STYLE

AUGUST . 2017 .

EXCLUSIVE!

By Jonathan Heaf
The incredible
transformation of

Interview by Luc Besson

Photographed by Mariano Vivanco

SPORT

Your cycling +
future WHITE
Sir Chris Hoy PORT
joins GQ IS THE
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OF THE
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SUMMER!
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colour black? OLD FOR
Story by Stuart McGurk FESTIVALS?
19 86
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AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 7

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Jacket and basque from
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Ring, Cara’s own.

STORY BY
128
For our exclusive GQ cover story, director Luc Besson gets under the skin
of sci-fi siren Cara Delevingne.
Stuart McGurk PHOTOGRAPHS BY Mariano Vivanco

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 9

 107
The Drop
U2 shake The
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AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 11

 Editor
DYLAN JONES
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 EDITOR’S LETTER

It’s written in the stars

once saw Cara Delevingne cradle
a lion cub. This was in Paris,
two-and-a-half years ago,
where the woman with the
most arresting eyes in her
industry unleashed at least
a modicum of her inner
animal by attempting
to help the Swiss luxury
watch brand TAG Heuer
launch a series of suitably
robust if not quite zoological
timepieces. In a specially secured
venue she paraded up and down a
makeshift catwalk, branding the baby
beast as though it were a rare mink. In front of 150 invitees
(all of us grouped together in cages, ostensibly built to protect
us, but rather ironically making us seem like caged beasts
ourselves), the cub looked more unsure of itself than the
model. But then Cara Delevingne tends to have that effect.
She is nothing if not a disrupter, a sometime iconoclastic
role model whose Instagram account (40.5 million followers magazine cover would feature a super-sexy tomboy who
and rising) encourages her clan to “embrace your weirdness” seemed to personify the industry’s desire for a media-sticky
and “stop labelling, start living” without a scintilla of irony. example of quixotic, gamine grunge? Usually, boldface names
She appears to enjoy being called an anti-model and, arrive on your radar unannounced. One minute you’ve never
unlike most of her peers and nearly all of her predecessors, heard of them, the next they’re apparently everywhere – on
speaks before being spoken to. Completely at ease with her the home page of whatever it might be you’ve just opened on
(tattooed) body, she has no qualms about exposing it in your tablet, on the pages of your newspaper, sitting opposite
public, although she is far more likely to be doing it in order you on the train (in pictorial form, at least). And, saliently, on
to show support for campaigns such as Free The Nipple, which the covers of magazines. For the past few years Delevingne
lobbied to encourage legislation to overturn the laws that has been that name – the fashion industry’s favourite alt-
make it illegal in 37 US states for women to appear topless. pixie millennial supermodel and increasingly boldface “face”.
While creating the universe, did God have in mind that at As a prefix of definition, at least where models are
a certain point in the early part of the 21st century every concerned, ”super” has been around since 1947, when it was

Models turned from 2-D sales faces into brands that

were bigger than those they endorsed
Photographs Instagram/@caradelevingne

Followers of fashion (top right): Cara Delevingne’s Instagram feed spans celebrity love-ins
and right-on campaigning; (above) for this month’s remarkable retro-futurist cover,
photographer Mariano Vivanco shot Delevingne in pieces from the Thierry Mugler Archive

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 19

 EDITOR’S LETTER

used by an anthropologist called Harold Sterling Gladwin,

and while the term popped up occasionally during the Sixties Cara is the this month on
and Seventies – used absent-mindedly and without any sense
that it might catch on – it wasn’t until the Eighties that it began
fashion
to get sticky and started finding proper traction. This is when industry’s
models turned from 2-D sales faces in service to the industry
(and occasionally to the zeitgeist) into brands that were as
favourite
popular as those they were endorsing. alt-pixie
When they became bigger than the brands, the prefix stuck.
And it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. In a world in which
millennial
social media has denigrated the power of the image, you might supermodel
have thought that saturation would breed contempt, but as we
know in many respects it’s helped create thousands, perhaps millions, of new marketable faces. Ford GT tested on UK roads for the first time
The digital biosphere is full of burgeoning economies, largely the kind that play havoc with The world’s hottest new car – of which only
old-fashioned notions of timing. News travels so quickly these days that we’re approaching an 1,000 will ever be made – just landed in the
UK. How does the Ford GT stack up on the
expectation that we should receive it as it is actually happening. The thought of waiting even twisty British back-roads? GQ is the first to
30 seconds is becoming unacceptable. put it through its paces.
Because of this, timing has actually become even more important. Of course, data has
reinvigorated the digital shop window (we love our data people so much we’re building them Wolf Alice join GQ
their own lift), but give data-capture to a wheezing old journalistic mainframe and you’ll on Facebook Live

only end up with better organised sewage. And data can be just as unreliable as people. And, Back from their world
tour, Grammy-nominated
boy, can people be unreliable, especially when they’re crowded into a media research facility, nouveau-grunge darlings
drinking overpriced Chardonnay and under-cooked chicken sandwiches. Wolf Alice will be playing
a gig live at facebook.
Once, seven or eight years ago, having held six focus groups in London, Watford and
com/britishgq. Tune
Manchester, we returned to GQ Towers (Vogue House, actually, although we lobby on a weekly in to watch a 45-minute
basis to have the building’s name changed) with empirical proof that if we were to put a certain set just for you.
film star on our cover then we would sell more copies than we actually printed. Literally,
this was like being told the name of the Derby winner six months before the race, plenty
enough time for you to sell your house, wife and children in order to improve your stake. So,
armed with this intelligence – God, we were pleased with ourselves – we went out and got
us an interview with the aforementioned galáctico. We also dragged him to one of LA’s most
expensive photographic studios, in which was ensconced one of the city’s most expensive
photographers, to capture his Mount Rushmore-like features: a) for posterity and b) for the
cover of the magazine. Well, let me tell you, having put said star on the cover, we simply lit
the blue touchpaper and retired – only to find that our cover star was not quite as popular
with the GQ massive as the focus groups has suggested. In fact, he appeared to be one of the Why we need Pride more than ever
least popular men we’d ever put on the cover. That’s right. Ever. The only time we had worse The Guyliner is GQ’s online sex and
feedback on a cover was last year, when on 1 April we uploaded a spoof Nigel Farage cover relationships columnist – read his heartfelt
story about why it’s so important to support
on the website. Immediately, Twitter went demented, as the Pride Festival, particularly in 2017.
those who cared – and suddenly there seemed to be a
lot of people who really did care – demanded to know Cara Delevingne
why we had taken leave of our collective senses and shocks GQ
for some reason left them in the hands of crazy, media- GQ cover star Cara
Delevingne turns the
savvy Brexiteers. If there is a lesson to be learned here, tables on our interviewer
it’s only one that should never have been unlearned in with a Van de Graaff
the first place: go with your gut. generator that gave him
an electric shock when
So this month we’ve gone with our gut and gone she doesn’t like a
with Cara. Her popularity has developed through question. Barbarella,
seemingly traditional channels, via catwalks, nightclubs eat your heart out.

and magazine covers, capturing the attention of

a generation of fashion consumers who might want
their representatives to have as much edge as they have
attitude, but who still understand the enormous power
of mainstream media.

The launch of the Range Rover Velar

The newest Range Rover has an interior that’s
better than your bachelor pad. Check GQ.co.uk
Follow us for our story from the first official drive of an
@britishgq incredibly clever vehicle that will make you
@dylanjonesgq Dylan Jones, Editor want to trade in your loft apartment.

20 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 Contributors

From left:
Film-maker
Renell Medrano
– who created a
Super8 film of
the cover shoot
Luc BESSON Alice
for GQ.co.uk –
Paul Solomons
Valerian And The City Of RAWSTHORN
and Cara
A Thousand Planets is the When 23-year-old computer
Delevingne latest outing from The Fifth graduate Robert Morris
Element director Luc Besson devised a worm to measure
Paul SOLOMONS and, with a $220 million the size of the internet in
Creative Director Paul Solomons has always been a huge fan of the budget, it’s set to be a 1988, he crashed thousands
Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama, best known for his precise blockbuster. Not only did he of computers, caused millions
drawings of women and robots (think Playboy meets Daft Punk). His cast Cara Delevingne as special of dollars of damage and
1983 art book, Sexy Robot, is the main influence behind our shoot with operative Laureline in his unintentionally created an
this month’s cover star Cara Delevingne. “If there is one man – and one 28th-century epic, he wanted archetype for malware. GQ’s
fashion collection – that embodied everything that Sorayama loved to interview her about it too. contributing design critic Alice
about women it would surely be designer Thierry Mugler and the In this issue, actor and director Rawsthorn considers its legacy.
couture shows of 1995,” says Solomons. “I never thought that one day I talk about everything from “As cyber-attacks escalate, we
would get the chance to marry the two influences together in one of my making music to how yoga realise how terrifying its
own shoots with one of my favourite photographers, Mariano Vivanco” saved her from sociopathy. successors have become.”

Sir Chris HOY

This month, the Life section welcomes the
six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy as
its new cycling columnist. Each month, he
will address a different biking dilemma,
beginning with what to wear in the saddle.
“Cycling is fun, first and foremost,” says
Hoy. “What you want from your kit is Eric NICHOLSON
encouragement to ride more. End of story.” When styling our “Caught In
The Moment” fashion feature,
Eric Nicholson thought of
Alfred TONG famous couples that have been
GQ’s newest section, House Rules, examines hounded by the paparazzi,
of-the-moment fashion and lifestyle trends, such as Sean Penn and
from mainstream to niche (to really niche). Madonna in the Eighties. “We
For its second instalment, fashion writer also thought about how we are
Alfred Tong tackles airport style and “geezer all constantly under some sort
chic”, which, says Tong, “is probably the of surveillance, captured
most significant UK street-style movement on security cameras or on
since mod”. Snapchat and Instagram
stories,” says Nicholson, whose
favourite looks from the shoot
include a silk giraffe-print shirt
by Louis Vuitton.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 23


