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a v i o u r s | 2 4 A p r o f e s s i o n a l p a r t y g o e r ’s m i s s i o n t o c r e a t e S o u t h A f r i c a ’s b e s t e v e n t s / G E A R | 3 3 H o w f a r c a n t h e M e r c e d e s B e n z E Q S g o ? / T R A V E L G U I D E | 4 2 G Q ’s f a v o u r i t e l o c a l g e t a w a y s , f r o m s a f a r i s t o f i v e s t a r l u x u r y / S P O R T | 5 1 T h e p l a y e r s t o w a t c h a t t h e 2 0 2 2 W o r l d C u p 6 2 S e n a g a l e s e s o c c e r s t a r S a d i o M a n é ’s b l a z i n g t r a i l t o B a y e r n M u n i c h S T Y L E | 6 8 L u x e l e s s o n s : i t a l l s t a r t s w i t h a b o l d w a t c h | 7 2 C o l o u r, p r i n t a n d d e t a i l f o r t h e b o l d a n d t h e b e a u t i f u l

ON 10 OCTOBER, @NONHLEBERYL T WEETED, “ The worst thing brought about by social media is that people no longer want to go through the stages of life Twenty three year olds want to have the same lifestyle as 33 year olds They want to afford the same things, and when they can’t, they think they’ve failed in life ”

That tweet got me thinking about social media’s impact on how we see ourselves and our lives

A study earlier this year by Online Therapy revealed that six out of 10 people say social media affects them negatively. The respondents said it makes them feel anxious, dissatisfied with their lives, have negative feelings about their bodies, experience fear of

Here’s to a more present life

missing out and feel depressed

My nearest and dearest have told me they hate seeing those blue ticks on WhatsApp because they cause them anxiety, and I’ve seen people post old pictures, or even other people’s, to appear cool or with it

Whether you ’ re using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or WhatsApp, you could easily find yourself keeping up with the Joneses if you don’t rein it in. I speak from experience, as I almost became one of those people who posts to capture content for the ’Gram rather than enjoy being at a place, taking it all in It can be addictive and stop you from thoroughly enjoying being present I’m glad my stint of doing that was short lived, and now I can safely say I consume social media, but it doesn’t consume me

3 Making time for content creation has made me more present Whether on holiday or at an event or shoot, I allocate time to be on my phone, creating content, after which I put my phone away to enjoy the experience in real time

4 . Take breaks from social media, whether posting, scrolling or engaging with content

5 . Do you. Your social media presence should reflect your personality In this day and age, prospective clients or employees check out people’s social media, so whatever you put out there, make sure it’s what you want ever yone else to see

1 Social media isn’t real life Understand that people curate social media content to make you see what they want, from big stars to the average Joe No one ’ s always happy, problem free and enjoying life most of it’s curated 2 . Be intentional about who you follow and engage with on social media If someone ’ s content doesn’t make you feel good or less, unfollow, mute or block.

6 Have a real life away from social media I believe not ever ything deser ves to be on social media, so some of your thoughts, pictures and engagements can happen in real life without you having to curate them

I hope you rest and relax this holiday season as you enjoy our Travel and Entertainment issue!

Ti ll next time!

H E R E A R E A F E W S T E P S I ’ V E P U T I N P L A C E T H AT W O R K :

C O N T R I B U T O R S

Jus tin e Alexan der, Enzo Am en dola , S te fan B e ck m an , Roger B enn e t t , S eb as tia õ C am av inga , Ciar a D eRóis te , Claudia Dia z , Ch em e D olker, Yvonn e Enzer, B e to Es c amilla , Fr an c ois F erreir a , Pe ter G o ds will, Ch els e a G r a zian o, Chris He ath , Sh oh ei Kashim a , J o sh L am on a c a , Mich elle L e an dr a , Hojin L e e , Eric McNe al, Angelo Mit ako s , Yus uke Moriok a , Itunu O ke , Rayan El O uilamy, J o ch en Pahs , Manu Perer a , S y lv ie Por tugal de Mo ur a , Annic e Ro u x G erb er, S ask ia S chmidt , Bijal Sh ah , Patrick Sh e t t y, Rob er to Sierr a , F elip e Silveir a , B árb ar a Ter án , Lis a Torres , Ty ler R Ty n e s , Audie Um ali, Anna Vallè s , Mas s anori Yahiro, Yuko P H O T O G R A P H E R S A N D I L L U S T R A T O R S T ito B oyenge , Fre derike Helwig , Ter uo Horiko shi, Ellio t Jam e s Kenn e d y, D o uglas L on ez , J o s é C arlo s Mar tín ez , Kás sia Melo, Rasmus Mogensen, Sib on elo Ng ub an e, Mp um elelo Nyambi, Z an der O p p erm an , Adrienn e Ra quel, Jay Rus s ell, C é s ar S egarr a , Julia S ellm ann , Mon a Toleni, A ar t Verrip s C O N T E N T N A T I O N M E D I A ( P T Y ) L T D C E O S a m a n t h a S u b r a y e n P E R S O N A L A S S I S TA N T I s a b e l K o u l O P E R AT I O N S G E N E R A L M A N A G E R P a u l M y b u r g h S E N I O R F I N A N C E C O N T R O L L E R M a r j o r i e L o t t e r i e F I N A N C E C O N T R O L L E R A b i g a i l O k k e r s G R O U P P R O D U C T I O N M A N A G E R J e a n J a c o b s / P R O D U C T I O N C O O R D I N AT O R C h a r n é P h i l l i p s C I R C U L AT I O N S M A N A G E R F r e d e r i c k S m i t / C I R C U L AT I O N S C O O R D I N AT O R B e r t i n a E l l i s

A D V E R T I S I N G J O H A N N E S B U R G H E A D O F S A L E S S h a n a R a h a m a n A C C O U N T M A N A G E R S L o r r a i n e B r a d l e y , W e n d y R o b i n s o n , A n n e A t k i n s o n a n d D e r y n n e K l a v e r C A P E T O W N

H E A D O F S A L E S C h a r l o t t e N u t m a n A C C O U N T M A N A G E R S N a d i a P e r e i r a a n d P a s c a l D a v r a y A D V E R T I S I N G L I A I S O

a t a s h a O ’ C o n n o r

n a l l w o r k p u b l i s h e d n t h i s m a g a z n e A n y r e p r o d u c t i o n o r a d a p t a t o n i n w h o e o r i n p a r t w i t h o u t w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n o f t h e p u b l s h e r s i s s t r c t l y p r o h i b i t e d a n d i s a n a c t o f c o p y r g h t i n f r i n g e m e n t w h i c h m a y i n c e r t a i n c i r c u m s t a n c e s c o n s t i t u t e a c r i m i n a l o f f e n c e T h e p a p e r u s e d f o r t h i s p u b l i c a t o n i s a r e c y c l a b l e a n d r e n e w a b e p r o d u c t I t h a s b e e n p r o d u c e d u s i n g w o o d s o u r c e d f r o m s u s t a i n a b l y m a n a g e d f o r e s t s a n d e l e m e n t a o r t o t a l c h l o r i n e f r e e b e a c h e d p u l p T h e p r o d u c i n g m i l l s h a v e t h i r d p a r t y m a n a g e m e n t s y s t e m s i n p l a c e a p p l y i n g s t a n d a r d s s u c h a s I S O 9 0 0 1 a n d I S O 1 4 0 0 1 T h i s m a g a z i n e c a n b e r e c y c l e d e i t h e r t h r o u g h y o u r k e r b s i d e c o l l e c t o n o r a t a l o c a l r e c y c n g p o n t L o g o n t o w w w p r a s a c o z a t o f i n d y o u r n e a r e s t s i t e s

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER JACKIE MARKS

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER DEIRDRE FINDL AY

CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER S TAN DUNCAN

CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER DANIELLE CARRIG

CHIEF OF STAFF ELIZ ABETH MINSHAW

CHIEF PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY OFFICER SANJAY BHAK TA

CHIEF CONTENT OPERATIONS OFFICER CHRIS TIANE MACK

W O R L D W I D E E D I T I O N S

FR ANCE: AD, AD COLLECTOR, GQ, VANITY FAIR, VOGUE, VOGUE COLLECTIONS

GERMANY: AD, GLAMOUR, GQ, VOGUE

INDIA: AD, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER, GQ, VOGUE

ITALY: AD, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER, GQ, LA CUCINA ITALIANA, VANITY FAIR, VOGUE, WIRED

JAPAN: GQ, RUMOR ME, VOGUE, VOGUE GIRL, VOGUE WEDDING, WIRED ME XICO AND L ATIN AMERICA: AD MEXICO AND LATIN AMERICA, GLAMOUR MEXICO AND LATIN AMERICA, GQ MEXICO AND LATIN AMERICA VOGUE MEXICO AND LATIN AMERICA CONDÉ NAST COLLEGE AMÉRICAS

SPAIN: AD, CONDÉ NAST COLLEGE SPAIN, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER, GLAMOUR, GQ, VANITY FAIR, VOGUE, VOGUE NIÑOS, VOGUE NOVIAS

TAIWAN: GQ, VOGUE

UNITED KINGDOM: LOND ON: HQ, CONDÉ NAST COLLEGE OF FASHION AND DESIGN, VOGUE BUSINESS; BRITAIN: CONDÉ NAST JOHANSENS, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER, GLAMOUR, GQ, GQ STYLE, HOUSE & GARDEN, TATLER, THE WORLD OF INTERIORS, VANITY FAIR, VOGUE, WIRED UNITED S TATE S: ALLURE, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, ARS TECHNICA, BASICALLY, BON APPÉTIT, CLEVER, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER, EPICURIOUS, GLAMOUR, GQ, GQ STYLE, HEALTHYISH, HIVE, LA CUCINA ITALIANA, LOVE, PITCHFORK, SELF, TEEN VOGUE, THEM , THE NEW YORKER, THE SCENE, VANITY FAIR, VOGUE, WIRED

PUBLISHED UNDER JOINT VENTURE

BR A ZIL: CASA VOGUE, GLAMOUR, GQ, VOGUE

PUBLISHED UNDER LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT CO OPER ATION

AUS TR ALIA: GQ, VOGUE, VOGUE LIVING

BULGARIA: GLAMOUR

CHINA: AD, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELER, GQ, GQ LAB, GQ STYLE, VOGUE, VOGUE CAFÉ BEIJING, VOGUE CAFÉ SHANGHAI, VOGUE FILM, VOGUE + , VOGUE BUSINESS IN CHINA

CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA: VOGUE

GREECE: VOGUE

HONG KONG : VOGUE, VOGUE MAN

HUNGARY: GLAMOUR

KOREA: ALLURE GQ VOGUE WIRED

MAL AYSIA: VOGUE LOUNGE KUALA LUMPUR

MIDDLE EA S T: AD, CONDÉ NAST TRAVELLER, GQ, VOGUE, VOGUE CAFÉ RIYADH, WIRED

P OL AND: GLAMOUR, VOGUE

P ORTUGAL: GQ, VOGUE, VOGUE CAFÉ PORTO

ROMANIA: GLAMOUR

RUS S IA: VOGUE CAFÉ MOSCOW

SCANDINAVIA: VOGUE

SERBIA: LA CUCINA ITALIANA

SINGAP ORE: VOGUE

SOUTH AFRICA: GLAMOUR, GQ, GQ STYLE, HOUSE & GARDEN

THAIL AND: GQ, VOGUE

THE NETHERL ANDS: GLAMOUR, VOGUE, VOGUE LIVING, TURKE Y: GQ, VOGUE, VOGUE RESTAURANT ISTANBUL

UKR AINE: VOGUE, VOGUE MAN

Condé Nast is a global media company producing premium content with a footprint of more than 1 billion consumers in 31 markets condenast com

N M A N A G E R N

S A L E S R E P R E S E N TAT I V E I TA LY A n g e l o C a r e d d u ( O B E R O N M E D I A )

D I G I T A L D I G I TA L C A M PA I G N M A N A G E R V i n é L u c a s D I G I TA L C O N T E N T P R O D

F A S H I O N

A R T D I R E C T O R G R A P H I C D E S I G N E R G R A P H I C D E S I G N E R

A R T

E D I T O R I A L L e s l e y M a t h y s W a l t e r H a y w a r d

G R O U P M A N A G I N G A N D S Y N D I C A T I O N E D I T O R M A N A G I N G A N D S Y N D I C A T I O N E D I T O R

F E A T U R E S S E N I O R F E

R M A N O F T H E B O A R D JONATHAN NEWHOUSE

S i y a b u l e l a N o m o y i , Q u a n t i t a t i v e P o r t f o l i o M a n a g e r a t S a t r i x , s h a r e s h i s b e g i n n e r ’s g u i d e t o i n d e x i n v e s t i n g

GQ: W i t h t h e f e s t i v e s e a s o n a p p r o a c h i n g , w o u l d y o u s a y t h e r e’s m e r i t i n s w a p p i n g g i f t s f o r i n v e s t m e n t s?

S i y a b u l e l a N o m o y i : That’s a tricky one! Perhaps the best option would be a gift set that includes both. Your future self will be delighted with the investment, and you’ll still receive the exciting flashy gift (or envelope with cash) for the

holiday season, so you ’ re sorted for festive activities too!

GQ: I s t h e r e a s p e c i f i c E T F y o u ’d g i f t y o u r k i d s?

S N : Africa is a mineral rich continent, so I’d gift my little ones with the Satrix RESI ETF, which tracks the 10 largest resource companies The RESI performs quite differently compared with other ETFs (exchange traded funds) and diversifies your portfolio, so it’s a win win

GQ: I n l a y m a n’s t e r m s , e x p l a i n i n d e x a t i o n a n d h o w y o u k n e w i t w a s t h e c a r e e r p a t h f o r y o u ?

S N : It’s an investment strategy that tracks how certain indices perform (for example, JSE listed property shares) and seeks to replicate that performance An index comprises a basket of securities. You’re not buying just one share because it allows for diversification and lower costs

I’ll admit that I didn’t know this would be my career. I had the privilege of landing a Junior Quantitative Portfolio Analyst job straight after varsity, involving a mix of indexation, quantitative work and research Once I moved jobs, I found myself in the indexation field

GQ: H o w ’s S a t r i x m a k i n g i n d e x i n v e s t i n g e a s y, p a r t i c u l a r l y f o r b e g i n n e r i n v e s t o r s?

S N : Our website makes learning about investing simple by making all the information you need available at the click of your mouse We believe in democratising investing so that anybody can grasp how it works

Many people are under the impression that a vast lump sum is required to start your investment portfolio, which is far from true. For as little as R10, you can invest in any Satrix products through our easy to navigate SatrixNOW app, available on any app store.

GQ: H o w d o y o u g e t s t a r t e d w i t h E T F i n v e s t i n g ?

S N : 1 . Visit our website to research ETFs and investing.

2 Open a SatrixNOW account

3 . Decide on a manageable deposit to kickstart your portfolio

4 . Choose which fund you want to invest in, and go!

GQ: W h a t ’s o n e p r o a n d c o n o f i n d e x i n v e s t i n g f o r b e g i n n e r s?

S N : P R O : Indices are transparent, regulated and safe They offer diversification to mitigate risk for your portfolios.

C O N : Not all investment themes are available through index products listed on the JSE, so there are limits to what you may want to invest in

GQ: W h a t a r e f

N : 1 . Know what you’re investing in. Having a set goal for what you’d like to invest in will lay the foundation of your plan. 2 Know how long you’ll be investing Once you know what you want to achieve, you can plan how long to invest to reach your goal 3 . Understand your risk profile Some investment strategies carry higher risks and may not be suitable for what you want to obtain Understand what works best for your end goal

. Remember that diversification is important. A diverse investment pool prevents risk of loss Having two or more ETFs in your basket diversifies your portfolio

Understand the costs associated with index investing Expenses can crop up that you may not understand Researching how best to minimise extra costs piling up will work in your favour.

Words by Jason Alexander Basson Photographs by Tito Boyenge

E F F O R T,

D E T E R M I N AT I O N A N D

a water t ig ht strateg y to b e come a B est dress e d Re ader. Not on ly do you re quire o o dles of sty le, but you als o ne ed to b e a w hizz wit h image and copy and familiar wit h ide a l p osting times across s o cial media to help gar ner t he supp or t of f r iends, strangers and fellow GQ re aders It’s a fine b a l ance b etween lo ok ing slick and b eing enter t aining wit hout coming across as desp erate or conceite d w hile you tr y to gar ner supp or t and st ack up votes in favour of your sty le.

This ye ar, 26 ye ar old Ruvesh Pi llay sailed into first place He’s an ultra sty lish individual, but meeting him at t he GQ B est dress e d awards, it b e came cle ar to us t hat he’s more t han go o d lo oks and a s ens e of sty le He’s char ismatic, kind, sincere and char ming a l l charac ter istics of a real man We get w hy GQ’ s audience vote d him to t he top

Hailing f rom t he s out h of Joburg, Pillay is a p ar t time baker, and f ull time student at t he University of Witwatersrand maj or ing in Bio chemist r y and C ancer C ell Biolog y w hich s or t of makes us like him more.

GQ: W h a t d r e w y o u t o G Q ’s B e s t d r e s s e d R e a d e r S e a r c h ?

R u v e s h P i l l a y : I’ve a lways dre amed of winning t he GQ B est dress e d Re ader award, str utt ing my stuff on st age, lo ok ing my b est I’ve b e en fol lowing t he awards since I was a te en, but

s omehow, I always t houg ht it was b e yond my re ach. This ye ar, I felt different I rememb er wa king up one day and s aying to my b est f r iend, ‘ This is t he ye ar I w in the award!’

GQ: Yo u l o v e f a s h i o n R P : Yes, I’ve always had a ke en interest in fashion and sty le

GQ: I t ’s a c o n f i d e n t m o v e t o p u t y o u r s e l f o u t t h e r e t o b e j u d g e d b y t h e m a s s e s R P : D efinitely It’s ver y audacious, p erhaps a litt le ins ane, but I als o

had my love d ones ’ const ant supp or t and encouragement, w hich made it e asier

GQ: D e s c r i b e t h e e x p e r i e n c e a n d y o u r a c t i v e i n v o l v e m e n t . H o w d i d y o u g a t h e r s u p p o r t ? R P : It was one of the co olest, most amazing exp er iences of my life! First ly, w hen I found out I was nominated, I was in utter disb elief and e ven cr ied, exclaiming to my parents w hat a big de al it was! My family and f r iends were 100% b ehind me; t he y vote d day and nig ht, putt ing

up Inst a stor ies and WhatsApp st atus es, asking ot hers to vote for me My Inst a family a ls o showe d gre at supp or t and were b ehind me e ver y step of t he way I was ac tive, and s o were my supp or ters I’d p ost daily reminders on my s o cials reminding e ver yone to vote

GQ: D e s c r i b e t h e m o m e n t y o u f o u n d o u t y o u ’d w o n R P : I was travelling home by bus f rom a t ir ing day at university and, after t a king a well des er ve d nap, decided to che ck my emai ls.

b a c k g r o u n d s ’

Unat hi announce my name and t a lk ab out w ho I am was a pinch me moment Me et ing t he GQ te am was als o a hig h lig ht The y were war m, humble, and s o f un! The y cre ate d magic, and t he e vent showcas e d t heir hard work

GQ: D e s c r i b e y o u r s t y l e

R P : It’s simple but fun! It isn’t over t he top but just enoug h, not overly colou r f u l but c olour f u l enoug h It’s well t ai lore d and made to fit, and if sne a kers don’t complete it, t hen it’s not my st y le!

GQ: W h o a r e y o u r f a s h i o n i c o n s? W h a t d o y o u l o v e a b o u t f a s h i o n a n d s t y l e?

R P : Z endaya, D e epika Padu kone, Har r y sty les, Kai, Michael

R P : My ambitions include b e coming a fashion influencer and working wit h lo cal and internat ional brands Individuals have a ls o appro a che d me ask i ng for fashion advice, s o I’d love to sty le ot her p e ople and tur n it into a care er In a decade, I s e e mys elf b eing the first Dr slash sty list slash fashion icon to hit S out h Af r ica Ap ar t f rom t hat, I’ l l bre ak stereotyp es and b e come a famous st ill and r unway mo del Repres ent ation matters; a shor t ha lf Indian half coloured b oy f rom a small town is wor t hy enoug h to wa l k on a L ouis Vuitton r unway and mo del for Vers ace (I still need to work on my abs, t houg h)

photographers, and a fe w brands have cont ac ted me for camp aigns and photosho ots

GQ: W h a t a d v i c e w o u l d y o u g i v e f u t u r e G Q B e s t d r e s s e d h o p e f u l s?

At first, I didn’t b elie ve w hat I’d re ceive d in my inb ox and e ven had to re ad t he emai l twice As t he ne ws sunk in, I st ar te d s cre aming and jumping for joy on my s e at w hile strangers lo oked at me like I was crazy I couldn’t wait to get home and tel l a l l my f r iends and family t hat I’d ac tual ly won!

GQ: D e s c r i b e y o u r e x p e r i e n c e o f t h e a w a r d s

R P : The e vent its elf was mind blowing I ne ver t houg ht I’d exp er ience anyt hing li ke it, t he p e ople, fo o d, p er for mances and not forgett ing t he awes ome go o die b ag I re ceive d I felt like a celebr it y. The hig h lig ht of my nig ht was s e eing and meet ing like minded individu als wit h a common interest It’s challenging to display your authentic sty le and b e fashionable if you come f rom a gated community But b eing at t his e vent wit h such sty lish individuals gave me a s ens e of b elong ing rat her t han fe eling out of place and confir me d my dre ams are va lid I can b e a sty lish s cient ist!

GQ: W h a t w a s y o u r f a v o u r i t e p a r t o f t h e e x p e r i e n c e?

R P : The awards e vening its elf It was a sur re a l moment b e caus e I st ill didn’t b elie ve I’d won a GQ B est dress ed award! Having

B Jordan, R ich Mnisi, Maps Map onyane and Bl ack C offe e are s ome of my favour ite fashion icons In the famous words of R achel Z o e: ‘Sty le is a way of s aying w ho you are w it hout hav i ng to sp e a k ’

I b elie ve an out fit can spark convers ations in a silent ro om Fashion can trans cend b orders and cre ates a common language among individua ls of different backgrounds And it can also br ing like minded individua ls toget her to celebrate and share

Fashion or sty le isn’t just ab out clot hes or sho es but t he pro cess of putt ing toget her an out fit, and w hen I’m playing wit h colours, textures, c uts and brands I’m in my happy place, w here I can express my individuality and cre at ivity Fashion allows us to bre a k b oundar ies in a world t hat loves putt ing us in b oxes

It can als o s end out imp or t ant mess ages in a world t hat faces many challenges, allowing individuals or groups to express t heir emot ions f re ely, ma king t he p owerless p ower f u l Thes e are just a fe w re as ons w hy sty le and fashion are imp or t ant to me

GQ: D o y o u h a v e f a s h i o n i n d u s t r y r e l a t e d a m b i t i o n s?

W h a t ’s n e x t f o r y o u a f t e r w i n n i n g o u r R e a d e r S e a r c h ? W h e r e d o y o u s e e y o u r s e l f i n 1 0 y e a r s?

