June 16 17

16.06.17

Keeping up with the Obamas

What the world’s most famous family is up to now

yoga. rave. repeat Introducing the detox retox

the pre-fall edition

What to buy now

Plus: cool wine clubs

The fashion brains behind Rag & Bone ...and how to be a man, by the late, great aa gill

Margaret Qualley Introducing cinema’s new indie darling

contents 4 Barbie and bagels in CAPITAL GAINS 6 Laura Craik gives two fingers to fat shaming in UPFRONT 8 Our MOST WANTED is Marni’s collage printed tote 10 Grayson Perry is feeling merry in FLASHBULB 12 Be on top of the shops with our PRE-FALL FASHION EDIT 15 GO CHILL AND GO HARD, from Formentera to Ibiza 18 Sunshine yellow and stud muffins in STYLE NOTES 20 Knit-cessories and an ode to the V-neck in MEN’S NEWS 23 What the OBAMAS did next

COVER Margaret Qualley photographed by Blair Getz Mezibov.

Styled by Nicky Yates. DIOR dress, £5,800 (dior.com)

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rumpus room ‘You can’t beat the views of St Paul’s and the Thames from the riverside terrace at the Mondrian’s chic 12thfloor Rumpus Room.’

Matt Hryciw, chief sub editor

30 Good golly, it’s MARGARET QUALLEY 37 The late AA GILL on the five stages of man 39 The man who built RAG & BONE 44 Get your face primed for pre-fall in BEAUTY 51 GRACE DENT adores Westerns Laundry 53 TART poach summer sweet apricots

Here are the ES team’s top five rooftop bars

55 Clubs for millennial winos in DRINKS 57 Go totally tropical in HOMEWORK

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58 Adwoa Aboah’s MY LONDON

ACE HOTEL ‘City views? Check. West facing?

Check. Effortlessly cool DJs? Check. Sundowners don’t get much better than this.’

Andy Taylor, acting art editor

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Queen of HOXTON ‘The rooftop at the Queen of Hoxton is transformed twice a year into a summer or winter hangout. This summer? It’s a Neverland adventure…’

Helen Gibson, picture editor

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Ham yard hotel ‘Ham Yard’s rooftop is spectacular, complete with a kitchen garden and beehive. It’s usually just for hotel guests but this summer on selected dates they are opening it up to the public.’

Lily Worcester, lifestyle assistant

sisu ‘Sisu is a new Nordic-inspired oasis at the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street, with its own novelty coinoperated Negroni machine!’

Wendy Tee, acting art director

Visit us online: standard.co.uk/esmagazine • Follow us:

@eveningstandardmagazine

@ESmagofficial

@ESmagofficial

Editor Laura Weir Deputy editor Anna van Praagh Features director Alice-Azania Jarvis Acting art director Wendy Tee Fashion director Nicky Yates Fashion features director Katrina Israel Commissioning editor Dipal Acharya Beauty editor Katie Service Associate features editor Hamish MacBain Features writer Frankie McCoy Lifestyle assistant Lily Worcester

Acting art editor Andy Taylor Art editor Jessica Landon Picture editor Helen Gibson Picture desk assistant Clara Dorrington Social media editor Natalie Salmon Office administrator/editor’s PA Niamh O’Keeffe

Merchandise editor Sophie Paxton Fashion editor Jenny Kennedy Fashion assistant Eniola Dare Chief sub editor Matt Hryciw Deputy chief sub editor Nick Howells

Contributing editors Lucy Carr-Ellison, Tony Chambers, James Corden, Hermione Eyre, Richard Godwin, Daisy Hoppen, Jemima Jones, Anthony Kendal, David Lane, Annabel Rivkin, Teo van den Broeke, Hikari Yokoyama Group client strategy director Deborah Rosenegk Head of magazines Christina Irvine

ES Magazine is published weekly and is available only with the London Evening Standard. ES Magazine is published by Evening Standard Ltd, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT. ES is printed web offset by Wyndeham Bicester. Paper supplied by Perlen Paper AG. Colour transparencies or any other material submitted to ES Magazine are sent at owner’s risk. Neither Evening Standard Ltd nor their agents accept any liability for loss or damage. © Evening Standard Ltd 2016. Reproduction in whole or part of any contents of ES Magazine without prior permission of the editor is strictly prohibited

16.06.17 es magazine

CAPITAL GAINS What to do in London

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BY FRANKIE McCOY Domestic politics: Hir at the Bush Theatre

Eau de EXHIBITION

Spritz and sniff your way around Somerset House at its Perfume exhibition, where you’ll lose yourself in a haze of stories about pioneering parfumiers and leave smelling glorious. £11. 21 June to 17 September (somersethouse.org.uk)

Eat, rave and repeat at Spiritland this weekend, as the King’s Cross music hub hosts Bagelys, London Food Month’s two-day doughy tribute to legendary club Bagley’s, with 20 DJs — and 20,000 bagels. 17-18 June (londonfoodmonth.co.uk)

UNHAPPY FAMILIES

Nothing like watching a dysfunctional family to make you appreciate your own, eh? The Bush Theatre’s new production of Taylor Mac’s Hir does just that, to wincingly comic effect. From £10. 15 June to 22 July (bushtheatre.co.uk)

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Square MEAL

IMPROV YOURSELF

Pull on your sun hat and scoot up to Shoreditch for the Hoxton Square Picnic, with charcuterie from 8 Hoxton Square, pizza from Radio Alice (left), plus film screenings, music, picnic blankets and deckchairs galore. 16-18 June, Hoxton Square, N1

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LAST CHANCE: American artist Joel Shapiro’s joyful installation of primary-coloured sculptures at Pace Gallery closes on 17 June. (pacegallery.com)

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Forget formulaic pop: free improvisation rules.

Celebrate by singing and strumming your heart out in Dalston with the Art of Improvisers at their week-long festival of exhibitions and workshops. 15-22 June (unpredictable.info)

All DOLLED-UP

Come on Barbie, let’s go party for the launch of Maison Assouline’s new coffee-table tome, Barbie: The Art of @barbiestyle, dedicated to the doll and megaInstagram star (1.8m followers and counting). £38. Out now (assouline.com)

Poulomi Desai joins the Art of Improvisers

WHIT PARADE

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You will always love her, so prepare to annoy colleagues for days as you hum Whitney Houston’s greatest hits after seeing Whitney: Can I be Me, the new biopic of the pop star’s life. Out 16 June

LOOK AHEAD: Get your indie music fix this summer with acts like Catfish and the Bottlemen at the brand new Community Festival in Finsbury Park on 1 July. (communityfestival.london)

Getty, Carol Sachs, Illustration by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas

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HOLEY MOLY

upfront Laura Craik on fat-shaming, Beyoncé’s

Robbie Williams feared becoming fat

birth plans and rubber footwear

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child labour The house of Givenchy has faced many daunting challenges throughout its noble history of dressing celebrities for big occasions, though perhaps none as great as designing a miniature nurse’s uniform, a task that puts dressing a heavily pregnant Kim Kardashian for the 2013 Met Ball to shame. Who, you might ask, needs a $1,015 miniature nurse’s uniform? Why, that would be Blue Ivy. Apparently, the five-yearold is to be present at The Royal Birth, because Beyoncé and Jay Z are ‘worried that their daughter might feel left out when the Beyoncé twins arrive, so they’re with Blue Ivy

es magazine 16.06.17

From left, the always stunning Rihanna

“Rihanna is a joyful reminder that the female body comes in myriad glorious forms. She has never been a size zero” trying to make sure she feels involved every step of the way’. Uh-huh. Grown men remain traumatised by watching a birth, some decades later. Here’s a little tip: just skip to the bit where they’re all cleaned up and dressed in matching Gucci Babygros. You’ll save a ton on therapy bills. rubber stomp Life: you start off at a fetish party in a rubber dress, and end up at Sainsbury’s in rubber sandals looking for the frozen sweetcorn. I didn’t mean to acquire a pair of Crocs, but they were so comfy; the logo barely perceptible, so that from a distance, they look like any other strappy sandal. I blame Christopher Kane. Everyone’s wearing rubber footwear this summer: witness Miu Miu’s pool slides, Kane’s crystal-embellished crocs and Birkenstock’s more affordable neon pink sandals (£25). Here in rain-battered June, rubber footwear is not only looking like a chic option, but Christopher Kane crocs, £275 a canny one.

Miu Miu slides, £220 (miumiu.com)

(christopherkane.com)

HOT Google’s new Art & Culture app How to see the Comme/ Balenciaga exhibitions without leaving the house.

The next best thing to being there

NOT Millennial pink It’s peaked, say experts, and will soon be replaced by ‘avocado green’. Not by me it won’t

Josh Shinner; Capitol Pictures; Getty Images; Rex Features; Alamy

ome male sports writer recently called Rihanna fat, which was charming of him — and also blind of him, for a finer figure never lived. Obviously, Ri responded with the sass we’ve come to expect from a woman who once rolled a joint on a man’s head and posted the pic on Instagram, via a meme whose message basically translates as: ‘If you can’t handle me at any weight, you don’t deserve me.’ Word.

The fashion industry is making strides towards diversity, albeit slow ones. Yet the overwhelming message is still that the ideal body shape is a fork prong: clothes hang better on it, according to designers. What they really mean is ‘clothes are easier and more cost-effective to design for skinny people’. Yet past puberty, this straight up-and-down body shape is unachievable for most women, regardless of race. Nor do all women even aspire to look like this. ‘It’s actually pretty annoying, because now I don’t have a butt,’ Rihanna said in 2012 after her weight dropped naturally while touring. She is a joyful reminder that the female body comes in myriad glorious forms, and that beauty ideals aren’t simply dictated by the catwalk. Rihanna has never been a size zero, and wouldn’t want to be. Life is pretty great already, thanks.

