genuinely thrilling. The sex was genuinely sexy. The twists were tailormade for Twitter. The home secretary’s speech could have gone better. But at the heart of it all was Madden, a 32-year-old actor who, until that point, had been getting worryingly close to simply being known as “that guy from Game Of Thrones”, or possibly “that guy from Game Of Thrones who got killed”, or maybe even – and most worryingly of all for him – “that guy who plays a lot of princes”. Fair to say that Budd – swapping tunic for suit, loyal armies for an estranged wife, PTSD replacing heroic jaw-clenching – was something of a departure. Madden’s performance was brilliant, but it was the second episode that really kicked off the Connery/Bond comparisons, as a suited Madden blind-reversed a car out of gunfire, grabbed a semiautomatic weapon and went hunting for the assailant on a nearby rooftop. It didn’t hurt that he’s Scottish. Bodyguard started with 14 million viewers and ended on 17m. And so, as Madden says to me now, “How the hell did that happen? I still don’t believe it in my head.” Filming the six one-hour episodes took five months. As his character divides this time fairly equally between being shot at, wearing suicide vests and pondering suicide, it took its toll. “We were just so deep in, you don’t really know what’s going on any more,” he says. “People will say, ‘Did you know it was going to be a hit?’ You go, ‘I was just trying to survive it. I’m just trying to get to the end of the week.’” I tell him I read he had a few sleepless nights, but he corrects me. “I had a lot of sleepless nights. When you spend all day in someone else’s clothes, saying someone else’s words, thinking someone else’s thoughts and it’s all grim shit, that can’t help but filter into your life, because you’re doing that six days a week. That weighs down on you.” Is that... useful, I ask, for the role? >>
RICHARD MADDEN Blazer, £1,600. Trousers, £500. Both by Giorgio Armani. armani.com. Rollneck by Billionaire, £625. billionairecouture.com
‘When you spend all day thinking someone else’s thoughts it weighs down on you’ JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 157
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RICHARD MADDEN
‘I finished Bodyguard and didn’t want to act again. It had taken so much out of me’ Coat, £2,100. Shirt, £245. Both by Dolce & Gabbana. dolcegabbana.com. Tie, £100. Trousers, £455. Both by Paul Smith. paulsmith.com
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>> “Yeah. But not so useful for your health... It’s not fun to do it. It takes its toll doing it. You go home hollow. At night you’re dreaming about it.” All of which could be interpreted as typical actorly talk about throwing oneself into a role and how deep the dive was. But it soon becomes clear it’s more than this. After he finished the shoot, he says, he felt so drained he genuinely wanted to quit acting altogether. Really? “Yeah. I finished Bodyguard and didn’t want to act again. Really. It had taken so much out of me physically, mentally and personally. I didn’t see any of my friends for months, unless they came to set. It was just relentless. You didn’t get a day off. My character doesn’t get a second off. It took more out of me that anything else I’ve done.” So... second series then? He laughs. “I mean, I’m meeting Jed next week actually on that front.” He can’t, he says, imagine Budd going back to work the next week and saying, “Right, where’s my next principal?” After all: “He did walk through Central London with a bomb vest on.” Though one change, he says, would involve the genuine (and heavy) bulletproof vest he was made to wear. Halfway through shooting, he says, a real bodyguard – one of the show’s consultants – said to him, “Why are you wearing that then, mate?” “It’s what they do,” Madden replied. “You wouldn’t wear that,” said the bodyguard. “They can see you’re a bodyguard then, can’t they?” “And I was like, ‘Exactly!’ I tried to explain that to them at the start.” He even realised his fellow actors weren’t wearing them either. Richard Riddell, who played a fellow police officer, said to him one day, “Just don’t put it on if you don’t want to wear it.” Madden: “He got away without having to wear one for the whole thing! I should have been as smart as him.” Ironically, the part of Bodyguard that people assumed was the most unrealistic – the central plot point of a bodyguard having an affair with the “principal” they’re protecting – was actually anything but. “It’s funny. A lot of people online were saying, ‘This is so unrealistic that they would have got together and ended up having sex.’ The bodyguards I spoke to, without naming certain names, were like, yeah, totally fucked their principals. You get really into it with these people. So those things definitely happen. There’s a couple of stories... unrepeatable stories...” But maybe one repeatable one? He laughs. “No. I want to tell you, but I can’t.” 160 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
He agrees to tell me one off the record. And he’s right: it’s unrepeatable.
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hen Madden finished his last scene for Game Of Thrones in 2012 as “King In The North” Robb Stark – a scene notable for starting off as a wedding but ending up with his mother’s throat slit, his pregnant wife’s stomach shivved and his own character crossbowbolted and beheaded; Thrones never did have a laugh track – he didn’t, he says, hang around for the afterparty or even say his goodbyes to cast mates. This, I will learn, is his thing. Rather, he went straight from the set to the airport and took a night flight back to London. When he first mentioned this to me, at the GQ cover shoot, I’d assumed this was because he had another job to get to. “No,” he says now. “I just wanted to leave. I just wanted to get out.” He didn’t even have time to change, he says, and so boarded the flight wearing a medieval tunic covered in fake blood. No sooner had he sat down than he was overcome with the emotion of it all and started crying.
‘Bodyguards I spoke to got together and ended up having sex with their principals’ “I sobbed and sobbed on that Friday. I was hysterical actually. I was so exhausted. I cried all the way home.” The air stewardess kept asking if I was OK. “And then people moved and the rows behind me moved. I was sobbing and covered in blood. I looked like I’d murdered someone and got on that flight.” He never said goodbye then, just like he didn’t say goodbye after the last day on Bodyguard and on every other thing he’s ever done. I ask if it’s because he finds it too emotional, that if he’s going to sob, he’d rather do it alone, or at least at 40,000 feet with mildly terrified strangers. “No. I don’t care about that. It’s just... I just don’t like saying goodbye. I don’t like things being over. I never have. And Thrones was such a big closing chapter in my life.” And so he did what he always does: he said, “See you tomorrow” and left. Did he feel a bit cheated, I wonder, being unceremoniously crossbowed out after just three series when his more fortunate cast mates will finish next year after eight? “No. I was ready to leave when I did. It was five years from the pilot until I finished
filming. For any actor, five years is too long to play a part. I didn’t feel cheated at all. I was ready to leave.” Which is not to say he was confident in his post-Thrones life. “Terrified,” he says. “Terrified that you’re never going to work again. Terrified that you’re just going to be defined by one thing. That it was a fluke accident and that anyone who got cast as Robb Stark would have had the success of that. And it just happened that it was you when it could have been someone else.” And also, of course, “Terrified of just getting cast as Romeos, princes and young kings.” The fear wasn’t exactly unfounded – he’d already played Romeo at this point and would do again. His first major film role post-Thrones was playing Prince Charming in Disney’s live-action remake of Cinderella. His major post-Thrones TV series: Medici: Masters Of Florence, where he essentially played the Robb Stark of the Renaissance. Watching Bodyguard as a Game Of Thrones fan is interesting. Even if you’re a die-hard, it’s remarkable how little the character of Robb Stark – and by extension all the princes of various levels of charming that he’s played – comes to mind. I had to keep reminding myself it was the same actor. Partly, this is simply talent, of course. But his accent – Madden used his native Glaswegian burr for the first time in a major role – sure doesn’t hurt. Was that something he insisted on? “Yeah. I said to Jed in the first meeting I wanted [Budd] to be Scottish. It just made it a bit easier to get a sense of him. I did work for so many years and not been Scottish in anything. I was like, ‘You know what? I just want to do my own accent.’” I say it’s a compliment to his “Yorkshire” accent in Game Of Thrones that I wasn’t even aware he was Scottish. “That’s funny. You know, the Stark family [in Thrones] weren’t actually supposed to speak with a Northern accent when we started.” What, really? “We were all supposed to be RP. Then Sean Bean came in and just said, ‘I’m not doing that. I’m just gonna be myself.’ So that’s when they were like, ‘Right, the dialect coach has to teach everyone to do this accent now...’” If Madden was happy to leave Thrones and what he calls the Thrones “porno sex” behind (“Soft-focused and lying down on furs by fire. It was like Seventies porno. My wife kept her knee-high boots on. It was all about the Game Of Thrones porno sex”), it did mean leaving the money behind too. Madden has previously said people think he’s rich because of the show, but that “when I signed up for it I was 22 with fuck-all on my CV, so I was paid fuck-all”. >>
RICHARD MADDEN
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
Jacket by Gieves & Hawkes, £2,195. gievesandhawkes.com. Rollneck by John Smedley, £145. johnsmedley.com
‘I don’t like things being over. I never have. And Thrones was a big closing chapter in my life’ JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 161
>> That’s surely, I say, no longer the case with the new contracts his former cast mates negotiated. Did they get put on a lot more money after he left? “Fuck yeah.” How much are we talking about? Three times more? He shakes his head and grins. “Crazy much more.” Ten times more? “More.” Twenty times? He raises his eyebrows as if to say keep going. Fifty times? “I know roughly what some of the leads get now,” he says. “And we’re talking changing the decimal place by a few. That would have been nice, but at the same time I look back at all the different jobs I’ve done since I finished and I look at some of the actors who I love on that show and they’ve not maybe had the opportunity to do those things, because they’ve been tied to the show, whereas I’ve played a lot more different parts.” Which is both true and yet feels incomplete. It was only with Bodyguard that Madden was no longer still tied to Thrones, six years after he left. As if to prove it, his next role – which he finished shooting the day before we met – is as Elton John’s manager/lover John Reid in biography-cum-musical fantasy Rocketman, which is about as far away from Robb Stark and the world of Thrones as it is possible to get. He hasn’t met the real Elton yet, he says, who’s played by Taron Egerton. “I think he came in, saw sets, costumes, jewellery and stuff, and said, ‘All right, see you in Cannes!’” He remembers having lunch with the director, Dexter Fletcher, who played him a tape of Egerton singing “Rocket Man”, “and that was the game-changer. I heard it fresh, but in a very Elton way, but it was Taron.” He went to Abbey Road to meet Egerton the next day (“which was exciting”) and read a couple of scenes. And that was it. He’d assumed he hadn’t got it. “It was supposed to be an hour-long meeting and I was out in 15 minutes.” He was so angry at this certainty (“I just thought I was shit”), he walked for two hours, annoyed with himself. He then got on a flight and after turning his phone off, decided he wasn’t going to turn it back on and didn’t for a day and a half. “I didn’t even want them to tell me I didn’t get it. That’s how much I knew I didn’t get it.” Cut to his agent finally getting through, telling him he’d got the part and asking why his phone had been off for two days. “When I decide to do something, that’s it. I’m an extremist in that way.” Of the film, he says, besides being very thankful for autotune, he’s most proud of the fact that “We know Elton for all >> 162 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
It still afects him, the people looking at him. Back then it was because he was bullied. Now it’s because he’s famous
RICHARD MADDEN Coat, £2,320. Coat, £2,225. Both by Prada. prada.com. Rollneck by John Smedley, £145. johnsmedley.com. Trousers by Canali, £400. canali.com. Shoes by Manolo Blahnik, £635. manoloblahnik.com
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>> his flamboyancy and have preconceived ideas a lot of the time about gay relationships in film and television. But they’re just two men in a relationship and I’m really proud of that, that we’re not defining it by their sexuality.” But generally, he says, “I’m thrilled. Now Bodyguard works and you go, ‘Shit, I can act. Maybe it’s not just a fluke every time.’ Of course, saying that now I’ve jinxed it.”
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f you want one explanation as to why Richard Madden finds it hard to have faith in Richard Madden, despite everyone else’s faith in Richard Madden, one explanation might be found in his childhood, which saw Richard Madden bullied relentlessly. He grew up in Elderslie, a small village just outside the town of Paisley, around eleven miles west of Glasgow. “It was a difficult place to be,” he says. “There’s not a huge industry in that town any more. It was rough. My high school was really rough.” He was shy, overweight, self-conscious and had no interest in sport. Or, to put it another way, bully bait. Growing up, he says, “was just constant humiliation really”. He spent a lot of the time in the woods near his house, as it was always somewhere he could escape to. “Yeah. I liked the woods. I’d spend a lot of time in the forest to get away.” He went to youth theatre “to try to get a bit more confidence in myself”, and while he did gain confidence in acting, it didn’t work out that way with his classmates. “Yeah, in hindsight maybe not the best move to try and fit into a rough, very masculine kind of school to say, ‘Hello. Now I do song and dance!’” So then they beat you up twice as hard? “Yeah. Exactly.” You got bullied a lot? “Yeah. Who didn’t?” Actually, I say, most people didn’t. I think bullied kids rationalise it by thinking it happened to everyone, but it didn’t really. It happened to the bullied kids. “Yeah, well,” he says. “I definitely did.” So he threw himself into acting. He remembers that his father, a fireman, would get up at 4am to drive him to an audition or to a set, while he slept in the back with a duvet (“I’m always very thankful for that”). His first ever job, at eleven, was in an adaptation of the Iain Banks novel Complicity. “And I get raped in it by a big, mid-fifties ginger Scotsman. Now, when you’re eleven or 12 years old, kids don’t differentiate that that’s not real. So going into high school, here’s this big fat gay actor guy who got 164 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
raped. That’s how you start off high school. So humiliation came from that really. And it rolled on from that too.” On sets, where food was always available, he started overeating. He was always a tubby child, but he started to balloon. “I was just eating too much. You’re constantly given food all day! Three meals a day. Stacked. When you’re 12 you’re like, ‘Yeah!’ And I didn’t have many friends, as I was on set, working with adults.” Plus, he adds, PlayStation got invented. At 12, he says, “I had a 38-inch waist. I mean, Christ alive. I didn’t wear denim until I was 19 cos my mum couldn’t take jeans out. So I wore fucking chinos.” During his teens, he says, “I looked like an accountant.” The combo was not a happy one. “It went down like a shit sandwich.” It still affects him, he says, to this day: the people looking at him. Back then, it was because he was big and bullied. Now, it’s because he’s handsome and famous. Yet he still finds it hard to separate the two. “Every day. Yeah. You’ve got people looking at you. I think that did fuck me up
‘I didn’t want them to tell me I didn’t get it. That’s how much I knew I didn’t get it’ as a kid and is still a huge hangover around me today.” He only really remembers, he says, one proper fight. Or, at least, the start of one. He was 14. During PE, one classmate “who used to bully the shit out of me” kept taunting him, “Just laying in. ‘You’re fat! You’re fat!’” Madden thought that if he fought him, he’d doubtless get the crap kicked out of him, but on the other hand, “At least it’ll be done with and he’ll stop terrorising me.” So Madden asked him, “Do you want to fight at lunchtime?” The other boy said sure, but when lunch came, decided he wanted to eat first – then fight. Madden agreed, before deciding, no: he takes his beatings before lunch. And so, Madden marched over to Tasty Bites, where his nemesis was about to order a sausage roll, offered him outside and a crowd quickly gathered, something not uncommon at his school, as fights happened on a strict daily schedule. He remembers his friend saying, “Get the first punch in!” Madden was just about to swing this punch when, out of nowhere, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and found himself dragged backwards through the crowd and
deposited on the bonnet of a car. The unseen assailant? His mother. “My fucking mum!” A classroom assistant, she had been passing, got a flat tyre, got out, saw her son about to swing his first ever punch in his first ever fight and decided to save him. And that, he tells me, “was a whole new humiliation”. Still, he reflects, he never got into another fight after that, as “any time anyone would want one, they’d go, ‘Your mum will come, won’t she?’ My mum saved me, in a way. My mum was my bodyguard back then.” ichard Madden lets out a groan when he clocks the question that’s coming. So, I begin, the Mail On Sunday reported last week that you’re set to be offered... And that’s when I hear it: the pained expression of the young British actor being forced to talk about speculation that they might be the next James Bond – a sort of hazing initiation for those who’ve done the Donmar. “My first reaction,” says Madden, “is always the same reaction, which is the papers make up a story on a Sunday so they can discredit that story on the Monday so they can sell papers on both days.” Sure, I say, but at the same time, the bookies aren’t making Jonah Hill the current favourite to be Britain’s favourite super spy, are they? “They aren’t, no, but this is what happens with all these shows, like Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager. Then there’s the next one. I’m the next one. Everyone just loves the rumour mill on that topic. I’m just the current one. There’ll be a different one next week.” All of which is pretty hard to argue with. But still, I say, nice to be mentioned all the same. “Lovely. I’m more than flattered to be mentioned, for people to consider putting me in that role. I’m very flattered and thankful. It’s a really brilliant thing to be in.” Just for the record, then, you wouldn’t rule it out? “I don’t want to curse anything by saying anything. I think that’s the curse of that. If you talk about it, you’ll curse it.” He will admit, however, that he is a big Bond fan. “Yeah. I love the movies. I’ve read all the books.” You’ve read all the books? “Yeah.” From what age? “Early teens, I think.” Understandably, this is all Madden will say on the subject. So I conduct a mini straw poll of those close to him. Should Richard Madden be James Bond? >>
RICHARD MADDEN
‘Here’s this big fat actor guy. That’s how you start high school. Humiliation came from that’
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RICHARD MADDEN
‘You can think it’s in your head and then there’s literally photographers in the trees’ Suit, £645. Shirt, £89. Bow tie, £65. All by Boss. boss.com
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>> Lily James, costar in Cinderella and Romeo And Juliet: “He’d be great! It would be great having a Scottish Bond. There’s a cheekiness to him that works really well with Bond. That wryness and glint behind the eyes. You don’t know what’s going to come next.” Jed Mercurio, Bodyguard creator: “I think the only thing more tedious than Bond rumours is people who actually give their opinion, which no one gives a shit about.” Kit Harington, costar in Game Of Thrones: “I don’t want to curse him. Any time anyone starts to get rumoured for Bond, it becomes a curse on them. And the reason I don’t want to do that is that I actually do think he would make a very good Bond. He’s got this natural charm. He’s proven with Bodyguard that he has that muscle for it. And wouldn’t it be nice to go back to a Scottish Bond?” I report back to Madden. “Very nice of them,” he says dryly. “Thanks very much for talking about that...” I mention, also, that James let slip that he would regularly have a Vodka Martini after each evening performance of Romeo And Juliet, which feels like it’s making my job a little too easy. He laughs. “I do like a Martini, yeah. Fucking hell, Lily. Will you keep your mouth shut? They do a really good one here actually.” And he is currently, I say, driving around in a very Bond-esque car, a silver F-Type Jaguar. “Well,” he says, “I met a guy at a party and he happens to run the Jaguar Land Rover things and he said, ‘Do you want a car?’ I said, ‘I’d love an F-Type.’ He went, ‘Great, I’ll get one over to you.’ I mean, it’s a rocket ship. I love it. It can’t be real. Perks of the job. I’m not complaining.”