GQ: H a s a n y t h i n g e x c i t i n g h a p p e n e d f o r y o u i n t h e w a k e o f t h e a w a r d s?

R P : My s o cia l media following has grown significant ly since winning this award I’ve a ls o worke d w it h t a lente d

R P : Ne ver b e af raid to put yours elf out t here, and if you t hink you ’ re not enoug h or your sty le isn’t enoug h to win a GQ B est dress ed award, t hink again! B e caus e I’m living pro of t hat anyt hing is p ossible My big gest fe ar was enter ing [t he GQ B est dress ed Re ader S e arch] and suffer ing reje c t ion, but it was smo ot h s ailing once I’d t a ken t hat step. Your f r iends, family and e ven strangers w i l l supp or t you It’s a l l ab out b elie v ing you can; t he rest will r un its cours e And rememb er : if you don’t win or aren’t nominate d, a dre am delaye d isn’t unanswere d and do esn’t me an you shou ld give up b e caus e e ver yone has t ime to shine

‘

F a s h i o n c a n t r a n s c e n d b o r d e r s a n d c r e a t e s a c o m m o n l a n g u a g e a m o n g i n d i v i d u a l s o f d i f f e r e n t

WordsbyLukeDiva

W H A T T O W E A R ?

PA RT Y B L A Z E R

It’s only fitting you wear something fancy to a New Year’s Eve party to match the champagne and spirited making out Investing in a velvet blazer is a great idea Something a little classier on the docket for the evening? A velvet tuxedo jacket blends sophistication with a winking sense of humour. Wear it with black pants, slip on loafers, extra hair product and the best jewellery you own Blazer R53 368 Gucci

PA N TS T H AT PA RT Y

Your usual jeans won’t suffice for NYE. Don’t be afraid to take a chance and invest in a pair of trousers that will have people talking! Pair them with your coolest shoes, then watch the magic happen! Trousers R8 344 Erdem

A S H I RT

T H AT F LOW S

Easy, breezy, floaty and light We’ve got decades of record breaking hot summers ahead of us, thanks to the impending climate crisis. So, if you ’ re going to buy one new summer item, make it a super light shirt Shir t R799 Zara

M I N I M A L I ST S U I T

A relaxed suit silhouette, usually worn without a shirt, featuring a soft shoulder construction and worn over voluminous, flowing, pleated pants, is a guaranteed hit this party season. Even if your plans consist of nothing but sitting on a bar stool alone:

GQ: W h o a r e y o u ?

A m o n g e E l e t h u S i n xo t o : I’m a 21 year old Social Entrepreneur, Activist, Public Speaker, Founder of the non profit company Blackboard Africa and Author of the children’s book My Big Name.

GQ: W h a t d o y o u d o? A E S : I’m a social architect I see the challenges plaguing our communities and actively

contribute towards building sustainable solutions.

I believe there’s a time and place for breaking barriers but also a time for building bridges and pathways towards a transformed society

GQ: W h a t ’s t h e # B e a u t y O f T i m e?

A E S : Time is so precious because it’s irreplaceable When a moment has passed, you can never have it back, so the only way to truly embrace the beauty of time is by being present and bringing the best of yourself to every moment.

GQ: W h a t d o e s l e g a c y m e a n t o y o u ?

A E S : It’s about impacting people through how we live until our last day on Earth Community and society are also central to a legacy I want to live collaboratively, be compassionate and impactful and encourage others to actively live the legacy they want to leave.

GQ: W h a t ’s y o u r g o t o p o w e r l o o k ?

W h i l e o t h e r 1 5 y e a r o l d s w e r e r u n n i n g a r o u n d t h e s c h o o l y a r d , A m o n g e E l e t h u S i n xo t o a n d Z i n g i s a S o c i k w a f o u n d e d B l a c k b o a r d A f r i c a , a n N G O p l a t f o r m t o b r i d g e t h e l e a d e r s h i p g a p a n d p r e p a r e y o u t h t o a d d r e s s A f r i c a ’s p r o b l e m s . S i n x o t o , n o w 2 1 , i s a n a w a r d w i n n i n g S o c i a l E n t r e p r e n e u r a n d p u b l i s h e d A u t h o r

A E S : I feel confident wearing comfortable, brightly coloured clothing I enjoy simple silhouettes in playful hues that reflect my joyful attitude. The finishing touch is a classic timepiece that conveys my attention to detail and distinguished mindset, such as my Cartier Tank watch.

It’s a Rich world!

Widely heralded for his f usion of contemp orar y p op c u lture and tradit ional Af r ican her it age, Mnisi inf us es his extremist yet minima list st r uc tures wit h hi s nar rat ive

He works across genders, s e as ons, ge ographical lines and cre ative dis ciplines wit h equal de vot ion to craftsmanship and exp er iment at ion His work has made inter nat ional he adlines in media out lets such as D az ed, i D, Vice, Vog ue Italia and Women’s Wear D aily

S

O R E We Are EGG has fina l ly ar r ive d in Joburg Retail pioneers and Founders Pau l Simon and Ar ie Fabian op ened t he s e cond EGG store at The Z one @ R os eb an k, cre at i ng it w it h t he Joburg c ustomer in mind and building it on a similar mo del to t he iconic UK b as ed S elf r idges concept Much li ke

S elf r idges, t his b e aut i f u l ly c u r ate d 3 000 s quare met re store wi l l fe ature t he b est lo cal and inter nat ional men ’ s, women ’ s and children’s fashion, b e auty, home and j e wel ler y depar t ments, and a rest aurant The sp ace wi l l fe ature S out h Af r ica’s le ading fashion brand Rich Mnisi, w ho founded his ep onymous lab el in 2015.

He draws influences f rom film, music and photog raphy, and f re quent ly ar t dire c ts editor ial and camp aign sho ots

‘We’re sup er excited for our community to f u l ly engage wit h t he Rich Mnisi univers e by stepping into a physical re alm t hat’s an extension of our on line pres ence as we intro duce our first br ick and mor t ar sp ace, ’ Mnisi concludes

T H E A W A R D W I N N I N G D E PA R T M E N T

T

R i c h M n i s i l a u n c h e s h i s f i r s t r e t a i l s p a c e a t W e A r e E G G

Words by Luke Diva

H u b l o t ’s A r t o f F u s i o n

B E G A N W I T H this mot to in 1980 when it became the first watch brand to combine gold with natural rubber Since then, the brand has held T he Ar t of Fusion concept at its hear t, guiding its actions, innovations, developments and par tnerships

By pioneering a combination of natural materials never previously found together, Hublot became a modern day alchemist marr ying the past and the future, tradition and innovation T his creative concept, known as the Ar t of Fusion, sparked a genuine revolution in the watch industr y

Since then, Hublot has launched six collections Big Bang, Classic Fusion, Spirit of Big Bang, Manufacture Piece, Techframe and King Power housing movements ranging from the most pared back to the most complicated (chronograph, tourbillon, cathedral minute repeater, GMT, etc ) T hese collections have enabled Hublot to continue writing the stor y of fusion by combining materials such as King G old (an exclusive Hublot gold containing 5% platinum), Hublonium (a brand new alloy of aluminium and magnesium), in house sapphire cr ystal, gold cr ystal, coloured ceramic, carbon fibre, tungsten, titanium, gold, platinum, rubber, precious stones, linen, embroider y, leather and texalium, among others

In addition to its watches, Hublot shapes its identit y and tells its stor y through the worlds that it brings together

T his approach has led Hublot to expand its relationship with spor ts such as golf, tennis, cricket and boxing and, most impor tantly, football developing a fusion of relationships and ambassadorships with living legends True to its philosophy, Hublot has fostered privileged relationships on the theme of fusion with the world of gastronomy, and through its “Hublot Loves Ar t ” campaign, the brand has reasser ted its love for music, street ar t, photography, sculpture and tat too ar t

In 2006, it was the first luxur y watchmaking brand to enter the footballing world, with the Swiss national team C onscious of the huge potential of this popular spor t, Hublot took to the pitches by par tnering with UEFA and FIFA, becoming involved with major events and prestigious clubs (Chelsea, Manchester

United, Juventus, Ajax, Paris Saint G ermain and Bayern Munich), and forming close relationships with football stars (Pelé, Maradona and Mbappé)

T his par tnership is summarised with a power ful slogan: “Hublot Loves Football”, a true reflection of the successful relationship bet ween Hublot ’s world of watchmaking and the world of football. Hublot has been the Of ficial T imekeeper of the FIFA World Cup for the 4th consecutive edition including the upcoming FIFA World Cup Q atar 2022™

T h i s m o t t o i s a t t h e h e a r t o f a l l t h a t H u b l o t d o e s , w h i c h h e l p s e x p l a i n i t s d e e p a n d d i v e r s e p a r t n e r s h i p s

H U B L O T ’ S S T O R Y

H u b l o t B i g

B a n g U n i c o Ye l l ow G o l d 4 2 m m

Words by Anele Geqiwe

A S K An overnight facial treatment that provides intense hydration while also helping reduce inflammation, combat visible signs of ageing, and promote a more radiant and dewy looking complexion.

The gamechanger

F o r m e r C h e m i s t Tr e v o r S t e y n i s t h e F o u n d e r o f S a p i e n i c a n d E s s e S k i n c a r e , w h i c h a r e s o l d e x c l u s i v e l y t o d o c t o r s a n d s k i n c a r e t h e r a p i s t s i n 4 2 c o u n t r i e s

GQ: Te l l u s a b o u t y o u r c a r e e r b e f o r e t h e b e a u t y i n d u s t r y Tr e v o r S t e y n : I gre w up in a small b e ach town on t he wrong side of D urban My fat her was an elec tr ician, and my mot her t aug ht at a lo ca l pr imar y s cho ol I was interested in sur fi ng and avoiding aut hor ity I did okay at s cho ol but found my mojo at universit y, studying chemistr y. Apply ing

the s cient ific met ho d has s er ved me well in s cience and business, and I’m g ratef u l to have had an inspir ing mentor in Profess or Siegf r ied Dre wes

I got into t he b e auty indust r y mainly by coincidence I was working in dr ug dis cover y and s aw an opp or tunity to offer effe c t ive pro duc ts in t he sk incare market w here t he bar was low.

GQ: H o w d i d E s s e S k i n c a r e

a n d S a p i e n i c c o m e a b o u t ?

T S : I st ar ted Ess e in 2002

The init ial plan was to offer cer t ifie d organic skincare using t he chemistr y of mut hi pl ants, w hich e volve d w hen the Human Microbiome Proj e c t publishe d its first results in 2010 I re a lis ed t hat t he dis cover y of t he skin microbiome was a game changer We st ar te d to us e pre and probiot ics, and t he clinical resu lts we showe d a l lowe d us to exp and our s a les into t he Net herlands, Sweden and Japan Ess e Sk incare s ells exclusively to do c tors and skincare therapists in 42 count r ies, and s ome S out h Af r ican ret ai l out lets offer our range

The Sapienic brand is st ill ver y ne w and offers a sup er simple rout ine We’re tr ying to ke ep t he numb er of daily pro duc ts down to two, a lipid and a s er um in ke eping wit h our do less b etter appro ach.

GQ: W h a t a r e p r o a n d p r e b i o t i c s?

T S : Probiotics are live microb es t hat are go o d for you. S ome p e ople st i l l find it st range to put live bac ter ia on t heir faces, but t here are a lre ady tr illions of bac ter ia t here wit hout w hich you’d b e in s er ious trouble L ive probiot ics help protec t t he skin and improve b ar r ier f unc tion, w hich ke eps moisture in and toxins out.

Prebiot ics feed t he go o d bac ter ia at t he exp ens e of b ad ones It’s a de cent way to shift t he skin microbiome toward a he alt hy optimum

GQ: W h a t m a k e s y o u r b r a n d s u n i q u e?

T S : We us e te chnolog y to mimic t he condit ions for w hich humans have e volve d We’re not ar rogant enoug h to b elie ve t hat we know b etter t han two million ye ars of e volut ion, s o we us e te chniques t hat work w it h t he natura l systems alre ady in place Humans shou ld b e outdo ors in nature a l l day. We should b e exp os e d to tr i l lions of microb es out t here a l l t he time Most p e ople t hes e days are indo ors for more t han 90% of t he d ay, s o we br ing b ack t he microb es t he skin exp e c ts in t he

for m of probiotics, biotechnolog y t hat mimics nature. There are on ly around five brands worldwide t hat have manage d to st abilis e live probiot ics in skincare pro duc ts The pres er vatives in conventiona l pro duc ts ki ll microb es, s o it isn’t easy

GQ: W h a t d o y o u t h i n k o f m o d e r n s k i n c a r e r o u t i n e s?

T S : When lo oked at t hroug h t he lens of e volut ion and t he skin microbiome, t he mo der n skincare rout ine sucks C onventiona l cle ans ers st r ip t he natura l oi l off skin That oi l is met ab olica l ly exp ensive to pro duce and is mainly t here to fe e d t he skin microbiome. Why wou ld we wash it down t he drain? C onventional moistur is ers tr y to replace lost oi l w it h che ap p et ro chemica ls I don’t t hink t hat we should b e sur pr is e d to s e e e czema and acne in such a large p ercent age of t he p opu lation, and it s e ems unlikely t hat more of t he s ame w i l l c ure s ensit ive sk in.

‘ H u m a n s s h o u l d b e o u t d o o r s i n n a t u r e a l l d a y , e x p o s e d t o t r i l l i o n s o f m i c r o b i o m e s ’

summer

ATu m i N t l o k w a n a , b e t t e r k n o w n a s Tu m i 2 1 3 a n d T h e G r o o v i s t , i s t h e m a n t o k n o w i f y o u ’r e l o o k i n g f o r t h e h o t t e s t p a r t y s p o t s i n t h e M o t h e r C i t y. H e r e , h e g i v e s u s t h e i n s i d e s c o o p o n w h e r e y o u n e e d t o b e t h i s D e c e m b e r

28 ye ar old Influencer, Events Curator and Digit a l C ontent Creator always knows w hat’s trending and his mission is to cre ate t he b est e vents and vib es in C ap e Town.

GQ: W h a t c a n y o u t e l l u s a b o u t t h e C a p e To w n s o c i a l s c e n e? Tu m i N t l o k w a n a : It’s l arger t han most p e ople t hink It’s unique b e caus e t here are more inexp ensive ac tivities to do here t han in ot her cities, b e aches, wine far ms and venues, and w hen it comes to enter t ainment, p e ople want to get t heir

mone

GQ: W h a t a r e t h e b e s t p a r t y v e n u e s i n C a p e To w n d u r i n g D e c e m b e r ?

y ’ s wor t h You could tell p e ople were hung r y for f un after t he C ovid 19 lo ckdowns, and now t he y ’ ve st ar ted going out in droves b e caus e t he y want to exp er ie nce more t han t he y did b efore

Words by Shannon Manuel R O M P R A C T I S I N G L A W T O P R O F E S S I O N A L PA R T Y G O E R A N D P O D C A S T H O S T O F T H E 2 1 3 S H O W , t his

T N : The y have to b e Grand Af r ica C afé & B e ach, C ab o B e ach Club, Ro oftop On Bree, C olourlab Ro oftop Venue, R ands C ap e Town and Si C ant ina S o ciale.

GQ: W h a t a r e y o u r t i p s f o r s u r v i v i n g t h e D e c e m b e r n i g h t l i f e s e a s o n ?

T N : It’s a l l ab out t iming. Not many p e ople can afford to go clubbing we ek ly, s o che ck t he lineups and s e e w here your favour ite ac ts are due to p er for m. It’s als o ess ent ial to have a group of f r iends C lubbing is a l l ab out te amwork If you work toget her, you won’t fe el t hat bi l l as much as you wou ld if you went a lone. Most imp or t ant ly, b ef r iend t he st aff b e caus e it gets busy and s omet imes hav ing s ome one vouch for you can help you jump t he queue or get a t able s or ted out quicker since you ’ re a regu lar

GQ: H o w c a n y o u h a v e a g o o d t i m e o n a b u d g e t ?

T N : I fir mly b elie ve you can have an amazing t ime outside on a budget It’s all ab out knowing w here to go and w hen Most venues have sp e cia ls to get p e ople in e arly Familiar is e yours elf with thos e dis counts There’s als o not hing w rong wit h having pre dr inks b efore going to a club, s o you won’t fe el t he ne ed to dr ink as much w hen you ’ re there, w hich me ans you ’ l l sp end less Target f un places t hat won’t excee d your budget. I fe el a nig ht out is ab out t he p e ople you ’ re wit h You can have a great time any w here if sur rounde d by t he r ig ht p e ople

GQ: W h a t e l e m e n t s m a k e f o r t h e u l t i m a t e G r o o v i s t s u m m e r ?

T N : It always entails great we at her and a var iety of t hings to do Summer is all ab out le aving t he hous e e arly and coming home late, f rom hav ing mimos as wit h f r iends at a rest aurant to ending up at a club t hat s ame nig ht The more ac tivities you cover, t he b etter summer you ’ re b ound to have

GQ: W h a t a r e y o u r f a v o u r i t e s o c i a l s c e n e s p o t s?

T N : According to t he t ime of day, definitely Si C ant ina S o ciale in t he Si lo Distr ic t for daytime dr inking

and st ar t ing your day w it h amazing fo o d and music, S ouk on L ong St re et for e vening to 2am par tying and C o co Nig htclub on L o op St re et for midnig ht to e arly mor ning

GQ: W h a t t h r e e t h i n g s w o u l d y o u s a y t o p r a t e d c l u b s , b a r s a n d p a r t i e s h a v e i n c o m m o n ?

T N : G o o d music and regular app e arances by guest DJs and p er for mers And delicious fo o d p e ople in C ap e Town love a de cent me a l, s o t hat’s a lre ady

a win. Fina lly, places t hat aren’t to o str ic t ab out dress co de nob o dy wants to we ar j e ans w hen it’s 30°C

GQ: W h a t ’s t h e g r e a t e s t p a r t y y o u ’ v e e v e r b e e n t o?

T N : It’s a t ie b etween a par ty cal led Sin City at Sideshow and The He ad Honcho Summer Picnic Thos e two showe d me a different le vel of f un, and I stil l lo ok up to t he organis ers

GQ: W h a t a r e y o u l o o k i n g f o r w a r d t o m o s t t h i s D e c e m b e r a n d t h e f e s t i v e s e a s o n ?

T N : At t his t ime of t he ye ar, I always lo ok for ward to p e ople flying in f rom ot her cities and t hos e retur ning home. It gives t he city ne w energ y and gets p e ople out of t he hous e I work in enter t ainment, s o t he more p e ople I s e e go out, t he happier I am

‘ I w o r k i n e n t e r t a i n m e n t , s o t h e m o r e p e o p l e I s e e g o o u t , t h e h a p p i e r I a m ’

S

E R S F R O M around the world come together for a football family reunion, the FIFA World Cup. T he biggest global spor ting event takes place in Q atar from 29 November to 18 D ecember 2022 and adidas brings together dif ferent generations, geographies and cultures, united in the fun of football While our national team won’t be represented, that won’t stop South Africans from suppor ting the FIFA World Cup 2022, including well known par tners of the adidas brand, who’ll be swapping their vuvuzelas for drums, horns and trumpets as they join the adidas football family to cheer on the following nations:

L i n i n g u p fo r t e a m A rge n t i n a are retired and current national rugby players Br yan Habana and Ox Nché, as well as award winning ar tist D ee Koala Habana played football growing up and was named af ter legendar y footballers Br yan Robson and

G ar y Bailey. Nché also played football in his youth and was out on a football pitch when his rugby coach first spot ted him! Koala’s favourite football memories include playing iDiski in the streets and watching live football matches with her dad All three are huge Messi fans ‘He’s the G.O. A.T !’ says Nché.

Te a m G e r m a ny i s represented by national rugby star D amian Willemse and broadcast presenter Rorisang T handekiso While Willemse is most comfor table with a rugby ball in his hands, in his younger years, he loved playing football because it tested the skill of his feet His teammate, T handekiso, is looking for ward to suppor ting G ermany and watching her favourite player, T homas Müller, in action

Te a m S p a i n h a s fo r m e r and current national cricketers JP Duminy and Suné Luus in its corner and fitness industr y icon Mapule Ndhlovu Duminy played football in his youth, and it should come as no surprise that his preferred position was

E V E R Y F O U R Y E A R S , P L A Y E R S A N D

U P P O R T

striker because of his speed and hunger for scoring goals When Luus thinks of Spain, she’s reminded of Flamenco dancers and the word olé If all goes well for Spain, that ’s a word Luus will hear many times during the FIFA World Cup 2022!

National cricketer L aura Wolvaardt, and national footballers T hulani Hlatshwayo and Linda Mntambo represent Team Belgium Wolvaardt ’s mother was born in Belgium, and many of her family members still live in the town of Roeselare For Hlatshwayo and Mntambo, it ’s not chocolate or waf fles that come to mind when they think of Belgium, but

football, and both think it ’ll be the team to watch in Q atar

Re p r e s e n t i n g Te a m J a p a n are national rugby player Herschel Jantjies, national high jumper Brey ton Poole and fitness and lifest yle influencer Juls Meintjes Japan holds a special place in the hear ts of South African spor ts fans, especially for Jantjies, who was a member of the victorious national rugby squad in 2019 Meintjes is in awe of its modern cities and for ward thinking approach to life while Poole admires the humble nature of the Japanese people.

F i n a l l y, Te a m M ex i c o will enjoy the suppor t of local fashionista Nabilah Kariem and comedian Okay Wasabi Both are excited to be par t of a team so rich in culture and histor y. From mariachi to fiestas, Mexico is sure to bring the South American version of gees to Q atar

T here you have it, six incredible adidas teams taking par t in the FIFA World Cup 2022 who will you suppor t? Pick your team, then find your gear! Shop the Argentina, G ermany, Spain, Belgium, Japan and Mexico range on adidas co za, on the adidas app, or in adidas concept

stores countr ywide Follow the @ adidasZ A football family conversation on Instagram and leave your score predictions

It ’s time for the FIFA World Cup 2022, and any thing ’s possible!

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a d i d a s z a

A D I D A S

Z A

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C h a n g i n g l i v e s

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H E P O W E R T O t ransfor m t he world and, wit h t he r ig ht te chnolog y, de vices and par t nerships, can p ositively imp ac t s o ciety The brand’s committed to building an innovative ecosystem by collab orat ing clos ely wit h par t ners w ho dr ive transfor mat ional success Siya Kolisi, w ho co founded The Kolisi Foundation wit h his wife, R achel, w hich aims to change t he nar rat ive of inequa lity in S out h Af r ica, s ays his p ar t nership wit h L enovo wi l l un lo ck opp or tunit ies for S out h Af r ican yout hs t hroug h te chnolog y

G Q : H o w d i d y o u r p a r t n e r s h i p w i t h L e n o v o c o m e a b o u t ?