TWEENIES GO HOME
Teens and preteens are about to ruin summer... again. For one card-carrying millennial fogey, these
tyrannical children are turning festival season into Lord Of The Flies
stopped enjoying festivals on Saturday
I  4 July 2015, at around four in the after-
noon. It was a beautiful day – London
was in the throes of a heatwave – and
I was on my way to Wireless in London’s
Finsbury Park. Kendrick Lamar was headlining
– an incredible coup for a UK day festival
– with Childish Gambino and Stormzy also
billing. It was not a line-up I imagined would
resonate with children.
And yet, as my friends and I got off the
tube, excited and joyous, we were obstructed
by what appeared to be the contents of a local
crèche. Tiny girls clad in denim nappies and
miniature vests, their faces covered in glue,
glitter and smeared with paint, their lips suc-
tioned to the funnel of their plastic water
(vodka) bottles like a newborn to its teat,
Illustration Britt Spencer
tottered around the platform, intermittently
screeching. They must have been barely 14
years old. As we followed them to the tube exit,
a few of them collapsing along the way, one
smashing her glass bottle of Glen’s, my smirk
curdled. We were all heading the same way.
Inside the park were thousands more. Boys,
STORY BY Eleanor Halls
guffawing like small cubs, were hoisting them-
selves up and down scattered pull-up bars.
Young girls meticulously applied neon paint
to each other’s cheeks as if preparing for tribal
warfare. Children who looked as young as 12
were leading sheepish guardians around the
park as if by invisible shackles. You think
I’m describing one of Banksy’s dystopian
playgrounds? An episode of Black Mirror?
Wrong: this is what modern childhood looks
like through the eyes of a 24-year-old. Yes, you
read that correctly – this isn’t a sanctimonious
thinkpiece penned by a middle-aged malcon-
tent who writes letters to the Telegraph about
plastic bags and millennials. I am the millen-
nial, and I am aghast.
Five years ago, I would have shut down clichéd
discussion about how the age of innocence has
been buckled and cut short by smartphones,
internet and social media. But now, I take it
back. Now, I want to talk about it. Because now,
selfishly, it’s affecting me. Society’s increasing
prematurity is impinging upon the most hal-
lowed event of my social calendar: festivals.
(That makes me sound a bit cooler, right?)
Problem child: At
Wireless, Lovebox and
beyond, Generation Z
are having a field day
es, I am white. Yes, I am privileged.
Y  And, yes, I believe childhood should
be wrapped in cotton wool. I went to
my first festival, Reading, at the age
of 16. That was in 2010. Now, it seems
children attend their first festival at the age of 12
(I have a special age-deducing device lodged in
my retina). According to my tediously detailed
diaries, which I consulted, excruciatingly, for
this piece, at the age of 12 I was still “playing
restaurants” with crates of plastic food and my
eight-year-old sister, or attending super-
vised “sleepovers” and swimming parties. (Did
I mention I grew up in Wimbledon?)
Reading Festival, a post-GCSE rite of passage,
was thus a milestone I felt I’d earned with
age. I’d gone, blissfully slowly, through all the
middle-class motions of adolescence: I got my
first phone at 13, along with permission to walk
up the road unsupervised. My friend and I went
to a café and bought a fizzy drink with our own
pocket money and thought it the most symbolic
moment of our entire lives (I kept a sugar packet
and stuck it in my diary). At 14, I got my first
email address (until my parents realised it
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 25
 was cutekitty@hotmail.co.uk and promptly
deleted it) then had my first illicit sips of vodka
decanted from a friend’s parents’ drinking
cabinet. At 15, I went to the odd house party
and got drunk for the first time. Sixteen was the
appropriate time for Reading, and Reading only.
Every other festival felt too mature.
When I went to my second festival two years
later, Creamfields, which was 18-plus, it sym-
bolised my transition into adulthood. My music
preferences matured with age, as did my festi-
val choices. I thought that, upon entering my
twenties, the events I went to would continue
to reflect my ripening taste. Yet the opposite has
happened. I’ve gone beyond full circle – I’m 24
and I’m sharing gigs with children.
ver the last five years, as regular
O
  festivals have got pricier and
ticket sales have dipped, the
day festival has prospered. More
ticket sales bags better headlin-
ers. From Wild Life to Wireless and Lovebox
to British Summer Time, for lovers of pop,
dance and rap, the day festival has become
the UK’s best sonic event. Unfortunately, for
anyone over the age of 21, it’s also become a
teen and preteen mecca. Affordable, short,
within an easy ride on the tube or train, it’s
every parent’s godsend – they can send their
children off for eight hours of daylight with
a fully charged iPhone and continue forbidding
Glastonbury. You don’t even need to be 18 to
attend. Anyone under the age of 16 can buy
a ticket if they cajole a guardian into coming
with them. Not that this matters – my sister’s
been attending 16-plus day festivals since she
was 14 (and, at 4ft 9in with the air of a pygmy
marmoset, looked about ten). “No one checks,”
she said. “I even bought alcohol.”
It might seem that I have lived a sheltered,
almost Amish life. But while my friends and
I kept the years in which we couldn’t handle
our drink behind closed doors (so that by the
time we got to Reading only one of us ended
up in the medical tent), now we must watch 14-
year-olds get drunk for the first time right
under our noses. While we, aged 12, con-
sumed age-appropriate music via Top Of The
Pops and learnt the choreography of Hairspray
and Men In Black in dance group, now, chil-
dren of a similar age publicly twerk, “skank”
and figuratively deflower themselves through
lyrics they shouldn’t understand in the first
place. I am shocked and I am appalled (and
a little bit naive, maybe). But more than any-
thing I am indignant, because my festival days
are numbered (35 and I’m out) and so they are
precious. And they are, at present, endangered.
The problem is, give a child some 4G and
they lose ten years of innocence in minutes.
26 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
According to a recent report by Influence
Central, the average age for your first smart-
phone is ten years old (three years before
I got my Motorola flip), 70 per cent of children
below the age of 12 search the web unsu-
pervised (my attempts were foiled by the
dial-up connection when my parents used the
land line) and 50 per cent get their first social
media account before the age of 12. Through
YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram, they can
mimic any culture, trend or person they like
before they’ve even figured out if they’ve lost
all their baby teeth yet.
That’s why last year, at Wild Life and Wireless,
where the line-ups reflected rap replacing rock
as the most popular musical genre worldwide,
every other 12- to 15-year-old seemed to be
posturing as a grime MC. Boys were clad in
socks, sliders, tracksuits and caps, while their
female counterparts were in Adidas caps, over-
sized Nike hoodies and Air Max trainers. Can’t
picture it? YouTube “Little T” and observe a
well-combed child of 12 with his hood up,
roaming a council estate (he really wants you
to know he’s on a council estate) rapping about
Last month I was
called a cougar in a
club by what appeared
to be a small child
“beef” with other kids, snapping spines, “pulling
out the blade” and robbing cars. No doubt if
I braved this summer’s Wireless, I’d see him
somewhere in the crowd, fist bumping his peers
muttering, “Gang, gang, gang” and captioning
pictures “roadman” on Instagram. Roadman
(slang for drug dealer, who by nature of their
job is always “on road”) is generation Z’s term
du jour. Search the tag on Instagram and more
than 30,000 entries come up – none posted by
an actual roadman, obviously, but by a group
of ten-year-old boys shooting gun fingers in the
park, posing with a policewoman, for instance.
“Me ’n’ the lads got some by the police for fowl
language,” reads the caption. “Barny Chocolate”
has left a comment: “Big up PC Laura.” Why, at
24, must I share festival crowds with every little
Barny Chocolate in Britain?
“So forget day festivals and go to Bestival
with other adults!” you say. (Leeds, Reading
and V Fest became unacceptable upon finishing
GCSEs, Boomtown is full of syringes and
Creamfields may have been symbolic but was
a big mistake.) I’ve been to Bestival annually
since 2013, but each year, as it loses more
customers to the day festivals, its line-up,
activities and food stalls worsen. Last summer,
it was rumoured to have only sold half its
tickets. Plus, my 19-year-old sister went too,
and, let me tell you, I’ve never felt so uncool
in my life. There she was, surrounded by
more friends than I could count, and there
I was, with two. There she was, roaming freely
about the mud, losing her purse, her keys and
her tent (she really did lose her tent), staying
up till dawn on the Sunday, and there I was,
refreshing my email in a Portaloo and checking
my Sunday afternoon train ticket that would
get me home with eight hours of shuteye
before work. When I did get home, swapping
my festival burner for my iPhone (something a
generation Z would never do lest their friends,
no longer tracking their every waking moment
on Instagram, thought them dead) I was pained
to find she’d shamed me on Snapchat. “Too old
for this shit,” she’d captioned a picture of me
yawning in my yellow poncho.
It’s no wonder, then, that millennials are
allegedly the dullest generation, that all we
do is stay at home sleeping. Last month, I was
called a cougar in a nightclub (you see – not
sleeping) by what appeared to be a small child.
(Did I look that young when I went underage
clubbing?) He and his hairless friends made
me feel like some strange pervert, roaming
London’s club circuit. So perhaps we need a
new festival solely for millennials. To protect
us. To protect my innocence. To protect my
summer. We could call it “Hashtag Millennial”.
At #Millennial, only those between the ages
of 21 and 35 could buy a ticket, providing
they enter a valid driving licence number
upon payment. The theme each year would
be “You Do You, Honey!”, allowing millen-
nials to just be themselves. Each ticket would
come with a free glass of organic wine or
a green matcha latte, a free #BeWoke T-Shirt,
and a #GlutenKills wristband. VIP tickets
would include free entry to the Yoga Pod, a
free go on the #MakeYourOwnMeme stall
and a one-year Netflix subscription to be
redeemed in the Netflix & Chill area of the
site (opposite the #BrexitTherapy tent and
between the #VeganLivesMatter camp and
#MilkYourOwnAlmonds farm). Finally, tickets
would be priced according to individual sal-
aries. Right, I think that covers everything.
Though... on second thoughts, that sounds like
hell on earth, doesn’t it?
MORE For these related stories,
FROM GQ visit GQ.co.uk/magazine
Generation #Self-Drive (Jason Barlow, July 2017)
Everyone Carrying A Flat White Is Wearing Flat
Whites (Dylan Jones, June 2017)
Hooked On Danger (Anthony Loyd, March 2017)
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 THE

RISING
S TA R

IN MAY last year, Fionn

Whitehead underwent
a baptism of fire. Just a
few months earlier, the
19-year-old had been an
aspiring actor working in a
south London coffee shop;
then, he was hurtling down
the beach at Dunkirk, at the
exact spot the British army
was evacuated from 77
years earlier, surrounded by
1,500 extras, destroyers in
the sea, Spitfires in the air
and explosions all around.
“There was no over-
acting necessary,” says
the breakout star of
Christopher Nolan’s new
war epic, Dunkirk, in which
he appears alongside Sir
Mark Rylance, Sir Kenneth
Branagh and Tom Hardy.
For Whitehead’s
character, the appropriately
named Tommy, Nolan
(Interstellar, Inception)

Film him needed someone who

could convey a young
soldier’s inexperience.
Jacket by Hermès, £7,840. hermes.com. T-shirt by Versace, £340. versace.com. Trousers by Thom Sweeney, £395.

Whitehead’s complete lack

on the of film work was, therefore,

a virtue. “I was so new to
thomsweeney.co.uk. Trainers by Vans, £50. vans.co.uk. Grooming Emma Day at The Wall Group using Aesop

it all and scared of it,” he

says, laughing. “I was

beaches
Fionn Whitehead takes his place among the heroes
running around not
knowing what to do.”
He was also so scrawny
that Nolan arranged a
boot camp for him.
Whitehead found himself
of Dunkirk after landing a starring role in wading through water in
Christopher Nolan’s Second World War epic... full uniform and jogging
up beaches with weighted
P H OTO G R A P H BY TOMO BREJC S T Y L I N G BY TONY COOK
stretchers. “They just
blasted me for two weeks,”
he says. “My bone structure
has actually opened out.”
Almost as much as his
prospects. Alex Godfrey
Dunkirk is out on 21 July.

E D I T E D BY CHARLIE BURTON

this month: zendaya p.30 summer sundowners p.31 cool pool sliders p.33 nintendo strikes back p.34

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 29

 THE

ACTOR
T O WAT C H

How’s this for cognitive

dissonance: Zendaya
Coleman is considered
a “most influential”
person by Time magazine;
she has her own clothing
line; she hangs out with
Michelle Obama; she’s
so famous, in fact, that
she is known simply as
Zendaya. Yet you may
well have never heard
of her. That’s because
until recently her fame
has existed in the parallel
universe of tween
culture. She forged her
career on the Disney
Channel – just like
Selena Gomez and Miley
Cyrus before her – but
the 20-year-old is now
graduating to mainstream
Hollywood. This month,
she’s in Spider-Man:
data hit Homecoming alongside
harvard university Robert Downey Jr (she
has found that, today,
half of people who will
plays a hush-hush
become famous do so character called Michelle,
by the time they hit 30.
time to write that
who the studio refuses
screenplay... to deny is some version
of Spider-Man’s love
interest Mary Jane
Watson) and later this
year will work with
Channing Tatum on

ZENDAYA
Having already conquered the worlds of fashion and music, this multitalented
his comedy Smallfoot.
So let’s clear this
up: Zendaya – it’s
pronounced zen-day-a.
You may need to use it.
former tween idol is swinging straight for the silver screen with a big role
Photograph Contour By Getty Images

in this summer’s most talked about superhero spectacle Spider-Man: Homecoming

is out on 5 July.