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fter our lunch, I contact the Scottish novelist Andrew O’Hagan, a good friend of Madden, who grew up not far from him, in a similarly working-class suburb of Glasgow. They first met in 2008, when Madden, 18 years his junior, starred in Be Near Me, a stage adaptation of O’Hagan’s novel. “We clicked immediately,” O’Hagan tells me. They’ve been close ever since. Despite Madden telling me he can’t imagine anything worse than public speaking (“I can stand in front of 2,000 naked easily if I’m in character, but standing up at my mate’s wedding, doing a speech, crushing”), he did indeed recently give such a speech, in Glasgow Cathedral, at O’Hagan’s wedding. Bodyguard had started the week before, so the entire place was swarming with photographers, but, says O’Hagan, “Richard just stood for pictures with everyone and drank his share. It’s what I like most about him: he’s 168 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
dedicated to his work, but he knows where he’s from.” O’Hagan remembers Madden’s mother and father were also there and he’d always liked this about him too: “That closeness to family and the idea that if the tide rises, we all rise together.” Madden read Robert Burns’ first poem, “Handsome Nell”, mainly because O’Hagan’s daughter, Nell, would be in the front row and O’Hagan didn’t want her to feel left out. He says Madden didn’t need this explained to him and “used that voice of his and read the poem directly to Nell and she nearly fainted. That’s what you call a pal.” Ask O’Hagan to share some of the main memories of his friend and he has a few. The one that springs most to mind, he says, was a house party that O’Hagan once threw in London’s Belsize Park. “And the Italian novelist Umberto Eco was there demanding whiskey,” starts O’Hagan, in what must count as one of the great opening sentences of any anecdote. In fact, O’Hagan says, “several grandees” were in attendance, but O’Hagan was in the kitchen
‘I don’t want to curse anything. If you talk about Bond, you’ll curse it’ attending to stew, so Madden, then 24 and not yet famous, was tasked with attending to guests. “The hilarity of it I’ll never forget,” says O’Hagan, “because, while being nice as pie to the self-important guests, he’d notice every terrible thing about them and report as soon as he arrived back in the kitchen. I stood at the stove killing myself laughing and when I came into the room they were all beaming. Richard was their favourite person ever. He’s great like that. He’s a natural comedian. And he knows how to live several lives at once.” Another time, O’Hagan remembers the two of them were in Paris, in 2011, outside the bookshop Shakespeare And Company, and bumped into Ethan Hawke talking to the shop’s manager, who O’Hagan knew. “Richard had just appeared to great acclaim in a play at the Donmar and had already got the job in Game Of Thrones,” says O’Hagan, “but he didn’t say a single word to Hawke about also being an actor. We were two single Scottish guys out on the razz in Paris and that suited Richard fine.” They were staying, says O’Hagan, in adjacent Paris apartments and, true to Madden’s nature, almost as soon as they dropped their
bags, he’d already located every escape. “He had the whole place scoped out.” When I later ask Madden about it, he puts this down, simply, to practicalities. “Well, you know what it’s like in Paris. They’re like little rabbit holes. You need to know how to get out.” As a fireman, his father had seen “so many horrific things, things that happened in buildings that people can’t get out of. It’s something he put into me and my sisters.” O’Hagan says that he always looks for the fire exits too. But he puts the compulsion down to something else. “In my opinion,” he says, “it’s less to do with fear of death than fear of not being prepared. He wants to know what his options are. If you asked me point-blank, I’d say he has a fear of not being free. And that’s quite a working-class thing.” I later speak to Madden over the phone. He is in LA, doing American press for Bodyguard, which is about to land internationally on Netflix. It’s 31C, which is unfortunate, he says, as he’d packed several jumpers. “I didn’t plan this very well.” I mention O’Hagan’s theory to him. “I think that’s a good way to put it,” he says simply. “Yeah. I think so. Growing up, I always strived for my independence.” Tomorrow, he says, he’s about to fly away to sit on a beach for a week with his girlfriend, the actor Ellie Bamber. But after that, he says, he’ll do what he always does after he’s finished a job. On his own, he’ll board a flight to Scotland, get into the wilderness and start walking. He’s under no illusions where this compulsion comes from. They’re the woods, or a version of them, that he went to as a child. The place he could escape. “Yeah. That’s maybe where I get my wanting to be out. I feel like I should lie down and give you £100.” But also, now, it’s something else too. It’s where the paps can no longer find him. “It’s not worth a picture that much!” It’s where people no longer touch him. “You spend long days surrounded by people,” he says. “People literally touching your body and your face all day.” And so, he says, “I go away and I climb some hills – where no one is fucking with me.” G
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‘Soft-focused and lying down on furs by the fire. It was all about the Game Of Thrones porno sex’ JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 169
Inside the stricken court of
MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN From 21 June 2017 to 2 October 2018, Saudi Arabia’s millennial crown prince briefly stood as a figurehead for a youth who yearned for change. Progressive reforms lifted bans on women driving and attending concerts and sought to broaden the economy. But then came the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the hopes of millions of young Saudis died with him. Anointed by Trump, deposed by the world, the real story of MBS is about to be written Story by
Richard Spencer
Photograph by
Luca Locatelli
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‘I am going to be here in 50 years,’ MBS told the sages. ‘You’re not!’ Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stands in the corridor that connects the residence of his father, King Salman, with his own at the royal weekend house in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 2016 JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 171
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moment when the whirlwind took off. It was a whirlwind that at first struck Middle Eastern hands as a cleansing storm, fresh, a herald of something new where innovation was badly needed. But it span rapidly out of control, until it blew out with the slashing and cutting of a bone saw in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul and the murder of Saudi Arabia’s bestknown journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
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t is hard to describe how hard it has been for those who put their faith in Crown Prince Mohammed to accept what Khashoggi’s death means for them. It is all very well now to sneer at Riyadh’s Western cheerleaders, who were so willing to fawn over the prince during his grand tours of London and the United States earlier this year. It is another thing to listen, as I did a couple of weeks after Khashoggi “went missing”, to a young Saudi friend who had been convinced the prince was the man who was going to allow people like him – Western-facing, ambitious and educated – to lead the sort of lives their friends everywhere else led. “Khashoggi’s alive. Take it from me,” this young man said
Jared Kushner and MBS sat playing video games, talking through the future of the Middle East as we knocked back gin together in a bar in Beirut. This was while the Saudis were still claiming innocence, but there was a desperate edge to his whisper. I thought he might cry. “You know he’s not,” I said, trying to be sympathetic. “You know they did it.” He knew, too, but he didn’t want to admit it or the possible consequences. The West dislikes Saudi Arabia with a passion, for all the well-attested reasons: its Islamic conservatism; its funding of radical mosques; its human rights record; its public beheadings and restrictions on women; most lately, the war in Yemen. For those who were instinctively hostile, another spokesman for the same profligate clan of spoiled tribal patriarchs hardly seemed a harbinger of revolution. Yet for those who lived, like most people do, within the constraints and perceptual world of their own society, revolution was what he seemed to offer. It helped that no one really knew him. His father, King Salman, was the archetypal royal insider for most of his long life, rather than a figurehead. Salman was appointed governor of Riyadh at the age of 28 and spent 48 years in
the job, rather than taking the sort of frontline government position that would bring him into the international spotlight. He was not particularly expected to become king – though with the family continuing to insist, decade after decade, on rule by gerontocracy, it was always a possibility. His main role was to be the point man and troubleshooter for the sprawling royal family, particularly the 37 sons of the founding monarch, Abdulaziz ibn Saud, who had conquered the peninsula in the Twenties and then bequeathed his kingdom to the brothers to rule one after the other. Above all, Salman represented the interests of the Sudairi Seven, the sons of Abdulaziz’s favoured wife Hussa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi, who have been the monarchy’s core. Salman’s full brother King Fahd reigned for 23 years; Sultan and Nayef were defence and interior ministers for 48 and 37 years respectively. (Cabinet reshuffles are not quite as frequent in Riyadh as they are in Westminster or Washington.) Salman himself has 12 sons, as well as a daughter. Some of the boys were already famous when he came to the throne in 2015, but not young Prince Mohammed. Salman’s second son, Sultan, was the first Muslim and first Arab to become an astronaut. A Nasatrained scientist, he flew in the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985. While up in orbit, he rang the grand mufti, an elderly flat-earther who believed the moon landings were faked, to troll him from space. Another of Salman’s sons was a big racing man who owned stables in Kentucky and horses that won both the Epsom and Kentucky Derbys. Mohammed, eighth child of 13, was by contrast a stay-at-home daddy’s boy. Unlike his older siblings, he never went abroad to study. Sticking by Salman’s side, he became chief gofer, private secretary and then formally chief of staff. By this time, both Sultan and Nayef, successive heirs to the ageing King Abdullah, had died and Salman had risen to take their place as crown prince. This left Mohammed, a squib in terms of strict hierarchy, in a powerful position. As monarchs age and become incapacitated, the CP has to start taking over the offices of state, but at the same time maintain a proper deferential decorum. The chief of staff does the smoothing over, making the rounds of the family and the national and tribal movers and shakers, negotiating terms, asserting the authority of the new boss. It’s not a bad place to be in, if you know what you are doing, have a model as well-versed in the etiquette as Salman and the self-confidence to assert yourself. This Prince Mohammed assuredly did, even then. There is a story, told in Wikileaks, how as a 20-year-old he refused to have his fingerprints taken for a visa to the United States, saying he was a prince, not a common criminal. >>
Photograph Getty Images
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here is nothing understated about Riyadh’s King Abdulaziz Conference Centre. It may be situated on a grim, dusty bypass and its name may conjure up an image of beige-painted auditoria littered with plastic coffee cups, but once you have passed through its bronze security gates nothing could be more different. Corridors with deep carpets, lit by enormous gold and glass chandeliers, lead into a succession of anterooms furnished in full Louis XIV repro. The brightness is overwhelming. There are no signs or arrows or other directions. So the visitor blinks, settles on a gilt-edged sofa and waits to be told where to go. On the other side of a door, through which liveried servants are scurrying, is lunch. But once the door opens, the interior is revealed to be not so much a dining room as a vista, an endless expanse, the far side of which is almost out of sight. This vista is starting to heave with people, mostly men, some in the swirling whites of Gulf dishdashas, some in a dozen styles of military uniform, some in the more colourful robes of Asian and African dignitaries and a few more in suits. To the visitor’s left hover Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump: the First Millennials are as immaculately suited and coiffed as ever, but even they look overshadowed. Apart from anything else, they are about half the average age of everyone else. The circular table at the centre of this ballroom is filling up. The visitor ticks off the national leaders he recognises: Sisi of Egypt, Abdullah of Jordan, a bevy of North Africans. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Custodian Of The Two Holy Mosques, is there, of course, as host, but it is two other men we are here to see. In marches President Trump, in his peculiar mixture of shamble and strut, and takes his place as guest of honour next to the king. He looks around, takes it all in. He is at home with the style, but perhaps even he is impressed by the scale – that was certainly the intent. Then, behind him, we see first the beard and then the bulky form of the man who, we subsequently realise, this is all really about: the Kushners’ millennial counterpart, the man in whom Saudi Arabia’s millions of frustrated young men and women have placed their hopes, the 31-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This was 18 months ago, and the Riyadh Islamic Summit of May 2017 was, almost literally it seemed for a while, MBS’s crowning moment. Anointed by Trump’s approval, within a month he would be crown prince. Rumours of the king’s imminent abdication in his favour – though untrue – were about to begin. There had been previous signs of his rising star, his promise and his flaws, but this was the
PRINCE MBS
Western governments are always under pressure to say that change is coming The Crown Prince ahead of a visit to Downing Street to meet the prime minister as part of his ďŹ rst foreign tour as the Saudi heir apparent, 7 March 2018
>> Still, what happened when the old king finally died on 23 January 2015 caught everyone by surprise. The unknown prince was immediately appointed defence minister, at the age of just 29. Since his father had been deputy governor of Riyadh at 18, and Uncle Sultan defence minister at 33, his youth was not unprecedented, but this was 2015, not a Sixties Saudi Arabia just emerging from feudalism. It was a message: he was now the go-to man, the new royal centre.
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BS”, as he quickly became known, was always a mixed bag of tricks. Within a year, three things had become clear from diplomats and the consultants and PR people with whom he quickly surrounded himself. The first was that he had no doubts he was going to rule Saudi Arabia, change it beyond recognition and hang around to see the consequences. “I’m going to be here in 50 years,” he would tell the sages, teasingly. “You’re not!” The second thing was that, extraordinarily, he appeared not to give a hoot about Saudi Arabia’s feared clerical establishment. In Riyadh in the November after his appointment, by which time he was also officially deputy crown prince, one of his entourage told me that his models for the new Saudi Arabia were Singapore and Dubai. These are 174 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
cities perhaps less associated with otherworldliness than any on earth. “Dubai,” I said rather nervously, “but I guess without the parties?” “Singapore and Dubai,” came the answer. For decades, Western journalists had been subjected to the mantra that “social reform” and women’s rights had to proceed slowly because popular customs and observances would not accept fast change. However, the clerics have been proven to be paper tigers. With barely a murmur of dissent, hundreds of thousands of women have taken jobs, been allowed to drive, started going to concerts and football matches. Earlier in 2015, on another visit to Riyadh just after the change of leadership, I had visited a shopping mall that a squad of the muttawa, the religious police, had stormed the previous week, seizing blue and grey abayas off the shelves of women’s clothes stores (the only approved colour is black). “We’re in charge now,” one of them had shouted, a shop assistant – male – told me. Everyone believed the Salmans were conservative and that such minor liberalisations as there had been under Abdullah would now be reversed. The muttaween’s error just shows how little people know when it comes to Saudi, including sometimes Saudis themselves. The muttawa was one of the first institutions MBS pegged back, removing its right to arrest people, particularly for the sin of “public mixing” (of the sexes). When I returned to the
store this year, it was a festival of greens and pinks and blues. The assistant was a woman. The third aspect of MBS’s character that was immediately remarked on, though, was unpredictability. “Impulsive” and “impetuous” were the epithets that found themselves on repeat. The diplomats defended him. For the average Westerner – and, after all, Western diplomats are supposed to be representative of the average – the formalities of an Arab royal court, while charming and authentic-seeming at first, are also frustrating. American and British governments are always under pressure from public opinion and are desperate to be able to say that the change is coming. There was a strong will to believe in someone who seemed to want to bring that about. Maybe the more impetuous the better. On my November visit, the royal court handed me a remarkable manifesto. It laid out an agenda for change worthy of a Western-style politician, not the cautious half-promises to which Saudi Arabia was so accustomed. It covered the main issues that subsequently became the hallmark of MBS’s time in power. Economic reform was front and centre, targeting diversification away from oil, along with budget cuts to challenge the dependency culture (of young men idling their lives away in well-paid but unproductive government jobs). There was talk of expanding opportunities for women,
Photographs AAP; Getty Images
Football fans hold images of King Salman and MBS aloft during the 2018 World Cup qualifying match between Saudi Arabia and Japan in Jeddah, 5 September 2017
PRINCE MBS
Representatives of NGOs stage a demonstration in front of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul following the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, 8 October 2018
of greater engagement with the outside world to improve the country’s public image. It even mentioned allowing visits by human rights groups, previously unthinkable. Two months after that visit, on 2 January 2016, Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on a single day, all but four of them by beheading. One was the most outspoken cleric from the country’s Shia minority. Some of those killed were accused of doing little more than protesting violently. Others had been children when arrested, in some cases years before. The manifesto I had been given said nothing about reforming the political or judicial system.
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hose who deal with the crown prince face to face say he appears to be on top of his briefs. In keeping with his predecessors, he has a preference for working late: it remains the case that anyone who works for the royal family must expect midnight summonses, while most important announcements, such as the lifting of the ban on women driving, have been issued in the early hours. Unlike some other members of the royal family, the prince, a law graduate, can engage coherently in policy discussions. Unlike many other Arab leaders, he does not necessarily try to dominate the conversation: he defers to colleagues. This works both ways; a former White House official has described how the
prince once interrupted a meeting between President Obama and King Salman to deliver a critique of American foreign policy. Again, the breach of protocol surprised, but did not necessarily offend: perhaps it was another sign of a man determined to get things done. How much will Saudi Arabia’s British and American allies regret seeing MBS’s behaviour through this template? The mass executions?
On 2 January 2016, Saudi executed 47 people, some had been children when they were arrested Gruesome, regrettable, but most of the dead were accused of being Al-Qaeda. He was sending a decisive message about where the kingdom stood on radicalism under the new regime. Usurping his predecessor as crown prince, the vastly experienced interior minister Mohammed bin Nayef, with hardly a thank you for his service? He was just removing uncertainty from the line of succession. What about his locking up scores of princes, businessmen and officials in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (bang next to the conference centre and where
the Trumps had stayed for that glorious May 2017 summit)? So what if there was no pretence at due process? He was dealing with the scourge of corruption, after all. “They know exactly what they are doing,” President Trump tweeted of his new friends. “Some of those they are harshly treating have been ‘milking’ their country for years.” Was it messages such as this that gave MBS the impression he had impunity? Or was it the “personal ties” that Jared Kushner had developed with him since the summit? A week before the arrests, the two men had sat up late together on a secret Kushner visit to the kingdom, playing video games while they chewed over the future of the Middle East. This view, that the Trump administration erred in giving such licence to its new-found protégé, is only one way of looking at it. Another is to turn it the other way round. Perhaps it was MBS and the royal court who were too quick to get into bed with President Trump, a man whose instinctive approach to policy and whose own projection of impunity are so mesmeric. “I told them not to get into Trump’s basket of crazy,” a former advisor to the Saudi government said. “They ignored me.” The way the president conducted business encouraged the young prince to think that he would be protected whatever he did. In a kingdom where there are few constitutional >> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 175
applied by the big brother in Washington. MBS may have thought that with Trump in override mode, he had no limits either. In his principal aide, a man called Saud alQahtani, MBS had his own Steve Bannon, a nationalist ideologue who was not afraid of using Twitter to promote himself, his stances and his boss simultaneously. Qahtani roused supporters and abused critics and got the former to pile in on the latter. Qahtani was also given licence to bring in like minds, such as the army general who had proved himself a combative defender of the kingdom as spokesman for the coalition fighting the war in Yemen. Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri lost his cool last year when he was confronted during a visit to London by a bunch of antiwar protesters and was caught on camera flipping them the bird. An offence that would have won him the sack in more normal times instead earned him a promotion. He was whisked away to become deputy head of the national intelligence agency. “They were surrounding themselves with amateurs,” the former advisor said.
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ot long after he became defence minister, MBS took his country to war. The intervention he launched in neighbouring Yemen, where an Iran-linked rebel group had seized the capital, Sana’a, was classic Middle East. Complex in its origins, which lay in a confusing mix of dictatorial grandstanding, religion and history, it seemed largely obscure to the outside world. The West’s allies seemed to be on the
President Trump (centre left) and King Salman (centre right) meet during the Arabic Islamic American Summit in Riyadh. Jared Kushner sits far left, 21 May 2017
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side of Al-Qaeda, which US drones nevertheless continued to bomb. Their enemies were a northern clan called the Houthis, who were members of a Shia sect called Zaidism and had formed an alliance with their historic enemy, the recently ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh. His loyal troops had previously been financed by Saudi. Not surprisingly, hardly anyone outside the country understood what on earth was going on and most tried to ignore it. But it has become the biggest scar on the face of modern Saudi Arabia’s reputation, at least until the killing
In Saud al-Qahtani, MBS had his own Steve Bannon – a nationalist ideologue and Twitter user of Jamal Khashoggi, as Saudi jets bombed their way back into contention at the cost of tens of thousands of civilian lives. If that is one bookend to the four-year soap opera that has been the rise of the crown prince, the other is Khashoggi’s death – described as a “heinous crime” by MBS. The question is, will it be terminal? The Saudis claim adamantly that he knew nothing about it and was as shocked at what happened as everyone else. It has become clear hardly anyone outside the kingdom seems to believe that, though President Trump maintains that
he does. But Turkey has not released evidence to prove otherwise, either because it does not have it or because it is seeking some sort of reward for not doing so. Turkey would like to see the back of MBS. President Erdogan has ideological and personal reasons to object to a rival for the leadership of the Sunni Muslim world, a position he is trying to carve out for himself. However, for the moment he has given up the idea he can force MBS out, I am told. Within Riyadh, there seems to be no imminent move against MBS. Clearly, many of his cousins loathe him, but he has been adroit in sidelining them and, as one former diplomat who knows the family put it to me, none of the other leading princes is “the sharpest knife”. The exception is Mohammed bin Nayef, the ousted predecessor, but he remains under semi-house arrest and the Qahtani media circus managed to do a competent job smearing his reputation, saying when he was ousted that he was addicted to prescription painkillers. (These claims have not been independently verified, although it is known he was injured almost a decade ago by an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber who was trying to kill him.) Another brother of King Salman, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, aroused interest by telling protesters in London that “There are specific people who are responsible for the state of the war in Yemen... the king and crown prince”, apparently a signal of opposition and then, after waiting out a few weeks in Britain, returning home. But he seems unlikely to have the backing to stage any kind of rebellion. “I believe the crown prince’s position is very
Photograph Getty Images
>> checks and balances, the limits are those
PRINCE MBS insider who is close to the royal family told me. “He has the backing of the king.” The prince’s rivals also recognise the dangers of forcing change. The family had serious disputes in the past; nowadays, there is more of a sense that they stick together or fall together. “He has consolidated power into his hands, which makes it very difficult for any rival to challenge him even if he wishes to do so,” the insider said. “Members of the royal family who I come across realise that backing and supporting the crown prince is the best and most logical course of action, even if some of them disagree with some of his choices or decisions. Reopening the succession line would risk destabilising the kingdom at a very volatile period in the region.”