Inevitably, as the weather heats up, so too will the body-shaming, as seasonal as sunshine, casting a pall that the sun cannot shift. Alas, not everyone is endowed with the same body confidence as Rihanna. If only.

Robbie Williams recently revealed that his greatest fear was ‘obesity, and the shame that comes with it’ — a shocking and sad admission. Regardless of gender, it can feel as though we’re all under scrutiny. Life’s too short to body-shame, and too precious to waste obsessing over the shape God gave us, whichever our god may be.

THE most WANTED

Cut out & keep Marni has collaborated with artist Sally Smart to give this limited edition tote the collage treatment es magazine 16.06.17

PHOTOGRAPH BY John Gribben STYLED BY sophie paxton

Branch, £11.73, by Exo Terra, at amazon.co.uk

Marni x Sally Smart tote bag, £280, exclusively at LVMH’s new e-commerce site, 24sevres.com

Grayson Perry

FLASHBULB! Party pictures from around town

by FRANKIE M c COY photographs by james peltekian Mat Collishaw

Emilia Fox

David and Catherine Bailey

Ellie Bamber Kit Harington

Thomas Heatherwick and Tracey Emin

Arizona Muse

Eric Underwood

It’s all academic Piccadilly

Sam Rollinson

Charlotte Wiggins

Alice Temperley

Art fans Kit Harington and Florence Welch may have crammed into the Royal Academy to gaze, thoughtfully, at the piles of balls and beaded Amy Winehouse sculptures of the 249th Summer Exhibition while Grayson Perry had people queuing for selfies — but the real star of the show was the giant prawn ice sculpture, filled with actual cooked prawns, which someone ended up sitting on. Call it performance art.

Zawe Ashton

Florence Welch Annie Mac

Tom Parker Bowles The Duchess of Cornwall

Jimmy Carr

Lily Allen

Scott Collins

Alex Bilmes

Always dysfunctional Mayfair

Peter York

Christiane Amanpour and Nicola Formby

What’s the best pick-up line? Silence, according to Esquire’s late agony uncle AA Gill, whose collection of columns for the magazine, Uncle Dysfunctional, was launched at the Beaumont Hotel with a crowd of his favourite dinner companions, including daughter Flora, Alex Bilmes and Nicola ‘The Blonde’ Formby. Away, then, but not forgotten.

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Lord Karan Bilimoria

Emily Crossley and Sara Parker Bowles

Kate Cargill

Grace Dent

Jamie Q

Feast up Kensington

Georgia Fairman Flora Gill

To Perks Field, to scoff London’s lushest brisket, truffliest buns and dangerously good brownies at the launch of London Food Month’s Night Market. Tom Parker Bowles was spotted on ice cream duty for mum Camilla, Henry Conway grilled burgers and Grace Dent banged out some proper choons on the piano.

Henry Conway

GO TO eveningstandard.co.uk / ESMAGAZINE FOR MORE PARTY PICTURES

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VALENTINO PRE-FALL 17

SIES MARJAN skirt, £1,065, at matches fashion.com

MAX MARA PRE-FALL 17

SMART DENIM

The two-piece suit is back in business, especially when cut in a heritage tweed. But what’s new to the mix is Max Mara’s engineered wool denim, first debuted at the brand’s pre-fall Shanghai show.

The wrinkle-resistant fabric lends itself remarkably well to tailoring; something to consider for office dress codes that don’t quite stretch to jeans.

4 BALENCIAGA mule, £455, at matchesfashion.com

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Now that you’ve mastered colour blocking, autumn is offering up a more daring array of combinations. Burgundy and pink made fast friends at Valentino and Stella McCartney, while lilac and khaki bonded at Emilio Pucci. Whether you choose to champion this look with the simple addition of hyper-hued tights (see Givenchy and Balenciaga for stocking cues) or mix and match contrasting tops and bottoms (Sies Marjan), limit your palette to two to three tones or it will be overkill.

ZIMMERMANN dress, £750, at mytheresa.com

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FRILLS & SPILLS

From Erdem to Zimmermann, high necklines, cascading ruffles and statement sleeves continue to dominate the dress domain.

Selfridges’ womenswear buying manager Jeannie Lee has already invested heavily in this romantic look. ‘Designers are giving the Victorian look a modern update, which offers a fresh take on the period-inspired theme, while also bearing a high dose of modesty,’ she says. Take this feminine number from breakfast to the bar by exchanging a pointed flat for a flatform heel.

THREE FLOOR dress, £385, at harveynichols.com

MULES RULE

You heard it here first: kitten-heeled mules are set to be this autumn’s sliders. Don’t be fooled by the elegant satin and ladylike bow of these Balenciaga points; Demna Gvasalia’s subversive touch is all over that angled heel. Street style star Camille Charrière is already smitten: ‘Kitten heels work wonders by making a boyish silhouette look more feminine, and also mean that you can run around from day to night without a shoe change.’ Find the Insta-influencer wearing hers with a pair of Levi’s classic 501s and a simple white Cos T-shirt.

Illustrations by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas

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SETTING NEW TONES

ERDEM PRE-FALL 17

SOLACE dress, £550, at style.com

SIES MARJAN top, £399, at matchesfashion.com

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WHISTLES top, £189; trousers, £195 (whistles.com)

BEDTIME GLORY GUCCI PRE-FALL 17

Easy pyjama dressing is the perfect foil to those highglamour, high-maintenance moments in your life. Brands from Gucci to Whistles have jazzed up their plain piped silk sets with oversized florals that you’ll want to live in 24/ 7.

MORPHO + LUNA pyjama set, £595 (morphoandluna.com)

MAGNIFICENT

SEVEN

Fashion waits for no woman. Pre-fall 17 — that inter-seasonal preview that delivers a taste of what’s to come — is already in store. Katrina Israel introduces the hero pieces that will carry you into autumn

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PROENZA SCHOULER bag, £1,550, at net-a-porter.com

GET A HANDLE

Illustrations by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas

FENDI bag, £6,630 (fendi.com)

After seasons of cross-body domination, top handle bags are finally back on, well, top. Polish up those nails, as brands from Proenza Schouler to Prada are promising plenty of wrist worship to come.

COCCINELLE bag, £435 (coccinelle.com)

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THE PLEAT GOES ON

Come AW17 you’re going to be seeing pleats everywhere, from spliced midis to knife-pleated maxis. The best news is their versatility. Phoebe Philo’s kilt-ish Céline version will transition seamlessly from island escape to the boardroom, with the simple addition of a co-ordinating tailored shirt. Victoria Beckham has been seen sporting her own interpretation (above) with either a strappy sandal or slouch boot — a styling move that we also spotted on the Fendi runway for AW17.

CÉLINE PRE-FALL 17

PRADA bag, £3,010 (prada.com)

16.06.17 ES MAGAZINE 13

Chills and thrills: yoga on the beach in Formentera. Below, Naomi Campbell has been spotted on the island. Mika, right, and Fatboy Slim, below right, party at Pikes

DETOX to RETOX

Luke Dyson, Splash News, Goff Photos, Vantage News. Pikes neon sign, £995, Rockett St George

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Yoga retreat? Not in 2017. This summer it’s all about the yoga pre-treat. Ex-raver Laura Craik joins the modern party people following their zenning out with some serious living it up. Or at least tries to…

am straddled on a mat, sweating, a stranger’s bum hovering several inches from my face, trying to remember why I ever thought it would be a good idea to go on a yoga retreat. What sort of person even goes on a yoga retreat?

Brokenhearted divorcees?

Judgemental vegans? Brokenhearted judgemental vegan divorcees?

More and more people, it appears. Thanks to the stresses of modern life, wellness tourism is booming, with an estimated global market value of £590bn, up from £343bn in 2012. However freaky the experience turns out to be, at least it’s in Formentera, a tiny Balearic island accessible only by boat and known as ‘the last paradise of the Mediterranean’ for its Unesco world heritage status and quiet beaches.

If Ibiza is a fretful baby, Formentera is its peaceful Buddha counterpart. Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd might have pitched up in the Seventies, and Naomi Campbell, Giorgio Armani and Orlando Bloom might recently have been spotted on its pristine white sands, but Formentera still contrives to feel like a delicious little secret.

Kate Moss famously goes to relax in Formentera after partying in Ibiza, but I’m doing things the other way round. After the retreat I’m off to Pikes, a

500-year-old fi nca where Wham!’s Club Tropicana video was filmed, and an Ibizan institution. I haven’t visited since the Nineties but can safely say that back then, it was the wildest hotel I’d ever stayed in. Detox to retox seems to be the hottest holiday trend and Formentera + Ibiza = the ultimate detox/retox.

I am expecting the yoga retreat to offer spartan accommodation that’s light on home comforts and heavy on green tea, so am cheered to discover it’s held at the Gecko Beach Club, Formentera’s only five-star hotel, set right on Platja de Migjorn and gleaming after a refurb. I arrive just as everyone is having dinner — all 24 of them, laughing like drains. There is only one thing worse than going on your first yoga retreat, and that’s going on your first yoga retreat and accidentally arriving a day late once everyone else has bonded. On the bright side, I can The pool at Pikes

Kate Moss

see a bottle of wine. Cleary, the ‘detox’ part is not too strictly enforced.

The first class is at 7.45am and is taught, like all the others (there are two a day), by Jax, a blonder, bendier version of Elle Macpherson. Part teacher, part shaman, she has a quiet charisma that makes you fall a bit in love with her, and her knowledge is deep.

I’ve done yoga before, but never heard of an internal foot spiral. She also keeps saying ‘um, Lola’. I look around for this Lola, who is clearly so bad at yoga that she needs to be corrected all the time. Maybe me and Lola can be friends, united by our cack-handed ability to do a downward dog. It turns out Jax is referring to ‘ullola’, which means ‘flow’.

After the two-hour class, we have a tasty breakfast followed by a three-hour hike.