S i y a Ko l i s i : I love technolog y t hat simplifies dai ly life, and ke ep abre ast of t he le ading brands in t hat sp ace When my agenc y sp oke to me ab out t he p otent ial to par t ner with L enovo, I was pleas e d b e caus e it aligns wit h my vision and values The brand delivers pro duc ts and s er v ices t hat emp ower individuals, communit ies and business es to f u lfil t heir p otent ia l The Kolisi Foundation also mobilis es and advo c ates for change, e qu a lit y and a more improve d life for e ver yone

G Q : Te l l u s m o r e a b o u t y o u r p a r t n e r s h i p w i t h L e n o v o

S K : My role as a L enovo brand amb ass ador involves st anding for hop e and a br ig hter f uture for e ver yone and shar ing L enovo ’ s smar t te chnolog y and how p e ople can re define and exp and t he limits of w hat technolog y can do in t heir lives, professions and communit y

G Q : W h a t v a l u e s d o y o u l o o k f o r i n a b r a n d b e f o r e a g r e e i n g t o r e p r e s e n t i t ?

S K : Our par t nership must cre ate value for p e ople and communit ies and b e aut hetic I ne ed to b elie ve in a brand’s va lues, overa ll mess aging and pro duc t(s) I li ke L enovo ’ s inclusiv ity and t hat it repres ents diversit y in its pro duc t design and s olut ions For example, it has de velop e d innovat ive accessibi lity s olut ions to improve individua ls wit h dis abi lities’ exp er iences

G Q : D e s c r i b e y o u r l e a d e r s h i p s t y l e o n t h e f i e l d a n d a t h o m e

S K : I b elie ve le adership shou ld b e transp osable and consistent Whet her on t he field or at home, I’m a collab orat ive le ader w ho knows he isn’t go o d at

e ver y thing. I b elie ve le ar ning f rom my te ammates, w ho share my obj e c t ives, makes de cision ma king r icher and stronger On t he field, I rely on my te ammates, but at home, R achel and I are a te am

G Q : W h a t l e g a c y d o y o u w a n t t o l e a v e?

S K : Rugby is an ess ent ial p ar t of t hat I’m gratef u l for how t he achie vements of t he different te ams I’ve playe d for have me ant s omet hing to our communit ies and how my stor y has inspired young p e ople f rom a similar background to mine to dre am bigger It’s imp erative children w ho lo ok like me can dre am of achie ving e ven more t han I have, having s e en s ome one els e do it I’m proud of The Kolisi Foundation’s p ositive cont r ibut ion towards fo o d s e c ur ity, gender bas ed violence, sp or ts and educat ion

I’m also grateful for par t nerships like this with L enovo t hat a l low me and The Kolisi Foundation to make a difference in untouched ter r itor ies and industr ies. By exp anding my know ledge and influence in

s e c tors such as te ch, I can lear n how to b etter s er ve p e ople using var ious res ources

G Q : Te l l u s a b o u t t h e p e o p l e w h o’ v e m a d e i t p o s s i b l e f o r y o u t o g e t t o w h e r e y o u a r e t o d a y.

S K : I confess: I’m not a s elf made man. Many p e ople and communit ies have help ed me b e come t he p ers on I am to day

My mot her, my g randmot her, my community in Zwide, R achel, my children, my brot her and sister, my f r iends, my coaches, people I’m pr ivileged to call my te ammates R achel gets a s e cond ment ion b e caus e I honest ly don’t know w here I’d b e if she hadn’t b e en in my life She’s s o de ar to me and my stor y Her love and supp or t have b e en e ver yt hing to me. That’s w hy t here’s not hing I wouldn’t do for her I’m s o t han kf ul for having her in my life

S i y a Ko l i s i a n d g l o b a l t e c h g i a n t L e n o v o h a v e p a r t n e r e d t o i n s p i r e c o m m u n i t i e s a n d c h a n g e t h e w o r l d t h r o u g h t e c h n o l o g y

E N O V O B E L I E V E S P E O P L E

A V E T

P R O U D P A R T N E R S Scot tish Leader, Lexus South Africa, Markham and Crocs to showcase the countr y ’s most fashionable personalities GQ Best dressed awards is one of our most popular events and has continued to grow even during a hard lockdown in 2020 when we held it vir tually

T he annual GQ Best dressed awards, now in its seventeenth year, took place on Saturday, 27 August 2022, at Ninet y2 on Rivonia in Sandton Talented ar tist and media personalit y Unathi Nkayi co hosted the trendy event with GQ’s Editor in Chief Molife Kumona. We saw various fashion trends from Mzansi’s most st ylish men and women and Moonchild Sanelly ’s epic live per formance T he late rapper Riky Rick received GQ’s Fashion Icon award, which his wife Bianca Naidoo accepted in person.

T his year, the awards focused on celebrating a broader range of st ylish individuals by introducing categories for the first time GQ’s Best dressed awards recognises the personal flair of the most fashionably sophisticated among us

G Q S O U T H A F R I C A T E A M E D U P W I T H

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S o u t h A f r i c a , Glamour S o u t h A f r i c a , o r Condé Nast House & Garden u s i n g t h e s e a r c h i c o n a t t h e t o p o f t h e p a g e I t ’ l l s h o w y o u t h e l a t e s t a n d p r e v i o u s i s s u e s

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W h e n y o u s e l e c t t h e l a t e s t i s s u e , y o u ’ l l s e e t w o p r i c e o p t i o n s : o n e f o r t h a t i s s u e o n l y a n d a n o t h e r f o r a o n e y e a r s u b s c r i p t i o n O n l i n e e d i t i o n s , f o r b o t h s i n g l e c o p i e s a n d a n n u a l s u b s c r i p t i o n s , a r e c h e a p e r t h a n i n s t o r e s

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O n c e y o u ’ v e s e l e c t e d t h e l a t e s t i s s u e o r a n n u a l s u b s c r i p t i o n , i t ’s t i m e t o c h e c k o u t I f y o u s k i p p e d t h e r e g i s t r a t i o n s t e p , y o u ’ l l b e p r o m p t e d t o d o s o n o w Yo u c a n t h e n m a k e a s e c u r e p a y m e n t u s i n g a d e b i t o r c r e d i t c a r d

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F I N D Y O U R M A G A Z I N Ei n t e r n e t ; h o w e v e r, i f y o u d o w n l o a d t h e m a g a z i n e , y o u c a n r e a d i t o n l i n e o r o f f l i n e

B U Y I TS W o r r i e d y o u r d o w n l o a d e d m a g a z i n e s a r e g o i n g t o t a k e u p t o o m u c h s p a c e o n y o u r d e v i c e? F e a r n o t Yo u c a n a r c h i v e y o u r t i t l e s , w h i c h w o n’ t p e r m a n e n t l y r e m o v e t h e m f r o m y o u r l i b r a r y a s y o u c a n d o w n l o a d i t a g a i n

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O n c e y o u ’r e o n t h e a p p o r w e b p a g e , c l i c k o n t h e i c o n i n t h e t o p r i g h t h a n d c o r n e r t o c r e a t e a n e w a c c o u n t O n c e t h e f o r m’s c o m p l e t e , y o u ’r e r e a d y t o s h o p

Y O U R L I B R A R Y

O n c e p a y m e n t ’s s u c c e s s f u l , t h e m a g a z i n e w i l l a p p e a r i n y o u r l i b r a r y C l i c k o n “ M y L i b r a r y ” (o r “ M y C o l l e c t i o n s” o n M a g z t e r ) a t t h e t o p o f y o u r s c r e e n o r t h e b o t t o m o f y o u r d e v i c e t o d i s p l a y a l l o f y o u r p u r c h a s e d i s s u e s I f y o u o p t e d f o r a s u b s c r i p t i o n , t h e a p p w i l l a u t o m a t i c a l l y u p d a t e y o u r l i b r a r y w i t h a n e w i s s u e a s s o o n a s i t ’s p u b l i s h e d I f y o u ’r e o n a b r o w s e r, i t ’ l l a p p e a r i n a d o w n l o a d a b l e f o r m a t

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Yo u r d e v i c e m u s t b e c o n n e c t e d t o t h e i n t e r n e t t o r e a d o r d o w n l o a d y o u r m a g a z i n e C l i c k o n t h e c o v e r a n d s e l e c t “r e a d ” o r “d o w n l o a d ” R e a d i n g o n l i n e r e q u i r e s y o u t o r e m a i n c o n n e c t e d t o t h e

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Yo u ’r e a l l s e t u p t o g e t y o u r f a v o u r i t e m a g a z i n e s q u i c k l y a n d e a s i l y e v e r y m o n t h

R E A D Y T O R E A DF o r i n f o r m a t i v e , r e l e v a n t a n d i n s p i r i n g c o n t e n t , f o l l o w o u r s o c i a l m e d i a p l a t f o r m s I n s t agra m G Q S o u t h A f r i c a G l a m o u r S A h o u s e a n d g a r d e n s a Fac eb o ok G Q S o u t h A f r i c a G l a m o u r S o u t h A f r i c a H o u s e G a r d e n S A Tw i t t e r G Q d o t c o z a G l a m o u r S A

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C H E C K O U Tw n l o a d l i k e a r e g u l a r m a g a z i n e o r i n a b o o k s t y l e , t e x t f o r m a t F o r t h e t e x t o n l y o p t i o n , c l i c k o n t h e “ T ” i c o n o n t h e r i g h t h a n d s i d e o f y o u r s c r e e n o r t h e b o t t o m o f y o u r d e v i c e S e l e c t a n a r t i c l e f r o m t h e l i s t , t h e n c l i c k o n t h e “A” i c o n t o c h a n g e t h e s i z e To s w i t c h b a c k , c l i c k o n t h e m a g a z i n e i c o n , o r “ P D F V i e w ” T h e t e x t o p t i o n o n M a g z t e r i s “e z R e a d ”

in t he last couple of mont hs I e ven ro ad tr ipp e d an Audi e t ron Sp or tb ack 1 500km into t he Karo o All had one thing in common: t he range anxiety was omnipres ent S o, I was ver y ke en to exp er ie nce t he ne w Merce des B enz EQS in G er many Not on ly do es t he brand promis e a range of more t han 780km, but t here’s t he added b enefit of over 300 000 charging p or ts in Europ e, all of w hich t he Merc’s intelligent navigat ion system covers I picke d up t he B enz in Stutt gar t at my favour ite hotel, t he V8 Hotel Stutt gar t To f u l ly appre ci ate t he elec tr ic intelligence of my dig it a l r id e,

I downloaded t he Merce des me app. Now, I was in cont ac t w it h my r ide v i a my iPhone I could e ven program t he route guidance f rom my hotel ro om or che ck t he charge on my smar tphone The ne w navi calc ulates t he b est, most efficient route, including charg ing p oints And shou ld your driving sty le change, t he system adapts and adds addit ional charging stops

You can load t he EQS wit h up to 200kW at fast charg ing st at ions w it h dire c t c ur rent (D C) Most of t he ones I encountere d on t heAutob a hn were 300kW, s o no problem t here. The charg ing p ower can b e slig ht ly less t han claime d, dep ending on t he outside temp erature But you can re charge for anot her 300km in just 15 minutes

You can tap your Merce des me card at numerous charg ing p or ts, and t here’s als o a plug and charge option, w hereby you

can op en t he ‘ p etrol’ cap, plug t he charger in and t he c ur rent st ar ts flowing Its intel ligent navigation always tr ies to le ad you to t hos e Ionity fast chargers, w hich deliver p ower der ive d f rom green energ y And it tel ls you w het her t here’s an empty bay avai lable

The EQS fe atures a ne w generation of batter ies, wit h sig nificant ly hig her energ y density S o wit h an average consumpt ion of 19 6kW/100km, you can re ach t hat 700km plus wit h on ly one charge

Hence my ide a of t a king t he EQS 450+ f rom its bir t hplace in Stuttgar t to G er many ’ s capit a l city, B erlin According to t he navi, t he dist ance b etween the V8 Hotel Stuttgar t and B erlin’s co olest pl ace to st ay, t he 25hours Hotel Bikini B erlin, is 633.6km. S o, t hat shou ldn’t b e a problem at all, e ven if I were to go a litt le faster As wit h all EVs, sp eed re duces t he avai lable p ower S o, the G erman Autobahn, w hich do esn’t have a sp e e d limit, is an abs olute range kil ler. It’s li ke a ste a k hous e for Vegans.

‘ T h e r e ’s t h e a d d e d b e n e f i t o f o v e r 3 0 0 0 0 0 c h a r g i n g p o r t s i n E u r o p e , a l l o f w h i c h t h e M e r c ’s i n t e l l i g e n t n a v i g a t i o n s y s t e m c o v e r s ’

I tried, I promis e, but after having b e en denied lega l hig h sp e e ds for a couple of ye ars, I couldn’t resist

The EQS’s sp eed is electronically limited to 216km/h And t hat’s how fast

I drove By t he way, I was st ill an obst acle and had to f re quent ly ma ke ro om for faster candidates ro ar ing p ast me in t he left lane.

And t he system kept war ning me: keep your speed under 150km/h to avoid additional

S E V E R A L E L E C T R I C C A R S

charg ing stops one of w hich I decide d to combine wit h a lek ker G er man lunch, and after ab out 40 minutes, b ot h EQS and mys elf were re charge d And t he r ide qua lity? Its air susp ension is extremely comfor t able, as are its s e ats Init ially, I was wor r ied ab out t he dens e traffic and nar row city stre ets in B erlin. The mig hty EQS is 5 21m long, r iding on 21 inch w he els, but all w heel steer ing, wit h a re ar axle ste er ing ang le up to 10°, and park assist made it sur pr ising ly e asy to hand le in town, despite it not b eing a city car.

The Mercedes B enz EQ range is on a ne w pl at for m for t he first time, as it wasn’t pre v iously us e d w it h i nter na l combust ion engines. It’s a mo du lar design, an architec ture for luxur y and exec ut ive class elec tr ic vehicles wit h cab for ward design

The first t hing you notice is its different shap e it’s not imme diately re cognis able as a Mercedes B enz. Its ne w design is

a b enchmark in aero dynamics

At t he moment, t he EQS is t he most aero dynamic pro duc t ion car in t he world, me aning it’s ver y quiet, wit h a ver y low wind nois e Its re c up erat ion is excellent. On max, it a l lows you to decelerate to a st andstil l wit hout using t he brake p e dal at a l l. The ele c t r i c p ower t rain on my bas e mo del EQS 450+ has an elec tr ic p ower t rain (eAT S) at its re ar axle w hile

t he 4Mat ic version has anot her one in f ront

The a lter nat ive to t he 450 is t he EQS 580 4Mat ic wit h an incre dible 385kW and 855Nm I me an, t he 450+ isn’t a slow car But Mercedes B enz has t a ken it e ven f ur t her : an electric AMG p er for mance version wit h 560kW, coming s o on There’s go o d ne ws for V8 aficionados: t he famous p ower plant isn’t de ad yet Mercedes B enz has had a change of he ar t, a s or t of depar ture f rom t he exit “Ambit ion 2030” was supp os ed to s e e on ly electric cars b eing pro duced f rom that ye ar onwards Then, t he inventor of t he automobi le added “ w here ver p ossible”

GQ R E C O M M E N D S

V 8 H O T E L S T U T T G A R T

The coolest hotel in Stuttgart is the motoring themed V8 Hotel, whose lobby stretches into the Motorworld The Germany room features an old Mercedes Benz S Class bed. If booked out, try Of f Road or Barnyard v8hotel de 2 5

This is the hippest place to stay in Berlin Choose one of its jungle rooms with a view of Zoo Berlin from your hammock 25hours hotels.com

H O U R S H O T E L B I K I N I B E R L I N

was a couple of years ago. My ride then was the SL 63 AMG. But, man, did this EQB surprise me? By now, ever yone knows electric cars are agile But on those narrow, windy roads, its low centre of gravity, instant torque and 4Matic made this a proper mountaineer. Some of the sportscar drivers and motorbike riders couldn’t believe their eyes when I silently flew past them on those hairpin turns When you ’ re driving up passes, the batter y quickly depletes, but it starts recuperating on the long way down when you ’ re coasting and braking the latter is only necessar y for very tight turns.

Like all Mercedes EQs, electric intelligence finds charging points on your route, even in tiny alpine villages Its high voltage batter y is brought to an optimal charging temperature before a planned charging stop. The EQB’s batter y is 66kWh and can be charged up to 100kW So, yes, with a realistic range of about 370km, my anxiety returns after spending time with the long range EQS But 30 minutes from 10% back to 80%, or 15 minutes for 150km, isn’t that bad, especially as there are charging stations ever ywhere and great views and restaurants. While having an excellent lunch on top of the king of mountain passes, Passo de Stelvio, we even loaded up with hydro generated green electricity at the highest charging point in Europe

Another highlight is Furka Pass, of 007 fame Remember that famous car chase involving a silver Aston Martin DB5 and a white Mustang convertible? If not, watch it on YouTube The road looks pretty much the same as in 1964, including the famous picture perfect Hotel Belvedere on the hairpin bend, which has, unfortunately, been closed for years now and is apparently haunted. By the way, a sudden cold front, passing through the day before, had resulted in Furka Pass being closed Our intelligent live navigator also indicated that it was closed, but with 4Motion confidence, we tried anyway And just as we reached the top of the pass, the snow had melted enough to allow us passage.

TO BE HONEST, I WASN’ T SURE HOW A FULLY ELECTRIC compact SUV would perform on some of the most stunning mountain roads in the world The last time I embarked on a similar cur ves trip in a Merc

On the other side, the sun peaked out again. Parked in this magnificent mountain scener y, the EQB doesn’t look as exciting as the EQS But it features a continuous light strip at the front and rear and the Mercedes EQ black panel grille with a central star This car is a true sleeper. You wouldn’t expect it to perform as it does simply by looking at it

In the famous Swiss town, St Moritz, we decided to sleep on top of a 2 456m high mountain We left the Merc at the bottom and took the cog railway up A cloudless sky rewarded us with endless views during the day but disadvantaged us with below freezing temperatures at night When we returned to the car the next morning, it was frozen Even the star on its bonnet was covered in ice And its batter y? Surprisingly, not a single percentage of its charge was lost, so it must’ve been well insulated.

We explored a few famous mountain passes, Albula, Julier, Gotthard and Umbrail, leaving the best for last So far, I’d only heard of Kunkels Pass and seen enticing pictures of the unlit and unpaved tunnel on top It might only be 1 357m high, but it’s a true adrenaline ride. When the Rhine Valley below was impassable due to flooding, the Romans used this route over the mountain The one lane tunnel was added during the First World War The entr y process is digital now At the bottom of the pass, we scanned a code and paid a toll online. With a virtual permit and after a hearty lunch at a cosy restaurant, we finally entered the tunnel, the highlight of our mountain trip We encountered mountain bikers inside, as feared, who barely made it past this Merc It was so cool we vowed to return, perhaps with a noisier V8

‘ Y O U W O U L D N ’ T E X P E C T I T T O P E R F O R M A S I T D O E S S I M P LY B Y L O O

GQ R E C O M M E N D S M AT T E R H O R N F O C U S D E S I G N H O T E L

The coolest hotel in Zermatt looks out onto the iconic Matterhorn peak of the famous Toblerone, right from the bed and free standing bath Expect stunning architecture and great food mat terhorn-focus ch

R O M A N T I K H O T E L M U O T TA S M U R A G L

Sleeping on top of the world at an altitude of 2 456m, after a breathtaking ride on a spectacular rack and pinion railway muot tasmuragl ch

K I N G AT I T ’

T h e q u i n t e s s e n t i a l p e r f o r m a n c e c o u p é i s a n e n d a n g e r e d s p e c i e s . L u c k i l y, B M W b e l i e v e s i n a c t i v e c o n s e r v a t i o n w i t h i t s a l l n e w M 2

Words by Walter Hayward

PETROLHEADS, REJOICE! BMW HAS RENEWED THE VENERABLE M2 FOR A NEW GENERATION. For the uninitiated, this compact sports coupé is considered the pinnacle of performance driving pleasure, hence, BMW hasn’t messed with the formula

B M W H A S

to the already controversial looking 2 Series

The smallest M is also more mechanically related to its bigger brothers, the M3 and M4 It’s a rather close relation, as it shares many of the same bits and pieces, such as the engine, gearbox and chassis

Speaking of inner bits, crammed under the bonnet is a twin turbo, in line six cylinder engine producing a mountain moving 338kW and 550Nm of torque That’s around 66kW more than the outgoing model. It sprints from 0 to 100 in just 4 1 seconds

The big news, however, is the option of a manual transmission The executives at BMW have promised to keep the manual alive well into the 2030s a rarity in today’s auto loving industr y

The wheelbase is a slightly shortened version of the one in the M3, translating to more interior space compared to

the old car ’ s cramped quarters Something else nicked from the 3 Series is the ultra slick cur ved display, running the latest iDrive system Pay a little extra, and you can get uber cool carbon fibre bucket seats with a neat light up M2 badge

Of course, as with any Beemer, the options list is never ending Pick from five different colour palettes and two wheel designs for the 19 inch front and 20 inch rear alloys There are also scintillating M Performance parts that’ll amp up your M2 to never before seen levels

Tr y not to go crazy, though Pricing has been pegged at R1 3 million for the auto and slightly more for the manual Niche products demand niche prices and in this case, it makes perfect sense.