Super group: Zendaya sang with Missy

Elliott on Michelle Obama’s charity
song This Is For My Girls in 2016

30 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 DETAILS

THE

RUMOUR
MILL

by
alex wickham
THE

YVETTE Cooper and

Chuka Umunna had
LONDON
SCENE
leadership bids ready to
go before Jeremy Corbyn
defied expectations on
8 June. Cooper had
hired top spinner Amy
Mix it up this summer
Richards, while Umunna Forget Aperol Spritz. These are the sundowners trending on London terraces this year...
signed up Will Straw to
run his campaign – job
offers that had to be White port Hugo
rescinded in the early and tonic The best can be found at:
hours of election night. The best can be found at: Smith & Wollensky,
Bar Douro, Flat Iron Square, The Adelphi, 1-11 John
It is the duty of close 66 Union Street, SE1. Adam Street, WC2.
protection officers to bardouro.co.uk smithandwollensky.co.uk
keep ministers safe,
something for which Make like the Portuguese A spin on the Spritz, the
most are very grateful. and plunk for a white P&T in Hugo involves a sprightly
Yet bodyguards say one a long glass. A take on our combination of prosecco
MP stands out for his homegrown gin and tonic and elderflower syrup.
lack of good grace. – but loaded with ice and Swirled in a wine glass on
Aloof Philip Hammond roughly torn mint – it’s Frosé the rocks with a sprig of Cynar
seldom says thank you fruity, light-bodied (pale The best can be found at: mint and a wedge of lemon, The best can be found at:
or even acknowledges port has a bitter, herbal Ben’s Canteen, 40 St John’s it’s an excellent party starter. Polpo, 1 Beak Street,
their services. taste) and pairs well with Hill, Battersea, SW11. Its history: For a little while, W1. polpo.co.uk
salted almonds. benscanteen.com this has been the sip to be Artichoke liqueur, anyone?
Jeremy Corbyn always Its history: Hailing from Translation: “frozen rosé”. seen with on the slopes of Don’t knock it till you’ve
said Labour moderates Porto and made from white Served slushy style and South Tyrol, northern Italy. tried it. Although great for
were working against grapes, this refreshing sip made from full-bodied rosé, It was said to originate at digestion, that’s not the
him, but did he know was reserved for the private sugar and lemon, it is fast a small bar there named reason it’s a flavour of the
the extent of the cellars of port shippers, becoming the hot way to Sansenzo, frequented by the season. Its versatility – enjoy
mutiny? I hear a team rather than for public cool off. All you have to do Chelsea set – so it’s hardly it straight up, with soda or
of party researchers consumption. It’s finally is bring yourself to actually surprising that one of its as the basis of a Negroni –
established an off-the- found its place in the sun. say the word “frosé”. first sightings in London was is what’s powering it onto
books investigation to Where else to drink it: Its history: Pale in colour at Annabel’s in Mayfair. drinks lists everywhere.
undermine him. The It sits pride of place on the and served up in goblets, Where else to drink it: Its history: Dating back to
plot was carried out by menus at newbie Llewelyn’s The aforementioned
frosé was born ready for 1952, when it was created by
staffers in parliament in Herne Hill, Morito in Annabel’s; TT Liquor in
Instagram, which is where Venetian entrepreneur and
under the guise of their Exmouth Market, 8 Hoxton Shoreditch; The Exhibit in
it first gained traction after philanthropist Angelo Dalle
official jobs. Taxpayers’ Square, Smoking Goat in Balham. The version at our
New York’s Bar Primi Molle, Cynar is only just
money well spent... Soho, Peckham Refreshment top recommendation, Smith
invented it – and other emerging from the shadows.
Rooms, Frank’s Cafe (also in places in the US copied it & Wollensky (see above) Its name comes from cynara
Spare a thought for
poor Dan Jarvis, the
Peckham), Taberna do – back in 2016. Now, it has comes with a theatrical scolymus, the botanical term
Mercado on the City crossed the pond and is kaffir lime “mist” and gin for for artichoke leaves.
wannabe Labour leader
fringes... The list goes on. taking up residence in the bolstered Britishness (£12). Where else to drink it:
who published a not
exactly subtle 5,000- UK, much to the chagrin of Find it on the drinks trolley
word essay outlining his wine buffs. at Quo Vadis in Soho; in the
vision for Britain. Over Where else to drink it: Dead Dolls Spritz (Cynar,
the subsequent few days Everywhere, seemingly. You Amaro, prosecco) at its
Jarvis had conversations can find it in restaurants namesake bar-slash-
with a number of Labour (Aviary in Canary Wharf, restaurant in Islington and
MPs, asking what they Samarkand in Fitzrovia) as also at regional eatery
thought of his manifesto. much as in drinking dens Enoteca Turi in Pimlico.
The conclusion? Being (The Botanist at Broadgate Perhaps the question should
leader is probably not Circle, Drake & Morgan be: where can’t you drink it?
for him. outposts across the capital). Nicky Clarke

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 31

 The
Insta
classics
Happy-snap your Instagram
feed by following the
’grammers behind three posts
we hit ‘like’ on this month

THE

DESIGN
ARCHETYPE
The worm that turned @ S A D M I C H A E L J O R DA N

Alice Rawsthorn explains how one internet outrider created the prototype virus
He had no inten-
tion of crashing
thousands of com-
puters and causing
millions of dollars
of damage. All Robert
Morris planned to do was
to measure the size of the internet.
Instead, a computer program
designed in 1988 by Morris, at the
time a 23-year-old graduate student
at Cornell University, proved so
destructive as it spread that he
became one of the first people to be
convicted under the Computer Fraud
And Abuse Act in the US. Morris
has since become a successful tech
entrepreneur and academic, yet he’s
still best known as the designer of
Morris was not the first person
to design what has now become
known as “malware”, but his crea-
tion caused so much damage that it
is seen as the archetype of subse-
quent viruses, which in turn have
given rise to a new form of mili-
tary strategy. When North Korea
launched a missile in April that
failed in flight (the latest in a run of
such failures), experts suggested that
its missile systems may have been
sabotaged by toxic code.
Morris launched his original worm
– dubbed the “Great Worm” by
hackers – on 2 November 1988. A
glitch in its design made it assault
its victims not just once, but
repeatedly at devastating speed.
the machines and after a few more
they crashed. He was so alarmed
by its behaviour that at 2.30am the
following day he asked a friend to
post an anonymous warning about
it online. Each stricken computer
took up to two days to repair.
In 1988, the internet was used @ DA B M O M S
by roughly 60,000 computers,
most of which belonged to North
American programmers like Morris,
who had no reason to expect their
data to be at risk. Once the Great
Worm had demonstrated their
vulnerability, defensive measures
were developed. The firewalls, web
filters and anti-phishing software
with which we now protect our
digital information – they too are

Illustration The Red Dress Photographs Matthew Beedle; Michael Leckie

the worm computer virus. The first few attacks slowed down Morris’ progeny. @ CO N D E 1 2 1

GQ
Do something different this month, tune into these new sounds...

BAND into
Jamie T?
into
Laura Marling?
O - M AT I C
try try
Declan McKenna Lucy Rose
Aged just 18, the What’s in a name? The
Hertfordshire musical Surrey-born singer-
prodigy is already three songwriter’s new folk album
into into
years into a career making is as beautiful, pastoral and
upbeat pop coupled with A$AP Rocky? unmistakably English as Kamasi Washington?
into try try
whip-smart lyrics. hers might suggest.
Nick Drake? What Do You Think About The Shabazz Palaces Something’s Changing Andromeda Mega
try Car? is out on 21 July. Seattle hip hop duo Ishmael is out on 7 July. Express Orchestra
Laucan Butler and Tendai Maraire Berlin-based 18-piece
You can hear songbirds on release not one but two new orchestra whose
Laurence Galpin’s debut folk records of futuristic rap. soundscapes are blended
album, but even they would Quazarz: Born On A Gangster from big-band brass and
be envious of his falsetto. Star and Quazarz Vs free jazz experimentalism.
FramesPerSecond The Jealous Machines are Kevin Perry
is out on 27 July. out on 14 July. Vula is out on 9 July.

32 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 DETAILS

Walk on water
This summer, “pool sliders” are not
only for the poolside. They can be Sliders by River Island,
twinned with everything from a pair £16. riverisland.com

of board shorts to an unstructured

linen suit. Just be sure you have
a pedicure before you go barefoot.
No, really. Robert Johnston
Sliders by Paul Smith,
£165. At mrporter.com

Sliders by Gucci,
£145. gucci.com

Sliders by Fila,
£25. fila.co.uk

Sliders by Moncler,
£175. moncler.com

Sliders by Valentino,
£175. At mrporter.com

THE

TREND
Sliders by Adidas, £25. REPORT
At Schuh. schuh.co.uk

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 33

The
GQ
rules
How to behave
in an ‘it’ hotel
THE lobby of the
newest, finest hotel
is the only place in
the world where you
can walk indoors
and keep your
sunglasses on.

You have been invited THE

Answering the call to Arms
to a party to mingle
with the other early VIDEO Don’t be fooled by its cartoonish appearance, Nintendo’s new
adopters. If the party GAME beat ’em up is a game of brains as much as brawn
has a cash bar, it’s
not a party. It’s a
bar. Leave. FOR years now,
Nintendo has
It’s all about Choose
If you’re considering
sidestepped the strategy your warrior
taking a selfie then As in Street Fighter Arms’ cast is fantastical
you don’t deserve technical arms race
in which Sony’s and (the game that laid and diverse, from
to know whether it’s
acceptable or not. Microsoft’s console the foundations for Mechanica, a girl in
(It’s not.) divisions have been every beat ‘em up a yellow robotic suit
locked, instead hoping that followed), each equipped with thrusters
Don’t question the to beguile users with character enjoys a that enable her to dart
decision to serve playful gimmicks and different set of abilities around the arena,
sushi. It’s the de
outlandish hardware
There’s a and can also be A game? More to Master Mummy, a
facto cuisine of the clever twist equipped with unique like a workout desiccated Egyptian
moneyed traveller. design. The Kyoto-
based company’s Like Splatoon, a gloves (including Arms can be controlled whose red eyes glare
Treat celebrities as recently released cartoonish, decidedly propeller glaives and in different ways using out from bandages.
you would everyone Switch, its fastest- Nintendo take on steel paddles) that the Switch’s controllers. The character design
else – like you own selling machine yet, austere squad-based enable a variety of Detach the Joy-Cons might look cartoonish,
the place. is no different: it can shooters, behind Arms’ strategies. The from the base unit and but the aesthetic hides
be untethered from kindergarten colour combination of your fists become customisable fighters
Be nice to the old character, glove and that, like Splatoon, is
the TV and its iPad- scheme and those of your character.
guy doing head-up abilities opens up set to become an
breaststroke in the like screen used to exaggerated pugilists, Tilt them forward and
continue your game there’s a serious scores of idiosyncratic your character will eSport favourite.
pool. He probably
does own the place. on the go. Its new competitive sport at configurations. advance, backwards Simon Parkin Out now.
title, Arms, seeks to play. The innovation and they’ll backpedal,
Only when there’s disrupt the fighting is all in the four on- while jabbing the
a man serving drinks game in much the screen competitors’ Joy-Con causes your
behind it can you same way as Nintendo extendable arms, which character to throw a
lean on the bar.
has disrupted the can reach across the punch, which can be
There’s a good
chance it’s actually console business, three-dimensional further modified with
post-ironic industrial with an inventive, arena to deliver jabs, aftertouch to punch
sculpture. singular vision, uppercuts and twisting around corners, or
exquisitely delivered. sucker punches. track a moving target.
You don’t have
to tip absolutely
everyone. Knowing
the floor plan of your The book to read: Done! The Secret Deals That Are Changing Our World
workplace is not a DO politicians really call the shots? Jacques else dared to go. Palantir watches everything you
skill worthy of Peretti’s new book, Done! The Secret Deals do and predicts what you will do next. Its clients
remuneration,
however dim the
That Are Changing Our World, argues that the include the CIA, the FBI, the Air Force and the
“lighting signature”. real power brokers are people and companies IRS. Up to 50 per cent of its business is with the
you’ve never heard of. Here’s an extract... public sector. Palantir tracks everyone from
Learn “Please excuse Palantir, the CIA-backed start-up company run by potential terrorist suspects to corporate fraudsters
me” in Russian and PayPal founder Peter Thiel, one of President and “subversives”. But it is all done using
Mandarin. It may save Trump’s closest confidants, is Minority Report prediction. Palantir is at the heart of the US
your life. come true. Palantir is to data what McKinsey is to government, but with its other arm, Palantir
consultancy: all-powerful, yet no one knows it Metropolis, it provides the analytical tools for
Be a gentleman hedge funds, banks and financial services firms to
and use a coaster. even exists. In 2004, Thiel created Palantir with
That Japanese ex-PayPal engineer Nathan Gettings and Joe outsmart each other. It wields as much real-world
lacquerware and Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Alex Karp from power as Google and Apple but, unlike them,
tattooed calfskin is Stanford University. Their intention was to create Palantir operates so far under the radar, it is
a nightmare to clean. a company that took Big Data somewhere no one special ops. Out on 13 July.
Matthew Jones