Luckily, Formentera is flat. It’s also very beautiful. Our guide explains the stringent planning laws in place that prevent the small island (pop: 12,000) from assuming the built-up appearance of its neighbour, Ibiza.

There is no way to say this without sounding like a wanker, but halfway through the week (bum in the air, legs akimbo, trying desperately not to fart), my thoughts uncoil like a rope and I feel peaceful, blissful, but also tearful. Apparently, this is common: it transpires that several others in my group have been weeping silently on their yoga mats. The type of yoga we are doing might be

16.06.17 ES MAGAZINE 15

Body of water: Yoga instructor Jax Lysycia.

Left, Gecko Beach Club

team was removed from a website last year at lawyers’ request). What happens at Pikes, stays at Pikes.

After dinner, Hindle shows me around Freddie’s, which used to be Freddie Mercury’s favourite room but is now a private club, accessed via a secret bookcase and featuring a bath filled with plastic balls where guests can sprawl and do karaoke. Freddie’s is soft play for adults still incensed by the idea of growing up, and Pikes is their ideal playground. By 11pm, madness is in the air. I spot a bevy of superstar DJs in town for the international music summit, a smattering of old ravers who could have been in situ since 1997 and a convoy of 18 year-old Glaswegian girls, dressed in a way that makes Little Mix look bashful. Hindle is not snobbish, and says Pikes is one of the few places left in Ibiza where you don’t have to spend a fortune on a bottle of champagne in order to secure a seat at the bar. This makes me happy. When I was young, Ibiza was a rite of passage. You didn’t need to be a millionaire to enjoy it.

Being a shade less young now, by midnight I’m in bed, watched over by a mirrored ceiling, a neon ‘LUST’ sign, and a large and slightly disconcerting black and white photo of Freddie Mercury. However seductive Pikes is, I figure, there’s no point in throwing away the hard-won benefits of the yoga retreat.

Especially when BA can do it for me.

I arrive at the airport the following day to find my flight home has been cancelled, a casualty of the airline’s widespread computer failure.

The weird thing is, I’m not even stressed.

I calmly make my way to the easyJet desk and book a flight to Southend. I don’t really know where Southend is, but it’ll be fine. Ommm.

Formentera Yoga retreats taught by Jax Lysycia run until October. Prices from £350£2,075 (formenterayoga.com). Primal Scream play Pikes on 29 August; DJ residencies this season include DJ Harvey and Paul Oakenfold.

Doubles from £163 (pikesibiza.com)

gentle, but it is also deep. By day three, I’ve even stopped cringing at the oms.

Orlando ‘Ommm,’ we all chant, sounding like Bloom cows, if cows did karaoke. On the final was just the way we rolled. day — day five — we sit in a circle outside, Well, some of us. and one by one say how we feel. One man Over dinner with explains that he works in a competitive, Hindle, it transpires that corporate environment where people are Pikes has actually changed a never kind, and that he has been blown lot. The rooms are more luxurious. The away by the kindness of our group. ‘I have food, which used to be basic, is now hated myself my whole life,’ he says. ‘But five-star delicious, my meal among the now I want to try to love myself. Thank you most imaginatively cooked I’ve ever for making me feel I might be able to.’ eaten. Pop-ups, featuring chefs from The thing about yoga retreats is that they London restaurants such as Hawksmoor, seem a bit ridiculous — until you do one. The run throughout the summer. other thing about yoga retreats is that it’s not so much about what you lose — weight, cyni“I’m in bed, watched over by cism, inhibitions — as what you find. For a neon ‘LUST’ sign and a what you find might just surprise you. slightly disconcerting Whitney was right: learning to love yourself photo of Freddie Mercury” really is the greatest love of all. But you ain’t gonna learn it in the office.

Like its owners (Hindle also designs a jewou probably won’t learn it at ellery range, True Rocks), Pikes has grown Pikes, either, but you will cerup along with its guests, most of whom are in tainly have a good time trying. their 40s, well-travelled and discerning. The The 30-minute ferry trip from walls by reception are still hung with photos Formentera is idyllic, affordof George Michael, Grace Jones, Bon Jovi ing Instagram-friendly views and Kylie Minogue, each standing beside of Ibiza Old Town as you draw into the port, Tony Pike, its eccentric octogenarian founder. from which Pikes is a 20-minute cab journey.

The man Boy George once referred to as ‘the Plonking myself on a sunbed by the pool, I’m Hugh Hefner of Ibiza’ still has a stake in the half-pleased/half-terrified to note that Pikes’ business, as well as a permahedonism has survived its new owners. nent room there. If you’re Balearic beats: Pikes at night. Below, DJ Harvey spinning at the hotel People are on their fourth cocktail by lucky enough to encounter 11am. As the DJ plays Ian Dury’s ‘Hit Me Pike by the pool, he’ll tell you With Your Rhythm Stick’, one man is walkanecdotes featuring drugs, ing round the pool literally hitting sunbathcelebs and orgies that could ers with a stick. Although, given that Pikes’ never be printed (one story owners are Dawn Hindle and Andy McKay, featuring the England football the brains behind Ibiza’s seminal, legendarily debauched Nineties superclub Manumission, then perhaps this is hardly surprising. The last time I was at Manumission, a couple had sex on stage, the crescendo of a cabaret act featuring dwarves (as they were then called) and a bevy of scantily clad women. In the Nineties, that

Y

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STYLE NOTES What we love now

PAULA CADEMARTORI sandals, £640, at boutique1.com

EDITED BY KATRINA ISRAEL

WINGS OF DESIRE

Disney star Rowan Blanchard in Coach

MIU MIU slides, £755 (miumiu.com)

Athenian jeweller Ioanna Souflia is renowned for her majestic, carved marble designs that pay homage to her Greek heritage, such as these rose gold earrings with grey and white diamonds. £3,572, at auverture.com

NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD pumps, £545, at farfetch.com

DVF PRE-FALL 17

GIVENCHY BY RICCARDO TISCI sandals, £654 (givenchy.com)

ASOS dress, £40 (asos.com)

ELLERY dress, £2,105, at themodist.com POKEMAOKE loafers, £255, at avenue32.com

WHAT A STUD

Looking for your next shoe fix? Whether you prefer a mule or slipper, pre-fall’s embellishment message is: the more baubles the better.

Lemon ZINGERS

MONKI dress, £35 (monki.com)

It may have begun with Emma Stone’s dress in La La Land, but this ray of sartorial sunshine shows no sign of waning. In fact for pre-fall 17 the hue has merged with our current obsession with go-anywhere ruffled floral frocks. From Gucci to Ellery, Asos to Monki, you’ll find these yellow confections at all levels of the market.

Canadian artist Chloe Wise in Gucci

InSTARglam Californian Jorge Cabrera’s urban art feed puts a surreal perspective on Los Angeles’ concrete cityscape.

ISLAND DREAMING

Button UP

To celebrate the opening of Chloé’s New Bond Street flagship, the maison has designed an exclusive pre-fall Faye bag inspired by London’s pearly kings and queens. Chloé New Bond Street Faye bag, £2,200 (020 3810 9900)

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For those of us who are unable to drop

by Loewe’s Balearic pop-up or follow the Ushuaïa crowd to Hï this summer, Maya Boyd has curated a new coffeetable book, Ibiza Bohemia, that captures both the tranquil pockets and 24-hour nightlife of the White Isle. £65 (assouline.com)

Follow us at @eveningstandardmagazine

Natasha Pszenicki, Illustration by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas

@sempiternus_patere

MEN’S STYLE What to buy now

Big Ben’s bit on the side

by TEO VAN DEN BROEKE, style director OF esquire UK

Knit bags

Herschel Supply co backpack, £180 (herschel supplyco.co.uk)

CONVERSE sneakers, £90 (converse.com)

High time

German watchmaker and pen manufacturer Montblanc is the latest luxury marque to throw its hat into the smartwatch ring. Named Summit, the new timepiece’s design is inspired by Montblanc’s classic 1858 range (meaning it’s one of the most elegant smartwatches on the market). What’s more, the digital dial can display everything from fitness tracker to altitude, as well as any of the thousand or more Android Wear 2.0 apps available to download.

Montblanc Summit smartwatch, from £765 (montblanc.com) AMI jumper, £255, at matchesfashion.com

V on trend

Gone are the days when brands would simply show two collections per year: one with warm clothes for winter and another with skimpy garments for summer. Now is the age of the precollection. Brands such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta and Gucci have all produced noteworthy pre-fall 17 menswear collections this season. The reason? In many markets winter clothes are simply too insulating for the changeable autumn months. One of the biggest trends this pre-fall? The V-neck jumper. Worn chunky with crisp white shirts or layered with other V-shaped lapels, the V-neck is making a comeback. Here are a few of the best...

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PAUL SMITH jumper, £415 (paulsmith.com)

KENT & CURWEN jumper, £495 (kentand curwen.com)

Ben Machell searches for joy during his daily walk on the angry side

O

ver the past few weeks I’ve noticed that my daily walk into work — a three-mile trudge from Hackney, down through The City and then over the river — has become increasingly fraught. The sweaty Sturm und Drang of it all has been getting on top of me, and I’ve started getting very uptight about my fellow foot commuters.

Tetchy. Angry. Looking for reasons to get annoyed with anyone who comes within five feet of me.

So there’s the guy outside Liverpool Street who keeps trying to get me to sign up for paintballing.

Every time I walk past. Have I heard about paintballing, he always wants to know? Yes. You know full well I have. It’s all you ever talk about. Then there are my long-standing nemeses, the people walking around with big boxes of doughnuts, the chirpy-yetneedy workers who hijack every office birthday celebration. I see you and know what you’re up to.

“For some reason, I always think well of banana eaters… And cheerful, chubby men in tight Breton stripes” Who else? The City boys with umbrellas the size of beer garden parasols. I’ve started walking towards them without flinching in the hope of having an eye gouged out, just so that I can legitimately go fully Game of Thrones on them. The kamikaze pedestrians who seem to think the hallowed rituals of the pelican crossing are for others. The people who, when your headphones catch on something and get brutally yanked out of your ears, just stand and watch, rather than immediately rushing over, sitting you down, getting you a sugary tea and asking if there’s anybody you’d like them to call.