It’s still a rear wheel drive, front engined, two door coupé based on the regular 2 Series, but BMW has dialled its looks to an 11 It’s positively bedevilled; the Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde Clichés aside, its styling incorporates a more angular approach compared

D I A L L E D I T S L O O K S T O A N 1 1 . I T ’ S P O S I T I V E LY B E D E V I L L E D ; T H E D R J E K Y L L T O M R H Y D E ’

W E L C O M E

T O G O N DWA N A G A M E R E S E RV E

H I S H I D D E N G E M O F

a get away, lo c ate d on S out h Af r ica’s s cenic Garden Route, is sur rounde d by t he s erenity of Nature, ro aming wildlife and magnificent mount ains. It t a kes a four hour dr ive f rom C ap e Tow n Inter nat iona l Air p or t to ar r ive at t his luxur ious accommo dat ion

It’s a s anc tuar y for p e ace and s erenity chas ers. And e ver y s afar i lover lo ok ing for a p er fec t escape in Nature will appreciate G ondwana’s s cenic sur roundings and abundant wildlife. The pr ivate game res er ve exp er ience is a st andout fe ature of t his gorge ous pie ce of land blan kete d in colour f u l f y nb os

L u xu r i o u s a n d exc l u s i ve t e nte d a c c o m m o d at i o n of fe r s g u e s t s t h e u l t i m at e s af a r i ex p e r i e n c e ; A n o t h e r v i ew i n g p o i nt f r o m t h e exc l u s i ve, of f t h e gr i d e c o c a m p t e nte d v i l l a s

TO P D OW N

A C C O M M O D AT I O N

Prais e d as one of t he b est family s afar i accommo dations in S out h Af r ica, G ondwana’s opulent lo dging ranges f rom bush vil las ide a l for groups and families to romant ic, st andalone suites for couples desig ned to give pat rons a completely mo der n hotel exp er ience The fami ly bush villas provide an intimate homely s etup, allowing you to watch t he Big Five ro aming and grazing quiet ly r ig ht f rom your w indow Kwena lo dge offers spacious op en plan ro oms desig ned

cre at ively w it h a c ontemp orar y and lavish twist inspired by the tradit ional K hois an circ u lar dwelling The romantic round hut sty le suites stretch across t he land with views of the reser ve, sky line and waterholes It has a large infinity p o ol f re quente d by wildlife w hen t he we at her’s war m

You can enj oy t he lo dge’s sp acious facilities w hi le sipping a cold b e verage at t he b ar, f rom w hich you can access t he p o ol are a Its 14 op en plan b e dro om suites are pr ivately situated and offer mount ain vie ws, are fitte d wit h wo o d bur ning fireplaces and have deep s oaking bat htubs placed in f ront of large w indows lo ok ing out up on t he vie ws

The lo dge b o asts t hre e b e autif u l dining venues, including

a ne w indo or outdo or rest aurant, an elegant dining ro om and a f un bre a kfast b oma exp er ience. Its homemade s afar i c uisine is delicious and var ied Game dr ives and me a ls are included as par t of t he f ull and ha lf b o ard packages Ulubisi Hous e is G ondwana’s most exclusive pr ivate s afar i vil la wit h its ow n chef, but ler and exp er ience d field guide to c ustomis e t he u lt imate C ap e s afar i exp er ience The vi lla has t hre e luxur ious guest suites t hat can accommo date six adu lts or four adults and four children The he ated p o ol and luxur ious large op en plan liv ing are as op en out onto an exp ansive de ck w it h 180 deg re e vie ws of g rass plains dotted wit h game, f ynb os covere d rolling hills and t he Outeniqua

mount ain range Ulubisi Hous e is tucked away in t he res er ve ’ s 1000 hec t are protec ted walking are a for endangered sp ecies, ide a l for f r iends or families s e eking p e acef ul, qu ality time toget her in nature

A C T I V I T I E S

B eing in a game res er ve calls for game dr ives! The Big Five dr ives travers e t he 11 000 hec t are pr ivate res er ve and are conduc te d by exp er t guides Enjoy t he plentif u l wild life ro aming t his stunning C ap e f ynb os covere d mount ain lands cap e, including herds of antelop e, C ap e buffalo es, giraffes, lions, elephants and rhinos You can als o enjoy a relaxing spa tre atment at t he tente d bush sp a, w hich offers a full Af ricolog y Sp a treatment menu

C O N S E R V AT I O N

The game res er ve management has est ablished t he G ondwana C ons er vation Foundation, a non profit organis ation wit h obj e c t ive s to b e p ar t of t he s olut ion to cons er ving S out h Af rica’s thre atened wild life Their programmes aim to protec t rhinos f rom ext inc t ion and cons er ve t he endangere d C ap e f y nb os The Foundation als o fo c us es on t raining and skil ls de velopment for lo cals

N A R E K E K A N A

O K Y O U R S TAY

MBANO MANOR HOTEL,

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L o c ated wit hin minutes of t he S e ven Natural Wonders, Vic tor ia Fa lls, Mbano is a five st ar luxur y mar vel The hotel’s suites are lo cate d in an ancient te ak tre e forest and have a cl assical design inf us e d wit h mo der n elements The we at her in t he are a is excellent a l l ye ar round Morning walks here are s erene, and if you ’ re into adventure, you can enjoy w hite water rafting and bungee jumping at Vic tor ia falls The hotel als o offers access to game dr ives, r iver s afar is and helicopter exc ursions.

B O O K Y O U R S TAY

For more information, visit mbanomanorhotel.com

LAUREL COTTAGE,

M C G R E G O R , W E S T E R N

C A P E , S O U T H A F R I C A

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T H I S I D Y L L I C

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A M E N I T I E S

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N A R E K E K A N A

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.

TASTE THE NEW SUPREME

Introduction by Roger Bennet t

ONCE ASKED LEGENDARY British commentator Martin Tyler to explain what makes a soccer player a global hero ‘Football,’ he said, ‘is a simple game in which any player has three decisions to choose from when they take possession of the ball Should I pass, run, or shoot?’ He paused theatrically ‘ The greatest players make better decisions than the merely good ones most of the time.’

There’s no greater stage on which Tyler’s theor y can play out than the World Cup, the 2022 edition, which kicked off on 20 November It’s the world’s greatest blockbuster franchise played out live, with a projected cumulative audience of five billion. A crucible of pressure where the mantle of greatness can be assumed in a heartbeat One exclamation point goal can forge a generation of memories, and the choreography of feints, flicks and flamboyance will be mimicked by millions of kids on dusty schoolyards across the world The 2022 World Cup is guaranteed to be a singular experience, for reasons both commendable and skulduggerous It’s the first World Cup to be staged in the Middle East, held in Qatar, a tiny, natural gas rich petrostate located on a finger of desert in the Persian Gulf that won the hosting duties corruptly, despite having never previously qualified for the tournament. With summer temperatures in the desert hovering at 106°C, organisers at FIFA were forced to shift the competition from July to November, seeking cooler climes and disrupting the rhythm of the club calendar in the process

On the field, this is certainly the tournament where the curtain falls on the international careers of two of the most dominant players of all time: Cristiano Ronaldo, the 37 year old Portuguese bottle of Drakkar Noir in

human form, and his archrival, 35 year old Lionel Messi, the diminutive Argentine with the imagination of a peerless poet warrior Soccer, such as nature, abhors a vacuum, so we fans are left to forage for new heroes In this portfolio, GQ has placed some bets on who some of those heroes might be It’s a wide ranging assembly Most are making their World Cup debuts. Some because of their youth, such as 22 year old Brazilian blur Vinícius Júnior Others, such as 31 year old Virgil van Dijk, the Dutch defensive Botticelli painting come to life, because their teams have qualified for the first time in their careers What links them all, besides their talent, is a certain stylishness Both in the way they play Take Spanish phenom Ansu Fati’s superpower of bending time and space to his will, or Trent Alexander Arnold’s ability to cross the ball, computing trajector y, velocity and distance with the accuracy of a NASA scientist and how they carr y themselves off the field This is a collection of individuals equipped with self possession, preternatural athletic gifts and the ability to confront and slay self doubt Some are on hero’s journeys Canadian Alphonso Davies fled a Ghanaian refugee camp to the unlikely setting of frigid Edmonton and there announced himself as one of the world’s finest left backs With a swaggering exuberance, Phonzie has led his national team back to the World Cup for the first time since 1986, 14 years before he was born At a time when FIFA has sold its crown jewel to the highest bidder, it’s refreshing to see, among this relatively young group of players, a certain reverence for what they’re gathering to do That’s what I see when I glimpse Vinícius Júnior with the iconic 1994 Brazil jersey on his back, or Kai Havertz with a vintage shirt from German days of yore Echoes of the past seeping into the minds of players from the present Their own national heroes, inspiring them to future glor y

is the co founder of Men in Blazers and the coauthor of Gods of Soccer

Roger Bennett

ALPHONSO DAVIES WEARS

Age: 23

Nation: Germany

Position: Forward

K A I H A V E R T Z M AY B E on ly 23 ye ars old, but t he Chels e a st r i ker alre ady prove d he’s a big game player after co ol ly slotting home t he winner in t he 2021 C hampions L e ague fina l As well as his prowess in f ront of go al, his elegance on the ball and positional flexibi lit y make him one of t he most dynamic players on a G er man s quad loaded wit h t a lent After losing to archr ivals Eng land in Euro 2020, t here’s no doubt G er many wi ll b e a t hre at in Qatar under ne w manager Hansi Flick and in Haver tz t he y have a match winner hung r y to add to his 28 inter nat ional app e arances and p ois ed to hand le t he pressure ‘In t hes e big moments w hen e ver yone ’ s ner vous, ’ he s ays, ‘I just fe el ca lm and excite d to pl ay t he game ’

Mike Chr i stensen, Br itish GQ

G Q : W h a t ’s y o u r f a v o u r i t e c h i l d h o o d W o r l d C u p m e m o r y ?

K a i H a v e r t z : The 2006 World Cup in G er many I rememb er t he quar ter final, G ermany vs. Argent ina, w hich was a p enalty sho otout and G er many won To b e at a World Cup for t he first time was ver y exciting.

G Q : H o w w i l l y o u p r e p a r e f o r t h e h e a t i n Q a t a r ?

K H : Wit h t he we at her comes t he pitch, and t hat’s t he most imp or t ant t hing If the pitch is dr y, t hen it’s harder for te ams such as G er many to play t he s o ccer t he y play. But at t he end of t he day, e ver yone has to de al wit h t he s ame circ umst ances

G Q : H o w w o u l d y o u c e l e b r a t e i f y o u s c o r e d a g o a l i n t h e W o r l d C u p f i n a l ?

K H : It’s not re al if you plan anyt hing b e caus e it’s going to b e tot a l ly d ifferent May b e I’d r un out of t he st adium and fly home

Age: 22

Nation: Canada Position: Lef t back

I N M A R C H , W H E N C A N A D A qua lified for its first World Cup in 36 ye ars, Alphonso Davies just 21, and a lre ady t he most t a lente d C anadian men ’ s fo otbal ler e ver was ab out 4 000km away, in Munich, watching the celebrat ions live on a Twitch st re am as he re covere d f rom an inflammator y he ar t condit ion ‘It was amazing to s e e t he joy and relief on t heir faces,’ s ays t he B ayer n Munich left back, w ho’s help e d his club s e c ure a Champions L e ague trophy and four cons ec ut ive Bundesliga tit les since joining in 2019. His swift r is e f rom

yout h clubs to t he MLS to t he st ar t ing 11 of a Europ e an p owerhous e has b e en remarkable Now, at his first World Cup, D avies has his biggest st age yet to deploy t he rapier sp eed, cr unching t ack les and let hal left fo ot t hat’ve made him arguably t he b est and most offensively dangerous outside back on t he planet C anad a clinching its place in t he tour nament w it hout D av ie s me ans opp onents shou ld overlo ok the C anucks at t heir p er i l now t hat he’s retur ne d ‘Not many p e ople t hin k of C anada as a fo otb a l ling count r y, most ass o ciate it w it h ho cke y, ’ D avies s ays ‘We want to shift t hat minds et ’ Yang Yi Goh, GQ US

G Q : W h o’s C a n a d a ’s g r e a t e s t e v e r W o r l d C u p s t a r ?

A l p h o n s o D a v i e s : I’ l l go with Christ ine Sinclair She’s done s o much for women ’ s s o ccer Top go a l s corer for men ’ s and women ’ s in t he countr y It’s incredible to s e e her pl ay t he way she do es at her age [39] you can s e e she’s still incredibly gifte d

G Q : H o w d o e s p l a y i n g f o r C a n a d a d i f f e r f r o m p l a y i n g f o r B a y e r n M u n i c h ?

A D : Your countr y is w here you gre w up and sp ent your chi ldho o d You le ar n t he langu age, p e ople and c u lture It’s tot a l ly d ifferent When I have t hat maple le af on my chest, no words can explain how I’m fe eling When t he ant hem comes on, I just want to give my a l l »

Photography:

J u l i a S e l l m a n n ; St y l i n g : S a s k i a S c h m i d t ; G r o o m i n g : J o c h e n Pa h s at U s c h i Ra b e ; Ta i l o r i n g : Yvo n n e E n ze r ; P r o d u c t i o n : Ja ko b S c h m i t t . S p e c i a l t h a n ks t o F C P h ö n i x M ü n c h e n e.V.

BENJAMIN PAVARD

N

Pavard s core d a mesmer ising go a l against Argent ina at t he 2018 World Cup a trademark slicing volle y wit h t he outside of his r ig ht fo ot he’s b e en a c u lt hero among French fans And t he defender, w ho plays club s o ccer for B ayer n Munich, has retur ned t he affection with a fi erce s ens e of duty to the French te am and its coach, Didier D es champs, w ho considers Pavard his protégé Whet her t he B ayer n st ar will pl ay cent re b ack or r ig ht b ack in Q at ar is a myster y, but he’s comfor t able in eit her role ‘For t his co ach,’ he s ays, ‘I can play any defending p osition. I’d fi g ht for him, I owe him a lot My favour ite position is central defender, but I can adapt The blue shir t me ans a lot to me ’

Maxime Joly, GQ France

BENJAMIN PAVARD WEARS

Vintage jersey, sneakers and socks all Adidas; pants Prada at My theresa; watch Car tier; bracelets his own

OPPOSITE PAGE ANSU FATI WEARS

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G Q : W h a t ’s y o u r f a v o u r i t e c h i l d h o o d W o r l d C u p m e m o r y ?

B e n j a m i n P a v a r d : Franck R ib ér y s cor ing an amazing go a l against Sp ain in 2006 And, of c ours e, Z id ane ’ s wonde r f u l Panen ka [a p ena lty kick chipp e d wit h de ceptive s oft ness] in t he final against It aly I was young, but t hes e moments are st ill f resh in my mind For my generation, it was an ext raordinar y moment, e ven if we would’ve like d a different ending

G Q : S h o u l d t h e W o r l d C u p b e h e l d e v e r y t w o y e a r s?

B P : No, I don’t agre e We alre ady play s o many games in a s e as on, and we ’ re not rob ots The World Cup should b e held e ver y four ye ars I t hin k it’s go o d to wait I als o t hink we shou ldn’t neg lec t t he Euro an imp or t ant comp et it ion I haven’t yet won

G Q : H o w w o u l d y o u c e l e b r a t e i f y o u s c o r e d i n t h e f i n a l ?

B P : S cor ing a go al and gett ing t he silver medal is us eless I want to win t he final and celebrate wit h my te ammates, t he coach and t he fans, w ho we miss ed a lot during t he C ovid 19 pandemic.

E V E R S I N C E B E N J A M I

ANSU FATI

Age: 20

Nation: Spain

Position: Forward

A N S U F AT I H A S t he face of a child, w hich makes s ens e b e caus e, well, he prac t ically sti l l is a chi ld A pre co cious t a lent, t he 19 ye ar old is t he youngest B arcelona pl ayer to e ver s core in t he Sp anish le ague, and to e ver find t he b ack of t he net in t he histor y of t he Champions L e ague, and t he s e cond youngest pl ayer, at 17 ye ars and 308 days, to debut wit h t he Sp anish nat iona l te am His one gre at we akness is p erhaps his f ragility Fati has alre ady had two injur ies t hat have ne arly derai led his care er : at 13, he broke b ot h his tibia and fibu la, sp ending a lmost a ye ar on t he b ench; in Novemb er 2020, he tore his left menis c us, sidelining him for ne arly a ye ar again Luis Enr ique, t he manager of t he Sp anish nat iona l te am, has caut iously nur tured his pro dig y, caref u l not to burden him wit h to o much resp onsibi lity As a result, Fat i has on ly pl aye d four times for Sp ain If he st ays healthy, Qatar could b e his coming out par ty Héc tor Iz quierdo, GQ Spain

G Q : H o w d o e s p l a y i n g f o r S p a i n d i f f e r f r o m p l a y i n g f o r B a r c e l o n a ?

A n s u F a t i : When there’s a World Cup, you s e e how t he w hole countr y gets toget her, all t he p e ople w ho go to b ars to watch s o ccer It do esn’t matter if t he y supp or t Madr id, B arça, or At lético, t he y all get toget her for t he go o d of t he countr y and supp or t t he players of t he opp osing te am.

G Q : W h a t ’s y o u r g r e a t e s t s t r e n g t h a s a p l a y e r ?

A F : I li ke not to t hin k much and doubt but rat her, to b e dar ing in e a ch pl ay My g re atest vir tue is w hen I have to decide quick ly

G Q : W h a t w o u l d y o u c h a n g e a b o u t t h e W o r l d C u p?

A F : I’ve b e en watching World Cups for t he last eig ht ye ars and wouldn’t change a t hing I hop e I have t he opp or tunity to b e t here When you exp er ience it f rom t he inside, t hen you can give your opinion.

G Q : S h o u l d t h e W o r l d C u p b e h e l d e v e r y t w o y e a r s?

A F : It’s go o d t he way it is now Ever y four ye ars is a World Cup You don’t live it many times, you have to t a ke advant age w hen you ’ re t here »

Photography: C és a r S ega r r a ; St y l i n g : A n n a Va l l è s ; G r o o m i n g : M a n u Pe r e ra at Ka s te e l A r t i s t M a n age m e nt

T days, it always s e emed li ke Tariq L ampte y would play for Eng land: childho o d kickab outs in t he L ondon b oroug h of Hillingdon, a place in t he prestig ious Chels e a Ac ademy and a sp ot in the fi rst te am for Br ig hton and Hove Albion After st ar r ing for Eng land’s Under 21 te am, his place in the nat i ona l te am s e e me d assure d. Then, in 2020, word c ame t hat L ampte y was consider ing switching his affi liat ion to join Ghana, w here his parents are f rom A 10 mont h layoff due to a hamstr ing injur y gave him time to t hink When he retur ned, he aske d to b e left out of t he Eng land U 21 s quad, and in Ju ly 2022, he

announced he’d we ar t he Ghana kit in Q at ar For L ampte y, w hen he’s under t he flo o d lig hts, not hing changes regard less of t he jers e y he’s we ar ing ‘Who e ver I’m pl ay ing for,’ he s ays, ‘I’m t he typ e of pl ayer w ho tr ies to le ave it all out t here on t he pitch.’

T W

G Q : W h o’s t h e m o s t s t y l i s h p l a y e r i n s o c c e r ? Ta r i q L a m p t e y : Memphis Depay and Kar im B enzema re ally have t heir own s ens e of sty le The y lo ok go o d in w hate ver t he y we ar I t hink s o ccer players shou ld b e able to we ar w hate ver t he y want, if t he y fe el comfor t able Embrace it

G Q : W h a t ’s y o u r f a v o u r i t e c h i l d h o o d W o r l d C u p m e m o r y ?

T L : The one t hat st ands out was S out h Af r ica 2010 I was nine ye ars old Ghana got to t he quar ter fina ls The vib e was amazing. I watche d it at home wit h my fami ly Ever yone was gat here d around t he T V, wait ing for kickoff We were a l l s o f u l l of raw emot ion.

G Q : W h a t i s y o u r g r e a t e s t s t r e n g t h a s a p l a y e r ? T L : I gre w up play ing st re et s o ccer wit h my brot hers and fat her Then I went to t he C hels e a Academy, w here I le ar ned the te chnical skill B oth help e d me de velop I’m a tenacious pl ayer, p ace y and hardworking. I’m not show y I li ke to ke ep my he ad down and let my fe et do the t alking

O N 1 7 J U N E 2 0 1 0 , Mexico defe ate d France in an ups et vic tor y at t he World Cup in S out h Af rica, and a dre am was b or n for 12 ye ar old E ds on Álvare z: to we ar t he gre en jers e y hims elf. S o on t he young player was regularly travelling t hre e hours e ach way f rom his home in the city of Tlalnepant la to train wit h Club Amér ica in Mexico City There, in t he bast ion of t he Mexican national te am, his quest to comp ete in t he World Cup b egan to s e em re al ‘Playing for your countr y is t he g re atest pr ide you can have,’ he s ays Me anw hi le, Álvare z has b e come a st ar for t he Dutch club Ajax and t he most re cog nis able face of Mexican s o ccer in Europ e, similar to how two of his gre at hero es Real Madrid’s Hugo Sánchez and B arcelona’s R afael Márquez were in t heir eras. But Álvare z aims to go f ur t her t han t he y did on t he big gest st age He dre ams of t he day Mexico wins t he World Cup Jesú s Alber to Ger mán, GQ Mexico

F R O M H I S E A R L I E S

I’ve b e en distinguished by my charac ter, p ers ona lity and desire to always want more

TARIQ L AMPTEY

ÁLVAREZ

TAKUMI MINAMINO WEARS Jacket Adidas; tur tleneck st ylist’s own

I N A P R I L , J A PA N had t he misfor tune of b eing drawn into the World Cup’s s o called Group of D e at h, in w hich t he y ’ l l face four time champions G er many, p erennial p owerhous e Sp ain and t a lente d dark hors e C ost a Rica Yet, Minamino, t he count r y ’ s co ol ly confident winger is unfas e d. ‘It’s a toug h group, no doubt,’ he s ays wit h a smile, ‘but I’m excited to comp ete wit h t he strongest players in t he world ’ Wit h 42 inter nat ional app e arances and 17 go a ls to his name, Minamino has b e come a c u lt hero among Jap anes e fans He’s als o a kindre d spir it to anot her national icon: Tsub as a Ozora, t he fic t iona l prot agonist of C apt ain Tsub as a, a manga comic (b eloved by t he likes of Messi and Ne ymar) ab out a s o ccer player w ho dre ams of winning t he World Cup for Jap an one day Minamino we ars t he s ame j ers e y numb er as Ozora 10, just like Messi and Ne ymar and harb ours similar

repres enting my countr y and pl aying at the internat ional le vel since I was a child,’ he says ‘I’m deter mine d to st and on t he World Cup field ’

Akira Kamiya, GQ Japan

G Q : W h i c h i s t h e t e a m t o b e a t i n Q a t a r ?

Ta k u m i M i n a m i n o : G er many, w ho we ’ l l b e against in our first match Having playe d for a club te am in Aust r ia for five ye ars, I’ve gotten familiar wit h t he ment ality of G er man players. The y play w it h pr ide In 2018, t he y lost to S out h Kore a and were eliminated at the group stage I t hink the y ’ l l fo c us on not ma k i ng t he s ame mist a ke against Jap an.

G Q : H o w w i l l y o u p r e p a r e f o r t h e h e a t i n Q a t a r ?

T M : Japan had t he exp erience of pl aying under t he Midd le E aster n climate for t he Asian qualifiers, w hich has b e en an advant age for us The national te am memb ers and I als o went to s aunas to circ u late b o dy fluids, rele as e swe at and prepare for t he he at Als o, we ’ l l st ar t layer ing clot hes dur ing our training s essions to adjust our b o dies to the climate »

CHRIS TIAN PULISIC

Age: 24

Nation: US Position: Forward

C H R I S T I A N P U L I S I C I S

a player of firsts His one billion R and transfer to Premier L e ague club Chels e a in 2019 made him t he most exp ensive US fo otb aller of all time Then, at 21, Pulisic dubb e d C apt ain Amer ica by fans b e came t he youngest Chels e a pl ayer to s core a hat tr ick. The following s e as on he b e came t he first Amer ican to e ver comp ete in a Champions L e ague fina l He als o happ ens to b e t he youngest pl ayer to have capt aine d t he US Men’s National Te am (stepping into t he role at t he age of 20 ye ars and 63 days) and t he youngest US pl ayer to s core 10 inter nat ional go als ‘I don’t go out t here and tr y to b e t he youngest to do t his or t hat,’ Pu lisic s ays, as he prep ares to le ad his national te am in his first World Cup. ‘I just want to b e successf u l and help my te am b e successf u l I just do t he b est t hat I can ’

Tom Ward, Br itish GQ

G Q : W h a t ’s y o u r f a v o u r i t e c h i l d h o o d W o r l d

C u p m e m o r y ?

C h r i s t i a n P u l i s i c : C he er ing on t he US te am wit h my fami ly in my b as ement It was always such a big e vent I’d we ar all my US stuff. A big moment t hat sticks in my mind is w hen L andon D onovan s core d in t he last fe w minutes against Alger ia in 2010 and s ent us t hroug h f rom t he g roup st age.

G Q : W h o’s t h e U S ’s g r e a t e s t e v e r W o r l d C u p s t a r ?