34 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 DETAILS

Build a Augment your life:

Record Library
ah! Three substitutions to make this month

#7 Heart Of The Congos

By The Congos (Black Ark, 1977)

Stop playing: Tennis Start playing: Padel

PADEL is the fastest growing sport in the world and it has seen a 76 per cent increase
in participation in the UK. So what is it? Essentially, a cross between tennis and
squash, on a shrunken tennis court with walls on all sides, played using oversized ping
The vinyl revival remains in rude health. pong paddles crossed with tennis rackets. britishpadel.org.uk
Dylan Jones selects an overlooked
classic to hunt out next time you’re flicking
through the crates...
IT’S 1977 and reggae is time down The Roxy in
considered to be the the summer of 1977,
only true radical path this is pretty much all
to follow (by the newly you heard. The Congos’
minted punk rockers, beautiful Heart Of The
at least). Music not Congos was released
so much made by that year, at a time
mavericks, but almost when dub was starting
exclusively by men to take precedence. Forget about: Hodor Follow: Jim Broadbent
who have no truck with Consequently, it
anything else (past, sounded even sweeter We all need our offbeat fan favourites in Game Of Thrones, but as Hodor bought the
present or future). than it might have done farm in series six, we need a new lovable lemming to cheer to their untimely demise.
Forget rock, forget 18 months earlier, which Step forward, Jim Broadbent! He’s playing a grand priest in series seven. He’s only in
funk, forget anything is why it became so five episodes, mind, so don’t get too attached. Returns on 17 July on Sky Atlantic.
else. Reggae existed popular with those
Photographs Full Stop Photography; Getty Images

in a hermetically who could find it.

sealed environment, The standout track is
Illustration Dale Edward Murray; Dave Hopkins

encouraged by an “Fisherman”, one of

island mentality, the greatest reggae
religious militancy and records ever made.
dress codes. It was also Cedric Myron’s falsetto
extraordinarily varied, describes poor
and if you delved Jamaicans toiling on
deeply would come up the waves with an
with everything from unusually profound
Rastafarian vocal sense of purpose. I’m
groups in The Wailers’ not sure it made much Delete: Google Translate Download: Boomerang
tradition, toasting, sense to those of us
lovers rock, leftover lolling around on the Google Translate is excellent, but it’s not infallible. Who among us hasn’t found
bluebeat and ska, and floor drinking Red themselves asking where the local church is and accidentally proposing marriage? Enter
of course the sounds of Stripe, but it sure did Boomerang: it uses the same algorithms but simultaneously translates the translation
dub. If you spent any sound sweet. back into English, so you can check it makes sense. Stuart McGurk

2 Pile coals into a 4 Coals do not

B R I N G YO U R pyramid. Light with a produce flavour (big
‘A’ propane torch (lighter
fluid affects taste),
misconception) –
fat dripping and
GAME
first putting the flame combusting does. So
to the briquettes’ spray vegetables or
No.32 tapered edges to help lean meat with
Barbecue with them catch fire faster. clarified butter.
science
We asked 1 Crimp aluminium foil 3 Rake the coals out. 5 For thick steaks, put
around the barbecue’s Once they have a hairdryer to the vent
food-science
interior. This boosts whitened, pat the food to get the coals hot.
maven and infrared light, which is dry before cooking, Sear the steaks, then
BBQ champion what cooks the food otherwise energy will finish in a low- heat
Nathan Myhrvold and widens the grill’s go into boiling off oven. Check with a
to explain… “sweet spot” where moisture rather than meat thermometer.
heat is consistent. penetrating the meat. 55C is medium-rare.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 35

 Florence and Caroline Michel
Duchess of Cornwall, Peter
THE
Tracey Emin, Terry and Tricia Jones

PARTY
PAG E

While the
sun shines

The Land Rover/GQ dinner

Hay Festival celebrates three
decades of big ideas with GQ
In its 30th year, the Hay Festival
is stronger than ever. Once again,
Bernie Sanders

leading lights from the worlds

of arts and letters gathered in
the Welsh countryside for an

Yanis Varoufakis
invigorating week of talks and
panels. The billing was, as is
now expected, eclectic and
impressive: Eddie Izzard, Nick
Clegg, Garry Kasparov, Tracey
Emin, Bernie Sanders, Brian May
– the list goes on. GQ’s eighth
annual Hay party, in association
with Land Rover, brought many

Will Young
of them together to celebrate
the opening weekend...
Clemency Burton-Hill and Lisa Dwan

Olivia Cole

000 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 Photographs Marsha Arnold; Chris Athanasiou; James Crook; Anna Goldberg;
Joseph Albert Hainey; Paul Musso; Antonio Salgado/JAB Photography

Tanya Burr and Jim Chapman

Nick Clegg Fat Freddy’s Drop

Jeremy Langmead and Lara Mingay Sarfraz Manzoor and Lucas Webb Graham Norton
Alan Yentob

Bettany Hughes and Simon Schama

DETAILS

Tom Daley

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 37

Stephen Fry
 Victoria Grant Richard Pickard Amy Macdonald

Adam Barriball and George Beechener

Jessica Pemberton and

Calum Wragg-Smith

Fat Freddy’s Drop

Tony Parsons

Hanif Kureishi
Eddie Izzard
Ken and Jane McConomy

Marcus Brigstocke and Louise Garosi

Jamie Byng

Tom Hollander

Mark Williams and Thomasina Miers

Louise Brealey

Photographs Paul Musso; Antonio Salgado; JAB Photography; Joseph Albert Hainey
 DETAILS
THE

ENTREPRENEUR

Taavet Hinrikus
The cofounder and CEO of money-sending service TransferWise is one of tech’s hottest
new stars. His startup has achieved ‘unicorn’ status (billion-dollar valued) and
is on track for revenues of £100 million this year. Here, he reveals what he has learned…

Skype’s headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia Pace yourself

Weigh up your options
“I dropped out of university to
become the first employee of Skype,
because I knew I would learn so
much more there. If Skype had gone
bust, I could always have returned
to university, and I’d still have been
a little smarter than before.”
Hinrikus and Kristo
Käärmann with investor
Sir Richard Branson, 2013
Don’t rush into a job
“I did an MBA because when
I left Skype I didn’t have
a clear idea of whether
I wanted to create or join
a company. But you don’t
need an MBA to become
an entrepreneur.”
Based London
Age 36 “Building a business
is a marathon, not a sprint.
I don’t believe it when
EDUCATION people tell me they’ve been
working 80-hour weeks
for five years in a row. I just
1995-1999 don’t think that’s possible.”
Miina Härma Gümnaasium High
School, Tartu, Estonia
2002-2003
Studied computer science at
Tallinn University, Estonia
CAREER IN BRIEF
Hinrikus at World Economic Forum
1995-1997
Part-time senior software
Look beyond the money
engineer at Halo Interactive DDB
“Doing something that empowers
2003-2008 people makes you realise how
Various roles at Skype
boring it would be to work for
2009-2010 a place where the goal is just to
MBA at INSEAD, Singapore make more money. It’s much easier
to get out of bed and look forward
2010
Cofounded TransferWise with
to 12 hours of work if you’re
Kristo Käärmann making the world a better place.”
2011
Launched TransferWise
2015
Backed by ‘superinvestors’ Marc
Andreessen and Ben Horowitz
2016
TransferWise is valued at $1 billion,
affording it ‘unicorn’ status
Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz; Hinrikus
2017
and Kaarman at Old Street Roundabout (right)

TransferWise becomes profitable

Get your pitch right
“A good pitch for funding
You can put lipstick
on a pig, but it’s still a pig
requires clarity. You need
Photograph Getty Images

“No amount of PR works to understand the problem

if you’ve got a bad product.
It has to be better than the
competition and that comes
down to making sure you
Hinrikus visits TransferWise London, 2014
do one thing really well.”
you’re solving, why you’re in
a good place to do it and your
solution needs to be ten times
better than the existing one. It
also has to be a big problem.”
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 39
 FUJIFILM-X.COM/CAMERAS/X-T20
POWERFUL 24.3-MEGAPIXEL X-TRANS CMOS III SENSOR WITH X-PROCESSOR PRO ENGINE
TOUCHSCREEN REAR LCD | 4K VIDEO RECORDING | EASY TO USE ADVANCED SR AUTO MODE
 this month: ring craft p.42 sleazy shirts p.44 think pink p.45 playboy of instagram p.46 geezer chic p.49

This is for the

style lodestars. The
agitators. The peacocks.
This section believes in
combining an aesthete’s
eye with an inner
rebelliousness. From
killer opinion to white-hot
trends, these pages are not
about following tradition,
but beating your own path.

New
Welcome to GQ’s…

House
Rules
Jonathan Heaf
Photograph Henry Diltz/Cache Agency

EDITED BY

Stone free: Keith Richards arrives

at Pittsburg for a gig at the Civic
Arena, 2 May 1979 – see our guide
to airport chic, page 43

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 41

G New House Rules

why
We aren’t sure
whether to
blame Liberace,
Harry Styles or
Alessandro Michele, 5
creative director at
Gucci, but there’s
no doubting that
adorning one’s

you
hands with multiple
rings – whether
ostentatious lions,
7
subtler gems or, 3 6
1
better still, both –
is now a thing.
Our mantra? 8
Wear everything... 4
2

need H OT L I N E B L I N G

liberace
1. Ring by ALEXIS DOVE, £110.
alexisdove.com
2. Ring by GUCCI, £275. At Browns.
brownsfashion.com
3. Ring by THOMAS SABO, £135.
thomassabo.com
4. Ring by ALEXANDER MCQUEEN,
£225. alexandermcqueen.com

hands
5. Ring by DIOR, £460.
dior.com
6. Ring by GUCCI, £205. At Browns.
brownsfashion.com
7. Ring by THOMAS SABO, £180.
thomassabo.com
Illustration by Ricardo Fumanal
8. Ring by VERSACE, £185.
versace.com

It’s time to talk about the male camel toe

Gutter credit hereplease Gutter name here

BEING told you have camel toe is a bit like being told you have good makeup. No. Sorry, I’m
not wearing makeup, this is just the way I look. And my camel toe? Why, that’s awfully kind of
you, but isn’t that a, well, how can I put it? Isn’t that a vaginal thing? Well, apparently not, and
having just been accused of having one (a big one, obviously, borderline gargantuan), I have
been guided through a hastily assembled portfolio of photographs of similarly afflicted men.
And it’s true, men really do have camel toe, especially those of us who tend to wear rather
tight-fitting trousers, in my case expensive narrow chinos from Prada. And what am I going to
do with this information? Simple. I’m going to own it. And possibly buy an even tighter pair of
strides. Because I don’t just want a camel toe. I want a whole foot. Dylan Jones
From left: Shiva KP Keshavan, 2010; Andy Gibb, 1978; Stefan Dennis, 1989; Otto Preminger as Mr
Freeze in Batman, 1966

42 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 G New House Rules

FLY GUYS A I R P O R T ST Y L E

The Rolling Stones, 1965

Want to be the pilot of your
own destiny? On planes, it’s
all about dressing the part...
By Alfie Tong

A QUICK glance at the
airport style of jet-set
icons such as Frank
Sinatra, the Duke of
Windsor and Sixties-era
Rolling Stones, reveals a
blithe disregard for any
modern notions of comfort
and practicality. One look
at Ol’ Blue Eyes striding
across the tarmac in a
three-piece suit, coattails
billowing in the wind with
and down for when the
temperature changes.
Alas, this was during the
golden age of air travel,
when aeroplanes were like
hotels in the sky. Today,
the most common in-flight
fashion crime is to dress
as though you’re already
on holiday. Flip flops,
seersucker shorts and
Hawaiian shirts look nice
in Hawaii, but not so much
The other is the to-
hell-with-it approach
of Mark Ronson, who’s
dressed down a velvet
dinner jacket with black
jeans and black T-shirt.
All of which goes to show,
you needn’t be too precious
when it comes to your
tailored clothing: just
wear it with some macho
chutzpah. In fact, wearing
your ruinously expensive