Callous scumbags all.

In these moments, though, I try to stay Zen by looking out for the people who always cheer me up. So anyone eating a banana, for example. For some reason, I always think well of banana eaters. And rollerbladers. And cheerful, chubby men in tight Breton stripes. Finally, crossing the bridge over the Thames, I always look for the people peering over the side and clearly thinking the same thing as me: could I jump onto the roof of that passing Thames barge? You can always spot them, pausing and looking down thoughtfully, Bourne-style action sequences flashing through their heads. It’s a heartening, cheering sight. Thank you.

Jonny Cochrane; Josh Shinner

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Herschel Featuring a selection of styles Supply co hip pack, £80 in understated hues, the unique (herschel thing about these backpacks is supplyco.co.uk) that they’re made from the brand’s super-tactile ApexKnit fabric, which moulds perfectly to your form. Now all you need is a pair of Converse’s new Chuck Taylor Flyknits to match.

sweet home

obama Casual cocktail parties, SoulCycle classes and late-night drinks with Branson. The Obamas might have left the White House but they’re still making waves on the DC social scene.

Denver Nicks gets the inside scoop

Getty Images; Rex Features

O

n a recent Saturday night in north-east Washington, DC, fashionably dressed guests whispered amid the quiet clatter of cutlery in the dining room of Masseria, an intimate, elegant Italian restaurant and one of the US capital’s hottest culinary offerings. At wooden tables surrounded by walls of exposed rock and brick, those present kept their phones in pockets and handbags — there were no photos allowed that night — and did their best to let two of the most famous people on earth split a bottle of wine and a romantic late-night meal in peace.

Barack and Michelle Obama are repeat customers at Masseria, and knew they could entrust their menu selections to the chef, which they did, enjoying a large serving of pasta, plus dry-aged steak with red Oprah wine sauce.

Winfrey Masseria is in a part of Washington that had a decidedly rougher edge a decade ago and was not the sort of place you’d expect to find a former President and First Lady at a Michelin-star restaurant. But then Barack and Michelle Obama are not a normal former President and First Lady. As presidencies go, the Obama administration was the embodiment

Sir Richard Branson

George and Amal Clooney Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House

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Power boat: The Obamas with Oprah Winfrey on a yacht in French Polynesia in April

Barack Obama and former US Vice-President Joe Biden take in a basketball game in Washington, DC

of urbane cool, representing a fresh, young and cosmopolitan shift in American political life. Since they arrived, the city has transformed. Long derided as a stodgy refuge for bureaucrats and pencil-pushers — ‘Hollywood for ugly people,’ as they say — DC today is a youthful city with theatre, music and gastronomic scenes to rival New York, boasting vibrant gay and immigrant communities, and one of the most highly educated and wealthiest populations in America. It’s also one of the country’s most liberal cities; same-sex marriage has been leg a l si nce 2 010 a nd m a r ijua na decriminalised. Washington voted 93 per cent in favour of Hillary Clinton in the last election and the city has vowed to defy the Trump administration by upholding the Paris climate agreement.

Getty Images; Vantage News; Photoshot

F

itting, then, that rather than immediately return home to Chicago the Obamas have opted to continue making Washington their home — a first for any former President in nearly a century. Their predecessors, George W and Laura Bush, moved to Dallas where that former President wrote his memoir and took up painting, while Bill and Hillary Clinton made New York their home.

Indeed, the last American President to stay in town after leaving office was Woodrow Wilson. ‘He enjoys DC. He loves DC,’ says Obama’s spokesman, Kevin Lewis. ‘Chicago is their home, but they’ve made DC their home, too.’

Instead of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, these days they reside in a newly redecorated nine-bedroom, four-storey brick mansion in Kalorama, a chi-chi neighbourhood of stately homes and embassies on leafy streets tucked into a bend in Rock Creek, a stream that cuts a forested gorge through north-west Washington. Trump’s Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, lives nearby and the Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, recently turned a former

Michelle speaks at MTV’s College Signing Day

Obama and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau catch up in Montreal last week

“He enjoys DC. He loves DC. Chicago is their home, but they’ve made DC their home, too” museum in the area into his DC digs, now the largest house in town. President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, meanwhile, live just around the corner.

Whether or not the former first couple have seen the young Trumps isn’t known, but they have certainly been making the most of what DC’s social scene has to offer — as well as doing the odd bit of entertaining in their new home. Following their trip to Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island in April, Branson bailed on a high-society White House Correspondents’ Dinner party in Washington and walked the few blocks to the Obamas’ new home for a late-night drink.

And the fact that they’ve left office has done nothing to dent Mr Obama’s famous friendship with his former VP, Joe Biden, with whom he’s been out golfing. As Lewis puts it: ‘The bromance continues.’

Although throughout their years in the White House the Obamas sometimes ventured out from the cloistered residence into the District of Columbia, such excursions had to be planned far in advance and the President’s large security detail made their movements about as subtle as those of a 1980s hair metal band. But outside the White House bubble, with a smaller, lowerimpact security team and the ability to head out at the drop of a hat, the Obamas have been able to live a far more ‘normal’ existence. ‘They’re both, ultimately, fairly normal, low-key people who don’t necessarily like being the centre of attention,’ says a person close to the Obama entourage. ‘This is the first time they’ve really been able to be a couple in DC.’ As well as Masseria, they’ve been seen at high-concept Mexican restaurant Oyamel (the Obamas are big fans — and friends — of its Spanish-American celebrity chef, José Andrés). Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering M rs Oba ma’s hea lth a nd f itness

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preoccupation, they’re repeat customers at Nora, a Dupont Circle purveyor of fine, organic local cuisine. Always keen to try the newest hotspot, they recently dined with friend and former NBA player Alonzo Mourning at Mirabelle, a new French restaurant getting buzz in DC.

The Obamas’ £6 million DC mansion

There has also been a series of lavish vacations in Tuscany and French Polynesia, where they were spotted on a yacht with Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen. On a visit to the UK they visited Prince Harry at Kensington Palace as well as David Cameron, and hung out with George and Amal Clooney at their Oxfordshire home.

Which is not to say it has been all play and no work. Both in their mid-50s, neither Barack nor Michelle Obama is ready to retire. For the moment, Mr Obama is keeping a low political profile, working in the background on issues he cares about, such as making America’s congressional

Prince Harry with Obama in London last month

Rex Features; Getty Images

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eanwhile, museumgoers at the National Gallery of Art were recently delighted when they encountered the Obamas, along with friends Anita Blanchard, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The University of Chicago, and Marty Nesbitt, an entrepreneur, taking in a new exhibition by Chicago artist Theaster Gates. In it, the artist repurposes materials from buildings in African-American communities with a special emphasis on Chicago’s South Side, the Obamas’ home turf. Michelle has also been seen dropping in for public classes at SoulCycle, near 14th and U Street, where a gaggle of paparazzi has taken to waiting. It’s a newly gentrified part of town with a central place in the city’s rich African-American history, near what locals call Malcolm X Park. A Secret Service agent is always there taking the class with her.

The Obamas with daughters Sasha, left, and Malia at Yosemite National Park

“Michelle has been seen dropping in to SoulCycle.

A Secret Service agent takes the class with her”

districts more favourable to Democrats (they’re redrawn every 10 years and currently heavily favour Republicans), and he’s occasionally thrown his public support behind a candidate (France’s Emmanuel Macron, for one). Inspired by the groundswell of youthful supporters during his unlikely presidential run a decade ago, Mr Obama is laying the groundwork for the Obama Foundation, which will promote civic engagement among young people, and recently discussed the subject over dinner with Justin Trudeau in Montreal. In February, Mr Obama hosted a cocktail party at his new, minimalist office where the atmosphere, according to a Washington Post report, was notably informal, complete with mismatched wine, self-service food and a tie-less former President. As well as Biden, former chief of staff Denis McDonough and junior ex-staffers could be seen among the assembled crowd.

Mrs Obama is still involved in the initiatives she spearheaded as First Lady, promoting nutrition and exercise in schools, and girls’ education. While in the White House, she sometimes stopped in for a surprise visit at public schools around Washington and she has kept the habit now that she’s a private citizen. The couple, who famously only paid off their student debts

the year Barack became a US senator, are also both writing memoirs about their White House years under a joint book deal reportedly worth at least $65m (£50m).

The Obamas say they’re staying in Washington so that their youngest daughter, Sasha, can finish high school (Malia, the eldest, is on a gap year before heading to Harvard in the autumn, and is reported to be interning with film producer Harvey Weinstein in New York City).

However, the announcement late last month that they purchased the house that they were renting (from former Clinton administration press secretary Joe Lockhart and his consultant wife, Giovanna Gray Lockhart) for a cool $8.1m (£6.3m) has raised speculation that they might stay beyond Sasha’s graduation.

Certainly, the crowd dining alongside the former first couple at Masseria on that recent Saturday night seem to hope so. As the Obamas finished their meal and rose from the table to leave, they shook hands and made small talk with people at the tables around them. The room became even more quiet, then erupted in a standing ovation.

The Obamas may have left the White House — but in Washington, DC, they are still everyone’s favourite first family.

Independent

spirit

Actress. Dancer. Coyote feeder. Margaret Qualley is hardly your typical celebrity offspring. Andie MacDowell’s daughter tells Johanna Thomas-Corr about facing down her demons, starring with Ryan Gosling — and being the film world’s new indie darling

I

PhotographS BY Blair Getz Mezibov stylED BY Nicky Yates

t’s a sweltering hot day in Los Angeles and, in a bohemian café in the understated neighbourhood of Echo Park, Margaret Qualley is telling me how she spends her free time. ‘We call it coyote hunting but actually it’s more like coyote nurturing,’ says the 22-year-old actress and model of her habit of cruising around Hollywood with her sister, Rainey, and feeding the city’s prairie wolves. ‘My sister and I are pretty dorky, so we drive around at night in her car listening to old Disney songs and feed the coyotes cans of wet cat food, which I’m sure is a terrible idea. Meanwhile, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty showtunes are playing in the background. It’s a big night for us,’ she laughs.