R
ecently, MBS has been living on his yacht in Jeddah – a £450 million yacht he bought a couple of years back on a spending spree, a spree begun just as he was telling his countrymen to tighten their belts that also included a £230m French chateau and the world’s most expensive painting, the £350m “Salvator Mundi” by Leonardo. The yacht is, apparently, to keep him safe. He believes there are plots to assassinate him. Also, if you have spent £450m on a yacht, you probably want to get best use out of it. Meanwhile, his fellow Saudis are undoubtedly in a state of panic. Many are as outraged as anyone else by what has happened. No one believed the country was a liberal place,
but most thought there were limits to the ruling family’s authoritarianism. Its jails and secret police do not have the reputation of, for example, Syria’s or Egypt’s. On the other hand, many of the youth – two thirds of the population is under 30 – are also terrified that an end to MBS would be an end to the social reforms and a return to the old order. They also know that relations with the outside world may never be the same again. “The spell is broken,” the former diplomat said. The idea that Mohammed bin Salman was trying to change his country is not a myth, even if some people did get too carried away with the idea that all was going to be free and easy in the new Saudi. He never promised democracy and apple pie. He did, however, promise that young people would be able to go to college and get ordinary jobs, make a living, go to the cinema and have fun. As he totters, so all those prizes become less assured, whichever way things turn out. Cinema companies are already reviewing their position. At the beginning of November, the king took his son off his yacht and took him on a tour of the provinces. They went to places that remain largely unknown to the K Street public relations men and perhaps to the prince himself: places such as Ha’il, a farming centre on the edge of the mountains of the north, and Buraydah, capital of the conservative Qassim province, where Salafism rules and clerics remain fierce. The king did what the sheikhs of the Arabian peninsula always used to do, before Britain and America told them to modernise their systems of
governance. He held court for local bigwigs and distributed largesse. Debtors were freed from prison. The crown prince stood politely behind him. The duo’s tour was a show of support for the prince, to be sure, an assertion that his position was safe. It was also a public reminder of his first duties to his people. In Ha’il, the royal pair were met by a chubby youth in black gown and head-dress, who in a reedy treble declaimed a poem of welcome. “We welcome the king, the protector of our homeland! And we welcome Mohammed, the crown prince of a king who belongs to us, the image of generosity, of hospitality, of kindness. The sky seems to be raining from the heavens.” Creepy? A little. Sign of a personality cult? Possibly, but what is an absolute monarchy if not a personality cult? But what this really was was a lesson that if there is a place for the new, there is also a place for the old ways of doing things. The crown prince’s power derives from the king and the king must deal with the people, not just his friends. Has he heard that message? G
More from G For these related
stories visit GQ.co.uk /magazine Could Trump Be Better For The Middle East Than Obama? (May 2017) What Turks Really Think About President Erdogan (Sune Engel Rasmussen, April 2017) SNL Arabia Produces Comedy Amid Violence And Repression (Caroline Davies, June 2016) RICHARD SPENCER IS THE MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT FOR THE TIMES.
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‘Each painting is an orchestra of appropriation, a celebration of everyday symbols’
Philip Colbert photographed for British GQ at his studio in London’s Shoreditch, October 178 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Suit by Whitley, from £650. whitley.london. Shirt by Uniqlo, £24.90. uniqlo.com. Shoes by Russell & Bromley, £175.russelland bromley.co.uk. Socks by Pantherella, £12. pantherella.com. Necklace by Colbert Studio, £150. colbertstudio.co.uk
Story by
Dylan Jones
Photographs by
Steve Schofield
GOES THE EGO In the age of the self(ie), artist Philip Colbert is the arch-individualist. From fashion to furniture, his work is his world and he wants us all to live there. As GQ previews his crackling new exhibition, we find a neo-Warhol whose outstanding paintings really do stand out on their own JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 179
you fall out of the Ace Hotel as dawn breaks. There is music everywhere, food everywhere else, while every form of brickwork is a veritable canvas, every Formica tabletop a bar, every reconfigured lavatory a tattoo parlour. Come in and tell people where you’ve been! Forever! Sure, you will find those who’ll tell you that the area has been gentrified up the wazoo and that it is now just another vast outpost of Starbucks, but, in spite of this, the place still has its fair share of grit and glitter. Looking at Shoreditch from one of the many rooftop bars in the area – and, frankly, if you don’t have a rooftop bar then you might as well not open shop – the area doesn’t look so different from a Where’s Wally? street scene. The dress code is a little different, but not much.
O Presumably it’s no surprise to anyone that these days Shoreditch looks rather like a theme park, one perhaps imagined by an ad agency intent on fusing the frenetic street life of New York’s East Village in the early Eighties, Barcelona’s current retail environment and a vision of Disneyland imagined by someone wanting to appeal exclusively to adults who like to think of themselves as being no younger than 16 and certainly no older than 36. Even if they’re 60. Or 13. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, or real, or immersive, or genuinely representative of the modern urban experience – chaotic, connected, commodified – but it is at all times a vast pop-up, an alternative Monopoly pop-up, where every flat surface is a platform for commerce. Art. Coffee. Clothes. Bike chains. Jewellery. You name it, Shoreditch has co-opted it. Along Redchurch Street, Ebor Street and all the other little passages that surround 180 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Nick Jones’ Shoreditch House you see a warren of activity, street scenes that look as though they’ve been choreographed specifically for some 21st-century adaptation of Colin MacInnes’ Absolute Beginners, as boulevardiers and nascent street artists jostle with psycho cyclists, hipster tourists and a wider variety of hawkers than anyone ever saw in Soho at its height. If you can’t find whatever you want in Shoreditch then it probably hasn’t been invented yet. But if you order it now it should be ready by the time
These days, if you can’t talk about your work – at length – no one wants to know you
n an Indian summer afternoon in October, this is where I found the 38-year-old artist Philip Colbert, through a side door, up an industrial flight of stairs, along a bustling terrace that ten years ago would have been the haven of drug dealers but is now the domain of wandering Korean TV crews (and where I was offered some exotic fondue by some thoroughly nice but apparently random people who looked as though they should have been working at a trade fair) and into a lockup full of a small army of painters, technicians, gofers and personal assistants – 12 in total. Such is the domain of the neo-pop surrealist. This is what Philip Colbert calls himself, and why shouldn’t he? Artists can call themselves what they like these days. For years I’ve known Colbert as the lobster guy, the quirky East London artist who uses the large marine crustacean almost as an alter ego, a calling card, a meme. He has a shop on Columbia Road that looks like something from The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine and he’s often seen at art openings and art parties dressed in crazy suits. You can’t miss him, not really, although for ages I wasn’t sure if he was just a joker, someone who did the party scene and was in a band and produced funny lobster paintings because it would have been silly not to. After all, if you’re young in London (and these days everyone’s young, even really old people) what’s the point of developing a career if you don’t need one, if you can just bounce around on the fringes of the art scene and have a good time? When someone such as the ex-American Vogue mainstay André Leon Talley calls you “the godson of Andy Warhol”, is it an anointment or a curse? Seeing his assistants put the finishing touches to his paintings reminded me of the Eighties wunderkind Mark Kostabi, the >>
PHILIP COLBERT
‘Kitchen Chaos’ (2017); (below) ‘Builders’ (2017)
For ages I wasn’t sure if Philip Colbert was a joker, someone who made funny lobster paintings because it would be silly not to JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 181
His recent paintings rattle with an intellectual energy people may not have previously seen in his work 182 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
PHILIP COLBERT
Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
Jacket, £1,200. Necklace, £150. Both by Colbert Studio. colbertstudio.co.uk. Rollneck by Belstaf, £225. belstaf.co.uk. Jeans by Versace, £550. versace.com. Shoes by Russell & Bromley, £175. russellandbromley. co.uk. Watch by Colbert Studio, £570. At anicornwatches.com
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ecently, Colbert has stepped up, moved through the gears and, without taking himself too seriously, allowed his true ambitions to show through. Namely by producing very good art. His recent paintings are big, immersive, deep, funny, complex and rattle with an intellectual energy that people may not have previously seen in his work. The new paintings I saw in his studio are full of contemporary pop figures and pop-cultural touchstones and yet the pictures glimmer with meaning. If you look at his paintings you’ll immediately suffer from an overload of images. You’ll see Salvador Dalí’s lobster telephone, Roy Lichtenstein’s hot dog, David Hockney’s swimming pools, Francis Bacon’s distorted portrait, Man Ray’s ball bearings, William Shakespeare with a glass in hand, even Grayson Perry as his alter ego, Claire. They are
that, while this might be true, he’s not necessarily a narcissist. “I’m pushing my world as much as I can, so in some ways it’s an ego trip, but I represent the individual,” he says. “[I’m] an agent for the individual pushing my liberties to the max.” Two years ago he started devoting himself to painting and although he is still involved in clothing and furniture and trendy objets d’art, these new big paintings have a kind of old master undertone. His first proper show was at the Saatchi Gallery last year and his next is at Houghton Hall in Norfolk in the new year. The Saatchi show was important for him, not least because it obviously involved the patronage of the gallery’s namesake, Charles. “I think he really got where I was coming from, in terms of my dialogue,” says Colbert. “He just told me to stick with it and to develop my themes and
‘Snoopy With Egg’ (2016)
‘Wall Clock’ (2016)
‘Clock Head’ (2016)
much more than a 2-D pop-up, as his legion of supporters shows. In a relatively short career he has collaborated with Rita Ora (who commissioned Colbert to design costumes for her 2013 world tour), Disney, Snoopy, Rolex, Smart Car, Comme Des Garçons and sold work at Dover Street Market and Paris’ now defunct Colette. He has also been validated by the likes of Cara Delevingne, Karl Lagerfeld, Anna Della Russo, Sienna Miller and Lady Gaga. Even Kanye West has been sniffing around. These collaborations don’t necessarily make him an artist, though, and being photographed for local newspapers and magazines in London doesn’t necessarily give you equity in the art world. The day after we met, he was due to fly to Shanghai, where he was going to be on billboards as part of a promotional campaign for Dongpeng. Not his work, mind, but him. Such is the power of social media celebrity these days.
saturated, and are juxtaposed with the mess of modern signage, the visual vocabulary of the mass market: Tesco signs, emojis, umbrellas, Corn Flakes boxes. You get the picture. But there are genuine themes in the work and they positively glisten with meaning, presenting modern pop as narrated chaos, each painting showing the influence of multimedia, mass media and social media on our current understanding of visual imagery. Colbert told me he is an egomaniac, but these works suggest
not to be put off by anyone. You know, keep pushing it.” This is a world of ultra-pop saturation, a sort of mega pop world where the mass intake of Instagram and social media imagery merges with artistic memory. Like Warhol and all the others who come in his wake, Colbert is obsessed with the profundity of the everyday. “I have been building this language, this world of creative vocabulary,” he says. “I loved making products, but I felt slightly limited to how much of a narrative I could get into, because when you are focusing on a dress or a chair there’s a limit to how much you can say. You can make a cool integration of art in life and make a statement. There’s something powerful in that, but I was missing the fact that I could get so involved in telling a story and really layering up and making a more complex picture. I was craving getting into painting and getting into art history in a deeper sense.” >>
>> brash upstart who took Andy Warhol’s collaborative Factory business model and turned it into an assembly line, all the while chanting, “Branding will keep you standing” and “Buy now, before prices go down!” This is slightly unfair, as so many artists use assistants to produce their work, and always have, it’s just that, because of the subject matter of Colbert’s work, it inevitably makes you think that everything is a gag. Which, like I say, is unfair. He’s been here in Shoreditch for just over a year. “You know what it’s like when you’re an artist,” he says. “You go from one random warehouse to the next, where you can get a decent space for a deal.” Before this he was in a medieval death pit near Smithfield Market, which has now been developed for Crossrail. Colbert’s world is a deliberate mess, but the busy cartoon universe he’s created is much,
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Colbert’s subject matter inevitably makes you think everything is a gag – which is unfair
PHILIP COLBERT Suit, Philip’s own. Top by Sunspel, £70. sunspel.com. Shoes by Russell & Bromley, £175. russellandbromley. co.uk. Socks by Pantherella, £12. pantherella.com. Hat, £50. Necklace, £150. Both by Colbert Studio. colbertstudio.co.uk
Fashion was a vehicle for his outlandish ideas. He made wearable art, as well as art that was completely unwearable JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 185
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olbert is married to the artist and film-maker Charlotte Colbert, has two small children and was educated at Strathallan School and then St Andrews, where he studied with Prince William, about whom Colbert is refreshingly discreet (“a sweet, unassuming guy trying to be normal with a rock star entourage”). His father was a property developer, his brother is in finance and art was not what his parents had in mind for him. However, he says they have been supportive, even in the early days, when they thought he was just mucking about. Colbert studied philosophy, read Nietzsche, smoked a lot of pot and on graduating started working in the fashion industry, as it seemed the most appropriate vehicle for his outlandish ideas, making wearable art, as well as art that was obviously completely unwearable. When he started he knew nothing about it, but he had a happy-go-lucky attitude. It took a few years but slowly the randomness of his journey ended up opening some doors and it became a sort of story in itself. And he took off. His early work managed to fuse that classic art-school thing of contextualising consumers while specifically targeting them, with his tongue firmly in his cheek. And that is something he’s developed with his sculpture, furniture and painting. He once covered a BMW with his fried-egg motif for the GQ website and became something of a colourfully dressed man about town. A keen art historian, his work could always be stood up by a fusillade of theory, which has made him more attractive to collectors (because 186 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
‘The fried egg is a symbol, a dot you can show anyone in the world and they will know what it is’ these days if you can’t talk about your work – at length – then no one wants to know you). “My interest in paintings is very much anchored in the pop theory of the Sixties,” he says, perhaps unsurprisingly. “If you look at Warhol or Lichtenstein, who had an almost traditional approach to painting, but who used everyday imagery, they created a different vocabulary. It was about the power of the everyday. I use lots of brands in my paintings – Adidas, Fila, Coca-Cola, etc – and I’m still attracted to these brand images, as, for me, they are like keyholes to everyone. If I’m doing a show in China, I know that people can access and have a lot of sentimental connection to these brands and so I appropriate lots of brand imagery. But I also appropriate images from history that I feel represent language. Each painting is an orchestra of appropriation and a celebration of everyday symbols – could be inspired by Rubens, could be inspired by Mondrian.” Colbert loves eggs. More specifically, fried eggs, which he has used on everything from suits to wallpaper, while continuing to use them in his huge “Guernica”-style paintings. “I love polka dots and, for me, the fried egg is
just another version of that, although it obviously has a more prosaic purpose. If you’re looking at it respectively, Mondrian reduced things to the basic elements of language. The fried egg was a symbol of something reduced to two colours, a dot you can show anyone in the whole world and they will know immediately that it’s a fried egg. I also love the beauty of a fried egg, the wobbliness of a fried egg, the humour of it somehow. I suppose I liked the egg in a symbolic sense. Just like the Yellow Submarine or the lobster, the cactus, Disney characters, the images in an Otto Dix painting, Hockney’s swimming pools, the desert, even Venice these days is a symbol. These are all elements that contribute to the journey of abstraction and decoration.” Downstairs, outside in the street, Colbert’s paintings are coming to life, and as the sun sets and the neons blink into action and the bar lights come on and the Shoreditch portfolio workers start to seamlessly merge with the incoming barhops, you’re suddenly lost in a cavalcade, a wallpaper of images. Art imitates life imitates art. Which then probably imitates life again. In some ways, Colbert could be looked upon as someone who just pours everything around him into a bag and then empties the bag somewhere else, before taking a picture of it. In other ways, he could be the perfect artist for our times, using a knowing, gimlet eye to contextualise the battleground of symbols we wade through every day and producing powerful, energetic work on the back of it. Someone once suggested that Colbert’s work is “a triumphant orchestration of appropriation” and I think that’s a fair enough evaluation. I love his work, as it mirrors completely what I think I want art to be these days – the modern world turned upside down and inside out, with everything knowingly on display. It’s all here in high-def, the work of an articulate prankster displayed for all to see on Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr (and, in Shanghai, even on those billboards), a man whose Vero profile is probably as important as his CV. Come on, how could you not love what Philip Colbert does? Seriously, the man wears a fried-egg suit! G
More from G For these related
stories visit GQ.co.uk /magazine Oils And Canvas Are Just The Beginning For Jonathan Yeo (Florence Walker, October 2018) Martine Syms: ‘Don’t Be Afraid To Be Narcissistic’ (Dylan Jones, September 2018) Henry Taylor: ‘We Have To Be The Ones To Speak Out’ (Dylan Jones, July 2018) PHILIP COLBERT’S EXHIBITION, NEW PAINTINGS, IS ON FROM 14 DECEMBER – 15 JANUARY 2019 AT THE SAATCHI GALLERY, LONDON. SAATCHIGALLERY.COM
Grooming Carol Morley at Carol Hayes Management Styling assistant Angelo Mitakos
‘Cigarette Egg ’ (2017)
PHILIP COLBERT
‘Mickey Soup’ (2016)
When someone such as André Leon Talley calls you ‘the godson of Andy Warhol’, is it an anointment or a curse? JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO .UK 187
‘I was determined not to play it safe. Whether it works or the reaction is negative, that’s part of the process’
Photograph Getty Images
‘Revenant-style’ shearling from Coach’s SS19 show in New York, 11 September
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COACH From left: Jacket, from £850. Blouse, £395. Trousers, £395. Shoes, £250. Earring, £175. Jacket, £1,500. Trousers, from £150. Shoes, from £295. Bracelets, from £150 each. Rings, from £40 each. Jacket, from £850. Shirt, £140. Trousers, £850. Boots, from £395. All by Coach 1941. coach.com
Story by
Teo van den Broeke Photographs by
Ben Lamberty Styling by
Grant Woolhead
It’s the most valuable luxury fashion label in the US, a brand that trades on blue-collar, Midwestern references – so who else but a Yorkshire-born designer to take the reigns at Coach? GQ met Stuart Vevers just hours after his show-stopping eleventh season took to the catwalk to ask how his commercial vision of all-American fantasy continues to engage in the age of the influencer
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artist fighting against the corporate machine, Vevers is chummy with Coach CEO Joshua Schulman and he won’t put a garment out on the runway if he doesn’t think it will sell. “Stuart is interested in how companies work and what makes them tick,” Katie Grand told me recently. “And he’s always developed close relationships with CEOs. He’s very interested in the business side of things.” The third and final thing to know about Vevers is that he’s mastered the aforementioned knack of making things “cool”. At Mulberry he got Kate Moss, Alexa Chung and others to carry the British brand’s handbags; at Loewe he transformed the LVMH-owned Spanish leather-goods label from bit-part performer to hard-edged luxury player; and now, at Coach, he has given the brand a shot of adrenaline to the heart and with it a freewheeling sense of give-a-damn style. “I actually met a professor of ‘cool’,” Vevers tells me as we settle into a pair of squidgy armchairs in his expansive steeland glass-clad showroom. It’s the morning after his Spring/Summer 2019 show and the samples from the collection are hanging lazily on the mannequins and rails around us. “Joel Dinerstein is his name. He wrote the Coach book that we launched. He studies ‘cool’ and what it means. So, of course, I discovered him and his work. He actually pinpointed the use of the word ‘cool’ to the early Forties. And Coach started in 1941, so bells went off in my head. ‘American cool’,” he muses, his dormant Doncaster vowels lifted by a transatlantic jet stream, “implies a certain attitude. It’s about someone who takes risks, who defies conventions, but also doesn’t try too hard, has an ease, a certain effortlessness about them. It’s really helped me define the Coach guy and girl.”