The Duke of Windsor, 1954

one hand on his hat and
a smug grin on his face,
makes you realise just how
glamorous and exciting
air travel must have been
in the mid-century.
The Duke of Windsor
pulls off a similar look
of breezy, free-flowing
elegance, only with one
of his many pug dogs in
tow and his private plane
Photographs Alamy; Getty Images; Alexander Kent; Edward Quinn; Rex Retouching Robert Taylor
at Luton Airport.
The doyens of modern
celebrity offer us two
stratagems for nailing
airport style. One is loose,
supple athleisurewear
composed of lightweight
layers. This is what Orlando
Bloom is doing here (right),
and is best for long-haul
flights. The accents of red
on his trainers and zip-up
bespoke suit in trying
circumstances, such as
on a flight, not only looks
nonchalant, but is also
more comfortable than
you think. Great for getting
off a short haul flight and
heading straight into a
press conference or red
carpet event.

waiting in the background. top give a bit of attitude

The Rolling Stones look to a look that’s otherwise
as elegantly dishevelled composed entirely of
getting on a jet as they do basics. Remember: basics
Orlando Bloom, 2017

Frank Sinatra, 1956

Mark Ronson, 2016

getting off it, wearing all
manner of peacock suits,
mad hats, high-heeled
boots, Afghan furs, long
scarves, huge bug-eyed
sunglasses – with nary a
thought for layering up
are all well and good, but
if that’s all you’re wearing
then you could end up
looking, well, ”basic”.
So think carefully about
one or two flourishes to
up the style ante.

The business case for… wearing sunglasses in the office*

Sunglasses by PERSOL, £649. persol.com
*Just so long as they feature gradient lenses
SUNGLASSES sans sun usually require a deathly pallor and a morning-
after-the-night-before excuse. No longer. The go-to accessory of the
perennially perambulating (think high flyers and, well, flyers) is now fully
habituated to indoors, thanks largely to the return of the mogul’s dimmer
switch: gradient lenses. By allowing less light to penetrate at the top, and
compensating with near-clear vision at the bottom, there’s really no reason
to take them off. They’re perfect for the hurried yet unharried voyage
through the “cubicles” en route to somewhere far more interesting/exciting
and nigh-on perfect for the professional who prefers not to keep donning
and shedding their aviator-frame face furniture. Bill Prince

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 43

G New House Rules

The reason you’re single?

Your cocktail shirt isn’t sleazy
enough By Jonathan Heaf

Petal power: Leonardo STYLE where style about our favourite The thing is, I like my
DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet; credit’s due: it was British designers. Or women. casual shirts to be a bit,
(below) Bruta’s AW17 singer-songwriter Jack Maybe both. He had a well, sleazy. Something
collection puts flair on
Peñate, almost two years shirt on that caught my that allows for breezy
your chest
ago, who turned GQ onto eye. “Where’s that manoeuvring on the
what this writer now from?” GQ enquired. dance floor, a shirt that
calls “the greatest ever Peñate nearly choked on can be undone to expose
casual shirt label since his salt rim. “Aren’t you a little too much torso
Paul Smith discovered supposed to know this?” and one that has a
linen”. We were at a Touché. Anyway, after straight-cut edge so
party together, actually, endless ribbing he told you can tuck or untuck
it was at shoe-designer me it was from a label depending on how
Charlotte Dellal’s house, called Bruta. From that louche you want to get.
drinking very strong moment on it was pure To add to the decadent
margaritas and talking shirt lust. seediness of their shirts,
London-based label
Bruta uses viscose, which
though semi-synthetic
People just do nothing... – don’t swivel your hips
too close to the fire pit
Look the part at this year’s hippest holiday destinations – makes for a supremely
comfortable wear,
allowing the fabric to
flow over one’s silhouette
like a heavy silk. (If
things are sounding
dangerously like Rod
CAPRI MARRAKECH MONTAUK CARTAGENA ISE-SHIMA Stewart amid all his
(Italy) (Morocco) (US) (Colombia) (Japan) Seventies pomp: good.)
Of course, the real
Mark appeal of a Bruta shirt
Hamish Ronson, is the embroidery,
Mick Jagger, Justin
Jay Z, Justin Bowles, Bruce
PARTY Anthony Trudeau, something the founder
Theroux David Weber, Bourdain Barack
PEOPLE Beckham Jay Obama and creative maverick
McInerney
behind the label, Arthur
LA Gear Lights Yates, has been focusing
Audemars
Denim cut-offs,
“Liquid Gold” on again for his latest
Piguet Harem Guayabera
ALL THE Royal Oak trousers, Saint Laurent shirt collection, which drops
obvs T-shirt
GEAR Selfwinding this month. If we’re
honest, we hope the
success of Bruta’s sleazy
Punta shirts allow for a bit
Tragara El Fenn Ruschmeyer’s El Coro Amanemu more sex appeal to come
(Junior hotel Resort Lounge Bar resort
VIBE HQ Suite) back into menswear.
After all, there’s nothing
wrong with going out to
a bar in a Craig Green
White
A white Girl Nikka samurai outfit made from
Mint tea Aguardiente
SUNDOWNERS Negroni Rosé whisky old bits of driftwood and
(with Suze)
discarded milk bottle
tops – commendable
Pentax K1000
even – but have you ever
DON’T Tribord tried getting laid in an
Pax vaporiser Hobie Mawashi
FORGET snorkelling outfit like that? Thought
mask longboard
YOUR... not. Go Bruta or go home
– alone. bruta.eu

44 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 By Jonathan Heaf

The big

Upgrade your wardrobe with a suit in the

summer’s hottest hue. After all, if it’s good
enough for Harry Styles...
Rock’n’rose: Elvis Presley WALK into your wardrobe. Go on, do it. Now. Don’t
performs in pink at the
bother with all the shirts lined up, colour blocked like
New Frontier Hotel,
one long Farrow & Ball swatch chart, go to the other end,
Las Vegas, 1956
Alex Turner

the section where you keep your suits. Notice anything

in particular about them? That’s right, they’re all navy
TRENDS blue or shark-skin grey. There’s nothing wrong with this
per se – blue and grey are your safe colours; they’ll make
Photographs Backgrid; Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/

a white shirt whiter and allow you to have a decent

amount of fun with a tie that pops – but it’s summer
Getty Images; Photoshot; Rex/Shutterstock; WireImage

2017. With all the chest-thumping and body shots going

on around the Korean Peninsula it may well be the Third
World War before Christmas. Ergo, it’s time to blow off
a little style steam and reach for that one thing you’ve
always considered but never committed to. No, not
Alessandro Michele

a gold Rolex (not yet), but a pink suit, which – thanks

mainly to Harry Styles recently performing on the Today
Show in a bubblegum pink bespoke Edward Sexton
number while looking like a young Elvis Presley – has
become the one thing you want to turn up to your ex’s
wedding wearing. Go high with a bespoke version from
Harry Styles

Sexton or choose one from Reiss – it’s a touch lighter in

shade, sure, but a little less expensive. Twin with a black
Saint Laurent poplin shirt with a Cuban collar and black
JM Weston loafers for maximum front-manliness.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 45


Instagram’s greatest
show-off is an Italian
multimillionaire*
*And you will love him for it
@gianlucavacchi flies, rides and cat daddies his way to
a life worth ’gramming. It’s time to follow his lead
Wheel of fortune:
Thanks to social media,
Bolognese heir and
playboy Gianluca Vacchi
lives life in the lens
LIKE Canute, I held out against
social media for as long as I
could. I am of the vintage that
can remember when information
technology was something
called the Yellow Pages.
Imagine: people looked up
phone numbers in large books...
But then to imagine that you
would have to imagine a distant
past when people used the
phone to speak to each other.
I joined Instagram because
my children told me I should.
46 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
By Nick Foulkes
Unsurprisingly, my addictive
personality dovetailed perfectly
with the algorithmical world.
But I still wondered if it had a
purpose (beyond voyeuristically
checking up on people who
spent a good deal of time posting
pictures and clips carefully
contrived to convey the sense
of a life of ceaseless glamour).
Then, about 18 months ago, I
found Gianluca Vacchi. Vacchi is
the son of an Italian billionaire
from Bologna who made his
money designing and
manufacturing machines
used for packing vehicles,
pharmaceuticals and food
production. Vacchi’s net worth
is said to be around £350
million, with an approximate
annual income of around
£15m. His business ventures
have had mixed fortunes –
he started a watch company,
ToyWatch, in 2006 but sold
it within 12 months and was
allegedly involved in the
Parmalat scandal, which
led to the collapse of one of
the country’s biggest dairy
companies. Still, he has had
vast successes not least with
the branding of lifestyle
products – sunglasses and
Vacchi’s is a life in
harmony with itself,
every post aligned
with his philosophy
so on – together with his close
friend Lapo Elkann.
My discovery was a moment
of epiphany in the truest sense,
an instant in which a truth
is simultaneously revealed,
understood and absorbed in
a far more profound way than
mere logical explanation could
ever achieve. I knew at once
that Instagram was evidence
of divine intervention in the
affairs of men and that its
purpose was to carry the
word of Vacchi to mankind.
The first of his works that I
encountered was “Saturday
Afternoon Fever” – in which
Vacchi, a man only marginally
less tattooed than Melville’s
Queequeg – danced with
a buxom beauty and,
enigmatically, one leg of his
bathing costume rolled up.
I was hooked. It was genius;
uninhibited, obviously
rehearsed (but not so much
that it lost its spontaneity)
and joyous. Rather like
stumbling across an author
you love and discovering an
oeuvre that fills an entire wall
of what people my age used
to call a bookshop, I found
more – much, much more –
all explained by the word
with which he ends many of
his filmlets: “Enjoy!”
There was Vacchi standing up
on the saddle of his motorcycle
in his pyjamas driving down a
hill. There was Vacchi giving
new life to that traditional
jet-set ritual of riding a Jet
Ski in a suit. There was Vacchi
stripped off to the waist, DJing
at a black-tie party at the Ultima
in Gstaad, headphones around
his neck. I stared in amazement
as he rode a motorcycle on the
bottom of a swimming pool.
I became as familiar with the
interior of his private jet as
my own Fiat 500. I recognised
many of his clothes (when he
was wearing them) to be made
by Rubinacci. I hung on his
every, heavily accented, word.
Rather than the boastful
vaunting posturing, there is
a childlike enthusiasm for life.
Vacchi is clearly a man who
invests “a good deal of time
posting pictures and clips
carefully contrived to convey
the sense of a life of ceaseless Photographs Getty Images; Instagram/@gianlucavacchi
glamour” and yet does not
spread envy. Vacchi’s is a life in
harmony with itself, every post
aligned with his philosophy
and credo, He is a true heir of
Aristippus of Cyrene.
In an earlier age, Vacchi
would have been described as
a playboy, knowledge of him
restricted to a small circle of
like-minded and like-moneyed
intimates. Today, his light
shines forth from, the last
time I checked, 9.3m mobile
phones. Enjoy!
 G New House Rules

STAT U S SY M B O L S

2 5

1 By Nick Carvell 7

1. Necklace by SAINT LAURENT,

medall on mEn 2017
Don’t be bound by convention. Unlock the secret to the A listers’ chain game...