Despite the heat, the star of HBO’s dystopian drama The Leftovers is wearing a high-collared white blouse underneath a grey jersey sweater and a jacket. ‘I’m such a grandma,’ she laughs. Still, her normcore attire does nothing to disguise her rather regal beauty. She has inherited the luminescent complexion of her mother, actress Andie McDowell, and soulful eyes of her father, a former Gap model turned rancher and property developer named Paul Qualley. Her pale skin, full lips and tiny gap between her front teeth combine with her wry selfmockery and slightly awkward manner to give her the geeky charm of a character from a Wes Anderson movie.

In fact if you were to storyboard a Hollywood indie darling for 2017, you might come up with something a bit like Qualley. The former ballet prodigy had an early role opposite Ryan Gosling (playing a rebellious teenager who gets kidnapped because she resembles a porn star in the hilarious police caper The Nice Guys); became an internet sensation thanks to her free-spirited dancing in a Spike Jonze-directed viral ad for Kenzo World perfume;

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and more recently, won Sundance Film Festival plaudits for her performance as a shy teenage nun in the convent drama, Novitiate. Her upcoming projects include two Netflix films: Io, an indie sci-fi drama starring Danny Huston in which Qualley will play a girl racing to find a cure for what led to Earth’s destruction; and Death Note, a supernatural thriller based on the Japanese manga comics in which she stars alongside Willem Dafoe. But Qualley has a few quirks you couldn’t invent in a million years. Aside from the coyote feeding, she tells me, ‘I’ve recently fallen in love with bees so I’m trying to save them. I’m investing in an apiary!’

She may have attended the Met Ball this year wearing a striking white gown with sculptural sleeves by Prabal Gurung, but Qualley insists that mostly, her life hasn’t changed since she first found success in The Leftovers. The series, which ran from 2014 until this year, saw her take a leading role as Justin Theroux’s jaded teenage daughter.

She attributes this to the fact that she lives with Rainey, 27, a sultry blues singer and sometime actress who recently bought a house around the corner from the coffee shop we’re in now. ‘She’s my idol, my best friend in the whole world. I wanted to be close to her so I live in her guest bedroom,’ Qualley says, sipping her iced tea. ‘We have a puppy together. His name is Books — he is adorable. I think I would find being in Hollywood intense if I had more of a social life but all I do is stay indoors with my sister and play with our puppy, watch movies.’

Still, she can’t escape her own buzz. Midway through our conversation, a dude in a hipster fedora appears at our table to declare that her deranged three-minute dance solo for Kenzo (released last summer) was ‘the coolest commercial out there’. It may be a fragrance commercial, but ‘My Mutant Brain’ has been a strong calling card. Choreographed by Ryan Heffington (known for his music videos for Arcade Fire and Florence + The

DIOR dress, £14,000 (dior.com)

DIOR top, £2,200; bra, £620; pants, £580 (dior.com)

“We didn’t grow up watching mom’s movies. She made an effort just to be a mom, which I’m grateful for”

Machine), it sees Qualley convulse wildly around the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown LA, frontflipping, shooting lasers and leaping through an enormous floral sculpture.

When she turned up at Jonze’s Manhattan apartment for the audition, he explained he envisioned a girl losing control after sneaking out of a stuffy black-tie dinner.

‘He’d yell out instructions like, “Now you’re a vampire,” “Now you’ve lost control of your arm and it’s out to get you,” and “Now you’re slaying dragons.” He was filming all this on his phone while I was jumping on his coffee table and crawling around on his floor. When I left, drenched in sweat, my agents called me to see how it had gone and I said: “He either thinks I’m the craziest, most bananas chick out there or it’s gonna work out.”’ It worked out.

Qualley was born in Montana in 1994, the same year that MacDowell’s career hit, Four Weddings and a Funeral, was released. However, since she and her siblings, Justin, 30, and Rainey lived on a sprawling, 3,000-acre ranch without a TV, she says she only got around to seeing the successful British rom-com for the first time last year. ‘We didn’t grow up watching her movies. She made an effort just to be a mom, which I’m grateful for.’ Later, the family moved to a small town called Asheville, which Qualley describes as the ‘hippy centre of North Carolina’. Her parents separated when she was five, and she split her time with her mother and father equally, though she says: ‘Like every child of divorce I had parent-trap fantasies. In fact, The Parent Trap was my favourite movie. I was a Nineties baby so I

particularly loved the Lindsay Lohan version. I made a point of telling my mom how much I loved the movie — talked about it a lot. And then she started dating Dennis Quaid [who stars in the film]. And I was like, “Noooo!

You got it all wrong! This is not what I meant at all!”’

Her parents generally let her choose her own path. ‘It was: “You want ice cream twice a day, you can have it,” and, “You don’t have to go to school if you don’t want to.”

And I was like, “Yeah, I have to.” And now I think “Margaret, what the f*** were you doing?”’ Qualley says her father taught her how to forge his signature so she could sign off her own report cards. ‘I use his signature as my own to this day.’

By that point she had already fallen in love with ballet, having been taken to dance lessons as a toddler.

She also had a strong desire to get out of Asheville without ever knowing where exactly ‘out’ was. ‘I made [dance] my ticket out. I thought if I was really good I could go to ballet school.’ She did, leaving home at 14 to board at the North Carolina School of the Arts. It was an experience both liberating and crushing. ‘I love the school… but it’s a normal part of the culture of ballet to go to a nutritionist in your first few weeks. They write down everything you eat and use a little roller that pinches you to measure the fat all over your body. They calculate all your measurements and then every semester, you get a letter saying either you’re too thin or you’re okay or you’re overweight. You have to adjust accordingly and if you don’t you’re not asked back the next year. It’s s***ty; it’s really hard.’

At 16 she earned an apprenticeship at the American

DIOR dress, £1,050; vest, £1,250 (dior.com)

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Qualley at the Met Gala this year

Ballet Theatre in New York and left to live in the city alone. But she became unhappy; although she loved dance ‘almost on a spiritual level’ she increasingly found the training imposed too many unrealistic expectations.

With her father now living in Panama where he had gone to build properties, her mother often away working, and her siblings at college, she needed a plan that didn’t involve returning to North Carolina. So she signed up with a modelling agent and found herself a Manhattan apartment and a high school to attend. ‘I wrote to my mom saying: “Look, I don’t think I want to be a dancer any more so I’m going to quit ballet and stay here. I will have this and this income next week.” I laid it out in a way that she couldn’t say no because I was so organised.’ Her mother wasn’t disappointed. ‘She had tried to talk me out of dancing for so long. It’s a hard life, a very short career and very gruelling.’

Surviving in New York was not a walk in the park. ‘It was funny being at high school and also grocery shopping and having a job. Other kids were going home to their parents, who were doing their laundry and I was like, wait, what?’ she laughs. ‘I was super isolated. I was 16, alone in New York and modelling.’ She began to miss the discipline of ballet, which at least provided a higher artistic purpose to her losing body fat. ‘With modelling, there’s nothing to work on other than losing weight. I definitely had an eating disorder.’

It was around this time that she took up acting classes — even spending a summer in London learning Shakespeare at Rada — and found it revelatory after the tightly disciplined world of ballet: ‘The mistakes are beautiful. It’s a very different way of storytelling and it’s liberating.’ While she admits that Hollywood brings similarly ‘unrealistic’ pressures of body image, she finds it less uptight.

In the Kenzo World perfume ‘The best approach is to put my advert attention on other things. I try

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to learn about other stuff rather than obsess about how I’m seen.’

Qualley still dances whenever she can. ‘I’ll go to Ryan’s [Heffington] studio but I don’t do ballet because it’s too painful for me now. I’m too much of a perfectionist and I don’t have as much control as I used to. But if I take a contemporary class, I have a lot of fun.’ She admits that she dreams of returning to live in New York one day but for now, work and the desire to be close to her sister keep her in LA. She was also recently linked to Cary Fukunaga, the 39-year-old director of cult series True Detective — though when I raise this, she refuses to comment.

One thing on which she’s only too happy to sound off though is politics. She was, like everyone she knew, horrified that Donald Trump won the election — ‘I imagined he’d be arrested before inauguration’ — and attended the small but fierce Women’s March at the Sundance Film Festival in January. ‘There’s a lot of fire bubbling in all of us at the moment, and that’s exciting.

The fact that everyone is becoming more involved in politics is a huge deal.’ She says her political conscience emerged early. ‘I went to a private school and I was an outcast. I was debating about vegetarianism and hanging up posters of cows being slaughtered in my cafeteria.

Needless to say, I didn’t have many friends.’ It’s a typical Qualley comment: honest, sideways and intriguing. I get the feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of her.

‘Death Note’ will be released on 25 August

Qualley with her mother, Andie MacDowell

Rex Features; Getty Images

DIOR dress, £12,000 (dior.com)

“With modelling, there’s nothing to work on other than losing weight. I definitely had an eating disorder”

DIOR blouse, £940; pants, £580 (dior.com) Hair by Jenny Cho using R+Co at Starworks Artists.

Make-up by Monika Blunder using Dr Barbara Sturm at The Wall Group

1

Thirteen is the end of childhood and the beginning of being a teenager.

You get balls and can’t sing ‘O for the Wings of a Dove’ any more. Things you are already too old for at 13 include birthday parties with clowns, Nerf guns, a 10-second start, the light on, Valentine’s cards from your nan and having your mum wash any of your body parts. But you can start swearing and wearing T-shirts that have pictures or slogans that refer to contemporary music. You can do weird adolescent s*** with your hair and you can kill things — rabbits, fish, nits. And, of course, there are the three big ones: you can wank, drink and smoke.