C P : Growing up, I was a huge fan of C lint D emps e y. Watching him s core go als in t he World Cup, I always wanted to b e like him He’s fe arless He’s a fig hter I love t he way he plays and t he r isks he t a kes I tr y to do t hat to o You have to make quick de cisions There are times w hen t he y p ay off and times w hen t he y don’t You just have to go for it.

CRISTIAN PULISIC WEARS Jacket Louis Vuit ton; shir t Versace

Photography:

Jacket Marine Serre at Selfridges; mock neck Under Armour; shor ts DSquared2

TRENT

ALEX ANDER-ARNOLD

I T S P E A K S T O T H E D E P T H of t he Eng land’s men ’ s te am t hat it made it to t he fina l of Euro 2020 despite an injur y to Trent Alexander Arnold, w ho could credibly claim to b e t he b est r ig ht back in t he world now At 24, t he young defender hasn’t just won e ver y club comp etit ion going with L iver p o ol, his hometown side; he’s also cont ributed to the re cent reinvent ion of t he r ig ht b ack p osition, f rom dut iful defender to all round cre ative t hre at. ‘I ne ver li ke to play t he p osit ion, I pl ay t he game, ’ Alexander Ar nold s ays ‘You play t he p osit ion, it limits you It’s like playing wit h shack les on. I’ve always t houg ht t hat wit h

a s ensible mind, pl ay t he game, get in p ositions t hat’ l l hur t t he opp osition, and at the same time do t he defensive work you need to do. It’s more: play t he game how it ne e ds to b e pl aye d ’

Oliver Franklin Walli s, Br iti sh GQ

G Q : W h o’s t h e t e a m t o b e a t i n Q a t a r ?

Tr e n t A l ex a n d e r -A r n o l d : I’d s ay us We’ve got more t han enoug h to win it.

G Q : S h o u l d t h e W o r l d C u p b e h e l d e v e r y t w o y e a r s?

TA : No It just b e comes a bit to o familiar. And it los es t hat

sp ecial World Cup fe eling Te ams wou ldn’t change, and t hings wou ldn’t re a l ly change t hat much Where as e ver y four ye ars, you ’ re lo ok ing at a ne w e volut ion of t he te am It’s a lot of time for t hings to happ en, and it gives young players a chance

G Q : H o w w o u l d y o u c e l e b r a t e i f y o u s c o r e d i n t h e W o r l d C u p f i n a l ?

TA : It dep ends on t he timing If it’s early on, you ’ ve still got 80 plus minutes, t hings wi ll happ en You’ve got to give it a bit, but you can’t go to o mad L ast 10 minutes? My shir t’s off, and I’m r unning around »

TRENT ALEX ANDER ARNOLD WEARS

VIRGIL VAN DIJK

Age: 31

Nation: The Netherlands

Position: Centre back

s ays, ‘and hop ef u l ly, I can le ad t he b oys to s ome histor y and b e sp oken ab out for many ye ars ’

M C

VIRGIL VAN DJIK

WEARS

Jacket and pants both Rhude; tank top st ylist’s own; sneakers Christian Louboutin; watch Audemars Piguet

OPPOSITE PAGE VINICíUS JÚNIOR WEARS Vintage jersey and shor ts both st ylist’s own

V I R G I L V A N D I J K mig ht just b e t he b est pl ayer in t he world to have ne ver playe d a sing le minute of s o ccer at a maj or inter nat ional tour nament. The 31 ye ar old Dutchman, w ho’s capt ained his countr y since March 2018, has twice b e en shor t liste d for t he B allon d’Or, t he game ’ s hig hest individua l honour, and has won t he Champions L e ague, t he Premier L e ague and t he FA Cup wit h L iver p o ol But an unt imely injur y r u led him out of Euro 2020, and t he Net herlands failed to qu alif y for Euro 2016 and t he 2018 World Cup, me aning arguably t he world’s b est defender over t he p ast five ye ars has yet to ma ke his indomit able mark on t he inter nat iona l st age Unsur pr ising ly, he can’t wait for Q at ar, t houg h he’s b eing caut ious not to jinx anyt hing t his clos e to t he World Cup ‘It’s a pr ivilege to b e capt ain,’ van Dijk

G Q : W h a t ’s y o u r f a v o u r i t e c h i l d h o o d W o r l d C u p m e m o r y ? V i r g i l v a n D i j k : Obviously, I can’t say a Holland World Cup memor y b e caus e we ’ ve ne ver won t he World Cup. We came ver y clos e, of cours e, but my fi rst re al memor y was in 2002 w hen Brazil won against G er many The Brazi l te am was t he te am e ver yone lo oke d at, including mys elf the joy t he y had, t he f re e dom t he y played with, and t heir quality of fo otb a l l

G Q : W h o’s t h e m o s t s t y l i s h p l a y e r i n t h e g a m e?

V D : I li ke D avid B e ck ham’s sty le It’s ver y for ma l, ver y cl assy and not to o much showing off In t he Holland te am, Memphis Depay is a fashionable guy and loves to dress up He do es t hat to b e happy and p er for m at t he hig hest le vel, w hich I li ke

G Q : W h i c h i s t h e t e a m t o b e a t i n Q a t a r ?

V D : I’d s ay Brazil, France and do I s ay Eng land? The Eng lish te am is fant ast ic. Brazil has pl ayers wit h t a lent and exp er ience There’s als o t he world class quality of France

Photography:

VINÍCIUS JÚNIOR

Age: 22

Nation: Brazil

Position: Winger

R A I S E D I N T H E S L U M S O F São G onçalo, across t he bay f rom Rio de Janeiro, Vinícius Júnior de velop e d a s ens e of hust le f rom an e arly age At nine, he move d in wit h his cousin in Rio, to b e clos er to t he Vu lture’s Nest, w hich is known as t he training grounds of t he famous club Flamengo At 18, he was hai led as a phenomenon and move d to t he Sp anish g iants Re a l Madr id Even to day, he’s st ill f uelle d by t he s elf b elief he de velop e d in his community In 2020, he wrote on Inst agram: “20 ye ars old and t hre e trophies at t he big gest club in t he world ” He’s als o b e come a s corer of big go als, including t he winner in t he Champions L e ague fina l. But Viní Jr has loft ier ambitions stil l ‘L ast s e as on, I had 22 goals and 20 assists,’ he s ays ‘But for to day’s st andards, I need to do more. Just lo ok at at h letes such as Kar im B enzema and Ky lian Mbapp é, w ho s cored more t han 40 goals I’m young and I can get to t hes e guys ’ le vels.’

Guilher me Henr ique, GQ Brasil

G Q : H o w w i l l y o u p r e p a r e f o r t h e h e a t i n Q a t a r ?

V i n í c i u s J ú n i o r : Playing in Novemb er and D e cemb er, w hich is in t he middle of t he Europ e an s e as on, wi ll result in t he le vels b eing hig her, physically and ment a l ly The r isk of injur y w i l l a ls o b e lower b e caus e e ver yone w i l l b e at t he st ar t of t he s e as on

G Q : W h a t ’s y o u r g r e a t e s t s t r e n g t h a s a p l a y e r ?

VJ : My p ers ona lity and confidence I’m a pl ayer t hat has to t a ke many r isks in a game. It’s 90 minutes against the opp onent in successive clashes S o, w hen I ma ke a mist ake, I ne ed to forget and go to the next ball I can on ly do t his by t r ust ing mys elf

G O OD

LU CK

UP TO

T h e S e n e g a l e s e s t a r h e l p e d d e l i v e r h a r d w a r e t o L i v e r p o o l a n d t h e n d r e a m e d u p n e w c h a l l e n g e s f o r h i m s e l f a t B a y e r n M u n i c h

Words by Tyler R. Tynes

O U T S I D E T H E R I T Z C arlton on 22nd St re et in t he he ar t of Washington, US, st and s o ccer fans patient ly swe ating t hroug h t he acr id sizzle of summer time in t he Distr ic t B oys are b eg g ing to s e e a champion’s first steps on Amer ic an s oi l. The y ’ re wait ing for Sadio Mané: t he bubbly st r i ker f rom B amb a li, S enega l; an ess ent ial comp onent of L iver p o ol’s retur n to g lor y ; and, now, a ne w memb er of B ayer n Munich, winner of 32 Bundesliga championships

In one corner a gagg le of uncles in lo afers, visibly ups et Mané’s late, argue w hi le puffing enoug h cigarette smoke to make my lungs st ar t shadow b oxing In anot her, G er mans ask lo ca ls w ho B ayer n was playing. S ome w hite b oys have b e en here since work ended, FaceTiming t heir bros ab out t he commot ion, ‘Oh, shit Dre w!’ one crows. ‘B ayer n Munich is in town!’ O t hers are b ar hopping until t he club’s bus ar r ives A small crew is frantically t rack ing t he te am j et via smar tphone The Europ e an t ransfer window can p olitely b e des cr ib e d as a cluster f uck. Clubs give up on players, pl ayers quit te ams, shadow y agents line up mu lt i mil lion Euro de als wit hout much aut hor ity Even amid t his chaos, it was b asically imp ossible to imagine Mané le aving L iver p o ol S ometimes in the b e autiful game, men def y t he grav ity of t he pitch and manage to emb o dy t he spir it of t heir club Mané did t hat For him to le ave such a stor ie d club is a big enoug h fe at by its elf you know, esp e cial ly after winning t he Champions L e ague in 2019 and ending t he club’s 30 ye ar wait for a Premier L e ague tit le in 2020 But to le ave one megaclub and b ounce to anot her? That has p e ople champing at t he bit

War ren He dder ich, a 35 ye ar old f rom Hamburg, told me he loves t hat B ayer n can attrac t sup erst ars of t his le vel, adding t hat Mané is more me aningful. ‘S omeone as humble and char it able as he is is always a go o d addition to any club,’ he s ays He lo oks around for a s e cond, pulls his sung lass es down, and tel ls me s omet hing t hat isn’t a s e cret ‘And, you know, he’s a brot ha, shit,’ he s ays ‘O utside of us, he’s gonna b e t he on ly brot ha up in here.’

It’d b e a lot to put on any at hlete, let alone one f resh off a torrid r un of form for club and count r y, w ho just tur ned 30 in Apr i l and is enter ing his 12t h pro s e as on But I notice t hat w hen Mané steps off t he bus r ig ht b efore 8pm, his L iver p o ol re d change d to B ayer n w hite, he st i l l has enoug h energ y for adorat ion Yes, fans are here for S erge Gnabr y and Thomas Mü l ler, but t he yel ls tonig ht are not for hero es of old. No, t he y ’ re for a b oy f rom B amb a li w ho ne ver dre amed his life could bloss om into s omet hing wor t h sing ing ab out

The uncles drop t heir cigs w hen Mané’s smile splashes down on the small st re et Mané gallantly moves toward them, p osing for e ver y pic ture

When Mané finds me downst airs in t he bas ement of t he Ritz, t he j oy hasn’t left his face, e ven if he hasn’t e aten since he touched down in t he US a fe w hours ago He went f rom training in G er many straig ht to t he pl ane, on ly to b e stuck on t he r unway wit h no snacks to che w on I haven’t e aten eit her, s o he offers to share a me a l wit h me of sp earmint gum and sugar water Who am I to decline a legend’s invit ation?

He sits down and re adies his game face b efore he cross es his legs To bre a k t he ice, I joke wit h him ab out how I (and no s ane p ers on) am not a L iver p o ol fan. Mané lets out a sig h coloure d wit h b ot h relief and almost regret

‘I’m not on L iver p o ol anymore, bro ’

Well, w hos e choice was t hat? Al l he lobs b ack to me is a knowing smile Okay, t hen, Mané, r idd le me t his: w hy do es a L iver p o ol legend, a man b elove d far and wide for his unique sp eed

and ski l l on t he wing , for br inging a c up to S enegal, decide after six ye ars to end t he longest s o ccer relat ionship he’s e ver k nown, bre a k ing up wit h one Re d D e vil for anot her re d and w hite hear tt hrob?

His answer is succinc t ‘It’s simple: I want to win e ver y trophy p ossible All t he trophies wit h B ayer n Munich: c up, le ague, Champions L e ague, e ver yt hing ’

I tell him t hat his answer cou ld come off a bit e vasive. But it won’t b e t he first t ime he p ops b ack t hat t h is is t he t r ut h L iver p o ol was basica l ly t he on ly place he tr u ly wanted to play. ‘Ever y sing le day w hen I went to L iver p o ol’s training ground, I always tried to t hin k ab out t hat, to t a ke t he pressure off and smile,’ he s ays He’d t hin k to hims elf, I have plent y of re as ons to b e happy I’m doing t he j ob I love, t he b est j ob in t he world, t he chance to play You just have to always b e happy and give t he s ame joy to p e ople L i ke it or love it, he’s at B ayer n now, mowing t hroug h comp et it ion on one of t he quickest sides mo der n G er man s o ccer has e ver s e en And, f ran k ly, he’s not going to ke ep explaining w hy for to o much longer He won’t ap olog is e for his bliss. Ever y day, he smi les as if he’s dancing on t he sun, his fe et ne ver fe eling t he bur n ‘I s acr ifice e ver yt hing for s o ccer. It’s s omet hing t hat I love,’ he s ays ‘I c ame f rom s ome w here ver y far away And if I have this opp or tunity to pl ay ’ He comes in clos er, his voice trembling wit h affe c t ‘I just t han k G o d ’

M a n é w a n t s t o tel l me a stor y He s ays it’ l l help me underst and how he’s wound up

here, at 30 g re y ing but now here ne ar cracking on a ne w te am, t a k ing on a ne w challenge despite not having much left to prove When he was a b oy in B ambali, a small, r ura l village in S enega l on t he dancing banks of t he C as amance River, he s ays s o ccer was t he on ly t hing t hat kept him smiling . The first t ime he watched Ronaldin ho pl ay, he was convinced: he got a black p en and wrote his favour ite player’s name and numb er on al l t he w hite shir ts he owne d He’d tel l anyone w ho’d listen that, one day, Sadio would b e a st ar

He didn’t dream of doing anyt hing different. ‘S o ccer is my life,’ he tells me Thos e players and t heir fe ats help e d him dre am ‘ The y were my hero es B e caus e of them, I was inspired.’

But inspirat ion wouldn’t convince a family w ho didn’t want him to play s o ccer Mané’s fat her, a lo cal Imam, was convinced it wasn’t in his b est interest. His mot her als o wasn’t budging ‘ The y told me I was wasting my t ime,’ he s ays ‘ The y didn’t want to s e e me b e come a s o ccer pl ayer b e caus e s o many p e ople waste t heir time playing s o ccer, but t he y don’t b e come successf u l S o, my p arents were quite against t his t hing . My d ad, my mom, nob o dy wante d me to play The y were categor ically against s o ccer, esp e cia l ly my mom The y s aid t he b est t hing was for me to go to s cho ol and study and b e come s omet hing els e t hat’s not f utb ol ’ There was on ly one problem wit h that ‘Since I’ve b e en b orn, ’ Mané s ays, ‘ s o ccer is all I’ve e ver love d.’ It was hard to ke ep Mané away f rom t he game His fat her die d w hen Mané was s e ven ye ars old, and s o on after t he r umours b egan spre ading ab out his unique t a lent around p ar ts of S enega l Pe ople shuffled into his village, wit h a p opu lation of 2 000 tops, to watch Mané dash past defenders in t he dir t ‘You know, I was ver y famous,’ he s ays, wit h a t hin humility ‘People came f rom 400km and 500km away b e caus e t he y he ard ab out me and wante d to watch me play s o ccer ’

He sp ent his chi ldho o d t his way, sne a k ing off in t he after no ons, after s cho ol, to char m his fans w hile hiding his »

‘ S i n c e I ’ v e b e e n b o r n , s o c c e r i s a l l I ’ v e e v e r l o v e d ’

skills f rom his family, whom nosy neig hb ours infor med any way ‘ The y us e d to b e at me all t he t ime,’ he s ays, gig g ling ab out w hat his family did to him w hen t he y found out w hat he was doing Eventually, he came to a crossroads: if he was s er ious ab out a life in s o ccer, he’d need to move to D a kar, t he capit al His b est f r iends lent him mone y for a bus and kept his s e cret His family found out any way, and pu l le d h im f rom D a kar b ack to the village.

Mané made a fina l st and, t he one t hat prop el le d him to w here he is now He told his mot her he’d come b ack and finish his last ye ar in s cho ol, but wouldn’t couldn’t promis e more ‘After t his, if you guys don’t supp or t me I’m finished I’ ll go and not come back,’ he s ays, wiping his hands for effe c t. Mané went back to D a kar, star re d at the touted G énération Fo ot academy and, sure enoug h, he e ar ned a cont rac t with FC Metz, a te am in France’s s e cond division L igue 2 After just 19 app e arances, ot her clubs were cal ling Metz to offer double w hat t he y’d p aid for his s er v ices S o busy realising his dream, t he te enager ne ver phoned home to tell mom t hat her s on would b e flying to France on t he first thing co ok in’. He on ly told his uncle Mom stil l t houg ht he was at t he academy It to ok a bit He ne eded mone y to buy air t ime for his phone But, e ventually, Satou he ard f rom her s on. The first t hing he told her was to tur n on t he T V to watch him play S o conf us ed on t he ot her line, Mané s aid, she didn’t e ven t hink it was him.

‘I’ve always told my mom, “I don’t know how I’m gonna do it, but I’m gonna b e successf ul b e caus e it’s t he on ly job I can do w here I’ ll b e happy in the future,”’ Mané explains ‘When I was s aying t hes e s or ts of t hings, she laug he d She t hink I’m crazy But t he question came to my mind all the time: how? B e caus e my

parent wasn’t r ich enoug h to help me or buy s o ccer b o ots or br ing me s ome w here w here I could prac t ice play ing

‘But,’ he s ays, shar ply raising a finger into the air ‘I’d ne ver give up I always follow my dre ams until I find success ’

T h e f i r s t t i m e I s aw Mané play was in 2013 He was a fle dg ling for ward for Red Bu ll Sa lzburg t a king on, of a l l te ams, B ayer n Munich, t he giant of G er man s o ccer

Mané was a b oy t he first time he stepp e d onto t he pitch in G er many : spr y, hair t hinning, but a dark cho colate t hunderb olt of S enegales e flair G er many made him into a man, t aug ht him s o ccer and, in s ome ways, plante d t he s e e ds for his ele c tr ic growt h

The s cene was bre at ht aking: there was Mané, fly ing around t he wing and zipping t hroug h t he midfield past one of t he most te chnical ly s av v y te ams in t he world He was a West Af r ican wunderk ind, fl ashing p ast defences wit h s o much e as e and grace C ameras convenient ly clos ed in on skipp er Pep Guardiola’s face to do c ument t he sho ck and awe in re al time Pep, now managing Manchester City, is widely considere d a genius t ac t ician And on t hat day, he was outwitted

I can confess, wit h plenty of e as e, t hat I don’t know as much as Pep do es w hen it comes to s o ccer But I do know a lot ab out pr ide, ab out t he stor ies of Black b oys just t r ying to ma ke it in a world s o cr uel it st amps out

t heir s oftness b efore t he y can tr uly bloss om into s omething b e aut i f u l And on t hat pitch, I s aw s omeone tr ying, desp erately, to insist t heir existence, to b o om loudly, and proudly, t hat no one, any w here, e ver again would confine t he spark coming f rom Mané’s b o ots ‘Pl aying against B ayer n, at t hat time,’ Mané s ays, smi ling, ‘ was like play ing in t he fina l of t he C hampions L e agu e ‘I fo c us e d on my p ar t in t he game. I t hink I prepare d more t han t hem I kne w t hem, but t he y didn’t know me I t hink t hat was t heir mist ake ’ He s core d e arly in t he game, and later dished out an assist s o b e autif u l Pep was left wit h his mout h wide op en ‘ This game change d e ver yt hing,’ he s ays Mané once s aid w hen he was younger t hat playing against G er man sides was t he t hing t hat gave him his swe etest fo otb all educat ion Well, play ing B ayer n gave him t hat and confidence. ‘After t his game, I got cont ac te d by many te ams: West Ham, S out hampton and e ven B ayer n ’ Why didn’t you go to Bayer n?

‘I was young, and t hos e players such as [Ar j en] Robb en were in t heir pr ime, s o I made my way [els e w here] unt i l to d ay b e c ame a re ality.’ Mané e ven stopp e d going to prac tis e at Salzburg, hoping to force his way f rom t he club, and s at out t heir most imp or t ant game, a chance to qualif y for t he Champions L e ague

sings his words rememb er ing t he comeb ack ‘I s core d, and s core d and s core d,’ he s ays He’s adamant: ‘ That was t he day L iver p o ol b oug ht me. ’

Mané s ays Jürgen K lopp, L iver p o ol’s manager, had tr ied to sign him once b efore, w hen Mané was at Salzburg and K lopp was at B or ussia D or t mund, in G er many The y met; he e ven toure d D or t mund’s facilities But it ne ver came to b e ‘He wante d me, but it didn’t work out,’ he s ays ‘I went to S out hampton, he went to L iver p o ol, and at t he end of t he s e as on, I was supp os ed to go to Manchester United I sp oke wit h [t hen manager L ouis] Van Gaal and told him to g ive me s ome time to t hin k ab out it It was ver y hard to buy me at t he t ime, but t he y made an offer But t he s ame nig ht, I got cal l f rom K lopp When he call me, I s ay, “Manchester want me, but I don’t go to Manchester, I come to L iver p o ol ” He was ver y happy ’ And he told K lopp he ne ver had to ap ologis e again ‘It’s my dre am to play for L iver p o ol!’

‘ I f y o u s e e m y s t o r y , e s p e c i a l l y w h e r e I c a m e f r o m t o p l a y f o r L i v e r p o o l , i t ’s e v e n m o r e s p e c i a l ’

He’d st ay in Europ e, he ading to S out hampton in the Eng lish Premier L e ague. He quick ly b e came t heir top s corer, t he b est t hing on grass at t he club In his first s e as on at S out hampton, he miss e d two games to repres ent S enegal in t he Af r ica Cup of Nations tour nament One was against L iver p o ol, his dre am club ‘For me to not play against Liver p o ol was [challenging] becaus e I’d played against all the big te ams at t hat p oint ’ In his first game against t he Re ds, he was s ent off wit h a re d card ‘Oh! The y were s o lucky.’