T
he latest outing for said guy and girl, the aforementioned SS19 show, took place at New York’s Pier 94 on a muggy afternoon in September. A giant brontosaurus (called “Bronty”), made from refuse materials including car parts and oil cans was caught mid stomp in the middle of the space, while the sand- and stone-strewn floor evoked a dystopian mood: part Mad Max, part Breaking Bad. Vevers’ commercial nous, his creative flair and that elusive halo of cool he’s so adept at conjuring were plain for all to see in the washed, patchwork leather jackets and lace prairie dresses
Photographs Getty Images
I
t’s a surprisingly tricky business, being a fashion designer. Fabulous parties and celebrity friends aside, the demands on the world’s top creative directors at the biggest luxury houses are onerous. Not only are they responsible for keeping the companies they helm afloat by ensuring everything they design actually sells, but they’re also required to produce searingly forward-facing collections (for some, up to 12 or 14 a year) that appeal directly to the notoriously picky buyers and press who line the front rows at their shows. What’s more, to be a successful fashion designer, you’ve got to know how to make your brand “cool”, that slippery cherry atop the fashion cake, a sense of on-point effortlessness that can so quickly and indiscernibly set one label above another. Unsurprisingly, it’s a select few designers who’ve mastered the requisite skills. Stuart Vevers, the Doncaster-born creative director of American brand Coach, seems to have it sussed. Boasting a CV that includes stints at Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton and Bottega Veneta, creative directorships at Mulberry and Loewe and now the top job at the most valuable luxury fashion brand in the United States, 45-year-old Vevers has, in the space of five years, transformed Coach from a Middle American handbag brand into a global fashion player. When he took the reins from homegrown designer Reed Krakoff in 2013 he introduced a fully fledged ready-to-wear line (putting on the requisite runway shows to match) for the first time in the brand’s history. And over the ten seasons since, Coach’s annual revenues have risen as high as £4 billion. But who is this unassuming fashion assassin? And how did he land the top job at one of America’s most powerful brands? The first thing you need to know about Vevers is that, despite his vast remit and impressive network (the designer counts super- stylist Katie Grand and singer Selena Gomez as friends and he’s regularly papped with Chloë Grace Moretz and Kendall Jenner), he’s incredibly “normal”. Vevers lives in Tribeca, New York, with his fashion illustrator husband of four years (they met in 2008) and walks to and from work most days. He’s unpretentious and he’s warm. When we meet at the sprawling Midtown office of Coach’s parent company, Tapestry (which also owns Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman), he’s wearing a simple crewneck sweater in wool, a pair of dark, slim-cut jeans and his strawberry-blond – let’s call it rose-gold – hair is cut close to his head. He has wide eyes and a smooth complexion. He’s relaxed and upbeat – nice, nothing lurking behind his ready grin. The second thing you need to know is that he’s smart. Where other designers at his level can sometimes take on the role of embattled
COACH From left: Courtney Love, Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael B Jordan and Stuart Vevers at Coach’s SS17 afterparty in New York, 12 September 2016; (below) looks from Coach’s SS19 show, 11 September
These were easy-to-wear clothes that dared the attendant audience to desire them
he sent down his expansive runway. Worn by a snarl-lipped army of achingly hip guys and furious girls – with razor-sharp pelvises to match – these were easy-to-wear clothes dripping with sex and they dared the attendant audience to desire them. An Americana-infused conflation of “thrift-store” leather jackets, Revenant-style shearling coats and hard-core denim jeans and shirts, it was the kind of stuff you could imagine Ryan Gosling wearing on a minibreak to Vermont – or Steve McQueen on a stag do. “There’s something about the ease of American style, whether it’s the varsity jacket
or the biker jacket, the sheep herder, the T-shirt, sweatshirt, jeans, sneakers,” Vevers tells me of the collection. “They ultimately are the things that people wear today. So, to be able to reference them, as an American house, feels really good.” It’s this ability to so easily interpret a certain kind of American cool that has thus far defined Vevers’ tenure at Coach. Where his SS16 show was inspired by the Terrence Malick classic Badlands and his AW17 offering was a grungy take on Little House On The Prairie, the designer’s SS19 collection was influenced by a trip he took to Santa Fe,
New Mexico, a reservoir of all-American romance just waiting to be tapped. “I went for 24 hours and when I woke up there it all started to come together. I went with a couple of members of my team. We crammed so much in. We flew in to a nearby airport and then travelled along the Turquoise Trail [the famously scenic highway linking Santa Fe with Albuquerque]. We went to Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O’Keeffe used to paint, then went to a really cool nightspot in Santa Fe,” he continues. “It was the combination of all those places, these quite disparate references. There was something about >> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 191
stressed ever.” Having spoken to the designer way the buildings were put together that felt face to face, I can see what she meant. Vevers very Coach to me, because we have always – who is rumoured to earn one of the highest talked about this idea of the guy and the salaries of any creative director at a fashion girl being very personal and customised. You brand – emanates a sense of such cool unflapknow, like collecting things on a road trip. pability that it’s hard to believe the success of “I still see things from an outsider’s point of the collection around us is responsible in part view,” he says when I ask how he so expertly for the livelihoods of the 15,000 employees accesses the psyche of America’s rebel youth. “I who work beneath him. think [it’s] because I didn’t grow up here. There What’s his secret, I ask. Beta blockers? “I are certain references within American style or definitely feel [the pressure], but I think a pop culture that I think if I’d grown up here I certain amount of pressure is healthy. It gets might be less inclined to reference, as they’d you up in the morning, it motivates you, it feel too obvious,” he continues. “But because pushes you forward. I was determined that I didn’t grow up here there’s something still I was not going to play safe when I came to quite exotic about them. Like the classic road Coach. Ultimately, I don’t think that would trip, the all-American gas station, you know? be good for the house. I was brought to Coach Even for our campaigns we’ve shot on a subto bring change and that’s what attracted me,” urban street – quite down-to-earth, everyday, he continues. “I’m always looking for opporblue-collar references. They feel very Coach, tunities that can push forward and push our but I also think, being an outsider and not boundaries and take risks. Whether it works or growing up with them, whether the reacthat they still have a tion is negative, to fantasy element for me. me, that’s OK. It’s “Coach is a New part of our process York City house and, and it’s all about to me, New York City learning.” is the coolest city on We’re about to the planet.” More so finish up – Vevers than London? “I think has much work so. There’s something to do and I’ve got about New York that a flight to catch – has an attitude. You but before I leave, walk around the city he shares one and it’s really interestfinal anecdote with ing, it’s really diverse, me, which, I think, loads of interesting best encapsulates characters. There’s a what the designer toughness about it, the is all about. “I was architecture, the yellow having a converFrom left: Jon Batiste, Whoopi Goldberg, Tommy Dorfman, Selena Gomez and GoldLink attend Coach’s SS19 show in New York, Stuart Vever’s eleventh as creative director, 11 September cabs. It’s cinematic.” sation with one of my team last night, n addition to having a knack for underculture, especially how that can work at the after the show,” he says, “and she was saying, standing the kinds of clothes that make actor or musician level and how that can ‘I know we can do better. I know we can do them tick, Vevers, like many other relate to getting a broad spectrum of new better.’ And I was saying, ‘I really believe that designers of his generation, has been customers to a company and how that can is so important,’ but I also said, ‘By the way, quick to realise the importance of harbe relevant to a new generation. He’s very well done. It was great.’” He pauses. “But I nessing celebrity when it comes to attracting interested in that. He’s always very good at know how she felt, because that’s exactly the young, Insta-obsessed consumer Coach establishing the youth.” how I feel. It’s never done. Nothing is ever is targeting. Though Vevers wasn’t allowed “It’s about building a community in many perfect. You always have to look for the next to talk about it during our interview, it was ways,” says Vevers. ”It’s not strategic as much cool idea.” announced a week afterwards that Michael B as... you see someone’s work and what they Jordan, star of Black Panther and Creed, was are doing, the music they are making, the to be Coach’s new menswear ambassador. It’s films they are making or the things they stand More from For these related a trick that worked on the womenswear side for, and it’s natural to reach out and see if they stories visit GQ.co.uk /magazine already: Selena Gomez, who has 144.4 million want to do something or come to an event or followers on Instagram, designed a collabowear something. And then over time it builds.” Philipp Plein: ‘The Fashion World Was Against rative collection with Coach and, although I’m amazed by how calm Vevers seems, parUs From The Start’ (Nick Carvell, October 2018) sales figures haven’t yet been released, she ticularly as he bore his creative soul to the Donatella Versace: ‘I Want The Company To Stay Forever’ (Teo van den Broeke, September 2018) helped nearly double the brand’s social-media world a matter of hours before our meeting. Virgil Abloh: ‘I Now Have A Platform following. Vevers has started fostering relaWhen I asked Katie Grand about this character To Change The Industry... So I Should’ tionships with other cool up-and-coming trait, she said, “He doesn’t get flustered and (Teo van den Broeke, September 2018) stars too, such as Olly Alexander (of Years he never gets stressed. I’ve never seen him
>> the small communities and the salvaged
& Years) and the actor Lakeith Stanfield (of Get Out fame), both of whom were sat on the front row at his SS19 show. “Stuart’s work has been amazing from the get-go and I’m not just biased because he’s British,” DJ and MC Professor Green told me back in London. “His careful collaborations and personal injection into the brand has repositioned it, made it relevant and brilliant again.” This is a sentiment mirrored by Michael B Jordan, who sent me a glowing email about Vevers. “Stuart is an inclusive designer,” he wrote. “It’s deeper than just putting diverse faces in his campaigns. He’s about designing clothes that are more representative of the consumer.” Designer Giles Deacon, who worked with Vevers on womenswear at Bottega Veneta, put it most succinctly, however, when he told me over the phone, “[Vevers is] very interested in the mechanics of modern popular
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Photographs Getty Images
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COACH From left: Shirt, £140. T-shirt, £125. Trousers, £850. Bracelets, from £150 each. Rings, from £40 each. Coat, from £1,100. Shirt, £140. Trousers, £150. All by Coach 1941. coach.com
‘New York is the coolest city on the planet. There’s a toughness about it. It’s cinematic’
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Coat, £1,350. Dress, £750. Boots, from £425. All by Coach 1941. coach.com G
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Photograph Billy Farrell/BFA Producer Ames Petrossi Models Emil Andersson at Muse; Christian Heritage at Next; Judy Kinuthia at Fusion Hair Riad Azar at Art Department Make-up Christopher Ardof at Art Department Digital technician Ousman Diallo Photography assistant William Manchuck Styling assistant Michael Cook
From left: Shirt, from £950. Shirt, £140. Trousers, £850. Boots, from £395. Ring, from £40.
COACH
Vevers has given Coach a shot of adrenaline to the heart... a sense of give-a-damn style
Actor Lakeith Stanfield on the front row at Coach’s SS19 show, 11 September JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO .UK 195
If you ONLY buy one wardrobe-filler THIS WINTER... Make it these Burberry trainers. And this Louis Vuitton bumbag. And a pair of Armani loafers. Oh, and don’t forget the Berluti trainers or the plaid Dsquared2 backpack. And the pyjamas by Michael Kors... What? You didn’t really think we’d stop at one, did you? Styling by
Angelo Mitakos
Photographs by
Colin Ross
BURBERRY Trainers by Burberry, £430. burberry.com
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FASHION
LOUIS VUITTON Rucksack, £1,850. Sunglasses, £460. Bumbag, £1,230. All by Louis Vuitton. louisvuitton.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO .UK 197
MICHAEL KORS Pyjama top, £180. Pyjama trousers, £180. Both by Michael Kors. michaelkors.com 198 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
FASHION
GIORGIO ARMANI Shoes by Giorgio Armani, £680. armani.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 199
BOTTEGA VENETA Bag by Bottega Veneta, £2,640. bottegaveneta.com 200 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
FASHION
BERLUTI Trainers by Berluti, £790. berluti.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 201
PAL ZILERI Cardigan, £890. Shirt, £215. Glasses box, £270. All by Pal Zileri. palzileri.com 202 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
FASHION
DSQUARED2 Backpack by Dsquared2, £870. dsquared2.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO .UK 203
ETRO Coat by Etro, £1,350. etro.com. Shawl by Verheyen London. At 1stdibs.com 204 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Set design Elena Horn Retouching Mel J Retouch
FASHION
HERMÈS Bag by Hermès, £4,420. hermes.com
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ISSA 2 ™
Sonic toothbrush
LUNA 2 ™
Facial Cleansing Brush
SMOOTH. ‘Tis the season to be your best version. For the smoothest shave and the brightest smile.
Available at Harrods.
+ Did you take the hint this year? A voucher in a card is not going to cut it. Whether you’re buying for someone special or treating yourself – we have done all the hard work for you...
Edited by Sophie Clark
+ Grooming + Leather goods + Fragrances + Gifts for her
Treat yourself
To Me, Love Me Don’t forget to look out for No1, too
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1 DiaMaster Ceramos by Rado, £1,890. rado.com. 2 Andy Warhol printed dinnerware set by Calvin Klein Home, £165. At mr.porter.com. 3 Whiskey and Cedarwood cologne 100ml by Jo Malone, £120. jomalone.co.uk. 4 Leather key lanyard by Ally Capellino, £36. allycapellino.co.uk. 5 Martini Bear wool jumper by Polo Ralph Lauren, £345. ralphlauren.co.uk. 6 Leather card holder by Church’s, £140. church-footwear.com. 7 CL logo belt by Christian Louboutin, £365. christianlouboutin.com. 8 Lo-top sneakers by Plein Sport, £185. pleinsport.com. 9 Supersonic hair dryer by Dyson, £299.99. At johnlewis.com
G Partnership
Serve up an ace Put your best foot forward and stride into the New Year with trainers from Lacoste
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he Masters. Even the name suggests this trainer is one for the collection. Embodying the spirit of the French Open – one of the world’s most esteemed tennis tournaments – the Masters is a modern interpretation of a trainer shape straight from Lacoste’s iconic archive. This has a vintage court silhouette combined with minimal paired back details and contemporary colour palette set to satisfy even the sleekest of aesthetics. With clean lines, sophisticated hand craftmanship and a design that is simple yet refined, gifting these trainers will please sports enthusiasts and diehard sneakerheds alike. And to add an extra bow to your tree, they are available for both men and women. One pair for you, one pair for her. Success – you’ve smashed Christmas this year.
Masters leather trainers by Lacoste, £80. At very.co.uk
Go big or go home
No expense spared Ideas for those who demand extravagance
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1 Brown crocodile leather gloves by Billionaire, £2,260. billionairecouture.com. 2 David Bowie contact sheets by Sonic Editions, £447. At yoox.com. 3 The Talking Drum record by Bill Viola, £500. yoox.com. 4 RM 50-03 Tourbillon watch by Richard Mille, £794,900. richardmille.com. 5 Viking 500ml fragrance by Creed, £805. creedfragrances.co.uk. 6 Classic Capri leather boots by Berluti, £1,530. At matchesfashion.com. 7 Ophidia medium suede tote by Gucci, £1,690. At matchesfashion.com. 8 Grey chevron turntable by Master & Dynamic for Ermenegildo Zegna Couture, £2,935. zegna.co.uk
G Partnership
For the true adventurer Photograph Xxxxxxxxxxx
It may be the season to be jolly, but be prepared too – Victorinox has the kit for your everyday dramas
H Navy camouflage Huntsman, £44. INOX Mechanical Watch, £649. Swiss Army STEEL Fragrance, £50. All by Victorinox. victorinox.com
e’s smart, he has a sense of adventure and he’s on your gift list. It’s OK, Victorinox is here to solve your problems. First up, the iconic Swiss Army Knife featuring everything from a wire stripper to a corkscrew. Next, why not go for the elegant I.N.O.X. Mechanical watch? It’s not only the first mechanical watch in the range, but also boasts a lime wood strap made from ethically sourced material. Whether it’s for someone sailing the seven seas or simply a fan of elegant, functional gadgets, everybody likes to smell good. And the new Victorinox signature fragrance Swiss Army STEEL for Men ensures just that.
Stocking fillers
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1 Air safe leather bound travel manicure set by Czech and Speake, £225. At mrporter.com. 2 Love phone cover by Fendi, £270. At brownsfashion.com. 3 I Love Mother silk tie by Hermès, £160. hermes.com. 4 Signature semi precious silver tie clip by Tateossian, £210. tateossian.com. 5 Ile Blanche by Louis Vuitton, £160. uk. louisvuitton.com. 6 Burlington pencil case by Smythson, £165. smythson.com. 7 Key Ring by Saint Laurent, £140. At browns fashion.com. 8 Luna Rossa Black fragrance 100ml by Prada, £76. At johnlewis.com
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Superior Grooming Box by Johnny’s Chop Shop, £20. Available at Boots. boots.com
For the polished dandy Switch up someone’s grooming game this Christmas with Johnny’s Chop Shop
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e all know that man who wants to own the sharpest look on the street, the one who’s morning grooming routine gets him out of bed at the crack of dawn. It’s time you introduced him to Johnny’s Chop Shop. From the heart of London’s Carnaby district, the experts of Johnny’s Chop Shop have put together The Superior Grooming Box that will take pride of place on any man’s bathroom. This exclusive gift set is a collection of shampoo with a shot of conditioner, face balm, face wash and the best-selling hair clay all packaged together in a stylish box ready for wrapping. Promising to meet the needs of any trend-conscious man – it even includes a folding pocket comb for on-the-go styling. Whether you’re treating yourself or a friend this Christmas, in Johnny’s Chop Shop we trust.
Significant others
The element of surprise Prove your style credentials with something truly stunning
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1 Sunglasses by Fendi, £229. At matchesfashion.com. 2 No.5 eau de parfum 100ml by Chanel, £130. chanel.com. 3 Earrings by Simone Rocha, £275. At matchesfashion.com. 4 Bag by Shrimps, £475, At matchesfashion.com. 5 Shoes by Christian Louboutin, £975, christianlouboutin.com. 6 Active Botanical Serum by Vintner’s , £445. At net-a porter.com. 7 Ring by Sydney Evan, £1,440. At net-a-porter.com 8 Lipstick by Charlotte Tilbury, £20, charlottetilbury.com. 9 Hair clip by Gucci, £315. At matchesfashion.com
G Partnership
Smooth Cognac double credit card case, £65. Smooth Cognac and stone suede passport holder, £55. Gold plated, and sterling silver plated, engraved centre round cufflinks, £70. All by Aspinal Of London. aspinaloflondon.com
With luxury in mind Struggling to find that special something for a special someone? Aspinal Of London has the answers
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here are many wonderful perks to shopping at Aspinal Of London. There is the fact that it is quintessential English luxury at its finest, there’s the pleasure of roaming its warm and cosy stores each displaying the Aspinal spirit of spectacular craftsmanship, not forgetting the promise to cater to both men and women alike all under one roof. On the hunt for the man who has everything? Socks won’t do. Or perhaps you’re searching for something extra special for the woman in your life? Avoid buying that bottle of perfume (again). Don’t panic – Aspinal Of London has got all your gifting needs covered. It just so happens that Aspinal Of London also offers in-store personalisation on a wide range of products. Put simply, this all means Aspinal Of London is the gifting destination this Christmas – so what are you waiting for?
E G A -P 27
Bill Prince
L IA EC SP
GQ Travel Edited by
2019 Owners' Edition
Featuring... Island Outpost Château La Coste Zannier Hotels Aman Group
Off-grid in Indonesia
GQ’s deep dive of the region’s latest openings
THE BEST PLACES ON EARTH – AND HOW TO GET THERE IN STYLE
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ISLAND LIFE AT ITS BEST Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort sits majestically on the island’s prime beach. Resembling a summer house, its sophisticated interiors offer a backdrop of refined island life and quiet understated luxury. Seven exciting and indulging dining destinations, 2,700 square meter spa and four outdoor pools, offer thoughtfully personalized service to elevate every moment. Feel the sand in your toes and the sea breeze in your hair, wade in the blue waters, fuel your soul with art, your body with wellness and let Jumeirah’s legendary service take care of the rest.
NOW OPEN.
jumeirah.com/jumeirahatsaadiyatislandresort | (+971) 02 811 4444
TRAVEL 2019
225
Owners’ Edition
Bill Prince meets four hoteliers who each built a personal vision of epicurean travel.
258 #greatstaysoftheworld From stately home to homely estate, Ireland’s Ballyfin is restored to glory, finds Jennifer Bradly.
256 Snow, ski, stars and Sundance! Simon Mills visits “Cannes in the mountains” – Park City, Utah.
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Somewhere east of Java Time sinks in the oceans of Indonesia: Rebecca Newman gets her feet wet.
Editor's letter Bill Prince Editor, GQ Travel
elcome to GQ Travel, an annual digest of desirable destinations that starts not with the latest social media-saturated celebrity haunts, but with true innovators in stylish furloughs, be they a few stolen days in a restored Georgian mansion in Ireland or a life-changing trip to the underpopulated landscape of Namibia. As we started to put this year’s issue together, it became clear that what marks out a madefor-GQ moment was the ministration of an owner sufficiently independent of mind and spirit to create something that remains true to their own intentions while appealing to an audience hungry for the "human touch" – ie, an owner-operator visitors can put a name to. To this end, for our “Owners’ Editions” we tracked down four highly focused fellow travellers, between them responsible for giving true expression to fine living. Elsewhere, the new hotels rounded up in Rebecca Newman’s spellbinding Indonesian travelogue, “Somewhere, East Of Java”, take the biscuit for off-grid high luxe. Plus, we champion the laid-back charms of Utah’s newly expanded snowfields and offer a little tangible advice on how to pack for comfort in the air, a necessary first-order consideration for anyone planning to take any of the trips we’ve covered here. Remember, it’s never the destination, always the journey...
Editor-In-Chief Dylan Jones Editor Bill Prince Managing Editor George Chesterton Creative Director Paul Solomons Art Director Keith Waterfield Designer Nick Paterson Chief Sub-Editor Aaron Callow Picture Editor Alfie Baldwin Publishing Director Nick Sargent Head Of Advertising And Events Vikki Theo Account Director Silvia Weindling
TRAVEL 2019
OWNERS’ EDITION We meet the four master hoteliers bringing an independent spirit to worldwide stays CHATEAU LA COSTE
O W N E R S’ EDITION
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ISLAND OUTPOST
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AMAN GROUP
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ZANNIER HOTELS
CHRIS BLACKWELL
Island Outpost, Jamaica
hris is travelling lighter than any man I've ever seen – flip- flops, African-print clothes and what is basically a purse. He has no visas and seems to just talk his way into countries.” So writes Tom Freston in “Showtime In The Sahara”, a 2007 Vanity Fair article in which the cofounder of MTV and former Viacom CEO documents an off-grid trip he made with two friends to the Festival In The Desert, a celebration of Tuareg music staged 50 miles northwest of Timbuktu in western Mali. According to Freston, musician Jimmy Buffet came prepared, arming himself with walkie-talkies and a GPS device. Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records and the object of Freston’s ill-disguised awe, on the other hand, had not – unless you count the feel-good value of his stash of Blue Mountain coffee, the second most famous export of his adopted homeland, Jamaica.