2

Twenty is a tough age because it slips past in the middle of so much else — university, gap year, leaving home, getting jobs. Twenty is the age where you finally, irrevocably put childish things behind you. ‘I forgot’ is no longer an excuse, neither is ‘I overslept’. At 20, you need to have a pair of leather shoes with laces, and a suit. At 20, you can’t be sick in the street, or in someone else’s wellington boots. Twenty is too old to dump a girl simply because you want to go to a festival in Serbia. It’s too old to shoplift or do wheelies on a pushbike. It’s too old to run down the street with a pretend assault rifle, and it’s too old to sing Whitney Houston songs at the back of a bus at midnight. But it’s not old enough to marry, be a father or give up on learning stuff. Or to decide you’re not good at anything. At 20, you should be able to cook proper food, not just fried, stoned, dude-munchies. Oh, and no more tattoos. But also remember you’re never too old to fold a paper aeroplane and fly it while making the noise of the Spitfire’s mighty Merlin engine soaring over the South Downs on a perfect June day.

3

Thirty is the man-up year. You stop smoking and doing coke. Now, you really are too old to wear a T-shirt anywhere but in the gym, and you should be there for health, not beauty. You can’t do hoodies any more, or trainers. No, really — no trainers. You should be able to tie a bow tie, have shirts that need cufflinks, and you can’t play kick-about football with the other balding, paunchy blokes on Wednesday evening. You all look pathetic.

Thirty is the age when you have to admit that you will never play any professional sport, you will never be needed for a national team, and you can’t wear shorts in the city, or Speedos on the beach. From now on, your life is intellectual rather than physical, so you need to polish up your lounge act. At 30,

The five ages of man

Shakespeare numbered the ages of man at seven, but towards the end of his life the late, great AA Gill theorised — quite convincingly — that you could easily trim a couple off that you shouldn’t eat and sleep in the same room.

You should be in a relationship that shares more than bodily fluids. At 30, when people ask, you should be able to say what you are rather than what you hope to be.

4

Everyone knows that 40 is crunch time. Forty is the age you dread.

Over 40, there is a dreadful, grey, terminal prognosis. Before 40, everything is acquisition; after 40, it’s all conservation. Actually, 40 is the age where you need to have a moratorium on making big decisions; don’t buy anything that costs more than £1,000, and don’t get rid of anything worth more than £1,000. The best way to avoid a midlife crisis is to not buy one. Don’t grow your hair or a beard; don’t drive a car with a detachable roof.

Forty is when experience should count for more than enthusiasm.

By 40, you should have travelled to at least four continents. You should have made a success of a career, not just a job. Forty is when you check yourself for all the signs of being a kidult. So, no more jeans. Ever.

5

Sixty is the age where you start smok ing again, and doing recreational drugs. When you’re 60, you can sing anything you damn well like at the back of a bus. And the best thing about dressing up at 60 is that you can start wearing other people’s national costume: djellabas, kurtas, Austrian boiled wool, Sami hats. Sixty is the first age where it’s not just acceptable but admirable to have a girlfriend half your age. Sixty is when you can offer opinions whether people want them or not. At 60, you can play with soldiers and Lego again, have naps in the afternoon and run down the high street with an imitation assault rifle. You can wear Speedos again because, frankly, who cares? At 60, you should be witty rather than funny, and you will know the importance of detail. The only thing you can’t wear at 60 is a look of censorious disappointment.

This is an edited extract from ‘Uncle Dysfunctional: Uncompromising Answers to Life’s Most Painful Problems’ by AA Gill. Out now (Canongate, £9.99).

The Uncle Dysfunctional columns were first published in ‘Esquire’

16.06.17 es magazine 37

Marcus Wainwright at his Manhattan office

Rags

&riches

After making a huge success of his label Rag & Bone, Marcus Wainwright faces his biggest challenge yet — going solo. He talks to Dan Rookwood about his former business partner, getting spiritual and refusing to cater for the Instagram crowd Photograph BY shaniqwa jarvis

A

ll exposed brickwork and piping, on first impression Marcus Wainwright ’s office might seem just like any other Meatpacking District loft. Look a bit closer, though, and you soon start to see the spoils of 15 very successful years spent in fashion. There are framed letters of congratulations from former President Barack Obama, from American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and from Ralph Lauren. There is a handwritten card in which Cate Blanchett gushes that she is ‘such a devotee’. On the floor, among stacks and stacks of books (to be honest it’s a bit of a tip), is the Royal typewriter that provided Wainwright’s label, Rag & Bone, with its signature lowercase font.

Wainwright himself is sitting behind his heavyset dark wood desk having his photo taken. Until last year, there was another desk just like his in here, and these photos would also have featured another man — his business partner David Neville, a fellow Brit who he first met aged 14 at Wellington College (a boarding school near Reading), and who joined the company in 2005 as co-director. But although Neville still retains his shares and seat on the board, in mid-2016 he left the building to invest in other ventures (including one with his wife, renowned make-up artist Gucci Westman, who is launching her own skincare line).

Thus Wainwright has now taken on the commercial side of Rag & Bone as well as the creative, heading up a team of 300 and a global empire of 36 stores. He is now both the creative director and sole CEO of a brand that reportedly generated more than $300m (£235m) in revenue last year, and which is still growing all the time. Witness the huge new flagship store that has opened this week on the corner of Beak Street and Great Pulteney Street in Soho: a five-storey late-Victorian building that will serve as its European HQ, and in which Wainwright’s friend Stanley Donwood — the British artist best known for creating Radiohead’s album covers — has painted a vast black and white London skyline mural.

‘It’s a bit of a headf***,’ he admits when asked how he’s coping day to day with overseeing such big steps alone. ‘He used to run the business side of things, I always used to run the creative side of things. Now I have to run everything. That took a bit of getting used to. I’m getting the hang of it I think, although I still can’t really read a spreadsheet.’ Why did the band split up? ‘It was the end of an era. We achieved a lot together and it was just one of those things,’ Wainwright shrugs. ‘David decided that he wanted to go off and do some other stuff and I felt like I could take Rag & Bone in a singular direction.’ To illustrate the duality of his new position, there is a drawing table off to one side lined up with his sketchbooks contain-

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ing years of ideas, designs and doodlings, some of which have been embellished in places by his kids. So Wainwright can literally roll between the two roles on his swivel chair.

The nonchalant air of artful dishevelment about Wainwright and his workspace is very much the pervading Rag & Bone aesthetic.

Born in Greece before movThe exterior of Rag & Bone’s ing to Bangladesh and new Soho store Switzerland with his diplomat parents, he had no formal training as a fashion designer but grew up with an appreciation for bespoke tailoring. From the age of 16, his grandmother would pay for him to have a suit made each year for his birthday. Later he spent more than a year in a denim factory in Kentucky learning the rudiments from lifelong artisans before the place went out of business. All this is weaved into Rag & Bone’s various lines: ready-towear women’s, men’s, jeans, shoes, accessories. ‘We ended up with a lot of American workwear with English tailoring details; general construction points that are taken from English cues and applied to American clothes.’

It was love that originally brought Wainwright to America. He had quit a ‘lucrative but soul-destroying’ telecoms job in London, rented out his flat in Stockwell and gone backpacking to Mexico where he met his now wife, Glenna Neece, who was working there as a model. He followed her back to New York. Today they live in a $6.75m (£5.3m) house in Cobble Hill Historic District, a familyfriendly part of brownstone Brooklyn, with their three kids, Noah, 10, Henry, eight, and Cate, five, who are all at a local private school.

Neece is now a herbalist who practises reiki. Is he into all that too?

‘Not per se, but I drink what she gives me,’ he says. ‘And I’m getting spiritual in my old age. I meditate.’

”Now I have to run everything. I’m getting the hang of it, although I still can’t read a spreadsheet”

Neil Rasmus/bfa.com

T

o complete the idyll, the family also has a weekend retreat in the Hamptons: a converted barn with a pool in Bridgehampton. ‘I have a Land Rover that I drive on the beach, which I love,’ he says. ‘We used to go every weekend until my kids starting playing sport. Weekend soccer kills you!’ Just recently, however, Wainwright enjoyed a rare weekend. ‘I took time for myself,’ he says. He went to Seattle for a business meeting and then stayed on his own. ‘I just drew, walked around, ate sushi, drank beer. Then I went to a Radiohead concert.’ He’s friends with the band. ‘I get to go and sit in the dressing room, so it’s pretty fun.’

For someone who claims to not be a ‘social guy’, Wainwright certainly rubs shoulders with an interesting set of creative types with whom he collaborates on various projects. He’s made short conceptual films using parkour or interpretive dance and held portrait photo exhibitions in place of runway shows. His latest enterprise was to fund a quirky short film called Hair, which debuted at Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Festival in April — a five-minute two-hander set in a Williamsburg barbershop between Hollywood actors Bobby

40 es magazine 16.06.17

Rag & Bone women: from left, Tali Lennox, Amber Valletta, Irene Kim and Joan Smalls wear the brand

Cannavale (Vinyl) and John Turturro (The Night Of ). The entire wardrobe is Rag & Bone. ‘It was completely ad-libbed, there was no script and they could wear whatever they wanted,’ says Wainwright.

‘It’s pretty funny.’

Wainwright says he hates Instagram and has never been on Facebook. ‘It’s just a way of communication that I don’t think is healthy,’ he says. ‘[Other designers] seem very focused on the Instagram crowd. I’m not going to spend a million dollars in eight minutes, which is what a show costs. It’s a disgusting waste of money when no one gives a s***. I’ll think, “How can I spend that million dollars in a really authentic and inspiring way?” Film is perfect for that.’