The next ye ar, he showed up late for t he L iver p o ol match, and st ar ted t he game on t he b ench He subb e d on in t he s e cond ha lf, his te am down 2 0 He almost

L e aving L iver p o ol is st i l l a s ore sp ot for him His e yes mist w hen he t alks ab out it now It’s underst andable, of cours e: Mané was a b oy of prophe c y for t he s cous ers, winning e ver yt hing in sig ht over six s e as ons and t a k ing L iver p o ol f rom mid t able medio cr ity to t he crown of t he Premier L e ague B arely a mont h remove d f rom le aving t he on ly pl ace he’s t asted g lor y, Mané’s a lmost mou r nf u l

‘If you s e e my stor y, esp e cial ly w here I came f rom to b e come t he pl ayer I am, to play for L iver p o ol, it’s e ven more sp ecial,’ he s ays He st ares at me, p ensive ab out his next words ‘Even b efore t he y b oug ht me, for 30 ye ars, t he y ne ver win t he le ague And I came t here, I win wit h t he te am, and we won a l l t he trophies. I’m ver y proud to b e p ar t of t he club’s stor y ’ He b egins to sniffle ‘You can just b e proud of yours elf,’ he s ays, almost telling hims elf it’s okay ‘Ye a h,’ he no ds

Liver p o ol fans have b e en gratef u l for his time t here rat her than b egr udge his depar ture Mané sti l l ke eps a home in L iver p o ol, s o he c an a lways have

a re as on to come b ack to Eng land and supp or t his old club But his tenure was ne ver entirely without cont roversy L i ke, s ay, K lopp’s habit of subbing Mané off in cr ucial moments He didn’t b ot her to hide his f r ustration, often stomping off t he pitch His face still wr ig g les as he t alks ab out it. ‘ The on ly t hing you can do to e ver hur t me is to stop me f rom playing s o ccer, ’ he s ays ‘It hur ts me If I’m having a bad game on t he pitch, well, I’m st ill angr y becaus e I still t hink I can do s omet hing until t he last minute ’

He ar ing t his, it’s hard not to t hink of Mané’s relationship wit h

his fellow L iver p o ol att acker Mo Sa lah, w ho didn’t s e em to wind up b eing substituted quite as often Mané tel ls me t hat he left L iver p o ol on go o d ter ms wit h his te ammate Sa la h, t abloids and fans s ay ab out t he duo ‘Pe ople s ay we have issues All t he t ime, t hat t he y ’ re major But me and Salah, we ’ re a lways next to e ach ot her in t he dressing ro om We always t a l k, we tr y to help e ach ot her But, s ometimes, you know? ’ Mané merely shr ugs. ‘Me and him. You know, if I had a f r ust ration wit h [Virgi l] van Dijk, or s ome one, no one would t alk But if I have with Sa lah? It’s s omet hing B o om But it’s par t of s o ccer. We have a go o d relat ionship and we resp e c t e ach ot her, s o we move on If [f r ustrations] happ en, it’s over quick ly. We’re te ammates, his success is my success ’

B efore he steps away, he le aves me w it h a fina l stor y, one t hat cr yst a lis es w hat t he game has given him, and w hat he’s given back. After leaving L iver p o ol this summer, Mané retur ned home to B amb a li In t he ye ars since he’s b e come an inter nat ional sup erst ar, he’s s ent mone y b ack to S enega l to help re vive t he l and. There are ne w s cho ols, st adiums, clot hes, sho es and fo o d for t hos e in p over ty : a deg re e of generosity

I haven’t s e en els e w here. ‘I us e d to b e in t heir p osition,’ Mané s ays

‘ T h e o n l y t h i n g y o u c a n d o t o e v e r h u r t m e i s t o s t o p m e f r o m p l a y i n g s o c c e r ’

The t hing ab out winning it all at a stor ied club is t hat once it’s done, you nee d to find a ne w challenge. What to do once you ’ ve conquere d your dre ams? If you ’ re Mané, you dre am up ne w ones

To w a r d t h e e n d of our convers ation, I he ar Mané’s stomach gurg le s omething almig hty It’s time to go

That day in B amb ali, he was dr iving t hroug h t he st re ets It was t he after no on, s o hot t hat t he ground was baking. Sadio lo oke d f rom his window and s aw b oys dr ibbling t hroug h t he village ‘I stopp e d my car, and I just waited and watched. I he ard one of t he b oys call anot her, “Sadio, Sadio!”’ His voice cracks ‘All of t hes e t hings, t he y me an a lot,’ he s ays ‘ The y make me emot iona l It ma kes me proud of mys elf.

I t a ke it as extra motivation to push mys elf until t he limit ’ His words slide to s anc tification

‘ This is more t han s o ccer, ’ he s ays ‘ The joy you give to t hos e young ones playing The y want to b e li ke you You shou ld always b e a go o d

example for t hem, show t hem t he go o d t hings, and b e a role mo del for t hem ’ It reminds me of a line f rom one of S enegales e s o cialist L é op old S é dar S eng hor’s p o ems: “O ur ne w nobi lity isn’t to dominate our p e ople, but to b e t heir rhyt hm and t heir he ar t ” The s cene emphasis e d t he imp or t ance of his biggest accomplishment: winning t he Af r ican Cup of Nations for t he first t ime last summer ‘We’ve had s o many dis app oint ments with our national fo otball te am in S enegal When I won t his c up, it was t he b est day of my life It’ l l remain t he b est day of my life

I don’t t hink I can do s omet hing more sp e cia l for me t han w hat I did winning AFC ON It’s my count r y It me ans e ver yt hing to me. ’ One last te ar for t he ro ad.

‘I’d e ven b e re ady to die for my count r y That’s t he tr ut h,’ he s ays ‘After winning all t he trophies

I had, wit hout winning Af r ica Cup, I stopp e d my care er. I live d wit h regret That regret was going to st ay wit h me unt i l my last day, for sure S o you can imagine, after winning it, how relie ve d I was I ne ver wante d to win anyt hing more ’ He jabs a finger into his chest ‘It’ ll fore ver st ay in my hear t,’ he says ‘I’ l l ne ver againhave any regret in my life ’

He st ands up, sha kes my hand and hur r ies away for s ome gr ub Eventually, I make like Mané and hur r y to a S enega les e rest aurant, Bu kom, b efore I pass out Bu kom is home for t ransplants ye ar ning for a t aste of home. O w ners Koj o and Jo e have b e en in Washington since 1992, co ok ing t heir fat her’s re cip es and watching Premier L e ague fo otb all on smal l T Vs nest led into no oks around t he place As I dig into he aven co oked into cass ava le af, Jo e explains t hat Mané fe els like family. A man with enoug h shine to lig ht up Washington on a We dnes day nig ht Shit, ac tu ally, t hat’s to o lig ht. Koj o t a kes it one fina l step f ur t her ‘When he was at L iver p o ol, t hat’s w hen t he game was tr u ly b e autif u l,’ Kojo tells me. ‘ There was no one like Sadio He’s a st ar ’

U B S C R I B E O R R E N E W

IS S UE S F OR R 473. YOU S AVE 25 %

L O T, re a lis e d t he nee d to improve existing p ens us ed for drawing dur ing his tenure as a profess or at the Tokyo Merchant Mar ine C ollege. After ma king a prototyp e fount ain p en, he and his colle ague Mas ao Wada st ar ted manufac tur ing and s elling fount ain p ens in 1918 In 1938, it was renamed The Pi lot Pen C o., Ltd. and t hen PILOT C or p orat ion in 1989

Throug hout our r ich her it age of over 100 ye ars, we have played a le ading role in t he industr y, de veloping ne w te chnologies, intro ducing imag inat ive designs and cre at ing ne w mater ials. Using our vast te chnologica l exp er tis e and mo der n res e arch facilities, we now manufac ture all s or ts of wr it ing instr uments using our te chnolog y and comp onents Our commit ment to quality is imp e ccable

t o c k i s t s ’ p a g e f o r t e r m s a n d c o n d i t i o n s . S M S s c o s t R 1 . 5 0 . N e t w o r k p r o v i d e r s ’ s t a n d a r d d a t a c h a r g e s a p p l y.

S i g n u p f o r a d i g i t a l s u b s c r i p t i o n n o w b y v i s i t i n g z i n i o c o m / z a

R Y O S U K E N A M I K I , T H E F O U N D E R O F P I

M O L I F E K U M O N A , E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F

I define my style as cool classic dad It’s very relaxed, comfortable, and sometimes mixed with stand out pieces and bold colours I like adding a statement piece, such as a watch, neckpiece or hat, to elevate my look

U K E D I VA , FA S H I O N E D I T O R

My daily style is simply comfortable, ef fortless and uncomplicated Minimalism is a philosophy that also informs my dressing style and life The per fect balance between subtle colours, classic cuts and top quality and comfortable materials is essential for me whether working from home or out for a meeting The right accessories give my look the right twist it’s the little things that count l u ke d i va

Words by Luke Diva Photographs by Zander Opperman at L ampost

A c c e s s o r i e s p l a y a c r u c i a l r o l e i n e l e v a t i n g a n e v e r y d a y o u t f i t n e v e r u n d e r e s t i m a t e t h e p o w e r o f a b o l d w a t c h ! M e e t o u r b e s t d r e s s e d s t a f f, w h o w e c a n a l w a y s c o u n t o n t o l o o k g o o d e v e n b e f o r e t h e i r m o r n i n g c o f f e e , a n d d i s c o v e r t h e i r u n i q u e s t y l e p a i r e d w i t h f a s h i o n l e d t i m e p i e c e s f r o m H u b l o t

L

B A S S O N , FA S H I O N D I R E C T O R

My style is eclectic and sometimes a bit eccentric. I like to mix streetwear and local fashion with something tailored I also like playing with proportions and enjoy incorporating womenswear on occasion I’m also a child of the ’80s, so I love a bit of retro styling Grunge, collegiate rent boy or preppy, I generally keep my looks clean but over accessorise with earrings and rings b a s s o n j a s o n

JASON WEARS Big Bang Unico Black Magic 4 4mm watch Hublot; t-shir t COS; shir t Selfi

M A N A G E R

I’m a minimalist and wear any thing that makes me feel comfortable, and of course, it has to look good ku t l wa n o a r t h u r

theW h y f a d e t o g r e y w h e n y o u c a n b e b o l d a n d b e a u t i f u l i n t h e s e n e w d a y s o f o u r l i v e s ? I t ’s t i m e t o s t e p o u t i n a r i o t o f c o l o u r, p r i n t a n d d e t a i l

LEF T TO RIGHT Jacket Tom Van Der Borght; jeans and necklace both Celine

Jacket, shir t and pants all Gucci; leather boots Celine; sunglasses Louis Vuit ton; leather necklace Domestique

Full look Kenzo; socks Celine; earrings Mawé At taher; silver ring Louis Vuit ton Poncho We Are Spastor; shor ts Leandro Cano; hat Louis Vuit ton

WEARS

PETER WEARS

Poncho

We Are Spastor; shor ts Leandro Cano; boots and hat both Louis Vuit ton

HOJIN WEARS

Jacket, shir t and pants all Gucci; leather boots Celine; sunglasses Louis Vuit ton; leather necklace Domestique

BOT TOM LEF T RAYAN WEARS

Embroidered coat Tom Van Der Borght; embroidered jeans Vesqmojo; boots Louis Vuit ton

PRATIK WEARS Kimono Yoshikimono; wool pants Celine; boots Louis Vuit ton; gold long necklace Domestique

HOJIN WEARS Glit ter pullover, gold pants, wool coat and boots all Celine

OPPOSITE PAGE BOT TOM RIGHT TO LEF T

PRATIK WEARS L ace jacket and shir t both Louis Vuit ton

RAYAN WEARS Embroidered coat Tom Van Der Borght; embroidered jeans Vesqmojo; boots Louis Vuit ton

e t he b elove d

lu brot hers, pl ayed by Mond li Ma k hob a, Wis eman Mnc ub e, Kwenzokuhle

o, Thu l ane Shange and Sipho Nd lovu, le ave t heir s cre ens As t he y gat her for our GQ cover sho ot in p ar t nership wit h C ast le Mi lk Stout, t he b ond b et we en t he co st ars is visible an indicat ion t hat w hat you s e e on s cre en is w hat you get The Zu lu brot hers are mo der n tradit ionalists w ho proud ly embrace t heir c ustoms in a contemp orar y world The y ’ re well sp oken, b old, different and r ich ly embrace w ho t he y are on and off s creen Thes e qua lit ies made t hem t he p er fe c t fit for C ast le Mi l k Stout’s D on’t Fe ar Black, Savour It camp aig n. E ach emb o dy an att r ibute of w hat makes Bl ack great r ich, b old, smo ot h, brave and distinc t. »

‘I‘m ver y excite d to b e a p ar t of t his camp aign,’ says Ngcob o ‘ The C ast le Mi l k Stout brand res onates wit h me, as it celebrates t he tr ue ess ence of w hat it me ans to b e Af r ic an As a young man w ho gre w up in KwaZu lu Natal and made my way to Joburg, I find t hat t his brand sp e a ks to me as I’m sti l l ver y much conne c te d to my ro ots, w hich I hold de ar and ne ver want to los e.

‘Qhawe is definitely smo ot h, a hop eless romant ic w ho displays affection towards t hos e he loves I’m extremely excite d that viewers will s e e more of t his side of him in t he

KWENZOKUHLE NGCOBO

‘

t hroug h t he emot iona l yet romant ic love stor y of Na le di and Qhawe ’

up coming s e as on It’s humbling to s e e t hat I could repres ent Qhawe’s charac ter in a way t hat capt ivated vie wers and to ok t hem t hroug h t he emot ions of an authentic stor y of Bl ack love That was one of my go a ls

‘I’d s ay we share s ome similar it ies I des cr ib e mys elf as s ome one w ho’s p assionate ab out love, w het her romant ic or for family, and my nature is res er ve d. Am I a smo ot h op erator in re a l life? I’m a litt le less p ersuasive t han Qhawe B elie ve it or not, I’m quite t he int rover t ’

The ne w s e as on is ab out him and his love interest Na ledi, pl aye d by Gais ang

Noge ‘Gais ang is an immens ely t a lente d ac tress, and I’m excited for vie wers to s e e her br ing Na ledi’s charac ter to life authentically. Our energ y on s et matches, and I b elie ve we ’ l l enthrall vie wers as we t a ke t hem

He adds t hat aside f rom its love stor ies, t he show’s g re atest app e a l is t hat it displays t he strengt h of brot herho o d ‘I’ve always b e en a fan of Dudu Bus ani’s wr it ing, s o to land t he role of Qhawe was a big opp or tunity for me Hlomu, t he b o ok s er ies on w hich The Wife is b as e d, went viral countr y w ide, s o to emb o dy a charac ter in t hat s er ies is one of t he greatest hig h lig hts of my c are er I’ve b e en lucky to work w it h s ome of S out h Af r ica’s biggest st ars ’

Reflecting on his exp er iences wit hin t he industr y, he s ays, ‘ There have b e en ups and downs dur ing my c are er. As an ac tor, you attend many auditions and are for tunate to l and a supp or ting role, let alone a le ading one There’s s o much t a lent out t here, but on ly re cent ly did t he S out h Af r i c an stor ytel ling industr y st ar t to g row t hroug h pl at for ms such as Showmax

‘I’ve had the opp or tunity to ac t in many t he atre pro duc t ions The Wife was one of my big gest roles, and I’m gratef ul for t he opp or tunity to show p e ople Kwenzo t he ac tor.’

M Q H E L E Z U L U

WISEMAN MNCUBE

‘ There’s no b etter word to des cr ib e me t han brave It’s c a l l e d i siBindi in isiZu lu I’m a brave Black man Even t houg h I’m quite shy, I st and my g round w hen I ne e d to st and up and st and out. I’ ll

b e brave t hroug h it, just li ke my charac ter Mqhele He’s courageous in his decision making, e ven t houg h he has problems t hat over p ower him ‘I’m ver y honoure d to »

T h e re’s s o m u c h t a l e nt o u t t h e re, b u t o n l y re c e nt l y d i d t h e S o u t h Af r i c a n stor y telling i n d u s t r y star t to grow ’

collab orate wit h t he C ast le Mi l k Stout Brand on t he D on’t Fe ar Black, Savour It camp aign For me, “don’t fe ar black” me ans don’t fe ar w ho you are and w hat you ’ re made of As Bl ack p e ople, we tend to fe ar ours elves and our p otent ial We judge and define ours elves by our skin colour, how we sp e a k, our background and p ast, and end up lo ok ing down on ours elves. But we have t he p otent ia l to b e g re ater This camp aign encourages us to inste ad b e proud and embrace w ho we are ’

Taking over the charac ter of Mqhele f rom B on ko K hoza, Mnc ub e s ays t hat he felt t he pressure

‘It’s not e asy to replace a charac ter t hat was p or t raye d s o well K hoza did an amazing job he k i l le d t he rol e When I was aske d to pl ay Mqhele, I was sho cke d I’m gratef ul for the re cept ion I’ve re ceive d f rom its fans. Pe ople were really excite d, and t hat’s amazing b e c aus e t he y ’ ve yet to s e e t he ne w s e as on I’m honoure d

and gratef ul I hop e t hat I don’t dis app oint ’

He s ays t hat w hat help ed him p or t ray his charac ter was underst anding his back stor y, being honest and aut hent ic to t he given tr ut h in t he s cr ipt.

His charac ter is a p er p etrator of domestic violence, a pre valent issue in our s o ciety When aske d w hat ess ent i a l convers ations we ne e d to have, he s ays: ‘I honest ly fe el t hat domest ic abus e by men can b e att r ibute d to how men are af raid of showing emot ion and admitt ing w hen t he y ’ re st r ug g ling Men sti l l have an incor rec t ide a of w hat it me ans to b e mas c u line, s o t he y may res or t to using t heir p ower harmf ully towards women We need to te ach men t hat it’s okay to cr y, sp e a k up, and it’ l l e as e t he stress es or pressure you face We need to op en up more pl at for ms, workshops and dialogues w here men can sp e a k among t hems elves and le ar n he alt hier ways to de al wit h w hate ver problems t he y may b e exp er iencing ’

He express es t hat, interest ing ly, he often plays ag g ressive, fe arless charac ters far f rom t he p ers on he is in re a l life

‘I enjoy p or t raying t hes e charac ters b e caus e t he y have many emot ions li ke a raging bu l l (Inkunzi’emnyama in Zu lu) I like it w hen v ie wers feel s omet hing w hile watching my charac ters s omet hing in t hem must shift I like to shift a p ers on b e c aus e t hat’s w here honesty lies

‘My care er s o far has b e en interesting Right now, it’s Mqhele; next ye ar, we ’ l l have Shaka iLembe, one of t he big gest shows to hit Mzansi.’

‘B old for me means b eing strong, t a king charge, b e auty and st anding your ground physically and ment ally The b oldest t hing I’ve e ver done was le ave home, unemployed, to st ay wit h f r iends, ar me d wit h t he b elief, hop e and wi llingness to step out b oldly ’

Stepping out b old ly is a ls o how he des crib es this camp aign, an opp or tunity for w hich he waited a long t ime

‘When you ’ re dark skinned, in s cho ol, g rowing up, t he y ma ke you fe el you don’t b elong and aren’t welcome or accepte d. The y go as far as s aying you ’ re s o dark you could st ain walls wit h your bl ackness w hen you touch t hem. This opp or tunity to sp e a k on D on’t Fe ar Black, Savour It has allowed me to express mys elf how I’ve always wanted, to project and echo t hat b eing Bl ack t a kes not hing away f rom w ho you are and w hat you can achie ve Bl ackness isn’t bad, and t hroug h t his

camp aig n we get to celebrate it.

‘I’d li ke to play a par t in Black p e ople gett ing the re cognition t he y des er ve, re cie ving f unding and b eing able to tel l t he ir stor ies it’s a lre ady st ar te d wit h shows including The Wife and Shaka iLembe, and e ven shows cens ored for b eing “to o Bl ack”. I’ve done res e arch on such stor ies, w hich I fe el ne e d to b e re told

‘Bus ani st ar te d t his by tel ling an authentic Black stor y b e caus e she had a vision t hat t his wou ld b e come a b est s elling stor y it went b e yond t hat to a s er ies on Show max. It st ar te d on Faceb o ok, and lo ok w here it is now Par t of its success is b e caus e it’s a stor y told by us and not s ome one f rom anot her countr y ’ s inter pret ation.

Repres entation matters ’

Shange adds t hat w hile he’s g l ad we have plat for ms to tel l Bl ack stor ies, f ree to air channels, how t he stor y is told is often overlo oked, w hich is an issue ‘Most of t he time, we ’ re forced to sugarcoat Black issues and w hat we ’ re t r ying to relay b e caus e of business p olitics, such as ad her i ng to t he ter ms of condit ions s et out by w ho’s f unding you When I went to t he Black C onvers at ion launch, I ne arly fel l off my

‘For me, “don’t fear black” means don’t fear who you are and what you’re made of ’

‘ We n e e d m o re s h ow s w h e re B l a c k people have a r i g ht to b e b l u nt , t r u t h f u l a n d u n f i l te re d ’

chair b e caus e I was, li ke, t here’s a show w here Black p e ople have a r ig ht to just b e blunt, tr ut hf ul and unfiltere d This is w hat we ne e d more of !’ He s e es t he p otent ia l for S out h Af r ic a to cre ate its own version of Hol ly wo o d ‘It’s e ver y ac tor’s dream to get to Hol ly wo o d, and wit h al l t he opp or tunit ies and global access provide d by st re aming channels such as Showmax, Amazon and Netflix, Hol ly wo o d is slow ly coming home »

ANE SHANGE

MONDLI MAKHOBA

‘For me, r ich do esn’t ne cess ar i ly me an mone y but t he r ichness found in all Bl ack c u ltures worldwide It’s in our ident ity, diversity and how resp ec tf u l ly we sp e a k It’s in our stor ies and celebrat ions and how we navigate t hos e We’re r ich

‘ The r ichest t hings in my life are my kids, par t ner and family, and t he stor ies of my fat her and grandfat her t hat

I nar rate to mys elf w hene ver t he y cross my mind It’s my mot her’s and my g randmot her’s te achings t hat I live by to day It’s in t he convers ations

I have with my kids. And in my work, ac t ing and wr it ing ’

B eing a c usto dian of his c u lture is s omet hing t hat Ma k hob a shares wit h his charac ter N kos ana , w ho emphasis ed its imp or t ance throug hout t he s er ies

‘I res e arche d a l l t he show’s s cenes with a c u ltural element to p er for m t hem to t he b est of my abi lity I’ve cont r ibute d to t he pres er vat ion of t he Zu lu language in t he for m of a p o etr y ant holog y t it l e d Imizwa Nemicabango

‘I’m ver y excite d ab out t his camp aig n, as I t hink it’ l l help us Black p e ople to embrace w ho we are and our c u lture This camp aign wil l te ach us ab out w ho we are and st ar t convers ations among Bl ack communit ies ’

As t he s e r ie s draws to a clos e, he s ays t he exp er ience of working on The Wife t aug ht him a lot ab out hims elf and t he industr y at large ‘Ever y day, we were met w it h a challenge, but we were re ady to t ack le anyt hing t hat sto o d in our way, as we were deter mined to tel l a go o d stor y

The charac ter of Nkos ana allowe d me to t hrow s ome of my re al life exp er iences into his life and ac t out a rollerco aster of different emot ions ’

The role has b e en his first le ading one, despite working in t he industr y for many ye ars

‘ The enter t ain ment industr y in our count r y is small, me aning you have to b e caref u l as you follow t he le ads of your care er You ne ed to resp ect your craft, b e dis ciplined and on t he r ig ht side of t he law at all t imes Work hard at e ver y opp or tunit y you get My jour ne y has b e en long I st ar te d here, went abro ad and retur ne d to find my sp ace in S out h Af r ica’s indust r y.

‘ Taking on t his role, I was aware t hat I’d have to b e at t he top of my game to meet exp ec t at ions, and I’m ver y proud of having accomplishe d just t hat.’