GoldenEye’s beach huts offer views of Oracabessa Bay and Snorkeler’s Cove on Jamaica’s north coast
Still, whether you consider Blackwell’s ultra-lightweight packing regimen admirable or reckless, it displays a talent for largesse and understatement held in perfect balance or, as one of the artists signed to his groundbreaking label once put it: “an elegant understanding of the unorthodox”. But reminded of the incident a decade or more later, Blackwell, now 81, is not so sure. “What was I thinking?” he asks, bashfully. “I suppose I thought I was being rock’n’roll.” If the man who launched the careers of Steve Winwood, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens,>> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 225
Fleming Villa, GoldenEye, where the author wrote 12 James Bond novels
‘I told Bob Marley he should buy GoldenEye, on the proviso he let my mother swim there’ 226 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
TRAVEL 2019 >> Roxy Music, Grace Jones and U2 before selling out to PolyGram in 1989 for $272 million can’t, who can? And as for the missing visa, well he can explain that too: “My association with Bob Marley was like a visa,” he says matter-of-factly. No question about it.” It isn’t the first time the Jamaican superstar had come to the aid of the man who took his band, The Wailers – and reggae with it – global: it was to Marley that Blackwell turned in 1976 when his mother, Blanche, rang to say that GoldenEye, the Jamaican home of her close friend and neighbour Ian Fleming, was for sale. “I didn’t know it that well,” remembers Blackwell. “I’d had a few lunches with Fleming and his friends, but I hadn’t seen it properly since about 1962. After Fleming died [of a heart attack, in 1964], my mother kept an eye on it, waiting for his son to come of age. Sadly, his son committed suicide and it went up for sale. My mum had always swum [off its private beach], so she asked me if I would buy it for her. “I didn’t have the cash at the time. So I rang Bob Marley, who I knew had cash, as I’d just paid him a fat royalty, and told him it was a really nice property and he should buy it, on the proviso he let my mother swim there. He said no problem. Then, just as the documents were ready to sign, he rang to say he didn’t think it was really his ‘thing’ – he’d come for a look and I think he thought it was a bit posh for him – and asked me if he could get out of it. And I said yes, because by then my finances had improved. It’s kind of amazing that Bob Marley got into that story, but it’s true.” Today, the simply styled bungalow Fleming built in 1948 as a tropical redoubt from Britain’s grim postwar winters is the centrepiece of GoldenEye Resort, one of three refreshingly low-key getaways that Blackwell operates on the island with partner Marika Kessler. And sitting here this moonlit evening, dining on the house chef’s specialties of fish tea soup, grilled lamb chops and spicy kale from Blackwell’s farm, Pantrepant (two hours and a world away from the bustle of Jamaica’s northeast coast), it’s easy to see why. The villa’s sea-facing sunken garden is still fringed with trees planted by the author and while the garage and staff quarters have been converted into a media room (two further cottages have also been added, bringing total occupancy of the private rental to ten), the villa itself is remarkably well preserved. In the main room is the large desk where Fleming dealt with correspondence and in the master bedroom sits the tiny table at which he worked on the 12 Bond novels written here. Not surprisingly, it’s a Mecca for 007 fans, many of whom are astonished to bump into Fleming’s gardener, Ramsey, still working here more than 50 years on. But the villa has seen its fair share of important house guests too: British PM Sir Anthony Eden took an ill-advised vacation here at the height of the Suez Crisis, when it briefly became the seat of British government. There’s a now-mature tree commemorating the premier’s visit, beside which grows a sapling planted by “Mr and Mrs J Carter” during a more recent stay by Beyoncé and her husband. Their tributes are not alone: stroll the shoreline between the resort’s main hangout, the Bizot Bar, and the even more laidback environs of Button Beach, where you’ll find many of the island’s signature dishes cooking over a charcoal fire, and you’ll see hundreds of plants bequeathed by departing guests, just one of the ways Blackwell encourages visitors to build their own connection with a country he adores. “Always, for me, it was about coming back to Jamaica,” says Blackwell, who, though born and educated in England, considers the
Below, from top: Hotelier and music mogul Chris Blackwell; the white-sand beach at GoldenEye; inside a beach hut at the resort
O GoldenEye, from £520 per night. goldeneye.com. Strawberry Hill, from £295 per night. strawberryhillhotel. com. British Airways flies from London Gatwick to Kingston, from £556 return. ba.com
island his spiritual home. No wonder: apart from a slight detour into film-making, when he worked as a location scout and production assistant on the first Bond film, Dr No, he’s consistently championed its music. “It’s a miracle the amount of authentic, original product that’s come out of Jamaica,” he says. “There was a time in the late-Sixties when Jamaica was releasing more music than anywhere else in the world. It’s outstanding.” Blackwell founded Island Records in Jamaica and, despite having joined the exodus of young, educated whites in the run-up to the country’s independence in 1962, he’s remained profoundly loyal, even if the itinerant lifestyle of a hit-making label boss and producer ensured his frequent visits were “never particularly visible. I was never part of the society here.” Still, whenever he had a little loose cash, he would buy “a little bit of land in different places”. Which is how, in 1972, he came to own Strawberry Hill, the former home of another English émigré, Horace Walpole, with the idea of reopening what had become a boarding house as a hotel. Today, it’s famous for being the tranquil spot in the foothills of the Blue Mountains where Bob Marley recuperated after an attempt on his life in December 1976 and it retains the closest links with Blackwell’s Island Records days, with a Gold Room displaying the numerous industry awards he’s received, together with pictures of the acts – local and international – that inspired them. Like GoldenEye, Strawberry Hill came to Blackwell via a phone call, he says; this time from a friend who also sold him a further property, 56 Hope Road in Kingston, which today serves as the Bob Marley Museum, having been the home of The Wailers’ Tuff Gong record label as well as the site of that failed assassination attempt. Blackwell remembers the reception they received when he first offered the musicians the home in what was then the capital’s government quarter: “It caused quite a stir – we were moving the Rasta uptown.” Then, years later, Blackwell got a shock of his own: “About ten years ago, I discovered it’s where my mother lived as a child,” he says, still marvelling at the coincidence. “She showed me a photo of her with her siblings by a gate that looked familiar. She’d lived there from 1922 to 1924 or something. Isn’t it incredible, that it would come back?” Incredible, but in a way perfectly fitting. After all, this is a man who’s thrived on taking chances, often choosing the road less travelled – with little but the barest necessities – and always in the best possible company. BP JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 227
Meissl & Schadn. The name stands for ever y thing that made Viennese cuisine popular and famous – and it’s no different today. At the new Meissl & Schadn you’ll discover how we have perfected Austria’s favourite dish, the Wiener Schnitzel.
R E S E RVAT I O N S
Schuber tr ing 10 –12, 1010 V ienna, +43 1 9 0 212, w w w.meisslundschadn.at
L ocated in the fant astic Grand Ferdinand on the V iennese Ring strasse w w w.g randferdinand.com
TRAVEL 2019
O W N E R S’ EDITION
PADDY McKILLEN
Château La Coste, France
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elfast-born Paddy McKillen’s family business was in motor repairs and construction. An unlikely start in life for one of the world’s premier hoteliers. Not really, he says, “If you’re dealing with the public, you’re in the hospitality business. I don’t think it’s just confined to owning hotels and restaurants.” It’s an important point he’s taken through life, ever since his father insisted customers of his repair shops be greeted by a carpeted waiting room and a coffee machine (there was a free chamois left on the steering wheel after servicing too) and long after he completed his first hotel project, the building of Dublin’s Temple Hotel in 1985. “We grew quietly,” McKillen says of his hotel interests (there’s much more besides), “but then this opportunity really launched us into something completely different.” He’s referring to the acquisition of London’s trifecta of important
The art-fllled lobby at Villa La Coste offers impressive views of the Provençal countryside; (inset) a pool villa suite
lodgings, Claridge’s, The Berkeley and The Connaught, the last of which is serving as our breakfast spot this morning – a rare moment when the selfdescribed “investor-operator” isn’t busying himself with the minutiae that comes with running his iconic hotels. “I hate to think we are control freaks,” he says, “but I want to know every detail. It’s a conundrum, because I love to let people do it their way, but I watch from a distance.” His approach – “Far less corporate, far more entrepreneurially spirited,” says a colleague >> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 229
TRAVEL 2019 >> – shows in his approach to service. “We’re a bit unorthodox. For instance, if a staff member asks, ‘What should I do if...’ then we say, ‘What would your mother suggest?’ because nine times out of ten if you followed the advice your mother would give, you’d be all right.” It’s a refreshingly humanistic response to a question more commonly answered in “best practice” manuals the size of wheelie bins. But McKillen has an even more powerful answer to those yet to learn from such homespun wisdom. It lies within the boundaries of an ancient vineyard in the Luberon and serves as a weekend retreat for this inveterate traveller, who thinks nothing of visiting Japan or Argentina for the day, and a worldclass destination for those wishing to combine rural relaxation with five-star service in an uncommonly cultured environment. Visitors to Château La Coste and its full-service resort, Villa La Coste, are less spoilt for choice as flummoxed by what’s available. In addition to a winery, there’s Europe’s only Francis Mallmann restaurant, a state-of-the-art spa (which often plays host to a cohort of one-of-a-kind visiting specialists) and its pièce de résistance, a gently rolling landscape dotted with sculpture, immersive installations and full-blown land art by the likes of Sean Scully, Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Serra and Tracey Emin. “We looked at many, many places,” says McKillen of his search for a place in the French countryside. “And then, one morning, I drove into Château La Coste. I didn’t even drive 20 metres – I decided to buy it right there, because it had a magical feel.” First taken by the vineyard, originally planted by the Romans and today producing wines along biodynamic principles, McKillen says he quickly saw the property’s potential to become something much more. “I already had the Calder,” he says, referring to “Small Crinkly”, a 1976 mobile that stands near the Tadao Ando-designed art centre. “But I wanted it somewhere out in a space, not locked up in a basement. So I brought it here.” Next, McKillen started lengthy negotiations with Louise Bourgeois to secure one of her bronze spiders, all of which were destined for museums. “She asked if it would be public and I said yes and that it would be amazing to put it over water. Then I thought of Tadao Ando and those two completely spontaneous thoughts – water and minimalist architecture – brought her round,” Mckillen recalls. “Crouching Spider” (2003) now greets all visitors to the estate, flanked by the winery McKillen commissioned Jean Nouvel to design (“I thought it would be rude not to ask the greatest French architect”) and not far from Frank Gehry’s Pavilion De Musique (2003), last seen at the Serpentine Gallery in London. 230 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
From top: Gérald Passédat’s restaurant at Villa La Coste; (from left) architect Renzo Piano and Paddy McKillen; Louise Bourgeois’ ‘Crouching Spider’
O From £4,600 for four nights. villalacoste.com. British Airways flies from London Heathrow to Marseille, from £77 return. ba.com
McKillen says he didn’t set out to create a “sculpture park” – “That phrase makes me shiver” – but “there is a science to where the pieces are located. I’d studied the land and done the walks. And I don’t mean this in a bombastic way, but it has turned out to be something pretty amazing.” Certainly, with its serene, village-like atmosphere, Château La Coste reads like the summation of a particularly holistic worldview, one in which the land has been given over to an owner’s passion for art and architecture, thereby attracting members of the public keen to immerse themselves in the everchanging landscape and paying guests anxious to take advantage of the last word in relaxed elegance with a point of view. “It’s a bit obnoxious to say to a guest, ‘Welcome home,’” says McKillen of the Villa’s beguiling ambience, “because it’s not their home. But I don’t mind people saying, ‘Welcome to our home.’” And he means it. Take the Royer suite found in the Villa’s social hub, the lobby. “Guests say to me all the time that it should be in a glass case or at least roped off,” McKillen says of the museum-quality furniture. “And I say, why? Because that was in our home in Dublin and for me it should be shared. And when people sit on it, that’s the best welcome I can give.” BP
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O W N E R S’ EDITION
ARNAUD ZANNIER
Zannier Hotels, worldwide
French hotelier Arnaud Zannier; (below) poolside at Omaanda
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ay what you like about Namibia and chances are, however fulsome, fact-filled or simply fanciful, it won’t touch the sides of a country the size of Britain and France combined, which nevertheless gets by with just two major roads (north-south and eastwest) serving a minuscule population not much larger than Botswana or Macedonia’s. And yet, for all its splendid isolation, it’s the safari destination for 2019, due in no small part to the efforts of a young French-born, Belgium-based hotelier impelled to join the urge to conserve by one of his more high-profile guests. When Arnaud Zannier opened his second resort, Phum Baitang, in Cambodia, in 2016, one of his first guests was Angelina Jolie, who enjoyed its quietly luxurious vibe so much that when word came that a 9,000-hectare farm next to her friend Rudie van Vuuren’s N/a’an ku sê reserve, 45 minutes outside Windhoek, was up for sale and
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O From £2,975 per person, including flights and transfers from London Heathrow. 01242 787800. redsavannah.com
threatening his conservation work, she knew just who to ask to step in. “Namibia was not in my business plan,” says Zannier, smiling at the memory. “After opening in Cambodia we were looking at Myanmar and Vietnam. Then Angelina talked to me about Namibia. She said I’d like it; the environment is beautiful and it really fits the philosophy.” So Zannier flew down with his family (co-investors in Zannier Hotels) and the deal was done. Omaanda (which may or may not mean “rhino” in the local dialect) boasts ten traditionally hewn, thatched huts, all with stunning views of the beautiful, rugged landscape, that deftly add ultra-high-end lodging to a country that until recently boasted next to none. The hospitality certainly matched Zannier’s aim for his brand (“I want to create the perfect environment when I travel, with the kind of interiors I like and a philosophy that fits my beliefs”), but the project runs far deeper than simply expanding the brand’s global footprint (besides, Myanmar and Vietnam are now well underway). “It’s important that we do things right,” says Zannier, “so we’ve opened the border to the reserve and Angelina has made an investment through her foundation to open a clinic for rhino. Rudie was limited because he was missing a major piece of land for carnivores and large animals, but with our help he’s been able to develop.” Right now, a walking safari will have you spotting the aforementioned rhino, as well as jackal, kudu, springbok, ostrich and, if you’re lucky, leopard and cheetah (the two young male elephants released onto the plot have proved obstinately elusive). But then, “It’s not like a normal game reserve,” as Zannier explains: “The animals that you see will change all the time, because we have animals coming in that have been injured, or they need land on which to grow, and then we will release them into a national park in a few years’ time.” By which time, Omaanda will have been joined by three more Zannier lodges, designed to expand and extend the guest experience in a country ripe for discovery. “The idea is that you can come for a week, just as you would go to the Maldives, but nobody is bringing the destination resort idea to these surroundings. That’s what we want to do.” BP
TRAVEL 2019
Sited on a 9,000-hectare reserve, Omaanda is the first of four lodges planned for Namibia by Zannier Hotels. Overlooking the savannah in the heart of a private animal conservancy, home to rhino, jackal, springbok and cheetah, it features ten huts inspired by traditional Namibian building techniques
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O W N E R S’ EDITION
VLADISLAV DORONIN
Aman Group, worldwide
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ladislav Doronin likes to build things. Since founding his development company, Capital Group, in 1991, the Russian-born businessman has completed no fewer than 71 high-end residential and commercial projects, including Moscow’s Oko Tower – at 354 metres, the third-tallest skyscraper in Europe – and Missoni Baia, a 57-storey landmark project developed in partnership with the Italian fashion house, the newest addition to a lately re-glittering Miami skyline. However, for this former commodities trader-turned-property tycoon, there is one building project even he wasn’t prepared to take on – assembling a worldwide portfolio of one-of-a-kind resorts, the better to serve his growing customer base of ultra-high-net-worth “global nomads”. So, in 2014, he bought Aman Resorts (now Aman
234 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Clockwise from top left: Aman Tokyo’s spa pool and (inset) lounge; Aman New York will carry a 2,000 square metre spa when it opens in 2020; owner Vladislav Doronin
Group), becoming at a stroke not simply the proprietor of one of the legends of the hospitality industry (founded by Adrian Zecha in 1988), but the custodian of an elite club for cluedin travellers, of which Doronin has long been a fully signed up member. “When I left Russia in 1985, I had $250 in my pocket,” he recalls. “But the whole point for me was to travel. I wanted to see everything. So I took a little camera and travelled like a tourist for five years. Later, when I was a commodities trader in Hong Kong, I started to upgrade my travel and that’s when I discovered Aman. “In 1990, I stayed at Amanpuri, which is where I became an ‘Aman junkie’. Whenever I went on holiday or a business trip, I’d see if there was an Aman nearby, as I knew I’d get perfect service, good food and a great spa.” Back in Moscow, Doronin traded commodities for condos, building a vast real estate portfolio that spread across continents. “But I never planned on buying a hospitality brand,” he says. “I was building in Miami, I was looking in New York and I was making a deal in Asia,” he recalls, “a lot of multifunctional complexes, where service is very important. And I thought it would be nice to have a brand to help provide services for the residential real estate and also receive revenue from a hotel. I knew that to create something similar would take the rest of my life and it’s also extremely costly. But if you buy hotels in 21 countries, it’s already achieved.” So, in 2014, Doronin concluded the deal to buy Aman Resorts. His goal? To move the brand to many more urban destinations or, as he puts it, “Put a resort vertically rather than horizontally, but aesthetically following the same DNA.” To date, he has opened six new properties, bringing the total number of Amans to 33 in 21 countries. Next, he has his sights set on locations in London, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong and Singapore. But, “It has to be something unique,” he warns. “I don’t want to compromise on location. After all, if you put an Aman somewhere remote, it’s still going to work. So if we are going into a city, it has to be a top, top location.” Enter Aman New York, part of a huge multifunctional project Doronin is developing in Midtown that’s due to open in 2020 – not only a new landmark for Aman’s move from the “horizontal” to the “vertical” but, Doronin suggests, the city itself. “There are only four buildings like it in Manhattan,” he says. “The Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller Center and The
TRAVEL 2019
‘An Aman somewhere remote is still going to work, so if we open in a city it has to be a top, top location’
Crown. The others are impossible to acquire, so there’s only The Crown, an iconic building in the perfect location, on 5th and 57th with park views.” As well as an 83-room hotel, featuring a 2,000 square metre spa, Italian and Japanese restaurants, a vast terrace over Fifth Avenue and a cigar lounge and jazz club, there are 20 apartments for sale, ranging in size from 105 square metres to a five-floor penthouse said to be under contract for £135 million, all of which will enjoy Aman’s amenities. So, given the “Amanisation” of other players in the hospitality sector (ever stayed in a whisper-quiet room with highly tactile, yet gorgeously muted furnishings? Then you’ve been “Aman-ed”) and the move into the harsh environment of a “world city”, what continues to set the brand apart? “You
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Aman’s spectacular Crown development in New York will offer residential and hotel accommodation
feel you are home; this is the most important feeling in an Aman hotel. People know your name and you feel very welcomed – but everything comes at your request. There’s no pushy service. This makes us different. There have to be boundaries.” Now, Doronin is busy adding to the brand’s almost telepathically on-point savoir faire, including the launch of a skincare brand that took two years to develop. “I am a perfectionist, so everything Aman is doing we are doing properly. Right now, we are working on our wellness offering, which started with a relaunch of our flagship holistic spa, Amanpuri, last September.” So how does an inveterate traveller turned multitasking businessman turned hip hotelier choose to tune out? “I have two daughters, so I enjoy family trips,” he says, brightening at the thought. “I also try to find a window and fly to Amanpulo, which offers beautiful kite surfing. It’s fantastic to do that, because it’s the one place where I don’t have a telephone. And when I’m really tired, I retreat to Bhutan, where we have five properties. I’m training in Tibetan yoga, so I spend time in the monasteries there and I also enjoy my own properties. It completely recharges my batteries.” BP JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 235
Gstaad - Crans-Montana - Megève - Courchevel
TRAVEL 2019 Grooming
Flights of fancy Whether you’ve just landed after two or ten hours in the air, it’s always important to make an efort when it comes to your travel maintenance. Here is an edit of our essentials to add to the check list Edited by Sophie Clark