Sounds like a smart business decision. It seems life as a solo artist is treating Wainwright just fine thus far. And how is Neville getting on? ‘I don’t know how he is doing with his venture. I spoke to him last week but I didn’t ask. He was skiing — he’s been skiing twice, which isn’t very fair. I can imagine it’s quite a big change for him. It’s a big change for me,’ he laughs.

bones to pick

Marcus Wainwright on his favourite new pieces Women’s Roth bomber ‘This print was inspired by a retro boardwalk postcard that can be seen in various styles throughout our pre-fall collection.’

Men’s St James Coat ‘A Rag & Bone staple, it’s an English traditional overcoat made in a military-inspired fabric.’

Women’s Engineer Jean ‘The engineer jean is borrowed from menswear, with twistedcut seams in Japanese selvedge denim.’

VELVET KISS The effect of a matte lip multiplies as soon as you contrast it with high-shine skin NARS X CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG Hydrating Glow Tint, £25; Pure Matte Lipstick in vesuvio, £21 (narscosmetics.co.uk).

ST TROPEZ Instant Tan Body Gloss, £12, at lookfantastic.com.

NARS Nail Polish in jungle red, £15 (narscosmetics.co.uk).

ROCHAS dress, £1,308 (rochas.com)

44 ES MAGAZINE 16.06.17

MAYBELLINE Master Strobing Liquid, £7.99, at superdrug.com

GLOSSY GAZE This season’s musthave make-up buy is an eye gloss, brightening and opening the eye area DANIEL SANDLER Luxury Gloss in vivid emotion, £14.75 (danielsandler.com).

NARS X CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG Hydrating Glow Tint, £25; Liquid Blush in orgasm, £21 (narscosmetics.co.uk).

ROSIE ASSOULIN top, £1,480, at brownsfashion. com. MONICA VINADER ring, top, £250 (monicavinader. com). DAVINA COMBE ring, bottom, £69 (davinacombe.com)

GOSH Natural Blush in flower power, £7.99, at superdrug.com

Turn up the heat with your blusher, let your lipstick run wild and make eye gloss your new best friend.

Katie Service and Nars make-up ambassador Andrew Gallimore rewrite the beauty rules for pre-fall

Some like it PHOTOGRAPHS BY KARINA TWISS STYLED BY SOPHIE PAXTON

HOT

LANCÔME Le Lip Liner, £19 (lancome.co.uk)

think pink Girly and proud, triple-up rose tints on eyes, lips and cheeks Sisley Phyto-Blush Twist in glow, £43, at johnlewis.com.

NARS Audacious Mascara, £21; Liquid Blush in orgasm, £21 (narscosmetics.co.uk).

NARS x Charlotte Gainsbourg Hydrating Glow Tint, £25; Multiple in Alice, £29 (narscosmetics. co.uk). Guerlain Lip & Cheek Tint, £23.50, at johnlewis.com.

Delpozo top, £1,650, at farfetch.com.

Robinson Pelham earrings, from £450 (robinsonpelham.com)

NARS Liquid Blush in dolce vita, £21 (narscosmetics.co.uk)

Givenchy Prisme Quator Eyeshadow in inattendue, £39.50, at debenhams.com

16.06.17 es magazine 47

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN Loubilaque Lip Lacquer in altressa, £65, at net-a-porter.com

MAKE-OUT MOUTH This summer, lipstick only looks good with a just-kissed finish NARS X CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG Lip Tint in double decker, £22; Multiple in Alice, £29; Hydrating Glow Tint, £25 (narscosmetics. co.uk). NARS Nail Polish in ithaque, £15 (narscosmetics. co.uk). OSMAN top, £545 (osmanlondon.com) Make-up by Andrew Gallimore at CLM using Nars Cosmetics.

Hair by Philippe Tholimet at Saint Luke Artists.

Nails by Sabrina Gayle at The Wall Group.

Model: Karina Kozionova at Premier Model Management

LANCÔME La Base Pro Hydra Glow, £28.50 (lancome.co.uk)

48 ES MAGAZINE 16.06.17

NARS X CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG Multiple in Alice, £29 (nars cosmetics. co.uk)

feast

grace & flavour Grace Dent finds her second home at Holloway hotspot Westerns Laundry

“With regards to David Gingell’s food, I can state plainly that this was one of 2017’s greatest dinners”

Ambience food

Jonny Cochrane; Instagram; illustration by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas

B

ack in the beginnings of Ab Fab, when the sitcom was still great, there was a minor character called Hamish, a restaurant critic. Blink and you’d miss him. Hamish would bumble into shot whenever Patsy visited her magazine office proffering dining advice. His hair was frowzy, his jacket tweed and his language ornate and whimsical to the point of gibberish. It was as if 30 years spent finding five new, fresh ways a week to describe consommé had rendered him otherworldly.

I think of Hamish often, as I perch in bed with my laptop, often pre-dawn, purging out another ‘Grace & Flavour’. I think of him constantly as new London restaurants open each month, their pre-hype imbued with such flowery prose that often I wonder whether they’ll feed me at all, or if perhaps it’s a front for a religious grotto or a conceptual art experience. Westerns Laundry is one of these places. Research on this new joint will tell you of Himalayan birch trees, a leatherbound ‘black book’ of low-intervention wines, reclaimed King’s Cross cobbles, Shou Sugi Ban charred larch banquettes, dishes hewn from dayboat Devon fish and an owner called Jeremie Cometto-Lingenheim. I can’t lie. I was intrigued.

Westerns Laundry was opening in a geographical hinterland, down the bottom of Holloway Road, swinging off towards Highbury. To add to the impudence, it had given itself a name with echoes of a fly-by-night dry cleaner that might lose your Chanel box jacket for seven weeks before returning it smelling of another broad’s BO. What Westerns Laundry is in truth is pure joy.

A spacious, industrial yet warmly elegant room,

Westerns laundry 34 Drayton Park, Highbury East, N5 (020 7700 3700; westernslaundry.com)

2

Glass Garganega

1

Glass Crémant

£9

1

Paleta ibérico

£8

2

Croquette

£6

1

Asparagus

£7

1

Salt cod

£8

1

Beans

£7

1

Pasta

1

Turbot

1

Baba

£12

1

Aleatico Passito 50

£10

1

Botrytis Pinot 50

Total

£13

£10

£19

£7 £116

hiding behind birch trees on a residential strip in N5. Expect a stand-off with your taxi driver as he insists you’ve reached your destination. I arrived to find Cometto-Lingenheim looking resplendent in shimmering turquoise pants like a Grand Bazaar stallholder. It was a balmy Friday, the room was open-fronted and the service warm. The kitchen buzzed with bright young chefs and the blackboard menu spoke of lobster fideuà, cockles with fennel tops, sardines, Marie Rose langoustines and chargrilled leeks. It’s one of those places I felt instantly at home, shoes dispatched under the table, hair down and a glass of Veneto Frizzante Garg’n’Go in hand. I’m not a holistic, bio-wine, grit in the glass evangelist by any shout, but I’m willing to sample anything offered to me with enthusiasm.

With regards to chef David Gingell’s food, I can state plainly that this was one of 2017’s greatest dinners. His cuttlefish croquettes were good at an obscene, semi-evil level. Hot, crisp, prettily noir with a sucker punch of the sea. Some simple grilled mackerel appeared in a slick of miso, chilli and spring onion alongside a plate of first rate paleta ibérico. For a week afterwards I pondered the splendour of the turbot, served in a soupy semi-stew of ginger and seaweed.

This is how cooking is supposed to be when restaurateurs declare they’ll just be cooking what’s fresh that day. So often this transpires to be baloney but at Westerns Laundry it is deliciously dogmatic. A plate of white beans with basil, courgette and chard matched beautifully with the exemplary salt cod. We did not need the rum baba, but I felt a necessity to set eyes on it. It was a curious creature, hefty and boozy, resembling the common ground between fine French retroclassical cooking and a child’s orthopaedic shoe. It was so full of rum that my friend considered leaving her car outside until morning.

I should add through tight-lips at this point that Westerns Laundry does take reservations and can accommodate small crowds of friends easily. Hamish from Ab Fab would love it. So many places wax lyrically about being fresh and remarkable. This one actually is.

16.06.17 es magazine 51

feast

tart london Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison poach sweet

apricots with vanilla for the perfect summer breakfast

Sittin’ on the dock: Jemima and Lucy cool off in Somerset with some fancy Mr Whippies

Jemima Jones (left) and Lucy Carr-Ellison

Josh Shinner

T

he wait for summer apricots is finally over. Up until now we’ve been rushing into our greengrocer every week to ask if the apricots have come in yet. And this week, there they were, peachy orange with their flushed cheeks, waiting to be chosen.

Although they were still a little hard, we took home great handfuls of the sweet fruit so we could make this, one of our favourite breakfasts.

This dish is so simple, perfect with a dollop of Greek yoghurt, some chopped pistachios and a sprinkle of bee pollen. Even better, it works perfectly with slightly unripe apricots. You could also serve it as a light dessert, with a panna cotta or a scoop of good vanilla ice cream.

The sweet smell and furry skins of apricots make us so happy. They evoke hot summer days in the Mediterranean, picnicking under the shade of a tree. Unfortunately apricots can be a bit hit and miss. The imported ones we get here in Britain often taste fluffy and underwhelming, but you can remedy that by poaching or roasting them. Pop them into a hot oven with a drizzle of white wine, a spoon or two of soft brown sugar and a few sprigs of thyme and you’ve got an easy, delicious pudding.

Around this time last year we were out in Tuscany, helping out a friend on a yoga retreat.

The next-door neighbour was a wonderful old lady who brought over a basket of fresh apricots each day. We’ve never tasted fruit so sweetly perfect.

It’s a memory that will stay with us forever.