‘ Yo u n e e d to re s p e c t y o u r c raf t , b e d i s c i p l i n e d a n d wo r k hard ever y o p p o r t u n i t y you get ’

SIPHO NDLOVU

‘What I’ l l miss t he most w hen t he show ends is t he brot herho o d w it h t he guys, b ot h on and off s creen. One of t he gre atest asp e c ts of The Wife has b e en br ing ing amazing p e ople, cast and cre w, toget her and cre at ing an environment for cre at iv it y, resp e c t and family.’

He s ay s t hat t he exp er ience of pl aying Sambu lo has b e en go o d and unforgett able. ‘It was interest ing playing a role t hat was s o different f rom w ho I am.

‘ There’s a huge difference b etween Sipho Nd lovu and Sambu lo Zu lu Sipho is bubbly. He’s got t his p ers ona lity t hat’s out of t his world He’s a lover, not a fig hter, loves shar ing t hings

‘ I fe e l l i ke I ’m b o r n aga i n b e c a u s e a c a m p a i gn l i ke t h i s h a s b e e n l o n g overdue’

ab out hims elf wit h p e ople and considers ot hers b efore he ma kes decisions

‘Sambu lo is ver y g rounde d, not out t here or vibrant, do es his ow n t hing pr ivately and, most ly, do esn’t share wit h his brot hers. He do esn’t share w hat he go es t hroug h, his pain or vic tor ies He decides t hings on his own. He lives a different life ‘As we conclude t he s er ies, I’m lo ok ing for ward to play ing ne w charac ters and working on pro duc t ions t hat’ l l cont inue to challenge me ’

He s ays t hat t he quest ion, w hat’s next, pl agues e ver y ac tor, but t he tr ick is not to let it get to you ‘Not lett ing f uture aspirat ions affe c t your c ur rent work is a le ar ning c ur ve b e caus e t herein lies t he danger of comp ar is on wit h ot hers. Ever yone has a pat h of t heir ow n ’ He express es t hat it’s amazing b eing a par t of t his camp aig n. ‘I fe el li ke I’m b or n again b e caus e a camp aign li ke t his has b e en long overdue, esp e cia l ly one sp e a k ing b old ly ab out us as Black p e ople in a p osit ive f rame. More ne e ds to b e done to lib erate t he Black child

I fe el pr ivi leged to b e p ar t of a camp aign br inging st ability and rele vant convers ations in Bl ack communit ies

I b elie ve in t he celebrat ion of b eing Black and re dis cover ing t he r i chness of w ho we are as Af r icans ’

S A M B U L O Z U L U

S a v o u r B l a c k , S a v o u r C a s t l e M i l k S t o u t

a p ower f ul brand pur p os e of inspir ing S out h Af r icans to re dis cover t heir Af r ican tradit ions and va lues in a mo der n world The C ast le Mi l k Stout has consistent ly broug ht t his to life t hroug h inspir ing, insig ht f u l and impac t f u l camp aigns, such as

Ancestor’s D ay and L ast Stor ies of Cu lture, wit h t he aim of pres er ving Af r ican c u lture. C ast le Mi lk Stout’s loyal consumers call t he b e er Inkunzi’ Emnyama, w hich t ranslates to t he black bu l l, inspir ing Af r icans around t he cont inent to embrace t he brand’s st rong, dark and black in colour liquid Using t he insig ht t hat

bl ack is largely att r ibute d to s omet hing bad or to b e fe ared, t he brand launched t he Don’t Fe ar Black, Savour It camp aign, w hich aims to build a strong conne c tion of t he brand’s intr insic and extr insic prop er ties. Throug h t his camp aign, C ast le Mi lk Stout will encourage S out h Af r ican consumers to embrace t he colour and t aste of t he b e er

T H E C A S T L E M I L K S T O U T

B R A N D , W H I C H I S A F R I C A’ S L A R G E S T S T O U T, car r ies

T h i s b r a v e , p r o u d l y S o u t h A f r i c a n p r e m i u m b r a n d c h a l l e n g e s t h e s t a t u s q u o t o p r e s e r v e , e d u c a t e a n d c e l e b r a t e A f r i c a n t r a d i t i o n s a n d v a l u e s

by decl ar ing and sp e a king ab out t he issues t hat dr ive p e ople tend to fe ar black C ast le Mi lk Stout’s st ance is Black, similarly to t he black liquid; t he following prop er t ies can b e att r ibute d to C ast le Mi lk Stout:

c e l e b r a t i o n o f A f r i c a n s , t h e b r a n d i d e n t i f i e d p e r c e p t i o n s o f b l a c k h e l d b y c o n s u m e r s , w h i c h i n d i c a t e d a l a r g e s u b j e c t , a f f e c t i n g s o c i e t y t h a t n e e d e d t o b e a d d r e s s e d t h e n e g a t i v e a f f i l i a t i o n a s s o c i a t e d w i t h b l a c k n o t j u s t a s a c o l o u r b u t a s a c o n c e p t , a n a t t i t u d e a n d a n i d e n t i t y T h r o u g h t h e D o n’t

B L A C K C O N V E R S A T I O N S

A s p a r t o f t h e D o n’t F e a r B l a c k , S a v o u r It c a m p a i g n , t h e b r a n d c o n c e p t u a l i s e d a d o c u s e r i e s c a l l e d B l a c k C o n v e r s a t i o n s , a i r i n g o n M z a n s i M a g i c e v e r y T h u r s d a y a t 9 : 3 0 p m , f e a t u r i n g S o u t h A f r i c a n o p i n i o n l e a d e r s a n d m e d i a p e r s o n a l i t i e s s u c h a s C e l e s t e Nt u l i , Mt h o k o z i s i ‘ M a B l e r h’ C e l e , D i n e o R a n a k a , Ay a b o n g a C a w e a n d T h e m b i s a M d o d a N x u m a l o, t o n a m e a f e w. A s a p u r p o s e d r i v e n b r a n d , s t r o n g l y r o o t e d i n t h e

F e a r B l a c k , S a v o u r It c a m p a i g n , t h e b r a n d s e e k s t o u n p a c k a n d o p e n a p l a t f o r m t o d i s c u s s b l a c k n e s s o p e n l y a n d a u t h e n t i c a l l y.

‘A s a b r a n d , w e ’ r e i n v e s t e d i n p r o v i d i n g p o s i t i v e a n d i n f o r m a t i v e d i a l o g u e s f o r a l l S o u t h A f r i c a n s t o e n g a g e o n i s s u e s t h a t i m p a c t u s a s A f r i c a n s We’r e c o n f i d e n t t h a t a l l t h e e p i s o d e s w i l l e v o k e s t i m u l a t i n g d i s c u s s i o n s t h a t’ l l c o n t r i b u t e t o f o s t e r i n g a s o c i e t y t h a t a l l o w s A f r i c a n s t o d e m y s t i f y m i s c o n c e p t i o n s a b o u t b l a c k n e s s T h e f i r s t e p i s o d e , f o r i n s t a n c e , d e l v e s d e e p e r i n t o t h e c o n c e p t o f c a n c e l c u l t u r e a n d t h e n e g a t i v e

c o n n o t a t i o n s a t t r i b u t e d t o

B l a c k Tw i t t e r We’r e l o o k i n g f o r w a r d t o e n g a g i n g a l l S o u t h A f r i c a n s o n t h e a d d r e s s e d t o p i c s , a n d a r e w e l c o m i n g t o t h e d i f f e r i n g o p i n i o n s t h a t a r e s h a r e d b y t h e c a s t , v i e w e r s a n d a n y o n e e l s e w h o ’ s w a n t e d t o d i s c u s s t h e s e t o p i c s , w i t h t h e u t m o s t r e s p e c t a n d w i t h o u t t h e f e a r o f b e i n g m i s r e p r e s e n t e d o r u n f a i r l y j u d g e d , ’ s a y s C a s t l e M i l k S t o u t B r a n d M a n a g e r, K h e n s a n i M k h o m b o

C A S T L E M I L K S T O U T X B U TA N

As the C ast le Mi lk Stout D on’t Fe ar Black, Savour It camp aign is a celebrat ion of r ichness, b oldness, smo ot hness, t aste and c u lture wit hout limits, But an is a brand t hat repres ents and has done amazing work t hroug h fashion t hat repres ents Af r ican c u lture and, t herefore, is t he p e r fe c t c ol l ab orat ive p ar t ner to t ranslate t he camp aign to a clot hing range The stor y of Inkunzi’ Emnyama is woven t hroug h e ach gar ment, symb olising ke y attr ibutes of C ast le Milk Stout

The p ar t nership w it h But an won’t b e the brand’s first hig h fashion par t nership, as it’s pre viously p ar t nere d wit h t he likes of Tshep o Je ans to memor i alis e and br ing to life its c amp aig ns . C ast l e Mi l k Stout decide d to p ar t ner wit h But an due to it aligning wit h all t he charac teristics of C ast le Mi lk Stout. Ever y gament tells a unique stor y, is hig h qu alit y, different and cer t ain ly makes a b old st atement

In t his issue, we ’ re proud to have Wis eman, Kwenzo, Thu lane, Sipho and Mond li showcas e t he pie ces, w hich we ’ ve cre ate d w it h But an Hav i ng worke d wit h al l five p ers ona lit ies on var ious camp aigns, t he y ’ ve gotten to know t he brand and have immers ed t hems elves in t he brand’s j our ne y As mo der n t radit iona lists wit h r ich stor ies to tel l, t he y were t he p er fe c t individu als to showcas e our ne w ly launched range of clot hing items with Butan

C A S T L E M I L K S T O U T C O C K TA I L S

The combinat ion of dark ro aste d ma lt, caramel and lac tos e gives C ast le Milk Stout a r ich complex symphony of smoke y, to aste d and ro asted flavours This g ives t he b e er a smo oth and full b o died t aste to s avour and enjoy To encourage consumers to tr ial and embrace Inkunzi’ Emnyama, the brand has releas ed mu lt iple co ckt ails, using t he liquid as t he hero, t hat consumers can ma ke at home. E ach co ckt ai l has charac ter ist ics t hat can b e rel ate d b ack to black and t he brand’s p ositioning The thre e co ckt ails have b e en name d D ark Dindy, Mnyama D elig ht and D ark & L ovely Thes e t asty co ckt ails are inf us e d wit h var ious flavours and ingre dients t hat br ing out a t aste fil led exp er ience like no ot her

The t aste of a CMS b e er is me ant to b e s avoure d A lt houg h t he b e er is different in colour f rom ot her b e ers, CMS has an unmatche d r ich, smo ot h t aste t hat it gets f rom how and w here t he b e er is bre we d C ast le Mi l k Stout is a mu lt i award winning b e er f rom Inter nat ional Monde and Af r ican B e er Cup Awards t hroug h to regional awards (SANBT)

In t he brand’s re cent ly rele as ed T VC, t here’s f ur t her explorat ion of w hat t he r ich, smo ot h, dark liquid cou ld repres ent

B L A C K I S R I C H B L A C K I S S M O O T H B L A C K I S B O L D B L A C K I S B R A V E B L A C K I S D I F F E R E N T B L A C K H A S T A S T E

L e w i s H a m i l t o n t h e F o r m u l a 1 s u p e r s t a r, s t y l e i c o n a n d e n t r e p r e n e u r i s o n e o f a k i n d . G Q f i n d s o u t w h a t d r i v e s h i m

by Chris Heath

by Adrienne Raquel St yled by Eric McNeal

Words

Photographs

SENSE OF BELONGING DIDN’T.

‘I didn’t feel like I was welcome,’ he tells me ‘I didn’t feel like I was accepted God knows how many of these drivers say : “ This isn’t what a Formula 1 driver is That’s not how you behave This isn’t how you do it Tattoos? No! A Formula 1 driver doesn’t have tattoos! A Formula 1 driver doesn’t have a personality and piercings!”’

Hamilton carried on regardless, doing things his way, and it can’t be said to have worked out too badly He’s now one of the most famous athletes on earth, even more so since Netflix’s documentar y series Formula 1: Drive to Survive brought his sport to a new audience, particularly in the US He’s won a record equalling seven world championships, and when it comes to driving cars like these at around 320km an hour, some would argue he’s the best there’s ever been That’s not to say that, even now, ever ything’s always smooth or straightfor ward There’s a tattoo arcing across the top of Hamilton’s chest that reads Powerful Beyond Measure. The words are taken from a longer quote by the writer Marianne Williamson: “Our deepest fear isn’t that we ’ re inadequate Our deepest fear is that we ’ re powerful beyond measure. It’s our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us ” ‘I read it, and I thought it was one of the greatest sayings ever, ’ Hamilton says ‘We limit ourselves the majority of the time And where it really hit me hard is: we should never have to dim our light to make others feel ’ He pauses, gathers himself ‘If anything, we should shine as bright as we can to liberate others to do the same I live my life by that quote. For so long in my life, I felt like I was dimming my light because I felt uncomfortable ’

Given all that he’s achieved, it might be reasonable to imagine that any lingering tensions between his need for individual self expression and his sport’s diktats and conventions would’ve been ironed out or dissipated long ago Reasonable, but quite wrong This season, for instance, a conflict has blown up with Hamilton over his jeweller y There’s been a rule on the books, it turns out, since 2005 a couple of

years before Hamilton’s first race in Formula 1 forbidding drivers from wearing jeweller y in the cars for safety reasons But until now, there appears to have been no attempt to enforce it Hamilton, who habitually races with two earrings and a nose piercing, was recently told that he must remove them going for ward ‘People love to have power, ’ he says ‘And to enforce power ’

I ask him whether this feels as though it is particularly directed toward him

‘I mean, yeah,’ he replies ‘Because I’m the only one that has jeweller y on, really’

Aware that the issue was coming to a head, Hamilton attended a press conference before the Miami Grand Prix in May wearing in an act of playful mocker y and protest rings on ever y finger, multiple chains and three watches ‘I just put on as much as I could,’ he says He announced that, if need be, he would refuse to race rather than remove his race day jeweller y, and also upped the ante and sent the internet bubbling with this comment: ‘As I said, I can’t remove at least two of them One, I can’t really explain where it is.’

This, Hamilton now insists, was flippant provocation ‘I was just fucking with it,’ he says, laughing ‘I don’t have any other piercings anywhere But I love that there’s this thinking: shit, has he got his balls pierced?’

In subsequent races, he removed his earrings, but his nose stud was fused in place and couldn’t be removed, then reinserted, at will When I first speak to him, he’s been granted a temporar y exemption If that expires, a decision will have to be made, and he’d clearly prefer to stand firm ‘Since I was a kid rules, ’ he says, shaking his head ‘I’ve never loved being told what to do ’

THE FIRST TIME WE MEET, it’s for lunch at a Moroccan restaurant, Cafe Mogador, in Manhattan’s East Village, close to an apartment he owns here Hamilton orders the hummus and falafel. ‘I used to look at hummus and I was, like, “No way would I ever eat hummus!”’ he says ‘And I love it now It’s my go to thing ever y day’ Just one totem, it’ll become clear, of his relentless search for a better way Hamilton, who’s 37, tells me that veganism wasn’t even on his radar when he was growing up just north of London He’s now been plant based for about five years, a change triggered by a vegan friend he met in New York who opened his eyes to the realities of food production The physical demands of elite racing are extreme, and doctors advised him that he’d struggle to get enough protein Instead, he found his energ y levels smoothing out and his skin clearing up ‘I mean, I’ve won five world titles since then,’ he points out ‘I’ve been more consistent than I ever was in the past. So, it just takes proving people wrong. And that’s what I did ’

Proving people wrong has been a persistent theme in Hamilton’s life ‘Look, when I was at school, I was dyslexic and struggling like hell,’ he says, ‘and one of the only few Black kids in

my school, being put in the lowest classes and never given a chance to progress or even helped to progress Teachers were telling me, “You’re never going to be nothing ” I remember being behind the shed, in tears, like, ‘I’m not going to be anything.’ And believing it for a split second.’ Even today, he can still list the specific teachers who reinforced this message It was, he says, ‘the most demotivating thing to hear especially when you witness them doing the complete opposite with your white counterparts.’ Still, he talks about it now as though their cruelty and indifference became a sort of gift: ‘I don’t actually hold any grudge against those people because they fuelled me up. ’

Hamilton’s improbable ascendancy began even as he floundered at school From six, he proved himself a wunderkind at guiding remote controlled cars beating adults and appearing on British T V. At eight, he demonstrated a similar aptitude for karting before graduating to progressively more powerful cars By 12, his parents, who’d split when he was two (his mother is white, his father Black), agreed that he should live with his father, who could best nurture his evident talent His father had three or four jobs, and all the family’s money went into supporting the prodig y

Hamilton says that from the first time he drove a go kart, he couldn’t wait to do it again ‘Firstly, it’s like having a superpower, ’ he says ‘I couldn’t be Superman, but that was like your cloak. When I got in the car, I put a helmet on, and I wasn’t seen any different You can’t see my skin colour You just see me as a driver And I was able to do things that others weren’t able to do And it didn’t matter how big the other kids were, I could still beat them.’

There’d never been a Black Formula 1 driver, and the sport’s participants generally came from far more privileged backgrounds than his But when he was 13, he was offered a contract, a place in the driver development program for a Formula 1 team, McLaren, which offered a potential path to his goal Then, just after his 16th birthday, something happened that seemed likely to derail it all.

One day, an ugly incident took place at lunchtime in a school toilet A classmate of Hamilton’s was severely beaten by six boys Hamilton was one of many drawn by the commotion but took no part. In the days that followed, as those responsible were identified and punished, Hamilton was called into the headmaster’s office As Hamilton remembers it, the headmaster told him: ‘I don’t have the evidence just yet to get rid of you ’ ‘What do you mean?’ Hamilton says he retorted ‘I didn’t do anything ’ A couple of weeks later Hamilton was called back in ‘Finally,’ the headmaster declared, ‘I have enough to get rid of you. ’ Hamilton was said to have kicked the injured boy He was expelled, with immediate effect

Walking home, Hamilton felt as though ever ything might be over : the racing contract, his future, all of it ‘ The one thing I had to do was just

WHEN LEWIS HAMILTON BECAME A FORMULA 1 DRIVER, SUCCESS CAME QUICKLY, BUT AN EASY

finish school, and I couldn’t even do that,’ he says He momentarily considered whether it was even worth facing his father How, he wondered, could you flee the countr y? ‘I remember shaking like a leaf, telling my dad,’ Hamilton says ‘And him asking me: did I do it? I remember telling him, “I didn’t do it, Dad I wouldn’t do that It’s just not part of who I am ” And he said, “Okay”’

His father contacted other families, whose kids verified Hamilton’s account, then doggedly fought for his son ’ s exoneration. Months later, the decision would be overturned, the record corrected Hamilton’s racing contract was unaffected But he never went back to the school

In 2020, on the final lap of the race that’d confirm Hamilton’s pivotal seventh title, he says that much of this histor y flashed before his eyes: ‘Just all these past experiences, all the doubts that I had to overcome It was one of the most emotional experiences of my life. That’s why I said, “ This is to all those kids out there ”’ Over the headset, as he slowed down after the finish line, viewers could hear his voice breaking up with emotion. His exact words: that’s for all the kids out there who dream the impossible ‘I’d just always have, in the back of my mind, people telling me that “ you ’ re never going to be able to achieve that There’s no way you ’ re going to do this,”’ he says.

IN THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY Lewis Hamilton: My Story, published in 2007 after his first year in Formula 1, Hamilton declared, “For me, race isn’t an issue at all.” This, he now says, was the stance he was encouraged to take ‘ Those early years, we were just always tr ying to fit in,’ he says. ‘My dad’s just: don’t talk about that, just blend in ’

His perspective evolved over time, but the greatest change came in response to the racial upheavals in the spring and summer of 2020. Partly, it was that Hamilton felt compelled, on principle, to speak out and take a stand ‘I’ve always wondered: why me? Why am I the only one? Out of all the kids in the school, or all the other young Black kids in Black communities, how is it us that stumbled across it and got into it? And not only got in there, but why am I as good as I am? Why am I wired the way I am? And I feel like there’s a much bigger picture.’

But what was happening out in the world had also unexpectedly reawakened some memories ‘ There are many feelings that I suppressed at the time that I didn’t even realise that I suppressed emotions and feelings that I had when I was younger and it all came up, ’ he says The casual racist abuse he’d face, for instance, in his go karting days, particularly when he’d travel to Italy and France. ‘ There was a lot of the N word going around,’ he says Other times, it was more than words One day, when he was 11 or 12, Hamilton was walking to the shops in Newcastle, where his mother and stepfather then lived. He was daydreaming, singing under

his breath, thinking about the chocolate cakes he wanted to buy He didn’t even really notice the two of them a father and son until they attacked In a blink, they had him on the ground and were kicking him, shouting ‘Go back to your countr y. ’

‘Even today,’ he says, ‘I remember how terrifying it was I really, really couldn’t understand it It was, like, “Are they talking to me? I’m from here What do they mean?” I could never understand it When you ’ re being attacked, there’s this fear there’s fear, and there’s anger as well because you want to get them back for the pain that they’re causing you ’ Moments like this he kept to himself. ‘I never spoke about it to my parents,’ he says ‘I didn’t speak about it to my mum I didn’t think she’d understand And my dad, I was probably too scared to tell my dad, because I didn’t want him to think I was a wuss. You know, I didn’t want him to think I couldn’t defend myself I just remember a lot of times just being alone, just in tears in my room ”’

In 2020, Hamilton led his sport’s reaction to these troubled times for instance, successfully encouraging most of his fellow drivers to take a knee, persuading his team to rebrand its cars in a new black paint job, and accepting his winner’s trophy at a grand prix in Italy in September 2020 wearing a T shirt emblazoned with the words: ARREST THE COPS WHO KILLED BREONNA TAYLOR As he noted later, maybe a little tartly, ‘In the 70 years of our sport, no one ’ s ever stood up there for anything but themselves ’ Perhaps predictably, a ruling was subsequently issued that drivers on the podium must only display team attire

Hamilton has continued to take more concrete steps A research group he set up, the Hamilton Commission, issued a report examining in detail the structural reasons for Black underrepresentation in all parts of UK

motorsport and identifying potential remedies. In its wake, he launched a foundation, Mission 44, the mission in question being ‘to support, champion and empower young people from underser ved groups to succeed through narrowing opportunity gaps in education, employment and wider society’ In conversation, these are themes he refers to constantly

NO NEED TO look too far for other clues to Hamilton’s eventual post racing life, given how many other things he’s managed to do alongside driving which is another way he’s defied the orthodoxy of his sport. When he agreed to join his current team, Mercedes, in 2013, Hamilton says that he told them how it’d be: ‘ This is who I am These are things I like to do Don’t ever tr y to control me in that respect I’m going to give ever ything to this, and I’m going to help you win championships And I’m going to show you that being different isn’t a bad thing for your brand ’

Conventional wisdom was that drivers should be early to bed during racing season and shy from all other distractions Hamilton’s chosen way was different Eyebrows were raised, for instance, when he was part of a Tommy Hilfiger fashion show in New York, followed by a big party ‘ The best party of Fashion Week,’ he notes then flew to Singapore for his next race He knew it’d be seen as a test: ‘If I’m going to be doing these other things, I’ve also got to show up and do it and be the shit And I did the best lap I’d ever put together. And people were, like, “How the fuck does he do it?”’