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1. Suede rinse free hand wash by Byredo, £25. byredo.co.uk. 2. Super Soin Solaire facial sun care SPF 50 by Sisley, £121. sisley-paris.co.uk. 3. Original bamboo razor by Bulldog, £8. bulldogskincarer.com. 4. Leather eye mask by Bottega Veneta, £165. bottegaveneta.com. 5. Luna Go sonic cleansing system by Foreo, £85. foreo.com. 6. Super Energizer Anti-Fatigue eye gel by Clinique for Men, £26. clinique.co.uk. 7. Bleu de Chanel travel spray by Chanel, £57. At johnlewis.com. 8. Hair styling fibre by Johnny’s Chop Shop, £7. At boots.com. 9. Leather washbag by Aspinal Of London, £160. aspinaloflondon.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 239
TRAVEL 2019 The private penthouse pool deck at Como Uma Canggu, Indonesia
Indonesia
Somewhere, east of Java With hand-built yachts, remarkable dive spots and the planet’s most luxurious surf shack, there’s no better place to go ‘of-grid’ than the emerald archipelago Story by Rebecca Newman
JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO .UK 241
string of islands thrust up by volcanoes and scattered across more than 3,000 miles of ocean between Asia and Australia, Indonesia offers boundless opportunity for endorphin-soaked adventure. Of course, you’ll need to turn decidedly off the beaten path. But for the discerning traveller, a muscular – and deeply sybaritic – paradise awaits. Seismic activity from the region’s “Ring Of Fire” volcanoes makes diving in Indonesia something special. Known as the Coral Triangle, the region is home to 30 per cent of the world’s reefs, the most biodiverse waters on the planet and the raison d’être of Rascal, a 31-metre hand-crafted teak yacht, designed to voyage where other travellers are not. Her crew boasts a forensic knowledge of charted and uncharted territory – tell them what you want and they’ll find it, sinking anchor in coves yet to be named on the map. After sailing through the night, wake to watch the slow, thin dawn scattering gold across the water through wide windows on three sides of your king bed (by blending the elegance of traditional phinisi with a more contemporary design, her five cabins are above deck). And then let Rascal’s resident divemaster lure you into the turquoise water. Rolling backward off Rascal’s Rib is to enter wonderland. The water is crystal clear. At Gili Lawa Darat Passage (east of Bali, not far from Flores) we saw reef sharks, triggerfish and clownfish – brilliant, clashing colours, electric greens and orange, the coral in wide heart shapes or tiered space stations; a cloud of seahorses; the Darth Vader-like cloak of a giant manta ray, floating past so close we had to resist touching him… On dry land, the wildlife is equally extraordinary. Frightened sailors had for centuries whispered the name of Komodo in the Lesser Sundas to the east of Bali. In 1912, it was confirmed: the islands have dragons. We went ashore with trepidation. At 200lb and more than three metres long, these squat beasts look slow and heavy, but when they hunt they can reach speeds of 13mph (a fit human adult sprints at around 15mph), knocking their prey to the ground with their whiplash tails, poisoning it with their deadly venom. With the dubious protection of two guides with forked sticks, we strode through their primeval kingdom, watching the flick of their yellowish tongues – which, at a distance, perhaps someone did once see as fire. There are dragons too at the recently opened Capella Ubud, Balinese outpost of 242 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Above, from top: Capella Ubud is the group’s new Balinese outpost; explore Indonesia’s dive sites aboard the hand-crafted teak yacht Rascal
the garlanded Capella group. Mythical ones, at any rate, said to guard the sacred Wos River, which runs through the property. And what a property. Designed in homage to the explorers of the 19th century, who travelled with a retinue of staff and a hand-hammered copper bath, it is a tented encampment. Every room, or “retreat”, is walled with canvas. But mod cons include a four-metre-tall throne loo topped with an antelope skull, a hot tub and a private saltwater pool. The vision of designer Bill Bensley, the 22 retreats are set into the edge of the Wos valley, among the thick emerald plants of the rainforest. Their views across the river are captivating by day; at night, the blend of burning torches and moonlight give the place an otherworldly feel. Here, your butler will take care of everything – from sourcing your favourite wines, to organising treks through the surrounding Unesco-protected paddy fields (alternatively, sally forth on the house Vespa). So why not have a bespoke training programme at The Armoury – the resort’s tented gym – twinned with a seriously expert massage at the Auriga spa while your itinerary is being organised? Notably, Capella Ubud is hyper-local: the fabrics and art come from artisans along the Wos valley; the crayfish on the barbecue, or the pig roasting on the spit, are raised within a few miles of the property. Another hotel that thrusts you deep into the heart of the place is Nihi Sumba. Sumba was long known as the forgotten island and >>
TRAVEL 2019 Capella Ubud’s 22 ‘retreats’ are set into the valley beside Bali’s Wos River
At night, burning torches and moonlight give Capella Ubud an otherworldly feel
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>> with 600 acres of land, but never more than 80 guests, the hotel manages to maintain a rare and bewitching quality of escape. It was this quality that attracted American retail tycoon Chris Burch, the ex-husband and former business partner of Tory Burch. With James McBride (a senior hotelier with experience at Grosvenor House in London and The Carlyle in New York), Burch bought Nihi Sumba in 2012. The pair poured £25 million into what was then a surf lodge, creating what’s regularly crowned the best hotel in the world. The allure? Saunter down from your treehouse bedroom – a breezy circular space w h o s e f l o o r - to - ce i l i n g windows look across to the Indian Ocean and which opens to its own private gardens – to pick up a beer at the bar. Then kick off your shoes, if you have any, and walk a few steps further to the beach, a mile and a half of deserted white sand. Here, you’ll find the Nihiwatu rock, after which the hotel is named and where the island’s Marapu gods are said to have descended. It does hold a kind of magic. Every night, wild horses emerge from the forests to gallop along the shore. You might ride out with the resort’s Sandalwood Stables. Or perhaps choose to go at dusk to lift onto the sand the day-old sea
Top: The former surf lodge-turned-oft described best hotel in the world, Nihi Sumba on Indonesia’s ‘forgotten island’; (above) Nihi Sumba co-owner Chris Burch; (left) wild horses reside in the nearby forest
turtles that Nihi Sumba release and watch as the tiny hatchlings waddle to the sea. Maybe you’d prefer to try free diving to spear mahi-mahi, tuna and parrotfish. (I witnessed a ripped Californian real estate mogul unload a haul of 50 fish, including a wahoo the size of a bicycle.) What really stands out, though, is the surf. Named after Australian surfer Mark Occhilupo, who rode it in surf movie The Green Iguana, “Occy’s Left” is arguably the ultimate left-hander wave. Legendary for its power and length, it barrels for some 300 metres. Uniquely, there’s no fight for your place in the line-up: the hotel owns the wave, and only ten people can book it per day. What’s more, it breaks immediately outside the beach house and a deep gully makes paddling out easy (there’s also a Jet Ski on hand should you fancy a lift). It’s a must for any bucket list. I chose a board and headed out to try my luck. Two things were in my favour: quiet conditions (during the season, the waves are often double overhead) and the assistance of Hannah – a 24-year-old world-class longboarder and resident surf “guide”. With a few >> JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 245
TRAVEL 2019
>> key tips, and a few more wipeouts, at last I took off hard and steep down Occy’s green face. Pure ecstasy. And entirely addictive. Burch has worked hard to engage with the local community. With support from past guests, the Sumba Foundation has tackled malaria on the island, funding wells and education. Interaction with locals is encouraged and most guests go on a spa safari that starts with a dawn hike through the villages. Tiger, a local tribesman, showed us altars wet from animal sacrifice, telling us about the annual horseback fight in which men injure each other to spill blood to boost the coming year’s fertility and introduced us to tribeswomen weaving ancestral ikat fabrics. After the walk, we lay on clifftop massage tables with 270-degree views of rainforest fading to sand and brilliant ocean, not a soul in sight. If Nihi Sumba is a total escape, the newest Como property in Bali offers surfing with a helping of hip. Como Uma Canggu has nailed its location, a stretch of coast north of Kuta that’s a less hectic and way cooler alternative to Seminyak. Como Uma Canggu has also nailed the vibe at its shorefront Beach Club: mellow beats 246 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Bali’s Como Uma Canggu occupies a stretch of coast north of Kutu; (right) Como Uma Canggu’s fresh Beach Club fare
O Rascal, from £8,060 a night. rascalvoyages. com. Nihi Sumba, from £3,649 per person per week (including flights and transfers). 01494 678400. turquoiseholidays. co.uk. Como Uma Canggu, from £230 a night. +62 361 6202 228. comohotels.com. Capella Ubud, from £637 a night. +62 361 2091 888. capellahotels.com
from the DJ, swinging daybeds, sensational cocktails and a glorious view of the swell. This is the kind of dream surf location where you walk left along the beach for friendly sets coming in at Batu Bolong; turn right, and things get interesting at the famous Old Man’s reef break. When you come in, simply lean your board on racks by the bar and order a tamarind margarita. As in Nihi Sumba, the surf guiding is run by Tropicsurf. In the far quieter waters here, I taste what is effectively the private-jet version of surf instruction. My guide, CJ, rides his board beside me, demonstrating how my bent arm stance is a bit “T-rex”, encouraging me to stretch and become that bit more “condor”. Should you travel with a nonsurfer, there’s the lagoon – a 115-metre saltwater pool into whose water the ground-floor suites dip their toes; there’s also the kind of high-level yoga, gym and spa facilities for which Como is renowned. Frankly, though, they’d be missing out. Mere hours before my flight, I’m still in the water, CJ showing me how to grab my rail to turn hard into the wave. “That’s it! You’re pig-dogging!” Damn right I am.
©20 1 8 TUMI , I n c . Al l Ri gh ts Reserved . P ri n t e d o n 12/ 20 18 .
NORTH PIAZZA, ROYAL OPERA HOUSE ARCADE, COVENT GARDEN R E G E N T ST R E E T • W E ST F I E L D S H E P H E R D S B U S H • LO ND O N C I TY A I R P O RT ALSO AVAILABLE AT CASE, HARRODS AND SELFRIDGES TUMI.COM
TRAVEL 2019 Accessories
Objects of desire From the ultimate instant camera to the best portable speaker out there, here are the travel accessories you won’t want to leave home without Edited by Sophie Clark
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1. Rollerball pen by Montblanc, £214. At yoox.com. 2. Sekel 41mm Watch by Kronaby, £445. kronaby.com. 3. Travel Journal by Smythson, £135. smythson.com. 4. V3 International carry-on by Tumi, £415. tumi.com. 5. Handheld Steamer by Steamery, £100. At mrporter.com. 6. Sofort instant camera by Leica, £275. At selfridges.com. 7. Portable speaker by Bang & Olufsen, £230. At brownsfashion.com. 8. Wireless headphones by Yevo, £230. At brownsfashion.com. 9. Sling bag by Givenchy, £885. givenchy.com 248 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
G Partnership
GQ Editor Dylan Jones’ book about the Cadogan will be available exclusively at Belmond Cadogan Hotel in 2019
The Chelsea reboot The Cadogan Hotel is being reimagined by a new generation of British creative talent, putting it at the centre of the London social and cultural scene
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lenty of London hotels have storied pasts, but none surely as mischievous or sexy as that of the Belmond Cadogan Hotel, the sumptuous Chelsea bolthole that will reopen its doors in February after a four-year renovation that has taken its extraordinary heritage and brought it brilliantly up to date. In the late 19th century it was infamously home to Lillie Langtry – one of the great actresses of her day, who seduced the future Edward VII – and also Oscar Wilde, who was arrested there, as memorialised in Betjeman’s poem: “Mr. Woilde, we ‘ave come for tew take yew/Where felons and criminals dwell/We must ask yew tew leave with us quoietly/For this is the Cadogan Hotel”. Fast forward to 2018 and the Cadogan is reprising its role as a muse to creative genius, only this time in the form of the stellar team that has been put together to reimagine the hotel as a sleek, stylish base for exploring Knightsbridge and Chelsea. Spearheaded by the brilliant Belmond group behind Belmond Hotel Cipriani, Venice
Main: The exterior of the Cadogan, nestled amid a family of Chelsea landmarks: (above) how the new reception area will look
Simplon-Orient Express, the overhaul will see the Cadogan stripped down to 54 rooms, an impressive two-thirds of which will be sumptuously appointed suites. The interiors will feature collaborations with two rising stars of the British design scene, Mac Collins and Toni Packham, and the appointments in the kitchen are similarly exciting, with wunderkind Adam Handling of Frog and Masterchef fame in the role of executive chef. Already the talk is that this combination of youthful flair and the hotel’s almost perfect location on the corner of Sloane Street and Pont Street (guests get access to the rus-inurbe idyll that is Cadogan Private Gardens), is certain to make it a focus point for the social whirl of Chelsea. A storied future seems assured. OPENING IN FEBRUARY 2019. BELMOND.COM
G Partnership
The best views in Dubrovnik are reserved for those who stay in the hotel’s Presidential Suite
View to a thrill The Hotel Excelsior is the perfect place to experience the magic and majesty of Dubrovnik
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ubrovnik in southern Croatia has fast become one of Europe’s must-see destinations. With its famous 16th century stone walls rising from the sea, beautifully preserved medieval Old Town and sun-kissed beaches, it’s a dream for Instagrammers and late-summerseekers alike. There’s so much to see and do to choose from within the city, but when it comes to where to stay there’s really only one discerning option. The Hotel Excelsior Dubrovnik is one of the Mediterranean region’s most historic landmarks, a fivestar hotel which dates back to 1913. Guests stay inside an architectural wonder while also experiencing the benefits of last year’s extensive refurbishment. They now offer 158 sleekly-decored rooms, with modern Croatian art on the walls and L’Occitane toiletries in all the bathrooms. The biggest draw, however, is something no refurbishment could ever change: the glorious views overlooking the Adriatic Sea and Dubrovnik’s celebrated and ancient Old Town. The very best views in the whole of Dubrovnik are reserved for those who stay in the hotel’s Presidential Suite. The penthouse residence sleeps four and has floor-to-ceiling windows as well as a spacious balcony with unobstructed views of Saint Blaise’s Church, the Old Town’s 12th century Romanesque Cathedral and the city harbour. And yes, they will serve you a romantic candle-lit dinner on the terrace. That’s not the only place in the hotel designed with romance in mind.
From top: Dubrovnik’s Old Town; the Hotel Excelsior Piano Bar with its views of the Adriatic; the Presidential Suite
Throughout Villa Odak, the oldest part of the hotel, original architectural details have been lovingly restored to create a uniquely romantic ambience with breathtaking sea views. The hotel’s centrepiece is the Abakus Piano Bar, perfect for a cocktail at any hour, but especially at sundown as the late afternoon light ignites the Old Town’s distinctive and highly-Instagrammable fortifications. As the old adage says, anything that Sir Roger Moore, Elizabeth Taylor, Che Guevara and Margaret Thatcher agree on can’t be bad. They all stayed at The Hotel Excelsior Dubrovnik (just not at the same time). ADRIATICLUXURYHOTELS.COM
TRAVEL 2019
WHAT TO WEAR IN THE AIR
Packing is an art every man can master and we’ve put together a fail-safe guide to suit your needs, whether you’re jetting of long-haul or making a quick getaway for some city sights DAVID BOWIE
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#getthelook #editedbysophieclark David Bowie ● Business Class
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1. Jimi sunglasses by Ace & Tate, £98. aceandtate.co.uk. 2. Trousers by Loro Piana, £415. loropiana.com. 3. Windowpane check jacket by T.M.Lewin, £229. tmlewin.co.uk 4. Shirt by Boss, £90. At mrporter.com. 5. Leather briefcase by Corneliani, £1,095. corneliani. com. 6. Silk tie by Gucci, £145. At mrporter.com. 7. Travel shoe horn by Ettinger, £70. ettinger.co.uk. 8. Leather derby shoes by Prada, £550. At matchesfashion.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.CO. UK 251
TRAVEL 2019
WHAT TO WEAR IN THE AIR #getthelook David Beckham
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1. Wool-tweed flat cap by Anderson & Sheppard, £75. At mrporter.com. 2. Leather briefcase by Canali, £820. canali.com. 3. Bomber jacket by Loro Piana, £2,115. loropiana.com. 4. Suede western boot by Coach, £425. uk.coach.com. 5. Slim fit Original jeans by Philipp Plein, £345.plein.com. 6. Backpack by Ermenegildo Zegna, £1,090. zegna.co.uk. 7. T-shirt by Orlebar Brown, £75, orlebarbrown.co.uk. 8. Sunglasses by Belstaf, £350. belstaf.co.uk 252 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
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The Hillside Beach Club overlooks the crystal waters of Turkey's Turquoise Coast
Heaven is not so far away Need a break that combines water sports, health, wellness and culture? Look no further than Hillside Beach Club on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast
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or those who doubt that paradise exists on earth, Hillside Beach Club is a powerful argument to the contrary. An exclusive five-star resort nestled in Kalemya Cove, hidden among the pine forests of Fethiye in southwestern Turkey, it’s a place which cocoons guests in comfort and luxury next to the azure of the Mediterranean. But its unspoilt location is just one of the many things Hillside Beach Club has to offer. Many visitors naturally want to get straight out on the water, and Hillside is the ideal place to dive in to water sports such as canoeing, waterskiing, paddle boarding, diving and sailing, regardless of how much experience you have. The resort even hosts an annual water sports week where world champions are welcomed to do shows and give private lessons to Hillside guests. Boat trips explore secluded coves and beaches, while on land there are
Hillside guests can enjoy a relaxing massage and dinner at the Italian restaurant after a day on the water
plenty of opportunities for trekking, mountain biking or riding along the historical Lycian pathways. If you’re looking to focus on health and wellness, the tranquil resort also offers a choice of two spas to unwind in, one of which is hidden within the forest canopy. They offer traditional treatments in peaceful relaxation rooms alongside a Turkish Hammam, a jacuzzi and a sauna. For film enthusiasts, the resort will host its second BFI Summer Film Screenings event on 26-31 May. However, the best time to visit Hillside is any time from April through to October, a long hot summer which brings out the beauty of the rolling green mountains and the Aegean coast. Incredibly, over two-thirds of visitors to Hillside become repeat guests. It only takes one visit to understand why. FOR BOOKING INFORMATION, HEAD TO HILLSIDEBEACHCLUB.COM
TRAVEL 2019
WHAT TO WEAR IN THE AIR #getthelook Frank Ocean
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1. Rucksack by MCM, £995. uk.mcmworldwide.com. 2. Track pants by Saint Laurent, £850. At matchesfashion.com. 3. Logo socks by Versace, £70. versace.com. 4. Tie-dyed cashmere zip-up hoodie by The Elder Statesman, £1,375. At mrporter.com. 5. Knitted beanie hat by Hackett, £32. hackett.com. 6. Headphones by Master & Dynamic, £370. At mrporter.com. 7. Holdall by Brunello Cucinelli, £2,810. brunellocucinellii.com. 8. Trainers by Lacoste, £95. At dunelondon.com
Haslital, Canton of Bern, Š David Birri
Get an upgrade at MySwitzerland.com/winter and share your most beautiful experiences at
Snow, ski, stars Story by Simon Mills
256 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Illustration by Coke Navarro
TRAVEL 2019
ack in 1969, Robert Redford took a wrong turn on a westward road trip and found himself in Provo Canyon facing the majestic Mount Timpanogos. Captivated by Utah’s spectacular beauty and flush from the success of movies such as the James Salter-penned ski drama Downhill Racer and Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Redford bought a large plot of land around a tiny resort – just a solitary towrope-for-a-ski-lift kind of place called Timp Haven – and renamed it Sundance. In 1978 he hosted the inaugural Sundance Film Festival (then named the Utah/US Film Festival), a folksy, boutique event attended by Redford’s Hollywood friends, including Katharine Ross and James Stewart. By 1981, Sundance was growing fast and needed to find a new home; enter the silver- and goldprospecting town of neighbouring Park City. Fast forward 38 years and now, with more than 70,000 attendees, Sundance/Park City is to winter sports what Cannes is to mega-yachting. Go to the Park City Mountain Resort at the end of January 2019 and you’ll see movie stars and directors – John Cusask, Chloë Sevigny, Jake Gyllenhaal, Spike Lee, Idris Elba et al – stomping Main Street all togged up in Patagonia down jackets and furlined duck books, heading off for a movie screening at the Egyptian Theatre, a boozy industry shindig at the Empire Canyon Lodge or the award-winning Riverhorse On Main restaurant. The skiing is A-list standard, too. Park City Mountain Resort and the adjacent Canyons Resort recently merged to become one of America's largest ski retreats
– 7,300 acres of skiable terrain, with moguls, powder, trees, halfpipes and rails. Justin Bieber is a regular and double mctwist 1260ing snowboarding superstar Shaun White keeps a condo in town. That said, don’t be daunted by the expert-standard US Ski Team being based here, because much of the mountain is easygoing, family-friendly intermediate runs
Go to Park City at the end of January and you’ll see movie stars stomping Main Street togged up in Patagonia jackets with lots of big, wide, gorgeously cruise-able motorways and immaculately groomed blues. But get your Rossignols on quick, because there’s another Utah gold rush happening. Almost 40 years after Redford’s fortunate diversion, and with the starry Sundance Film Festival established in the winter schedule, Park City is playing host to a new generation of celebrity. Tech giants such as SanDisk, Ebay and Microsoft, as well as a bunch of “unicorn” startups, are taking advantage of the idyllic location’s quality of life, potential and convenience: just a two-hour flight from LA. With new outposts of Microsoft and Adobe moving in to the snowy Park City area, it’s now better known as the “silicon slopes”. O From £2,290 per person for seven nights at Waldorf Astoria Park City, including flights and transfers. ski-i.com. The Epic Pass permists skiing in 15 resorts in the US and Canada and 30 resorts in Europe, £700 a year. epicpass.com
and Sundance! A winter refuge high in the vast American West, one ventures to Park City for the pictures but stays for the pistes JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 257
TRAVEL 2019
#greatstaysoftheworld Seek rest and restoration and make yourself at home at Ireland’s Ballyfin Story by Jennifer Bradly