£260. ysl.com RYAN Gosling has played some of the most stylish roles in recent movie history. Trust us, it
won’t be long before you’re clamouring for his high collared shearling coat, soon to be seen
2. Necklace by TIFFANY, £215.
in Blade Runner 2049. But what’s really great about Canada’s premier leading man is that
tiffany.co.uk
his off-screen wardrobe is every bit as good as the clothes he wears in movies. So good, in
3. Necklace by GUCCI, £365. gucci.com fact, that he regularly manages to perfect the big trends in menswear before they trickle
down to the rest of us. (As if you needed another reason to hate him.) For example, take
4. Necklace by ALEX ORSO, £110. a look at his neck while he’s off duty and you’ll notice he regularly sports a silver or gold
alexorso.com chain over his T-shirt – nothing too short, nothing too long, but something that bobs up
5. Necklace by TITLE OF WORK, £310. and down like a pair of luxury dog tags, just above his sternum. The good news is that the
At matchesfashion.com men’s market is packed with examples of delicate chains in silver or gold, with a plethora
of pendants for every taste (and price bracket). The key to getting it right is all in the
6. Necklace by LOUIS VUITTON, £465. proportions. For maximum results, choose a slim metal chain with delicately sized links:
louisvuitton.com nothing too low or you risk getting it caught on cab doors/zips/nipples; nothing too tight
or you’ll end up looking like a crusty Ibizan casualty. Keep the detailing hanging off it
7. Necklace by APC, £87. apc.fr
delicate also – a subtle circle or geometric shape is a masculine touch that adds sex appeal:
Pirate of pendants (right): Ryan Gosling anything more garish and you’ll look like Johnny Depp’s jewellery tree. If in doubt, ask one
drops in on Paris, 10 January question: what would Ryan do?

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 47

 UP
As good as it gets:
Jack Nicholson
has the correct attitude
Man-bassadors
to working from home
Forget the lowbrow, ubiquitous
“influencers”. Beauty companies now
need savvy men with a sharp opinion.

Mastered talent courses

£6,000 to be taught art direction by
Fabien Baron? When do we start?

YOTA
Youth Of The Apocalypse...

Ed Westick’s suits
In White Gold. Why no shoppable
tailoring collection? Why?

Higher Dose
Infrared therapeutic sauna spas in
New York are a thing.

Frank Ocean, photographer

His snaps of inside the Met Gala were
almost as good as Daniel Arnold’s.

The new all-day breakfast

(as spotted by @robinderrick)
Smoked salmon, poached eggs
GQ’s Editor makes the case for dressing with purpose, even when you don’t need to. and asparagus at The
Hardwick, Abergavenny.
So get out of those briefs and into some skinny jeans and designer loafers...

THE first thing you need to know is that

What do you have to wear something. You might
you wear think that if you’re working from home it’s OK to
when you... parade around in front of your computer in the
buff, or just a pair of boxers, but it’s not. This way
madness lies, as soon you’ll be spending all day

Photographs Collection Christophel; GC Images; Getty Images; Arthur Schatz/Getty Images; Xposure Photos
on YouTube, snacking in front of the fridge and
Photo-transferred

WORK
generally behaving like a student. So, if you’re
working from home, get dressed. Properly. Not as swim shorts
Particularly if it’s a photograph
properly as Tom Wolfe, obviously – to walk around of a beach.
your home wearing a three-piece suit and spats is,
well, a little bonkers. But you do have to make sure Shirt garters
Unacceptable unless you’re a barman
that the courier isn’t going to choke on his chewing or an 19th-century accountant
gum when you answer the door in a silk brocade from a Dickensian novel.

dressing gown and Wellington boots.

FROM
The RompHim
I spent all of last year writing a big book on David Male. Romper suits. #bants.
Bowie, and because of an immovable deadline,
Collaborations
I spent most days getting up at 6am in order to High fashion brand x vintage
get two hours done before going to work. I was streetwear brand = run out of ideas.
working weekends, too, transcribing and editing
Ryan Adams
tapes, writing and focusing like crazy. And each Together with heroin, he’s responsible
time I got dressed for the part. Seriously, if you’re for the downfall of The Strokes,

HOME?
going to get dressed in the dark, you need a according to Lizzy Goodman’s
brilliant new book, Meet Me In The
uniform, and mine was this: white skinny Levi’s Bathroom: Rebirth And Rock And Roll
jeans; black suede Gucci loafers (no socks, whatever In New York City, 2001-2011.

the time of year) and a navy-blue Sunspel polo Dry Steppers

shirt (collar down, natch). I could have gone to Designer plastic bags to protect
work in this outfit, taken my wife for lunch, or expensive sneakers? Just wear your
Converse, dude.
thrown a jacket on and gone to a cocktail party.
I also saved the lives of many, many motorbike Wellness
By Dylan Jones
couriers. You’re welcome. A modern day illness.

DOWN
48 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
 G New House Rules

The evolution of

GEEZER CHIC
Street life (above):
Paris-style athleisurewear
and tracksuits from 1995
French film La Haine

Streetwear is taking fresh logo-obsessed inspiration from football and rave culture
By Alfie Tong
IT is the style with no definitive
name and yet is as influential as
it is undocumented. It consists
mainly of logoed sportswear and
designer casualwear, as well as
logoed box-fresh trainers, with a
light smattering of gold jewellery.
Did we mention logos? They’re
quite important to this look.
“Casual” has, for the past
30 years, been the aspirational
uniform of the suburbs, the ter-
races and the council estate, and
is currently enjoying a newfound
fashionability after years of being
derided as “chav” – style’s dreaded
c-word. The latest iteration of this
look has been called “Nu Lad” by
trend forecasters. Yuk.
The last few collaborations
from New York streetwear brand
Supreme have been with labels
synonymous with casual style:
Stone Island cagoules, Aquascutum
raincoats and Lacoste tracksuits.
Their London counterparts Palace,
makes regular reference to casual
style in both its prints and logo-
emblazoned cagoule anoraks. Both
labels are popular with skaters,
rappers and grime MCs.
Rafferty Law (son of Jude) and
Rocco Ritchie (son of Madonna
and Guy), both seem to dress
like football hardmen circa 1990.
Even Brooklyn Beckham has gone
mildly roadman. Meanwhile,
Wavey Garms is the website
where fans trade vintage sports
and designer clothing, including
terrace favourites such as Stone
Island, to a new generation of
fans. Drake has an ongoing
love affair with all things
European and football
(he even has a gold-
and-diamond chain of
the Stone Island logo),
and is about to open OVO
in London’s Soho.
Stan Smith trainers, Stone
Island and CP Company
‘Casual’
style has
never
been so
explicitly
fashionable
coats and jackets, Lacoste polo
shirts and cardigans and “herit-
age” labels like Aquascutum and
Burberry were first popularised
by British football fans in the
early Eighties who took to the
terraces of football grounds
to not only fight (casual
style was synonymous
with football violence) but
also flaunt the latest labels.
This was fashion as blood-
sport and, as such, “casual”
never entered the menswear
lexicon in the same way as
teddy boy, mod or punk,
even though more men
Rocco Ritchie
Rafferty Law
dress in a casual way than all of
those style tribes.
There are similar style move-
ments in Italy, France and Russia.
Young men dress like this all over
Europe. The Parisian take on this
look is best seen in the film La
Haine (1995). In Italy, label-loving
football fans called themselves
paninaro, which the Pet Shop Boys
subsequently made a song about.
Casual style has never been so
explicitly “fashionable” – so why
now? “It’s part of the athleisure
phenomenon: sportswear has
become more relevant,” says Steve
Sanderson, founder and direc-
tor of Oi Polloi. “But it gets really
interesting when it crosses over
into skate and hip hop culture.
Whereas before it was white and
working class and didn’t have
music attached to it, in London,
those labels have become closely
connected to grime. It feels fresh
and relevant again.” Whatever you
do, just don’t say the c-word.

LO G O M A N I A ! C A L L YO U R S E L F A N E W G E E Z E R ? N OT BY W E A R I N G T H AT O L D KA P PA T R AC K S U I T

Something To Hate On Moschino

A creative “platform” – including sporadic murky For a scene that is all about luminous gaudy logos, Moschino
merch – formed by Raff Law and his band of is the only brand hot-steppers look to wear on a Friday
London-born style renegades. somethingtohateon.com afternoon, sipping Stella down the rec. moschino.com

Off-White Maison Kitsuné

Many would say this luxe streetwear label is somewhat Yes, it’s expensive, but much like Japanese label A
too fashion for the new geezer generation, but its Bathing Ape, this Parisian label makes chic clothes for
urban edge makes them tough enough. off---white.com rich, sexy musicians. And wannabes. shop.kitsune.fr

Supreme Polo Ralph Lauren

Is there a more desirable counterculture street brand Has there been a tribe that didn’t swoon over “a little
at the moment? Possibly not. The queue starts here. bit of Ralph”? Chose a lairy colour and pop the collar.
supremenewyork.com ralphlauren.co.uk

Palace Stone Island

The skatewear label for stylists/fathers/early adopters From Italian football supporters to English ravers and now
who can’t skate. In danger of becoming this generation’s on the arms of, erm, Drake. Stone Island is poised to do
“Thrasher” tee. palaceskateboards.com for stateside rappers what Tommy Hilfiger did to UK rude
boys – give them some swag. stoneisland.co.uk
Lacoste
Whether on polo shirts or tracksuits the crocodile Richardson
logo is a badge of honour among the most refined Without question the most provocative/buzziest label
new geezers. lacoste.com coming out of NYC currently. Get yourself some
Richardson merchandise and walk tall through planet
Champion fashion. richardsonshop.com
Turning up to a party wearing a Champion jumper is such
an OG move that no one will even question the fact you’re Reebok
wearing a fake Burberry-check cap. champion.com Standard. JH reebok.co.uk

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 49

G New House Rules

coolest
T-shirt by IDEA, £25. At Dover Street T-shirt by FRAME, £172. T-shirt by GUCCI, £285.
Market. doverstreetmarket.com framestore.com gucci.com

in the world

T-shirt by BOOTLEG IS BETTER, £40. T-shirt by MAISON KITSUNÉ, £66. T-shirt by LOUIS VUITTON, £295.
At Goodhood. goodhoodstore.com At farfetch.com louisvuitton.com

Photographs Roger Stillman

Crew up your wardrobe
with hip prints and
typographic hits
T-shirt by NOAH, £82. At Dover Street T-shirt by RAF SIMONS, £280. At Dover T-shirt by THAMES, £38.
Market. doverstreetmarket.com Street Market. doverstreetmarket.com thames-london.com

T H R E E WAYS TO W E A R : A B L E U D E T R AVA I L M A K E T H E F R E N C H M A N ’ S FAVO U R I T E U N I F O R M WO R K F O R YO U

THE ON-THE-SHOULDER CREEP THE MANY LAYERED MAN THE PARISIAN RAKE
Photographer Mario Testino Whatever you do just Although we’re not
knows the crucial thing for don’t call it a shacket. suggesting you go full
men and style is to get Most of the time such Vetements with the sizing
dressed dispassionately workwear, or a “Bill” here, sometimes choosing
in clothes that look really – named after the late a jacket that is a little too
expensive. That’s why New York Times street roomy can give you a
whenever he turns up to photographer Bill debonair sort of vibe
a gala night, he’ll hang his Cunningham who wore – scruffy can look chic
tux off both shoulders like these Yves Klein-blue if done with precision.
a half-cut cad. Do the same jackets daily – should Twin with well-worn
with your blue workman’s be worn straight, no fuss. black jeans, a big
jacket (Le Mont Saint But throw a denim jacket Seventies belt, a white
Michel or Vetra do the underneath (done up) button-down shirt and
best) with a Cuban shirt and suddenly your a narrow woven tie
underneath tucked into a layering game jumps (undone at the top) for
narrow pair of dark chinos, to the next level. a look that is just gasping
or even a light merino wool for a French 75. JH
rollneck if it’s breezy out. Illustrations by Bill Hope

50 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 E D I T E D BY MATTHEW JONES

Return
of
the
Mac S TO RY BY JASON BARLOW

For their latest Maranello-beater, Woking’s wunderkinds tore up the rulebook. GQ takes the McLaren 720S
from town to track and finds a dizzying six-figure speedster that rivals the £1 million monsters

Lift off: Unprecedented aerodynamics allow the 720S to cut through to a blistering 212mph top speed