Hamilton’s interest in fashion is an enduring one, both in creating clothes for others and as personal style, the latter closely followed by his fans The reason I can tell you precisely what he wore when we met in New York Nahmias Miracle Academy trucker hat, Louis Vuitton printed flower drop shoulders T shirt, »

Clothing all Valentino; earrings Greg Yüna; necklaces Mikimoto (bot tom) and XIX Karats

FIRST SPREAD Clothing all Versace; earrings Greg Yüna; necklaces Mikimoto (white pearl) and XIX Karats; Throughout: hair products Ampro Pro St yl; grooming products Evolve Organic Beaut y Lewis Hamilton with a 1989 Lamborghini Countach at Related’s 520 West 28th by Zaha Hadid building in New York

Storia sunglasses, Ami Paris Alex straight leg jeans, Off White Vulcanised high top sneakers is neither because I recognise them nor because Hamilton itemises them for me. It’s because any time there’s a public photographic record he’d posted an Instagram Stor y of himself that morning reflected in his building’s lift mirrors acolytes immediately deconstruct and analyse the day’s outfit. Beginning in 2018, Hamilton designed a handful of collections in partnership with Hilfiger

‘I saw it as a bit of an internship,’ he says Recently, as well as looking to help ‘ young Black creatives coming up who are overlooked, particularly in the fashion space ’ , he’s been considering his own brand and talks about how important it is to him that it be fully sustainable ‘ There aren’t many big Black owned brands out there,’ he says ‘And why not?’

Hamilton’s business interests extend in multiple directions; conversation with him is punctuated with statements such as, ‘I’m growing into a space of becoming an entrepreneur, really

looking into planet friendly start ups ’ A vegan restaurant in London, Neat Burger, is now expanding into the US with Leonardo DiCaprio recently coming on board as a partner. And there’s also Hollywood Hamilton’s one of the producers of a Formula 1 movie to be directed by Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski and produced by (and featuring) Brad Pitt Hamilton has met with Pitt and arranged for him to tour the factories in Britain where 2 000 people are united in the sole task of creating this year ’ s Formula 1 car for Mercedes Hamilton has also been vetting the stor ytelling for authenticity : ‘ To hear the BS that’s in the script because the Americans who are writing it are just getting newly accustomed to Formula 1 ’ Hamilton doesn’t expect to act alongside Pitt in this film he feels it might be too clichéd for him to appear in a racing movie but he’s dipped his toes previously, doing a cameo in Zoolander 2 and lending his voice in Cars 2 and Cars 3 And, it turns out, he nearly took on something much more substantial a while ago ‘Basically, I’m

a friend of Tom,’ Hamilton says. ‘Cruise,’ he adds. (In person, Hamilton is low key and unshowy, and I meet a group of friends around him who seem very down to earth, but it’s also evident how comfortably he runs with the famous ) ‘One of the nicest people you’ll ever meet,’ Hamilton says of Cruise ‘He invited me to his set years ago when he was doing Edge of Tomorrow and then we just built a friendship over time ’ As a child, Hamilton saw the original Top Gun and fixated on becoming a fighter pilot ‘So, when I heard the second one was coming out, I was, like, “Oh, my God, I have to ask him,”’ he says ‘I said, “I don’t care what role it is I’ll even sweep something, be a cleaner in the back.”’ Cruise said yes And Hamilton wasn’t to be a cleaner ; he was to be one of the fighter pilots Then reality set in Filming would’ve taken place during the climax of the Formula 1 season, and Hamilton knew he couldn’t countenance turning up on set without having done ever y last piece of preparation ‘I’m a perfectionist,’ he says There just wasn’t time Reluctantly, he contacted Cruise and Kosinski ‘ The most upsetting call that I think I’ve ever had’ to let them know

Finally, there’s music ‘I love music so much,’ he says ‘I’d say music saves me ever y day’ For years, Hamilton’s been writing and recording his own and has periodically intimated that he might soon share it publicly Aside from the occasional Instagram snippet and one other almost accidental exception, he’s yet to do so The almost accidental exception was his guest appearance on Christina Aguilera’s 2018 album Liberation Hamilton rented a studio in New York and wrote and recorded his contribution to the libidinal song ‘Pipe’ in three hours No one was supposed to know it was him; he wanted people to hear it without prejudgement: ‘People say : “Lewis Hamilton’s doing music? Oh, I’m sure that’s going to suck ” It’s only when they hear stuff that I do, then they’re, like, “Oh, you ’ re actually pretty good ”’ But although he was credited as XNDA, his real name was inadvertently included in the song writing credits He wouldn’t confirm that it was him for some time, but the secret was pretty much out.

TO GET A TRUE SENSE of who Lewis Hamilton is in 2022, you need to understand something that happened to him in Abu Dhabi on 12 December 2021.

Before this final race of the Formula 1 season, Hamilton and the much younger Dutch firebrand Max Verstappen were tied on points Whoever finished ahead of the other in Abu Dhabi would become champion and if it was Hamilton, he’d be the first man in histor y to win eight world championships With five laps to go, Hamilton was leading Verstappen by 11 seconds Barring a random puncture or a sudden engine failure, it was hard to imagine what could go wrong And hard to believe as it did

‘You see things start to unfold,’ he says, remembering, ‘and my worst fears came alive I was, like, there’s no way they’re going to cheat

me out of this There’s no way That won’t happen Surely not.’

To explain in detail the subsequent series of events, initially triggered by another car ’ s accident, would be baffling to anyone not steeped in the world of safety cars, pit stops, differential tyre wear and unlapping procedures But the crucial part is this: to anyone who understood F1 rules and protocols, Hamilton now seemed destined to win in a rather anticlimactic ceremonial procession. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the race director appeared to improvise a ruling under the intense pressure of the moment, one without precedent, which allowed for one final lap of superficially competitive racing It was a lap Hamilton would have no realistic prospect of winning because Verstappen, now right behind him with fresh tyres, could easily overtake him That’s exactly what happened. After an inquir y weeks later, the race director transferred from his post the official report stated that what’d happened was a human error made in good faith, but the rules were clarified and updated to ensure this wouldn’t happen again The result stood I ask Hamilton how he felt as he got out of the car

‘I don’t know if I can really put into words the feeling that I had,’ he replies. ‘I do remember just sitting there just in disbelief And realising I’ve got to undo my belts, I’ve got to get out of there, I’ve got to climb out of this thing, I’ve got to find the strength I had no strength And it was one of the toughest moments, I’d say, that I’ve had in a long, long time ’

I suggest to him that he must’ve felt cheated

‘I knew what’d happened I knew what decisions had been made and why. Yes, I knew that something wasn’t right ’

When he did get out of the car, his father was standing there Such is the bubble of preparation and focus before races that Hamilton didn’t even

know whether his father was in Abu Dhabi. Over the years, their relationship has had its difficult moments: Hamilton never fails to credit ever ything his father did to make his career possible, but there was an awkward schism after his first burst of Formula 1 success when Hamilton decided that he needed to go it alone professionally, and told his father that he just wanted him to be his father It’d taken time, but that day in Abu Dhabi, that’s who his father was

‘He embraced me, and I think he was, like, “I want you to know how proud I am of you ” Having your father embrace you in that way is one of the most profound things I’ve ever ’ Hamilton trails off. ‘Especially as you ’ ve grown up not many times having that ’

HA M I L T O N ’ S C L O S E F R I E N D Mellody Hobson was also in Abu Dhabi that day. Hobson’s a hugely successful business leader, the current chair woman of Starbucks and soon to be part owner of the Denver Broncos She first met Hamilton when her motor racing enthusiast husband to be, George Lucas, took her to the Monaco Grand Prix in 2007, telling her how ‘ a rookie Black driver had just broken into the top ranks for the first time in the sport’s 70 year histor y ’ . Hamilton considers Hobson a big sister, a mentor, and, generally, ‘ one of the most inspiring women I’ve ever met in my life ’ Part of what they share is the experience of what he describes as being ‘the first and only one ’ to achieve what they’ve achieved.

‘We’ve bonded over that,’ Hobson agrees ‘I remember he gave this inter view with Gayle King on CBS This Morning a couple of years ago, and he said, “Being the first and only Black anything is a proud and lonely walk ” And I literally stopped I had chills and sort of welled up I knew exactly : proud and lonely It’s how it feels ’

Hobson hadn’t told Hamilton that she and her husband were coming to Abu Dhabi, and they were carefully kept out of his sight the entire weekend ‘George kept saying to me, ’ Hobson explains, ‘“ There’s nothing worse than when you ’ re in the last days of your movie and you ’ re totally behind and your family shows up it’s the worst ”’ But after what Hobson characterises as ‘the horrible act’, she and Lucas saw him ‘He’s really stunned,’ she remembers ‘Stunned Like shock. He’s asking the same question over and over again: “What happened?” I grabbed him by both shoulders I was, like, “You did ever ything right ” I kept saying that to him I said, “It wasn’t you. You did ever ything right.” And he just literally said, like, four or five times: “What happened?”’

Hamilton apologised for her coming all that way just to see him lose ‘ That’s why we came, ’ she told him. ‘In case you lost. We didn’t come in case you won ’

It would’ve been understandable expected, almost if, when Hamilton got out of his car in Abu Dhabi, he’d been raging, shouting, declaiming the unfairness of it all ‘Like, no one would’ve been surprised if he’d taken off his helmet and thrown it,’ says Hobson ‘Or thrown the steering wheel ’

But that’s not what Hamilton did. As his friend Tom Brady, who was standing in front of his T V, watching what he calls ‘just the craziest of all crazy endings’, obser ves, ‘He handled it as gracefully as anyone possibly could imagine.’ There’d be no public venting of any sort Instead, Hamilton walked over to the declared victor, Verstappen, shook his hand, and congratulated him Watching this, Lucas a man who has a fairly notable histor y when it comes to the subject he was about to speak of leaned over to Hobson and said: ‘Heroes are bigger than champions Lewis just earned hero status ’

Hamilton learned about this comment soon after, but for a long while, he couldn’t really hear it ‘Look, I was going through whatever emotions I was going through, so no one could say anything to me, ’ he remembers ‘It doesn’t matter who. It doesn’t really matter what’ s said. When you ’ re feeling a certain way, sometimes it’s hard to break through ’ But, in time, he took it in ‘It’s one of the greatest compliments you could receive,’ he says Also: ‘It’s ver y, ver y surreal to grow up watching Star Wars and have Yoda’s dad say positive things about you ’

Hamilton was publicly silent for several weeks after Abu Dhabi, and there was widespread speculation that he was done with racing that he’d walk away ‘I, for sure, considered whether I wanted to continue,’ he confirms ‘He was in a dark place,’ says Hobson, explaining how she’d asked him to join her and Lucas for Christmas in the Caribbean. When Hamilton demurred, she told him that if he didn’t come, she’d go to him; in the end, he came Ever yone there was instructed not to bring up what’d happened, but many mornings, he and Hobson found the other awake at dawn ‘And that’s when we »

spent a lot of time sort of going in and debriefing,’ she says. ‘And I just kept telling him things like: we make no decisions in times of great anguish or pain You have to just sit with this, and it’s going to be hard and uncomfortable But there’s nothing to be done at this moment. So do nothing ’

Hobson told him that she’d support him if he didn’t go back but also shared her belief that ‘this is what you do, and you ’ re not done ’ The Olympic fencer Miles Chamley Watson, one of Hamilton’s closest friends since they first hung out a few years ago at the Met Gala ‘He was sat between Madonna and Rihanna,’ Hamilton says, ‘and I remember looking at him: “Who is that?”’ was another of those who gathered around him after Abu Dhabi ‘I knew that he needed me just as his mate to just get him out of the mindset,’ Chamley Watson says, adding that he never doubted what Hamilton would do. ‘If you know him, you know that man is not going to stop until he wants to finish Not because somebody else made him stop ’

A week after our New York lunch, Hamilton and I are supposed to meet at what I’ve been told is one of his favourite restaurants, in the French village of Èze, not too far from his Monaco home But arrangements somehow go awr y ‘I’ve never been here before,’ he says as we are led to a table at a terrace where the expansive views over the Mediterranean are breathtaking, but where he’s also surrounded by unknown others in fairly close proximity When you ’ re as famous as Hamilton is in most of the world, you learn to avoid these situations ‘ This is more exposed than I normally am, ’ he notes ‘We’ll see how it goes ’ As we talk, his voice is often so quiet that my recorder can barely pick it up, as though he feels constrained by the surroundings When he orders a latte with oat milk, the waiter, seemingly baffled by his presence, asks him the awkward and fairly unanswerable question: ‘Is that the real you?’

We talk a little about Hamilton’s life In the first half of his Formula 1 career, he was in a relationship with ex Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger for several years, their ever y perceived up and down relentlessly tracked by the British tabloid media Whatever private life he’s had since then, he’s mostly kept to himself ‘I learned the hard way, ’ he says ‘I learned the hard way. ’ But then he also tells me ‘I haven’t talked about it much’ that there haven’t been any long term relationships in recent years ‘I’m really just super focused on work,’ he says ‘I’ve realised that I can’t do two things or three things at once, I’ve got to focus on one ’ Furthermore, he adds, ‘I really wanted to go through a growth process of getting myself to a point where I’m happy on my own, comfortable in my space So that if I ever do meet someone, it’s an addition, rather than “I need you in my life ”’

As with most lives lived under such close scrutiny, in Hamilton’s there’ve been occasional wrinkles. He’s long had a sturdy social media communion his present Instagram »

Earrings Jacob & Co; necklaces Mikimoto; bracelet Car tier; rings Chrome Hear ts

followership is more than 29 million but not ever ything has always landed as he’d hoped it might We discuss one particularly difficult moment On Christmas Day in 2017, he posted to the world what was presumably intended as a cute and amusing 12 second video in which he sits with his nephew, who’s wearing a purple and pink dress and brandishing a wand with a fluffy pink heart at its end ‘Why are you wearing a princess dress?’ Hamilton asks the boy, who is laughing. ‘Is this what you got for Christmas? Why did you ask for a princess dress for Christmas? Boys don’t wear princess dresses!’

The world’s response was swift Hamilton was condemned for gender shaming and other insensitivities A typical forceful riposte: ‘Go stick your toxic masculinity up your arse ’

‘ That was so stupid,’ he tells me of what he did ‘I realised that a lot of my upbringing was coming out. I went with just an ignorant moment. And I straight away realised that that’s not actually how I feel deep inside ’ By the next day, he’d deleted the post; by the end of the week, he’d deleted his entire Instagram histor y. ‘I’m just not the sort of person that wants to ever hurt anybody,’ he says ‘And the idea that I could’ve hurt somebody through a stupid post or just from something I said, again through ignorance, just reminded me of how I’d felt from the experiences that I’d had And I was, like, how am I projecting that? I realised that was wrong And so then finding ways of not necessarily undoing it, but showing that community that I support them It’s difficult in today’s world It’s difficult to undo things ’

Hamilton is fond of adages, such as, ‘It’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up, ’ and he seems to use them less as glib catchphrases to brandish when convenient and more as serious guides to better living In this instance, he apologised, fully and clearly, for the mistake he’d

made and the hurt he’d caused. Privately, he took it upon himself to educate himself He posed in a kilt on the cover of British GQ and, inside, gave a self lacerating inter view He also went to Disneyland Paris with some of his extended family. Beforehand, Hamilton’s nephew had asked to go to the store to buy another princess dress ‘I was, like, let’s go, ’ says Hamilton And that was how the two of them came to walk hand in hand Hamilton and his nephew in his brand new dress through Disneyland

‘What’s crazy is,’ he reflects now, ‘ you have to learn something from a six year old ’

Our conversation aside, the meal here doesn’t go too well. Sur veying the menu, Hamilton realises that there’s more or less nothing he can eat He orders the asparagus Some time later it arrives, garnished with some sort of egg and crouton topping He patiently explains that his diet doesn’t allow for this. The waiter nods, promising to return with ‘virgin asparagus ’

Some further time passes before a plate of asparagus arrives ‘ This,’ the waiter declares with a flourish, ‘is without eggs ’ Hamilton sur veys the delicately drizzled greener y placed in front of him ‘But,’ he points out, with restrained politeness, ‘it’s got mayonnaise.’

And with that, he gives up He drinks another latte and suggests that we go for a drive

LEWIS HAMILTON IS behind the wheel, and I’m his passenger. This experience isn’t entirely as you might expect First, there’s the car we ’ re in He knows that people expect him to have some sort of cool sports car, and he did have cars like that when he was younger But, these days, his vehicle of choice for trips like this is a tiny electric Smart car made by his team’s

parent company, Mercedes Second, on open roads, Hamilton is an achingly sensible and careful driver, never speeding and frequently pulling over to let impatient drivers pass Third, as he explains, he actually doesn’t like driving Not this sort, the sort the rest of us do, with traffic in two directions, and pedestrians, and junctions, and nothing clear cut to prove In fact, he rarely does it ‘I just think that I find it stressful,’ he says ‘I tr y not to do things that don’t add to my life.’ And then he adds a statement said with sincerity ‘Look, we ’ re on these roads, anything can happen ’

After a while, we find ourselves on the outskirts of Nice, down toward the harbour. ‘ This is now stressful for me, ’ he says ‘ This road’s crazy So much going on here I’m going to turn around in a second ’

On the racing track, he tells me, he doesn’t feel fear, and he also searches out experiences including skydiving, rock climbing and surfing And yet, even in the most controlled minds, fear and logic may sometimes lead each other in the most unpredictable of dances. We all have our vulnerabilities That’s why, when Hamilton travels to Australia, he prefers to get a hotel room on one of the higher floors, and when he gets into the room, he’ll often check around the toilet ‘I do,’ he tells me. ‘It’s pathetic, but I do.’ The reason? ‘Oh God, spiders,’ he says Some Australian spiders are notoriously deadly, but even if he sees a picture of a spider on a screen, Hamilton can’t look at it He credits his fear to the time as a kid when his sister made him watch the movie Arachnophobia He knows, given ever ything else that he does so dauntlessly, that it might seem odd ‘People say : “Dude! You drive around at 320km an hour!” And I’m, like, in terms of the fear factor, that’s easy for me I guess we ’ re just all wired differently’

Back in the mountains, well away from the city, Hamilton selects increasingly narrow and winding roads until he turns down one that seems little more than a track I quietly wonder whether this is a terrible idea I can see us hitting a tight dead end and having to back out, or getting stuck entirely but his instincts are good We twist back and forth down the edge of a slope through a secret world of incredible houses perched above the sea It reminds him of how, a while back, he went for a ride around here one night on his motorbike. He just wanted to ‘get away from ever ything’ and ended up on a road like this He stopped, turned off his lights and was astonished to discover that he was surrounded by fireflies. He’d only ever seen them in animated movies

IN THE MOVIE version of the Lewis Hamilton stor y, he would’ve returned this season after the painful fiasco at the end of the last and the bloodied boxer rising from the canvas dominated ever y race But it hasn’t worked out like that Ever y few years, Formula 1 teams are obliged to design almost completely new cars to

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a revised set of specifications Mercedes was expected to excel at this challenge, but for 2022 it got something wrong At high speeds, the new car repeatedly moved up and down The cute name given to this, “porpoising”, belies the unpleasantness of the experience ‘ The worst characteristic I’ve ever experienced in a car, ’ Hamilton says and its catastrophic effect on competitiveness

After he finished 13th in a race in April, chatter grew once again that he’d walk away. People seemed to assume that his pride wouldn’t be able to take this In response, he was silent for a few days Then he posted an imposing backlit image of himself in the team’s tyre garage, with this message: Working on my masterpiece, I’ll be the one to decide when it’s finished

‘A lot of people out there are shit talkers,’ he tells me ‘If I let those words those projections people are putting out, those little digs if I let that bring me down, then they win ’

Toward the end of May, when I join nearly 122 000 other spectators watching the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, there is, at last, some restrained optimism around Hamilton’s team that the car ’ s worst problems have been overcome As usual on race weekends, Hamilton spends his time not on the track sequestered from all the crazy surrounding hullabaloo in his bubble If this was ever just a “ rev it up and give it your best shot” sort of sport, it is no longer : at one point I’m taken up to glimpse the private engineering room where rows of serious looking people, Hamilton among them, are studying data on the screens in front of them, tr ying to work out how to maximise ever y incremental advantage

Alas, the best laid plans... On the first lap, another driver cuts too close to Hamilton and they collide Hamilton has a puncture He’s able to change his tyre, but when he rejoins the race he is 19th Over the team radio, he sounds momentarily disconsolate, suggesting it might be best to save the engine for another race His team encourages him to keep pushing: their data analysis suggests that in this improved car he could still finish eighth and at least earn some world championship points

And from then, he flies At times, he’s the fastest driver on the track, doing once more what he has done over and over for all these years. ‘I think he’s an artist,’ Brady will tell me later ‘I think when he sees the racetrack, he sees it different than ever yone else does Like any great athlete, you have your unique way of doing things ever yone else looks at something one way and you look at it a different way And you create strategies and you execute under pressure in ways that other people can’t I just think he probably sees lines on the track no one else can see. ’

Today, Hamilton finishes fifth, but after wards, he’s bubbling To do that from where he was felt like a win ‘I was [thinking], these guys are crazy they’re smoking something,’ he says of the advice after the collision ‘ There’s no way

I can come from 30 seconds behind dead last ’ Things are turning around ‘We’re definitely going to get a win this year That’s something I couldn’t have told you before the race. So it feels great ’

Hamilton has another year on his contract, which people have assumed may offer a natural end point for a driver his age who’s achieved all that he has. Assume all you like.

‘I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t thought about extending,’ he tells me later Yes, he’s giving extensive thought to his after sport life and how he can fulfil a credo to, as he puts it, ‘live to the max, and live to the best of your ability, help as many people as you can in the time that you have ’ But just because he’s making plans for when it’s over doesn’t mean that it is ‘I’m still on the mission, I’m still loving driving, I’m still being challenged by it So, I don’t really feel like I have to give it up anytime soon ’ Perhaps one further sign of this renewed determination is that when he vies for victor y at the British Grand Prix in early July before finishing third, he offers no

public explanation for the fact that he’s no longer wearing his nose stud

‘Anyone can have a great season, ’ says Brady ‘Anyone can have five great seasons, but it’s really hard to have 10 great seasons or 15 great seasons That takes different traits, different qualities A lot of those come from things that have happened in your life that allow you to be motivated over a long period of time ’

‘I’d say, ’ echoes Hamilton’s friend Chamley Watson, ‘he has nothing to prove but a lot more to accomplish And I think he’s just going to keep going until the wheels fall off, literally.’

In truth, Hamilton’s insulted that, even now, so many people might possibly mistake him for someone who’d walk away from a fight

‘But again,’ he says, ‘that’s what they’d do ’

Not him.

‘I’m built different,’ he says ‘I mean, I was built for this It reminds me that people still don’t know me Even after all these years People still don’t know. So, all right, I’ll prove you wrong again ’

Custom tuxedo Giorgio Armani Made to Measure; shir t and tie both Giorgio Armani; earrings Greg Yüna

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