Serves 2

vanilla & orange blossom Poached apricots

300ml water 2 tbsp honey 2 bay leaves 1 cardamom pod, crushed Zest of ½ lemon 1 vanilla pod 6 apricots, cut in half and stones removed 1/2 tsp orange blossom water Greek yoghurt, to serve A small handful of pistachios, chopped A sprinkle of bee pollen

Put the water, honey, bay leaves, cardamom and lemon zest in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthways, scrape out the seeds and add both the seeds and pod to the pan. Place the apricots in the pan and poach for 5 to 10 minutes until tender. Remove the fruit and place on a plate.

Boil down the remaining liquid for about 10 minutes to make a syrup. Take off the heat and add the orange blossom water. Spoon a few tablespoons of yoghurt into bowls, carefully place the apricots on top and drizzle over the syrup.

Finish with chopped pistachios and bee pollen.

16.06.17 es magazine 53

FEAST

In the MIX

A bottle from Ohsomm’s wine delivery service

Pulp conviction: a box from the wine club launched by Paolo Zanelli, below

‘I Club KIDS

Wine societies have had a hipster makeover, says Frankie McCoy

Jonny Cochrane; Alamy; glassware available at waterford.co.uk

P

Bon Climat Wild Boy Chardonnay (‘as funky as the label, may cause mild hallucinations’) alongside your giant burger or pizza. On 22 June the Shoreditch-based night market is hosting a super-millennial-friendly ‘Love Europe’ wine tasting evening (tickets from robersonwine.com), where for a tenner you can taste 20 new wines from indie European producers, all of which are then available to buy for under £20 and guaranteed to beat a panic-bought bottle of supermarket Pinot Grigio.

aolo Zanelli is on a mission to ‘desnobbify’ wine. The certified sommelier, who grew up in the wine region of Friuli Venezia Giulia in northern Italy, was mystified “These wines are guaranteed when he moved to the UK. ‘People were put off by wine as they perceived it as a to beat a panic-bought bottle of luxury for a few chosen ones,’ he says. supermarket Pinot Grigio” ‘This was very odd for me because growing up in wine country, I knew that wine was Taking the snobbery out of wine, then, not made by noblemen in fancy chateaux is the future. Just like Zanelli, Jackson but by down-to-earth wine growers.’

Boxer and Christopher Cooper’s mission Zanelli set up Pulp (pulp.wine) — ‘the statement at their new wine delivery wine club for those that don’t do wine service, Ohsomm (ohsomm.com), is ‘No clubs’, a website and delivery service snobs, no jargon, no guesswork’. They leave aimed squarely at millennials — in order out information about producers and years, to ‘break the glass wall that the oldso you don’t get bogged down in the details, fashioned wine market put up between instead choosing your wine based on consumers and winemakers’. Not only ‘moods and moments’: a Chablis will it send out themed tasting boxes from Burgundy, for example, for when each month (ie oaked wines or rioja) you’re feeling ‘Zen’, or a French Merlot but it is also working on an algorithm for ‘brunching’. Given their pedigree to allow a more personalised service.

(Boxer is the grandson of the Using previous preferences, it will legendary Arabella and chef patron Au Bon present customers with a shortlist at Brunswick House; Cooper was Climat of wines — tending towards the Soho House Group’s head wine Wild Boy Chardonnay quirky, lesser known and less buyer and sommelier) you can expensive (£9-18) — to choose from probably trust their judgement. when dining out. Because it should Forget conflicting advice be as easy to order a great value, about ‘third bottle from the top’ interesting wine as it is a craft beer. and ‘whiffs of manure’; the new That’s how it works at Dinerama’s wine clubs are inclusive for Winerama, where you’re encouraged anyone and everyone with a to sip brilliant, fun wines such as Au taste for the good stuff.

Douglas Blyde on the success of London’s Whisky Exchange

want to live each bottle,’ says Sukhinder Singh. Debonair in a mauve turban, he noses then sips flawless Bowmore 18, bottled in 1993.

‘Sorry, I’ve got to drink it,’ he insists.

‘Brings a smile to my face…’

We convene in the inner sanctum of Elixir House, HQ of London’s Whisky Exchange. As youths, Sukhinder and brother Rajbir learned liquid history at their parents’ shop, The Nest, in Hanwell, probably the UK’s first Asian-owned offlicence. ‘Ours wasn’t a typical corner shop,’ recalls Singh. ‘Harrods and Selfridges sent us customers.’

Apprehensive of the 1990 recession, Singh returned to the family nest after studying chartered surveying. ‘I got so engrossed I took over the business.’ He also annexed the shop next door, fast gleaning industry accolades. ‘And we’re winning those same awards,’ he says of today’s Covent Garden Whisky Exchange emporium. With their parents retired, the brothers embraced online commerce. ‘We did everything: picking, packing and posting, entering, from 1999, the heyday of single malts.’

Originally a collector of thousands of whisky miniatures, Singh has amassed a remarkable liquid library ‘including the biggest stock of rare Macallan, now favoured by Mexico’s elite’. However, noting that his life ‘has always been about good liquid’, he is selective to whom he devolves treasures.

‘I like hand-selling to the right person.’

He also helped launch brands including Antica Formula, while overseeing London’s Cocktail and Wine weeks and Whisky Show.

From a time when single malts were ‘a lonely hobby’, it pleases Singh to see younger people ‘finally falling in love with whisky’. We conclude with one of only 2,400 bottles of near cinematic, violety Foursquare 2006 rum, then thick, pepperminty 1950s Chartreuse.

‘I dream of creating a product as good as that,’ muses Singh…

The Whisky Exchange, 2 Bedford Street, WC2 (thewhiskyexchange.com)

16.06.17 es magazine 55

HOMEWORK

BY LILY WORCESTER

Sophie fan earrings in yellow, £32 (shopshashi.com)

Pajaki, from £75 (rajtent club.com)

Glass tumbler (set of 8) by Carlo Moretti, £880, at summerill andbishop.com

Wallpaper, £59 per roll; fabric, £65 per metre, both by Matthew Williamson at osborneand little.com

Watermelon iron-on badge, £5 (topshop.com)

Palmeral tea set, £184.50; linen naplins (set of 4), £48 (houseofhackney.com)

Ma Cherie cushion cover by CSAO, £80, at conranshop.co.uk

Cire Trudon pillar candle, £75 (020 7486 7590)

HOT TROPICS This summer interiors have gone tropical (very tropical) and who doesn’t want to feel like Carmen Miranda in their own home?

Get the look by pairing vibrant florals and playful fruity prints with green leafy designs. For a subtle injection of colour, Jansen’s bakeware collection fits the bill, its bold glazed interiors providing the perfect accent of colour. For something louder check out newly launched brand Temerity Jones — its kitsch accessories are guaranteed to liven up your summer BBQ.

Pineapple-heel sandals

by Dolce & Gabbana, £1,500, at matches fashion.com

Yellow flower porcelain bowl, £9.99 (zarahome.com)

MAX MARA SS17

Die-cut Monstera leaf table accents (set of 12)

by Hester & Cook, £30, at selfridges.com

Terra bakeware dish

by Jansen, £37.50, at selfridges.com

Iris notelets (box of 10), £36 (smythson.com)

Swarovski crystal and enamel brooch

by Marc Jacobs, £110, at net-aporter.com

Jungalicious pink wallpaper, £125 per roll (silkenfavours.com)

Fiesta orange string lights, £17.90 (temerityjones shop.com)

Toucan salt and pepper pots, £20 (grahamand green.co.uk) Minaudière beaded bag, £29.99 (zara.com)

16.06.17 ES MAGAZINE 57

my london

adwoa aboah as told to dipal acharya

Earliest London memory?

Rollerblading in Hyde Park with my dad and sister, aged about seven. We’d do it every weekend. I had to rollerblade for a recent Love shoot and I still had it.

Home is...

New York, but in London it’s my mum and dad’s in Ladbroke Grove.

Best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Mum said, ‘Manners are the only things in life that are free.’

That’s always carried me.

Best meal you’ve had in London?

At the River Café (above), for my 23rd birthday. It’s got the best truffle pasta and chocolate cake.

Favourite shops?

Palace for skate stuff (right), Dover Street Market — it’s just stunning there and it’s got lots of Comme [des Garçons]. And Westfield because it’s great for Christmas shopping; you can get it all done in one go.

If you had to be locked in a building overnight, which would it be?

The Aquarium. Think about how beautiful it would be to turn off all the lights and be down with all the fish and the sharks!

58 es magazine 16.06.17

The model adores Trellick Tower, wants to fill the capital’s streets with blossom and would love to spend the night at the Aquarium Biggest extravagance?

That’s easy — clothes.

Take my birthday outfit from Miu Miu. I don’t know why it was so expensive. It was basically just underwear.

What are you up to at the moment?

Planning a big event for online social platform Gurls Talk in London for early July and I’ve just finished shooting a new Gap campaign with Edward Enninful. I’m so proud of his Vogue appointment.

Last play you saw?

People, Places and Things.

It was my story being told on the stage — and the story of so many people I’ve met.

What would you do as Mayor for the day?

I would plant loads of blossom trees on every road.

They only put them on the really big double-fronted window streets but they make such a difference.

I think they should go on all the streets.

Favourite club?

Before it closed, it was Lotte Andersen’s club night Maxilla. It was round the corner from my house and it was complete carnage.

Just dancing non-stop.

Last album you downloaded?

Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. — I am just obsessed with him (left). He is 2017’s Tupac.

He’s a poet and an all-round amazing man.

Who is your hero?

Gloria Steinem.

I’ve got so many.

Women are my heroes.

Adwoa Aboah stars in Gap’s latest campaign ‘Bridging The Gap’, directed by Edward Enninful

Douglas Segars for Gap, Rex, Alamy

Most romantic thing someone’s done for you?

Someone did take me to the last ever dog races in London recently. It was freezing but he’d planned ahead and brought me a jumper. I thought that was quite sweet.

If you could buy any London building which would it be?

Trellick Tower (right) is the most beautiful building in England. I’d live there.