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 53

 cLaren has parked its new tank on Ferrari’s

  lawn. The 720S is unusually aerodynamic for

Anatomy of the
a tank, considerably lighter and much, much McLaren 720S
faster, but as Rome rubs the sleep out of its When McLaren began work on the
eyes, our first taste of this new British super- 720S in 2013 it had a wish list and
everything the bosses wanted has
car will take us close to Caracalla, scene of Ferrari’s first racing
been achieved, merging science
victory, almost exactly 70 years ago. A mischievous coincidence. with soul like no car ever before.
The Italian legends have done more than most in the The engineers in Woking kindly took
intervening decades to locate the sweet spot between arti- a car apart for us so we can show
sanship and engineering. The company was presided over by you some of the highlights.

a potentate, Enzo Ferrari, whose towering personality and

guile proved as good at crafting a narrative as it was at creat- 1. Bumper
The front bumper’s aero blades
ing cars. This was a man who wore sunglasses inside on even were inspired by the P1 and a duct
the darkest day to prevent his eyes from betraying his mood. below the LED headlights channels
McLaren Automotive isn’t yet ten years old, so it can’t air to the radiators. McLaren calls
compete on age, even if its racing division dates back to 1963 this an “eye socket”. We think it
should change the name.
and famously employed a certain Ayrton Senna in his imperial
phase. But something special’s going on, because the 720S is 2. Mirrors
one of the most singularly impressive motorcars of all time. Mounted on the outer section, the
In replacing the 650S, Woking has embarked on its very own mirrors allow clean air to run from
moonshot, with otherworldly results. the A-pillars into a channel hidden
deep within the double-skinned
McLaren says 91 per cent of the 720S is new and the dihedral doors. From there, the
enlarged 4.0-litre V8 engine features 41 per cent new content: air flows into slats either side of
turbos, intercoolers, cylinder heads, crankshaft, pistons and the engine and into the radiators.
exhaust. This equates to a power output of 710bhp, 568lb ft
3. Drive mode
of torque, 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds, 0-124mph in 7.8 and the You can choose between comfort,
ability to brake from that same speed in just 4.6 seconds and sport or track mode. The 720S’
117m. You want a weapons analogy? This is more of an inter- chassis uses multiple sensors – 12
continental ballistic missile than a tank. more than in the 650S – to monitor
inputs from the road. The information
It was actually Lamborghini not Ferrari that set the template 1
is processed in milliseconds by
for the mid-engined supercar, more than 50 years ago with the “optimal controller” algorithm,
the incomparable Miura. Its body had the curvaceous grace of developed by McLaren in
a Dolce Vita-era Cinecittà movie star, but it was an intimidat- conjunction with PhD research
ing, often truculent driving experience. In 2017, McLaren has from Cambridge University.

delivered a car that is as easy to pilot around Italy’s chaotic 4. Turbos

capital as a Fiat Panda and possibly even easier to see out The ultra-low inertia, twin-scroll
of. The 720S upends the diktat that says cars like this should twin turbos spool up even faster
than before to reduce lag and
punish the driver until they’re in full flight: its ride is plush
sharpen throttle response. The red
and it’s quiet when you want it to be. But while the McLaren’s line in first and second gear is
operating window is vastly larger than anyone would have 8,100rpm and 8,200 in the next four.
dared dream 50 years ago, it still generates maximum theatre
in terms of its visuals, even if its complexity and the need for 5. Exhaust
McLaren has reworked the harmonics
unprecedented aerodynamic efficiency stops it from being on the new exhaust system for
naturally beautiful. a distinctive soundtrack. The optional
sports exhaust uses an intake sound
Performance bonus: When it comes to crazy statistics, generator to pump more volume
the 720S’ options list is as breath-taking as its performance figures into the cabin via twin vents mounted
between the seats on the rear bulkhead.

Carbon racing 6. Cooling

seats: £5,120 Despite being mid-engined, the
720S has a clean fuselage (compare
it to the Ferrari 488 GTB’s large side
intakes). Nevertheless, cooling has
been improved by 15 per cent. Lower
Nose lift vents behind the doors are a trick
system: that first appeared on the 675 LT.
£2,070

McLaren Special 7. Rear

Operations paint: £7,750 The rear of the 720S is 145mm
lower than the 650S and the
McLaren Track
Telemetry app aerofoil-style rear wing generates
and cameras: 30 per cent more downforce.
£3,480 The rear diffuser flows up from
Bowers & Wilkins the car’s smooth underside
Colour-coded and features sharper blades
12-speaker audio
brake callipers:
system: £3,540 to increase downforce.
£1,100

54 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

2 CARS

5
4

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 55

 Woking dream:
Principal architect Rob
Melville describes the
design of the 720S as
functional jewellery

‘I bought one,’ says serious supercar owner and YouTuber, Mr JWW, who loved the 720S so much he ordered a car before it launched.
Here’s why... “When McLaren unveiled the MP4-12C, I somehow managed to wangle an invite to drive one of the very early cars at the Top Gear circuit.
I remember it like yesterday because it was the first car I’d driven that really felt like a taste of the future. A few years later, I find myself owning a McLaren
675LT, which transpired to be one of the best supercars I’d ever driven. In truth, I actually bought a 720S before I’d even seen one and before it even
had a name. That’s because of the lineage and my incredible experiences with McLarens so far. The latest and greatest was just too exciting to ignore.”

56 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 CARS

“Design is where you bring all the

elements together,” the 720S’ princi-
Runs
pal architect, Rob Melville, explains.
“Styling is just one aspect of it. We
in the
want to create breathtaking products family McLaren McLaren McLaren McLaren
that tell you the visual story of their 720S F1 650S Honda MCL32
function and we’re guided by four
things. Nature, and the idea of ‘func- Engine 710bhp 627bhp 641bhp 632bhp
tional jewellery’. We want to be true
with the materials we use – it has to Engine capacity 3,994cc 6,064cc 3,799cc 1,600cc
be authentic. The proportions need to
be perfect. And we are always brave. Cylinders 8 12 8 6
“The dihedral doors were the biggest
challenge. We did feel the pain getting 0-62mph 2.9 seconds 3.3 seconds 3.0 seconds 2.1 seconds
those right. You don’t open them so
much as begin unpeeling the car.” Top speed 212mph 243mph 207mph 230mph
That process turns out to be deeply
satisfying. The 720S somehow com- Price new £208,600 £635,000 £195,250 £6m (estimate)
bines the ergonomic efficiency of a
racing car with the technical luxury of
a modern GT. The principal read-outs
It feels even the manic limited series 675 LT traction control system on its GT race

are housed directly ahead, as you’d
expect, but the “folding display” is gen-
uinely innovative, the idea being that
you can focus on the most important
information if you’re on a track. This is
a car with multiple moods, a conscious-
ly engineered bipolarity that’s overseen
by a series of drive mode controls that
live in a vertical pod to the left of the
wheel. The D, N and R buttons are in
another pod that tapers flamboyantly
towards the bottom. There’s also a
breathtaking 1,280 watt audio system,
whose speakers are seamlessly blended
into the ebb and flow of the interior. It
feels more like wiring yourself into an
organism than jumping into a car.
Driving anything around Rome is a
risky enterprise at the best of times,
but the 720S is easy. Buzzing hordes
of hyperactive Vespas fail to disappear
into a blind spot, because there aren’t
any. Tyre noise and mechanical thrum
are negligible at regular cruising speeds.
In fact, in terms of ease-of-use, you
could almost be in an airport rental.
Turn up the heat, though, and the
McLaren does the thing anything that
can warp to 60mph in less than three
seconds does: compress time. Fast
hatchbacks can do that age-old incre-
ment in under five seconds, which wins
a certain amount of bragging rights. A
select few cars can do it in less than
four. But beating three seconds is when
forward motion happens faster than
your brain can really process it and the
McLaren keeps on keeping on, reeling
in the horizon with a relentlessness that
borders on the surreal.
Shift times on the seven-speed dual-
shift box are 45 per cent faster than
more like
delivered and its performance is on a
par with the £1 million P1 hypercar.
wiring You can sense the chassis electron-
yourself ics doing their thing, but they’re so
expertly calibrated that any interven-
into an tion is almost imperceptible. Even then,
organism you’ll have to be pushing very hard
than indeed. The 720S’ limits aren’t merely
sky-high, they’re stratospheric.
jumping McLaren let GQ loose on a brilliant
into a car circuit called Vallelunga, an hour’s drive
north of Rome – scene of old-school
derring-do by many of Italy’s most cele-
brated post-war racing heroes. There are
plenty of opportunities here to make a
fool of yourself, but the 720S lets you
choose between fast, very fast and “are
we really going that fast?” According to
McLaren, the new variable drift control
software “delivers additional enjoyment
in sport and track modes, with finger-
tip control of electronic stability control
Screen time: intensity” and if that sort of showboat-
The 720S has a ing is your thing, just turn it all off
new infotainment
system and a
and revel in the car’s awesome chassis.
folding display McLaren uses a similar nine-stage
cars and the company’s raconteurish
chief test driver, Chris Goodwin, reckons
it helps optimise setup for whichever
track you regularly visit. The 720S’ inte-
grated telemetry software is another
push in that direction, but frankly I
think you’d be barmy to go anywhere
near a circuit in your £208,600 McLaren.
And that’s at the cheaper end of
the spectrum: start working your way
through the options list and things get
very expensive very quickly. Much of
the 720S is made of carbon fibre, but
even so a three-part carbon exterior
upgrade package is an additional
£18,000. Inside, you’ll need another
£3,180 for carbon-fibre seat backs. Hell,
even the parking sensors are £1,000 (no
carbon there, either). GQ’s test car actu-
ally featured £74,000 of extras.
On the other hand, the 720S is the
best McLaren since 1993’s unicorn-
rare F1 and you won’t find one of those
for less than about £8m nowadays.
Perversely, then, this new car isn’t just
brilliant, it’s also a bargain.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 57

It is our rich history of exploration that led us to discover people around the world
who pursue a different kind of wealth. Together they form the San Miguel Rich List –
a unique group of men and women who value experiences over any possession.

We are searching for more inspirational people who share our thirst for discovery,
creativity or new experiences. For a chance to feature in the San Miguel Rich List,
nominate yourself or someone you know at SanMiguel.co.uk/Apply

UK residents, 18+ to nominate, 25+ to feature. 1-4 Rich List places available. Closes 30th July 2017. To see full T&Cs visit SanMiguel.co.uk/Apply
 the restaurant O the bar O the hotel O the pub O the recipe O the neighbourhood O the bottle

The Restaurant
Risin

rietta
g

Hen
sta
r

n’s
ch

rde
ef
Ol

Ga
li e

t
en
Da

ov

bo
b

us C
b to
rin se
gs es
his fin
trade nd
mark freshness a
Photograph Joakim Blockstrom

Shellraiser:
Henrietta’s roast
SON
EDI
TED scallop with crushed
BY B I L L P R I N C E & PAU L H E N D E R
peas and mint