The immaculate driveway snaking its way to Ballyfin is designed to ensure you see nothing of the house until, suddenly, you see everything. And there it is: a magnificent Georgian retreat at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains, the butlers, polished but jovial, lined up under the grand pillars to greet every guest. It’s hard to believe that just 16 years ago parts of the ceilings were collapsing from wet rot, the stonework was crumbling and the conservatory was a tangle of vegetation and broken glass. Originally the private home of the Coote family and later on a rather unlikely school, Ballyfin in Ireland’s County Laois was purchased by electronics magnate Fred Krehbiel 258 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Ballyfin displays its art on the walls and on the plate, thanks to five-year Michelin-starred chef Sam Moody
O Rooms from £495 per night. The Gardener’s Cottage, from £1,768 per night. ballyfin.com
in 2002 and painstakingly transformed into a luxurious country hotel. It may be the centrepiece of 614 green acres of ancient woods, parkland and walled gardens, but there are just 20 splendid suites here, each with a riot of art and antiques that jostle with just enough hi-tech gadgets and homely touches. It feels, quite deliberately, like you happen to be visiting a very well-to-do friend. You can explore the grounds by foot, bicycle, golf buggy or even horse-drawn carriage and never see another soul. Enjoy archery, shooting and falconry, order a hamper for two in the secluded picnic house – or, for an extra layer of privacy, stay in the new, handsomely decorated Gardener’s Cottage, complete with hot tub and views over the vast kitchen gardens. Head chef Sam Moody, who held a Michelin star for five years at The Bath Priory, takes his cues for his restaurant menu from the herbs, fruits and vegetables that explode from these gardens’ limey soil. His evening dishes – always expertly executed and brimming with fresh, hyper-local produce – are as showstopping as Ballyfin itself. G
Want to be fitter, faster, sharper, stronger? Of course you do. To explore yourself, your limits and your world? No doubt. With all the answers to the questions that count – what to eat, where to go, how to live – your very best self starts right here
‘Sometimes you’ve gotta hide the medicine in the food’ – Michael B Jordan gives us a dose of truth
Photograph Art Streiber
+ Health & Fitness + Wellbeing + Travel + Grooming
Edited by
Paul Henderson JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 261
Before
+ Split times: ‘The Beast’ workout routine
For his new film, Glass, James McAvoy became ‘The Beast’ in record time, thanks to Magnus Lygdback
Day 1
After
Legs and core Warm up on treadmill: 5-10 min Interval training: 4-6 sets of 60-sec sprints at max speed Legs Squats with barbell: 6 pyramid sets (12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 10 reps) Deadlifts: 4 sets of 8-10 reps Leg press: 4 sets of 8-10 reps Lunges: 3 sets of 20 reps Skaters: 4 sets of 20 reps Core Dragon raises: 4 sets of 15 reps
The Workout
If you want to get as big as possible, fast as possible, you’d better call Magnus Lygdback. PT to superheroes, monsters and adventurers alike, his exhaustive and, yes, exhausting regime delivers serious results Story by Alex Godfrey
Split, M Night Shyamalan’s gnarly horror about a man with dissociative identity disorder, was a massive hit in 2017. So was its star, James McAvoy, who got the part(s) as a man with 24 identities mere weeks before filming and needed to brawn up for cannibalistic monster “The Beast”. With no time to spare, the actor basically googled “how to put on muscle quick” and hit the gym like a maniac. That, though, was novice work. The film’s coda revealed that Split was tied to Shyamalan’s 2000 superhero classic, Unbreakable, which starred Bruce Willis as a security guard with burgeoning powers. Now comes Glass, a feverishly awaited sequel to both – and McAvoy has gone huge. With The Beast now free of his cage and running riot, the ante has been upped, big time: McAvoy 262 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
is now a hulking behemoth. And to get those guns, he needed to call in the heavy artillery. Magnus Lygdback transforms A-listers. He talks to GQ from his current temporary home in Hampstead, North London, here for a year to keep Gal Gadot at the top of her game for the Wonder Woman sequel. He hit Hollywood a few years ago, but is always on the move, helping Ben Affleck to bulk up for Justice League, turning Alicia Vikander into a machine for Tomb Raider – you name it. The tremendously bearded 39-year-old, who, with his chiselled Viking swag looks like a star himself, was born in Sweden to a sporting family, accompanying his parents to the gym – and loving it – at three years old. He got into martial arts, swimming and football, competed in Latin American dancing and was a professional ice hockey player before
Day 3 Chest, frontside shoulders and core Warm up on bike: 10 min Chest and frontside shoulders Flat bench press: 6 pyramid sets (12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 10 reps) Incline chest press: 4 sets of 10 reps Flys in cable cross: 4 sets of 10 reps Military press: 3 sets of 10 reps Core (obliques) Oblique circle: Switchblade with rotation 60 secs The penguin: 60 secs Side dipping: 4 sets of 30 secs on each side
Day 4 Arms and core Warm up on treadmill: 5 min Hamster on treadmill: 2 sets of 2 min Biceps Alternating biceps curls: 4 sets of 8 reps (on each arm) Double biceps curls: 4 sets of 10 reps Triceps Skull crushers (French press): 5 sets of 10-12 reps Super set Biceps curls in cable: 10 reps Triceps pushdowns with rope: 4 sets of 10 reps Core Dragon raises: 4 sets of 15 reps
Illustrations Joe McKendry Photographs Getty Images; Rex; Universal Pictures
There’s madness in the Magnus Method
Day 2 Back, outside and backside shoulders and core Warm up on rower: 10 min Back and outside and backside shoulders Lateral pulldowns: 4 sets of 10 reps Row: 4 sets of 10 reps Straight pulldowns: 4 sets of 10 reps Reverse fly: 4 sets of 12 reps Lateral raises: 5 sets of 12 reps Isometric core ‘Stir the pot’ on Pilates ball: 4 sets of 60 secs
WELLBEING
Magnus Lygdback trains Alicia Vikander for her role as Lara Croft in the 2016 blockbuster Tomb Raider
becoming a personal trainer in Stockholm in 2000 and soon began working with pop stars. “No one was looking at these people with sports-specifics,” he says. “It was more about being a ‘celebrity trainer’, which is a phrase I don’t like. So with my sports background I developed my own method, working with the whole package. I look at nutrition, training and lifestyle.” Having moved to LA to train Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Harry Styles and Avicii, he was introduced to Alexander Skarsgard, who needed serious muscle for 2016’s The Legend Of Tarzan. Lygdback got him absolutely humongous. “Then the phone started ringing. Ben Affleck saw the Tarzan trailer and called me, so I got Justice League. And then I got a lot of offers.” This is the road that led to Glass. “Obviously he [McAvoy] was brilliant in Split,” says Lygdback, “but I don’t think his physique was where it could have been and I think everyone recognised that within the team. That’s why they called me.” The Beast needed to look unnaturally pumped? “Yes. That was the goal. And I think we pulled it off.” When Lygdback met McAvoy in 2017, the actor was nowhere near Beast-size. “We had a lot of work to do,” says Lygdback. “The Beast
LIFE
is supposed to be able to flex his veins and breakfast with some vegetables on the side”. To become The Beast, McAvoy obviously ate muscles and have a freaky look. It was about more than a fistful of protein with his meals, building as much mass as possible in a short time.” As prep began, they assaulted the says Lygdback, laughing. “When you want gym. “I like to start the day with to build up a maximum amount working out,” says Lygdback, of muscle without gaining too much body fat, you “because that’s when you New year, new you have the most energy. We should eat around two Magnus Lygdback’s top had a programme with grams of protein per tips for a healthy start to 2019... which you go really kilo body weight.” “The challenge is to find something that hard on a couple of The training you like and that your body needs. Try to muscle groups at a didn’t stop when work out three times a week, then ramp it up to five – that’s the sweet spot. Food-wise, time and then let them the cameras rolled: eat five meals a day. Seventeen out of 20 rest. So we would do Lygdback was on set meals should be on point; three out of legs one day, back and the entire time. “I’m 20 you should enjoy life. People are outside shoulders the there in the morning way too hard on themselves. Don’t be. There’s no failure with my second day, the third day to work out with you, system. Just approach it the chest, front shoulders then I’m on you like glue,” with balance.” and core, and the fourth day, he explains. “Shadowing you, arms. That allows the muscles to I make sure the right food is there recover before you work them again and at the right time and that you eat it all. also means you can do more sets, more reps And when we’re filming, if there’s physical on each muscle.” movement, I’m there to help you pump up, Diet was just as crucial. “Good old to enhance certain muscles for the camera.” And Glass is littered with such moments – Magnus Lygdback had me eating a The Beast seems to spend much of the time lot,” McAvoy wrote on Instagram when they were done. “We didn’t rampaging about the place, shirtless. It is flex count a single calorie. We counted city and Lygdback is excited for us to see the macros... I think probably a whole thing. Even he is surprised at healthier way of tracking intake.” what he and McAvoy achieved. That’s what it’s all about, says “You could never expect to get the Lygdback. “I’ve never counted results we got in that short time. calories, because you can eat And I can only lead the way. The a bag of crisps and get 1,000 caloclient needs to walk the walk and ries or eat a chicken breast and James definitely did that.” get 1,000 calories. It’s about Then, though, Lygdback stresses the quality, the proportion that his approach is not conof the macros: fat and carbs fined to fantasy. We may not all are the energy source and be Beasts, but “The good thing protein is the building about it,” he says of his macstone of the muscles ro-counting plan, “is that’s how and tissue.” people should live, if you ask me. This can apply to It’s not only for superheroes. It’s us all, he says. We a way of life.” should eat “a fistful GLASS IS OUT ON 18 JANUARY 2019. of protein, a fistful of MAGNUSMETHOD.COM carbs or fat, two fistfuls of vegetables for Alexander Skarsgard’s lunch or dinner, a fistful impressive physique in of protein for a snack The Legend Of Tarzan, after working with Lygdback and a protein-based
‘It was about building as much mass as possible in a short time’
+ Eat like a monster for a day: AKA ‘The Beast’ feast Breakfast: Four eggs, with mushrooms, onion, spinach and peppers. Snack: Protein smoothie (protein powder with greens and berries) or half an avocado and hummus. Lunch: Two fists of protein (grass-fed beef, chicken, fish or shellfish), one fist of slow carbs, one fist of good fat (quinoa, barley, brown rice, cold potatoes, avocado, olive oil) and two fists of vegetables. Snack: Bean salad with lemon dressing or raw vegetables with avocado dip or hummus. Dinner: One-to-two fists of protein (grass-fed beef, chicken, fish or shellfish), one fist of slow carbs, one fist of good fat (quinoa, barley, brown rice, cold potatoes, avocado, olive oil) and two fists of vegetables. Remember: Eat every three hours. No sugar in any form. No fast or simple carbs. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 263
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G Partnership
Get the kit The perfect shave requires prefect products
Avoid ingrown hairs Fine, non-abrasive grains de-flake and lift beard hairs, while the menthol helps to open the pores and salicylic acid helps the turnover of cells. Clinique For Men Face Scrub, £21.
Keeping your beard? If you’ve decided to grow out a beard, pick up the Clinique For Men 2-in-1 Skin Hydrator and Beard Conditioner, a multi-benefit lotion that improves your skin instantly while softening beard hair.
Protect your skin By creating a thick cushion, this gel protects you from shaving trauma while the aloe vera instantly soothes the area and make the process more comfortable. Clinique For Men Aloe Shave Gel, £16.
Avoid razor burn The soothing aloe encourages the healing of minor nicks and cuts, soothes razor burn and dryness, and leaves a pleasant cooling tingle. Clinique For Men Post Shave Soother, £21
Close to perfection Ensure you always put your best face forward with this sharp guide to shaving Illustration by Stuart Patience
W Moisturise and energize Lightweight gel moisturiser, which energizes skin for up to 12 hours, fighting the aggressors that can tire skin and accelerate ageing. Clinique For Men Super Energizer SPF40 Anti-Fatigue Hydrating Concentrate, £40. clinique.co.uk/mens
hatever thoughts ran through your head when you looked at yourself in the mirror this morning, they probably weren’t focused on the task in hand – making sure you’re presenting your best self to the world. Earlier this year, we teamed up with our 30th anniversary grooming partner Clinique For Men, along with YouGov, for a grooming survey which revealed that four out of five of us regularly shave our faces. So what should be going through your mind while you’re concentrating on your chin? First of all, don’t go in dry. A few times a week, you’ll need to scrub first, because exfoliation helps to clear away dead skin and also lifts your facial hairs up, minimising the risk of ingrown hair and razor bumps.
Next, apply a shaving gel and prepare to shave. What’s important here is to remember that – unlike in life – you should always go with the grain. By following the direction your hair grows, you’ll be able to be more precise. Remember to rinse your razor after each stroke. When you’re done shaving, that doesn’t mean you’re done looking after your skin. Your next step should be to apply a post-shave soother, which will take care of razor burn and calm irritated skin. Finally, apply a moisturiser to keep your skin hydrated through the day. A few extra moments in the morning could transform how the whole world sees you. FOR MORE INFORMATION, HEAD TO CLINIQUE.CO.UK/MENS
Health
Your new year life coaches We’re not going to tell you to join a gym, stop drinking and cut back on carbs. You know all that already. But there are changes you can make to your life in 2019 that will have you feeling better, working smarter and getting fitter. Take the advice of these 14 wellness experts, mental health professionals and fitness gurus and this year could be your best yet… Story by Paul Henderson Illustrations by Joe Waldron
Breathing and transformation coach
Stuart Sandeman In 2019, everyone should find a breath coach and learn an optimal breathing pattern. This will transform physical, mental and emotional health. Most of us assume the autonomic action of everyday breathing is sufficient. The truth is, one in ten have symptoms of dysfunctional breathing and in the course of our busy lives we all deal with physical and emotional stresses that afect our breathing. By learning to breathe more efficiently, you will increase your energy, productivity, confidence and focus, as well as improve your posture, emotional intelligence, decision-making, concentration, sleep and memory. breathepod.me
Life coach and GQ therapist
Jacqueline Hurst This is the year to prioritise your mental health and get yourself in the right mindset at all times. Thinking right is important because how you think creates how you feel. So if you want to feel good, you have to think good, training your mind as you do your body – it will change your life. Take control of your mind-set and keep it simple. Ask yourself one question that will break down every barrier: “What’s the best way to think about this?” In other words, understanding that there
is always a better way to think about something is a great start. Get conscious and start thinking about what you are thinking about. thelifeclass.com
Relationship coach
Wendy Capewell There are two things you can do to make positive changes in your relationships. First, stop with unrealistic expectations. You will only feel let down and it’s likely to lead to arguments. Things don’t always live up to your fantasy of how you want things to be. Get real and ask yourself if you are being reasonable. Second, no one can read another’s mind. So don’t assume you know for sure what the other person is trying to convey to you. Before you react to your perception of their meaning, check it out with them and ask them if you have really understood them correctly. yourrelationshipspecialist.co.uk
GQ Style And Grooming Director
Teo van den Broeke For too long, men have been mocked for tackling their baldness, but now, in 2019, it’s time to take action. Hair transplants have never been easier, cheaper or (relatively speaking) less painful to get. The key is to find a reputable surgeon and never scrimp on cost – though transplants may be more afordable than they were five years ago, they’re still not cheap. Opt for a “fue”
+ The fitness team How to get more from your 2019 workouts GQ personal trainer
Bradley Simmonds Be smart yet creative to get the most out of your 2019 workouts. Your typical biceps curls and triceps dips will eventually bore you, leading to a lack of drive and focus in the gym, so step away from your usual routine and start to challenge yourself. We may not have a lot of time on our side, but we are all capable of training hard, eating like an athlete and holding the same principles as a professional. Try finishing your strength sessions with this 16-minute “emom” (every minute, on the minute) to really test your endurance and increase overall fitness levels. bradleysimmonds.co.uk
The routine (complete four sets) 1 250-metre row 2 20 kettle bell swings 3 20 push-ups 4 60 skipping rope unders 266 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Yoga instructor
Emily Mouskides If you are new to yoga, try to relax rather than concentrate on perfect form. Sometimes we focus so much on getting into a certain pose, we become fixated on form and this causes apprehension. Yoga is not about touching your toes; it’s about what you learn on the way down. First, spend time on preparatory poses, which develop the musculoskeletal system, confidence and alignment. Then, commit to performing a daily child pose or downward-facing dog, and practise. Mindset matters most. Get that right and the body follows suit. studio-yoga.co.uk
WELLBEING
LIFE
(follicular unit extraction) transplant, in which single follicles are removed from an area of the scalp, as this will look more natural and allow your hair to grow back stronger. Because you’re worth it. hshairclinic.co.uk
Cardiologist
Dr Francisco Lopez-Jimenez If you spend any amount of time sitting in front of a computer, do yourself a favour and stand instead. Sit-stand desks are really simple to use, can be adjusted in seconds and have various height settings. Standing burns more calories than sitting, because the number and volume of the muscles used while standing is higher than sitting. And it’s not just for people with back problems… it’s for people who don’t want back problems. Sit-stand desk, from £365. uk.varidesk.com
Nutritionist
Sarah Ann Macklin Start the year as you mean to go on with these three eating and drinking (and fasting) tips. 1 Eat happy foods. To boost your mood in January, go for: fatty fish, such as salmon and mackerel, for the Omega 3s; vegetables high in inulin, such as artichokes; flavonoids, including berries and greens; and polyphenols, which means a little red wine and dark chocolate. 2 Ditch charcoal drinks. They are a fad. They don’t help with detoxification and can even stop prescription drugs from working. 3 Try intermittent fasting. It can be very beneficial for people sufering from inflammatory bowel disease and can help develop gut microbes. Rather than doing it through the day, it is easier to fast overnight (from 6pm) and through the morning (until 11am). Remember, you can drink water and herbal teas in that time. Try it twice a week. sarahannmacklin.com
Physiotherapist
Claire Small It’s time to understand the importance of “prehab”. As a nation, we’re more active than ever, but overexertion and poor training techniques are taking their toll on our bodies. It is time to stop ignoring the niggles and identify areas of potential problems by seeing a specialist physio who will undertake a prehab screening programme. This provides an individualised, preventative set of exercises to address problem areas. If you are already in pain, exercise beats medication, injections and surgery for just about
‘Prehab’ screening will identify looming health concerns before they take their toll
every musculoskeletal problem, including tricky tendons, arthritis, bursitis and even acl ruptures, in some cases. puresportsmed.com
Detox expert
Amanda Hamilton Forget any notion that a detox is about anything external. A detox is about creating the optimum internal environment for your body to heal itself, something it does naturally. You’ll get the speediest results by block fasting – lightening the load on the body with high-nutrient, low-taxing foods, such as plant-based soups, smoothies or green juices, for at least four days (do it a minimum of once a year, but ideally at every change of season). Thereafter, intermittent fasting is the perfect follow-on. Both methods have upto-date scientific backing. amandahamilton.com
This is the year to prioritise mental health and get in the right mind-set
Psychologist
Dr Mark Moss Research at Northumbria University found that consuming a drink containing concentrated rosemary extract can boost cognitive and memory performance by up to 15 per cent and generate an increase in the levels of deoxygenated red blood cells in the brain. Rosemary has long been known to improve mood, as well as promote gut and skin health, but this new study is the first to prove its benefits to recall and concentration. Rosemary water shots act like a turbo charger for the brain. Rosemary water, £2.45 a bottle. rosemarywater.com
Fitness director
Niko Algieri
Stop killing yourself in the same fitness classes and look to be a more well-crafted, multidiscipline athlete. Try to include all five elements of fitness: strength, speed, endurance, flexibility and mind. For strength and endurance, join a well-programmed TRX class. For speed, get to a class that uses the new wave of treadmills, such as the Skillmill. For flexibility and mobility, look for guidance in all three planes of movement (sagittal, frontal and transverse). And, most important of all, be kind to your mind and body and allow time to rest and recover. weareequilibrium.com Professional footballer
Fitness industry specialist
Jermaine Beckford
Chris Heron
Hectic modern lifestyles mean many of us sufer in our mental and physical wellbeing. This year, look to include organic adaptogens in your diet to combat stressors. Adaptogens, such as black maca, ashwagandha, schisandra berry and vegan cordyceps, can help increase concentration, reduce inflammation, replenish muscles, decrease fatigue, increase immunity and support a healthy gut. Try Supernova’s organic vegan 02 Man powder. 02 Man powder, £35 for 480g. supernovaliving.com
Following success stories in New York (Row House and CityRow) and Sydney (Crew), indoor rowing is set to be the fitness trend of 2019. This technique-driven exercise uses 85 per cent of the body’s muscles and burns 300-plus calories in 30 minutes. It is also low-impact and form-centric, providing the ultimate total-body workout. theengineroomlondon.com JAN / FEB 2019 GQ. CO.UK 267
Opposite: 1 Peau de Nuit Infinie by Philippe Starck, £110. 2 Day Cream SPF 30 by Anthony, £34. 3 Super Anti-Aging Serum by Dr Barbara Sturm, £230. 4 Wood Infusion 100ml by Goldfield & Banks, £149. 5 Hydra+ Oil-Gel Facial Cleanser by Grown Alchemist, £43. 6 POP Shave Bowl & Brush by Marram Co, £59. 7 Anti- Fade Shampoo by Hanz de Fuko £16. 8 Turmeric CBD by Wunder Workshop, £77.
John Bell & Croyden
Upgrade your bathroom cabinet At John Bell & Croyden, London’s premier pharmacy, you will find products to rejuvenate your mind, body and soul
W
ith the promise of a new year around the corner, now is the time when many of us turn our attention to the little ways in which we can improve our lives and fine-tune our daily routines. We are looking for those products that can make us happier in small but significant ways every day. Things that put a spring in our step before we leave the house in the morning, or soothe us to sleep at night. Whether it’s to do with beauty, skincare, health or nutrition, chances are that what we’re looking for can be found on the shelves of John Bell & Croyden, London’s premier pharmacy and wellbeing emporium. Founded in 1798, John Bell & Croyden has redefined the modern pharmacy. It has been responsible for introducing hundreds of new products to the UK in the last 220 years, and remains right at the cutting edge of science. The world’s only Luxury Pharmacy, it has also been official pharmacist to the Queen since 1958, which is literally a seal of approval. To step inside the store on Wigmore Street is
to enter a world of possibilities. Unlike many shopping experiences, during a visit to John Bell & Croyden you really feel you’re in the hands of experts. It has an in-house team of highly qualified and experienced clinicians on hand, and all staff can offer expert and independent guidance across the full range of its products. Among the growing number of services available at the Marylebone store are a private GP powered by DocTap, InResidence Beauty for bespoke facials and skincare advice, and the newly launched InResidence Nutrition clinic. The luxury heritage store, complete with its exquisite marble flooring and rose-gold fixtures, offers a first-class shopping destination. The products represent a curated selection of the best wellbeing items on sale in the world today, ready to rejuvenate your mind, body and soul. The wide range includes vitamins
and supplements, medicines, tinctures, band aids, wraps, bath accessories, medical devices, mobility aids, skincare, cosmetics and male grooming products. With the unique ability to constantly update and refine its edit, John Bell & Croyden’s latest refresh of its men’s department will welcome a plethora of new and exclusive brands. On the next page we’ve selected nine of our favourites from its range to get you started. The products are of course also available online from the John Bell & Croyden site at a click of a button, but if you’re in London then its Wigmore Street store is a must-visit. The pharmacy is open seven days a week and is set inside a beautiful historic building – there are services available there that you simply won’t find anywhere else. For example, it recently partnered with Bodydoctor, London’s most exclusive fitness centre, to offer bespoke nutrition advice and consultation, both at Bodydoctor’s Belgravia gym and in-store. Members of the esteemed gym will have access to the InResidence Nutrition clinic and services; while John Bell & Croyden’s in-house nutritionist, Sara Bertoli, will visit the gym each week to provide members with advice tailored to their health and fitness plans. Following their first consultation at the gym, Bodydoctor members are then invited for follow-up appointments at John Bell & Croyden, and to explore the wealth of supplements and treatments available in store. Living a fitter, healthier and more productive life is something most of us aspire to, especially when it comes to setting New Year’s resolutions. The thing is, you don’t have to try and do that alone. With products and services for your mind, body and soul all under one roof, if there’s one place to visit soon to give your life a tune-up for 2019 it’s John Bell & Croyden.
We are all looking for those products that make us happier every day
VISIT JOHN BELL & CROYDEN AT 50-54 WIGMORE STREET, LONDON W1U 2AU. JOHNBELLCROYDEN.CO.UK
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LIFE
WELLBEING Life Lessons
The GQ Pep Talk with... Michael B Jordan From The Wire to Black Panther, Michael B Jordan is an actor as determined to break down diversity barriers as he is to break box office records. It’s an ongoing fight for the star of Creed II and when it comes to getting his life lessons across he doesn’t pull any punches… In his words: “Sometimes you’ve gotta hide the medicine in the food. You can’t slap somebody in the face with facts all the time. It’s too harsh.”
In his words: “When you got to make the decisions, when you get a chance to employ people, put key people of colour [and] women in those positions that are really going to make a diference.”
In other words: If you have a message to get across, don’t feel you have to force it on people. If you can communicate in more subtle ways, it can be just as efective.
In other words: The world is changing and we all have a duty to support diversification, be it people of colour, women, LGBTQ people or those with disabilities. All lives matter.
In other words: Don’t just respond to the needs of family and friends. If we see sufering, we should have empathy with whoever is in pain because we understand their plight even we don’t know them.
In his words: “I think redemption is about righting a wrong – and in that pursuit it’s about trying. You can stumble, you can make mistakes, but it’s about trying to do the right thing.” In other words: Striving to do what’s right is more important than how you do it. You might take a wrong turn along the way but working out the right destination justifies the journey.
In his words: “Sometimes you gotta go with your first instinct. You gotta go with your gut. That’s kind of how I live my life: you gotta go with your gut.” In other words:
Don’t overthink things. When you are dealing with your own life, trust in yourself that you will make the right decision.
In his words: “To the trolls on the internet, I want to say: get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends’ friends and who they’re interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It’s OK to like it.” In other words: Don’t hide behind a screen and preach hate. It’s a big world out there and life is too short to spend it promoting negativity. You won’t change your prejudices by closing yourself of.
In his words: “I’m first and foremost a black man, but what I’m trying to do, represent and build is universal.”
The message of inclusion isn’t about race or gender; it’s about equality and doing right by all.
In other words:
In his words: “My path is my path. I can’t take nothing away from nobody and nobody can take nothing away from me. I’m running my race. But we can still encourage each other.” In other words: Don’t allow others to discourage your ambitions and don’t do the same to them. Ofer words of support. That way, we can all help each other. PH Creed II is out now.
+ Isn’t it time you tried… Vedic meditation? If you want a little more from your mindfulness than an avocado smoothie followed by a quick fix on Headspace, this is the meditation for you. Will Williams’ 21st-century interpretation of the ancient transcendental meditation is a simple and easy silent mantra-based technique. Practise for 15 to 20 minutes (sitting with eyes closed) every day and it promises to give you more energy, better sleep, increased creativity, less anxiety and a more positive outlook on life. Finding inner peace in Inner London has never been simpler. Molly Halliday willwilliamsmeditation.co.uk 270 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
Photograph Peter Yang
In his words: “Why does it take somebody to feel like they’re close to us for us to see their humanity? Why can’t we see the humanity in people that are distant from us?”
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Exclusive Ofer
Ready to upgrade your grooming regime? Earlier this year we teamed up with our 30th anniversary grooming partner Clinique For Men and YouGov to conduct a wide-ranging survey into the daily routines of British men. We’ve listened to you. Clinique For Men have put together an exclusive grooming box featuring all your new daily essentials.
GET YOURS ONLINE NOW
The GQ Grooming Box is worth over £80. Get yours now for just £35 at clinique.co.uk/ GQ-essentials
Clockwise from top left: Lab Series instant filter, 7ml. Origins drink up overnight mask, 15ml. Clinique For Men charcoal face wash, 30ml. Aveda pure-formance shampoo, 50ml. Bumble And Bumble surf spray, 50ml. Clinique For Men cream shave, 125ml. Clinique For Men moisturising lotion, 15ml. Origins clear improvements mask, 15ml. Clinique For Men face scrub, 100ml. Lab Series future rescue repair, 7ml. JAN / FEB 2019 GQ.C O.UK 271
Grooming
Make-up maketh the man Parisian fashion and beauty behemoth Chanel has just launched a male cosmetics line – and it’s not just all about that base. To find out more, GQ’s Style And Grooming Director put his best face forward...
You may be surprised to learn that, despite being GQ’s Style And Grooming Director, I have limited experience with make-up. The nearest I’ve ever come to wearing foundation is a spot or two of concealer under my eyes when the previous evening’s claret consumption has exceeded the week’s recommended alcohol intake, and the closest thing to lipstick I’ve worn is a smear of balm when the heating’s been on too high. Therefore, when I was told by the people at venerated Parisian fashion and beauty house Chanel that they were launching a new range of make-up aimed squarely at the male consumer, I was less dubious, more nonplussed. What use did I, a man who fully embraces his rosacea, open pores and under-eye dry patches as badges of his testosterone-soaked masculinity, have for make-up? Make-up, to a media wally such as me, was the stuff of mothers’ handbags, girlfriends’ cheeks and backstage boudoirs; beauties, rather than beasts, and belles of the ball (ergo, not blokes). The reality, however, is that we are living in an age of hypervanity, where selfies are the new signatures and Insta-fame is more valuable than, well, real fame. It’s also an age of Me Too and Time’s Up, an era when we should be asking why if women can/must wear make-up can’t/ mustn’t men too? It’s a point with which the internet agrees. Take, for instance, a video tutorial by online retailer Asos titled “How To Do Natural Make-Up For Men”. A stepby-step guide to the intricacies of applying foundation and blusher, the video has amassed some 758,000 views since it was published
in April 2017, proof that the Asos customer base is full to bursting with men with no fear of self-improvement – a world away from the grizzled generation Y, who‘ve only just discovered moisturiser, and the Zimmer frame-ready baby boomers, who consider a bar of Pears the height of inter-bathroom sophistication. What’s more, male make-up Instagrammers James Charles and Manny Gutierrez now boast about as many followers as there are people living in London and Scotland, respectively (8.8 million for the former; 4.7m for the latter). Both men have made a living out of showing other men how to apply make-up and the demand for supply is there for all to see in the many likes beneath their posts. Armed with the knowledge that make-up for men has never been more acceptable, I decided to shelve my fear of foundation and take the plunge with Chanel’s new offering. Called Boy De Chanel, the collection features eight foundations in a range of shades, from light (anaemic candyfloss) to deep (Cuprinol), in addition to four eyebrow pencils in hues of brown, black and grey. I splashed on a (probably too thick) base of No20 Light before bringing out my cheekbones in No40 Medium. I forgot that I needed to apply moisturiser before application so added some afterwards and then gave my Marx-esque (Groucho, not Karl) eyebrows a brush with the brown pencil. The aim? To wear my make-up all day and see if anyone would notice. First up, the GQ art desk – my thought process being that the eagle-eyed creative team would spot any changes in my appearance
Like armour spread across my cheeks, it made me feel attractive and secure
272 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
more quickly than anyone else. Though no one commented at first, Associate Art Editor Anna eventually said, suspiciously, “Your skin looks good,” while Art Director Keith was even more complimentary: “It looks like you’ve been on a holiday. Fresh.” On the features desk – my base in the office – the (all-male-but-one) team was less observant, though once they learned I was wearing make-up were intrigued by the idea. “In the light it looks quite pale and you can tell; it kind of fills your pores,” said Features Director Jonathan. “God, you’re gorgeous,” said Associate Editor Paul. The next test: a working lunch with a senior executive at a major watch conglomerate, who, the instant I arrived, stated, “You look great. Have you done something with your hair? You look like you’ve been away for two weeks and come back really rested.” So far, so flattered. In the evening, at a family party, I was told by a cousin I looked “glowy”. Then, when my sixty-something, rugby-playing uncle found out I was wearing foundation he asked if he could try a dot or two on his “red bits” and nose. I happily obliged, transforming my aunt’s kitchen into a full-blown beauty salon quicker than you can say “One-way ticket to DragCon”. Personally, I thought my make-up application (on both my face and his) was shoddy, but I was surprised by the confidence the foundation gave me as I trotted around the capital on that October day. Like armour spread across my cheeks, a barrier against prying eyes searching for the redness and dryness I’d worn as a badge of my blokiness before, it made me feel attractive and secure, my ever-so-fragile masculinity still intact. The moral of the story? Wear more makeup. If I, James, Manny and their millions of followers can do it, so can you. TvdB G
Photograph Jody Todd
Edited by Teo van den Broeke Illustrations by Joe McKendry
GROOMING
LIFE
From top: Lip balm, £31. Foundation, £52. Eyebrow pencil, £32. All by Boy De Chanel. chanel.com
+ Complexion perfection Don’t know where to start? You do now...
Concealer by Charlotte Tilbury, £24. charlottetilbury.com
Powder by Charlotte Tilbury, £33. charlottetilbury.com
Moisturiser by Lab Series, £38. labseries.co.uk
Concealer by Mýego, £15. myegolabs.com
Brow definer by Tom Ford For Men, £36. tomford.co.uk
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RICHMOND UPON THAMES
RIVERSIDE LIVING 1, 2 & 3 bedroom riverside apartments for sale with a share of freehold, underground parking and 24 hour concierge.
Show apartments now open To make an appointment please telephone
+44 (0) 20 7349 0091 teddingtonriverside.co.uk
Eaton Place Belgravia, SW1 This newly renovated three-bedroom apartment is situated across the third and fourth floors of a handsome Grade II listed freehold building, on the esteemed Eaton Place in the heart of Belgravia. Drawing Room • Dining Room • Kitchen • Master Bedroom with Ensuite Bathroom • Two Further Bedrooms with Bathrooms • Lift • Caretaker
FR E EH O LD
PRIC E ON APPLIC ATION
Smith Terrace Chelsea, SW3 This immaculate three bedroom house was reconfigured and refurbished by Finchatton in 2014 and remains in excellent condition. Entrance Hall • Drawing Room • Kitchen/Breakfast Room • Cinema Room • Master Bedroom with Ensuite Bathroom Two further Bedrooms with Ensuite Shower Rooms • Utility Room • Garden • EPC Rating B
FR E EH O LD
PRIC E ON APPLIC ATION
020-7225 0277 www.russellsimpson.co.uk
PROPERTY | PROMOTION
CARIBBEAN JEWEL
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hat is the best-kept secret in the Caribbean? Regular visitors might recommend their favourite palm-fringed sandy cove, an island with thrilling diving opportunities or a resort with dreamy sunset views. Others might tell you the best place to sail or snorkel among sea turtles or experience delicious local rum. Those who truly know their leeward from their windward isles, however, will whisper just one word: Canouan. A paradise among paradise islands, Canouan is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Lying south-west of Mustique, it is uniquely protected on its Atlantic side by a coral reef, thus ensuring calm, crystal-clear, warm waters around its perimeter. Only five miles square, this pictureperfect idyll has soft sands, mystical hills and a local population of 1,800, who fish for barracuda and grow fruit and vegetables. Key to Canouan Island’s exclusive appeal is a new, FAA-approved, 5,900ft landing strip, which can accommodate and park private jets
of all sizes, and a natural, deep-water harbour with a 120-berth luxury superyacht marina. As a notably community-driven island, Canouan is a safe, alluring and exquisite playground retreat for the super-wealthy. The airport and marina allow easy access for residents of the new hillside Patio Villas, designed by Italian architects, and managed and operated by Mandarin Oriental. A sophisticated blend of indoor and outdoor living spaces, the three-bedroom Patio Villas with private infinity pool and Jacuzzi overlook a mesmerising lagoon. Prices on Canouan start at US$5million; the Patio Villas are US$8million. Property is freehold. Residents enjoy sophisticated amenities which include a spa, watersports centre, tennis courts, kids’ club, and exceptional Italian cuisine and wines. A highlight for many is the exhilarating 18-hole Championship golf course, designed by Jim Fazio. Set on dramatic sloping hills and along the ocean edge, it is every worldclass golfer’s dream. From the ridge-top holes 12,
13, 14 and 15, the panorama sweeps across the sparkling Caribbean to neighbouring islands. Life on the Canouan Estate offers the true relaxation you would expect of a Caribbean idyll but with scope for a range of activities and excursions. “You can arrive in your Gulfstream G650, go kite surfing and enjoy lobster ravioli with a glass of wine on the beach,” says James Burdess, head of the Caribbean desk at Savills. “The beauty of the landing strip makes it the premier get-away-from-it-all resort for those with access to a private plane.” For further information, please call James Burdess on +44 (0)20 7016 3740 or email canouan@savills.com
condenastjohansens.com Layan Residences by Anantara, Phuket, Thailand
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#OTL Jonathan Heaf Is...
This month with Katherine Ryan
ver the past few years, for me at least, Covent Garden has been that patch of cobbled earth that one woozily strays into after dinner in Soho. Maybe you’re there to retrieve friends who, depending on the friends, have either been watching a Wayne McGregor-choreographed ballet at the Royal Opera House or watching another form of human contortion at the theatre. It’s a tragedy that we’ve forgotten its attractions, its nooks. I used to spend most Saturdays as a trend-famished teenager – all peroxide-blond frosted tips and Suede playing through my canary-yellow Sony Sports Walkman – wandering Floral Street in Covent Garden. I’d pop into menswear Mecca Jones, a superbly curated store (if utterly extortionate) and peruse the chrome rails of Helmut Lang, Raf Simons or Manhattan Portage. (I miss that shop like other people miss a fun, rich aunty.) Then it was into Paul Smith (still there, still excellent) nearer the tube to ogle at the bright tailoring (and the socks and the cufflinks and the gold bunny statuettes), before taking the short walk to Duffer Of St George on Shorts Gardens, mainly to pick up some Evisu selvedge denim. There was also the Maharishi store back when those baggy trousers with embroidered dragons on the lower leg were a thing, worn with Nike Air Terra Humara trainers, although perhaps the less said about that whole era the better. Today, however, in among the bad buskers and pastie stalls, gems are returning. The famous Slam City Skates might have vanished from Neal’s Yard, but now you’ll find The Barbary, a superb, rowdy establishment serving sweet, unctuous, oily dishes from North Africa. (That is, of course, if you can get in.) There’s also Frenchie, for a casual date night, and Cafe Murano just up from the Lyceum that’ll do nicely for a working lunch. There is also the grand new Sushisamba on the first floor of the central arcade, recently anointed by GQ. I met comedian Katherine Ryan at Cora Pearl, the new joint from the proprietors who brought us Kitty Fisher’s in Shepherd Market.
‘I’ve noticed men being vocal if they feel their values are under attack’ Kitty Fisher’s has become perhaps my favourite restaurant in London and without doubt my favourite restaurant in London named after an 18th-century courtesan. Cora Pearl – also named after a much celebrated but also dead 19th-century concubine – is just down the road from the Petersham Nurseries store, a shop that caters solely for upper-middle-class mothers looking for an overpriced trinket with which to fill their Cotswold piles. The restaurant has a similar, not unpleasant vibe. A carefree, cocktail-sipping, cosy extravagance – think velvet booths and excellent refined glassware – and a sensibility that only comes with either having too much money or having lost far too much money. It’s the sort of restaurant where it feels perennially like Christmas party season. The place the wealthy would go to watch Rome burn. Or, in other words, really very posh. Ryan is – predictably – excellent company.
She’s been touring her stage show, Glitter Room, for almost a year and this week she’s on to her final few performances. A lot has happened to comedy, or certain titans of comedy, in the past year, I say: the downfall of Louis CK and Bill Cosby being the notable headlines. Has Ryan felt a flux, a shift from within the industry? “Actually, what I’ve noticed is men being more vocal if they feel their values are under attack. I had some intense homophobic heckling just the other night and that was a London, metropolitan audience. This guy was there with his poor fiancée, who was just sitting terrified, quiet as a mouse. It was awful actually.” Did she throw this fool out? “You know, I was so shocked, it sort of threw me. I did wonder afterwards how someone like that ends up at a show like mine. I am someone who has always been very vocal in my support of the gay and trans communities, often had queer acts as support. What’s the Venn diagram that exists that a homophobic, misogynistic man thinks the Katherine Ryan show is his cup of tea? I’ve noticed that such men have become emboldened by what’s happening, rather than creeping back into the shadows. It’s like they’ve had enough of left-leaning liberals; they’re fighting back, which is kind of scary...” We shared a carafe of white wine – the Gaba Do Xil Godello, Telmo Rodriguez, Valdeorras 2016 – to go with our mains: fish stew for Ryan, pork and turnips for me. The pork was blushed perfectly and, guess what, I like turnips – who knew? However, the carrots with mustard seeds were undercooked, rock hard, which was a drag; glazed carrots on the side, if done well, can save a mediocre main. But the best dish by miles was the starter we shared: a small ham-and-cheese toasty with accompanying homemade pickle. Forget what Giles Coren wrote about the quadruplenuked chips here – too greasy, too chunky by far – it’s the toasty that’s worth crossing London for. Just phenomenal. Like, sex in bread. Covent Garden, saved by a crustless hot meat sarnie. One imagines Cora Pearl wouldn’t have had it any other way. G 30 HENRIETTA STREET, LONDON, WC2. KATHERINE RYAN APPEARS IN THE FIX ON NETFLIX FROM 14 DECEMBER.
VERDICT Food ++++, Laughter ++++, Vibe ++++, Suitability for day drinking without guilt 288 GQ.CO.UK JAN / FEB 2019
+++,, Company +++++ Overall ++++,
Illustrations Anton Emdin; Zohar Lazar
Comedians, courtesans and London’s top toasty. Please welcome to the stage, Cora Pearl!