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 59


Comfort eating:
Henrietta’s mezzanine
dining room and bar
Henrietta
Covent Garden heats up as firebrand Ollie Dabbous moves into the neighbourhood
WHILE there is nothing wrong with
a slow burner in the restaurant world,
Ollie Dabbous arrived into foodie
consciousness like a towering inferno.
His first venture, Dabbous, engulfed
its kindling within a few weeks of
opening. A deluge of five-star reviews
saw the unwitting newcomer – with
an unknown chef, just 36 covers and
dishes starting at £4 – battling a
mammoth waiting list of six months
and more. Five years on, the gold dust
that gilded its tables has been swept
up for good, with Dabbous closing its
doors to shine the spotlight on the
restaurant’s new sister, Henrietta.
“When I opened Dabbous, I thought
I’d be there for the next ten, 15 years,
but there’s no way to expand there,”
he explains. “It’s not scary. I just see it
as progress.” With another opening
slated for next year, Henrietta is the
60 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
THE RESTAURANT
beginning of the natural, and
necessary, expansion of Dabbous’
talent. In the heart of Covent Garden,
the restaurant is a collaboration
between the Michelin-starred chef and
the Paris-hailing Experimental Group,
also behind London’s Experimental
Cocktail Club and Compagnie Des Vins
Surnaturels. “They’re an independent
company with an independent spirit,”
says Dabbous. “The bars and
restaurants don’t feel like copy and
paste projects. They’re all individual,
and there’s a kind of sexiness to all
their places that is quite Gallic.”
The restaurant is the pièce de
résistance of Henrietta Hotel, a petite
18-room bolt hole that is unusually
homely for its location. “I want it
to feel like a great neighbourhood
restaurant,” says Dabbous. Henrietta
sports a “more feminine” vibe than its
predecessor – lighter, warmer and not
as afraid of a home comfort or two as
its brutish older brother. Fans of the
food at Dabbous, however, have little
to fear. “There’s no fundamental
change of style, in that I can only
cook one way and that’s light, fresh,
seasonal and product-driven,” says
Dabbous. “It’s not attention-seeking
food, which I get quite tired of.”
The roster is bursting with the kind
of flavours that Dabbous is known to
deliver with the lightest of touches,
but it’s some of his more robust dishes
that steal the show. The barbecued
quail with fenugreek, toasted wheat,
almonds and clover is at once earthy,
fruity and fragrant. One eyebrow-
raiser comes in the form of chocolate
truffles infused with pencil shavings
– “without the lead”, we’re assured.
Delivering nostalgia you didn’t know
you needed, these silky morsels are
teeming with complex woody notes
that are a treat for those who like
their chocolate dark and intricate. As
Dabbous says, “It’s an eclectic larder,
but the menu has a sense of restraint.”
With freshly baked madeleines also
at the end of the menu, be sure to
restrain yourself enough to make it to
dessert. In his more comfortable new
home, Ollie Dabbous could be entering
the belle époque of his already
impressive career. Ailis Brennan
Say it with flowers: Beef tartare with
nasturtiums; (below) roast Cornish
cod with potted shrimp
OH
 enrietta Hotel,
14-15 Henrietta
Street, London
WC2. henrietta
hotel.com
 TASTE

THE GADGET SMALL BITES

Üllo
A new sulphite filter promises to vanquish
wine’s worst aftereffects Where we have been
COULD it be true? A simple gadget can prevent a skull-rattling
eating this month...
wine hangover? Well, sort of. Slowly pour your wine through
Üllo, a smart, rubbery bowl with a polymer filter, and it both
aerates the liquid and selectively sifts out sulphites. These
preservatives are added to the bottle to aid storage – but,
as they are an allergen that could be giving your post-wine
headache a particularly powerful punch, sulphites have no
place in your glass. The result is a “purified” wine with a fresher,
more balanced flavour. That pesky alcohol content remains the
same, though, so moderation – and water – are still your most
sensible drinking companions. Jennifer Bradly

O£66. ullowine.com Dirty Bones, Soho

NY comfort food specialists, Dirty
Bones, have a new outpost in Soho.
They also do an outstanding brunch.

Lympstone Manor THE HOTEL

Raymond Blanc’s ideological heir exceeds high expectations in Exmouth
MICHAEL Caines was feeling restless. It was 2013 and he was
coming up to his 20th year as executive chef at Dartmoor’s
two Michelin-starred Gidleigh Park hotel. “I had got as far as
I could,” reflects the 48-year-old. “Something had to change
in my life.” He decided to buy a neglected Georgian pile with
28 acres of gardens and parkland on the Exe estuary and
transform it into a luxurious country house hotel of his own.
The result: Lympstone Manor. Critics have hailed it as one
of the most exciting such openings since Raymond Blanc
launched Oxfordshire’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons back in
the Eighties.
Caines believed that the country house hotel genre had
developed connotations of stuffiness, so it was crucial to him
Photographs Karel Balas
Standout dish:
Slow ’N’ Low ribs with grilled
hispi cabbage.
14 Denman Street, London W1.
020 7920 6434. dirty-bones.com
an exploded chandelier in the dining
room. There’s a muted colour palette
that evokes the surrounding landscape
and this sense of place is carried into
the 21 bedrooms, each named after
a bird found in the area (Greenfinch,
Oystercatcher, Fieldfare) and decorated
with paintings of its namesake. Inspired
by Soho House’s Babington House, six
of the bedrooms come with outdoor
marble bathtubs. The view across the
BurgerFi
gardens to the Exe is astonishing.
The fastest-growing burger chain in
One thing you’ll notice is there’s no the US (and they would know!) has
spa. While there are walks and bike rides landed in London. Find out what all

that Lympstone had a certain sprezzatura. “If you’re young

the fuss is about...
or old, you can appreciate its beauty and glamour,” he says. to be had, dining takes centre stage –
Standout dish:
“It’s unashamedly luxurious but in a completely contempo- Lympstone is a restaurant with rooms. The Conflicted burger, Cry+Fry
rary way.” GQ can attest to that. The Grade II-listed building Caines is noticeably present around (onion rings and fries) and a red
the house, greeting guests in his whites velvet shake.
is a grand piece of architecture, yet its interior is decid-
40-42 Woburn Place, London WC1.
edly cool: modern geometric furnishings and a handful of and regularly checking in on the front- 020 3865 2848. burgerfi.co.uk
big design statements, such as a copper horseshoe bar and of-house. It’s what he does in the
kitchen, however, that makes the place.
The eight-course signature menu is a
Manors maketh the man:
Lympstone’s Berry
greatest hits from across the chef’s career,
Head dining room including langoustine cannelloni, quail’s
egg tartlet and chocolate orange confit
mousse. The sommelier teams Caines’
cooking with an array of adventurous
wines. In years to come, Lympstone plans
to have its own vineyard.
Caines started his career at Le Manoir,
so how does he feel about Lympstone Heliot Steak
being compared to Blanc’s flagship? A steak lover’s hack – it’s hidden in
the West End’s Hippodrome casino
“I make that comparison myself,” he but serves artfully prepared USDA
says. “I do it with pride.” He’s right to. cuts that won’t break the bank.
Charlie Burton Standout dish:
28-day aged 250g medium fillet and
ORooms from £245 a night. sweet potato fries.
Courtlands Lane, Exmouth EX8 3NZ. Cranbourn Street, London WC2. 020
lympstonemanor.co.uk 7769 8888. hippodromecasino.com

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 61


THE RECIPE
Potato and chorizo stew
This stew from Rioja is simple, but the important part is to cut
the potatoes correctly so their starch thickens the sauce
OIngredients
4 potatoes
240g mild (or spicy)
cooking chorizo
25ml extra virgin olive oil
(plus extra to serve)
1 large Spanish onion
(julienned)
2 bay leaves
100ml white wine
1L chicken stock or
water (or a 50-50
mixture of both)
Sea salt and freshly
ground black pepper,
to taste
2 tbs chopped
fresh parsley
62 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
THE BOOK
Sabor: Flavours From
A Spanish Kitchen by
Nieves Barragán Mohacho
AFTER nearly a decade as the
executive head chef at the
Michelin-starred Barrafina,
the highly acclaimed Basque-born chef
Nieves Barragán Mohacho announced she
was leaving the Hart brothers’ group to
set up her own restaurant. However, until
that happens, fans of her cooking will
have to take a more DIY approach to
satisfying their cravings. This month
sees the release of her second recipe
book. Featuring some of her best dishes,
Sabor is full of rustic
flavours, hearty family
favourites and light
tapas. In other words,
summer on a plate.
OSabor: Flavours From A
Spanish Kitchen (Fig Tree,
£25) by Nieves Barragán
Mohacho is out on 6 July.
THE BOTTLE
(serves 4) Veuve Clicquot
Extra Brut Extra Old
What’s better than a vintage
OMethod Half cover the pan with champagne? Six, at once...
a lid and continue
Peel and partially cut cooking on a low- VEUVE Clicquot’s new bottle
into potatoes, then pull medium heat. The
is a nonvintage champagne
them apart into chunky, more slowly you cook
uneven-edged pieces with a twist: it is comprised
it, the more starch
around 3cm in size. Cut will come out of the solely of reserve wines. Extra Brut
the chorizo to half the potatoes – it should Extra Old is the product of six vintages
size of the potatoes. take about 25 minutes. (1988, 1996, 2006, 2008, 2009
Put the olive oil into When the potatoes are and 2010) meaning that all its
a big pan on a medium cooked through, add
constituents have been vat-aged
heat, then add the the chopped parsley.
for at least three years before
onion and cook gently Serve with a drizzle of
being bottled and laid in the
for about 15 minutes, olive oil to finish, and
without colouring. Add cellar for a further three. It’s this
bread to dip.
the chorizo and when it decision to go “extra old” that
starts to caramelise, has led to the “extra brut” part –
add the potatoes, bay
the wines are so rich and sprightly,
leaves and wine. Cook
until the wine has the blend only requires 3g
evaporated, then add of sugar. A champagne for
the chicken stock and/ champagne lovers. Charlie Burton
or water and season.
O£69. veuveclicquot.com
 TASTE

THE BAR

Scout Sustainable cocktails with creativity to spare

WASTE not want not is the motto that

drives east London’s Scout, where cocktail
ingredients are strictly seasonal, and provided
by British foragers and farmers. What Scout
lacks in ingredients, it makes up for in
creativity – though its ten daily-changing
cocktails, created by founder Matt Whiley
(The Peg + Patriot, Whistling Shop), will
leave Mojito devotees disappointed.
That said, once you try £11 concoctions
such as the Parsnip (a sweet improvement
on the Old Fashioned, with parsnip, brown is created from the drinks’ leftover
butter and whisky) and the Shiso (minty ingredients. While this may sound like a
Shiso leaves, honey wine and vermouth), pretty way of describing the dustbin, the
you’ll be more than happy to drown your fennel salami and lacto-fermented kohlrabi
sorrows the Scout way. These cocktails are with sourdough was delicious, as was the
brewed and bottled in the bar’s basement Androuet cheese with smoked apple purée.
cocktail lab, but are served at ground level. Undoubtedly the best thing about Scout,
THE PUB
Championing what is known as “close however, is the Nineties R&B playlist, which
loop” cocktailing, Scout’s short snack menu lures in all the right people. Eleanor Halls
The Tickell Arms, O3 Great Eastern Street, London EC2. 020 7686 8225. scout.bar
Cambridgeshire
Savour British summer at a village with a THE ROUNDUP
touch of Middle Earth in Middle England
EVEN though it is an overfamiliar convention, it’s still
The three best rooftop clubs
a delight to stumble across a pretty, welcoming pub in to party on this summer
the heart of an English shire – especially when the
sun is shining. The Tickell Arms is just such an Shoreditch House Radio Rooftop Bar Pergola On The Roof
enjoyable cliché. This duck-egg blue country house 1 Ebor Street, 336-337 Strand, Television Centre,
London E1 London WC2 Wood Lane, London W12
sits in Whittlesford, five miles south of Cambridge,
shoreditchhouse.com radiorooftop.com pergolaontheroof.com
and its ornate woodwork around the pointed windows
and doors gives it a Lord Of The Rings Elvish-chic.
Inside, the bar is as you would wish: lived in but
elegant. Its real asset is the new conservatory/
restaurant, which sits next to a freshly renovated
garden surrounded by verdant terracing and a pond
with a waterfall. Around that, a collage of trees the
colour of red setters, olives and avocados bears
down on happy drinkers and diners.
Many of the beers are local, two of the best being
Milton Pegasus, which has a caramel smoothness
without being sickly, and Brewster’s Hophead, Turn up: At 11pm, when Turn up: At 9pm, to watch Turn up: At 6pm sharp,
perfect for an afternoon in this suntrap spent everyone has got out of the sun set over the city before the queues start
the Square Bar and is from the stylish and cosy snaking from the food stalls:
watching heron pinch fish from the pond. The entire dancing on the roof instead. outdoor sofas. Salt‘n’Sauce, 8 Hoxton
wine list is sourced from Languedoc-Roussillon: try Wearing: A bomber jacket Wearing: A crisp shirt and
Square, Patty & Bun and
Breddos Tacos.
the mineral tang of the Clos Des Papillons. and Adidas Boosts. It may be chinos – leave the trainers
In the restaurant, GQ began with the duck parcel, a members’ club, but you’re at home. Wearing: A white linen shirt
still in Shoreditch. and aviators. The theme is
packed with satisfyingly rich, sticky meat. We Drink this: A berry-infused
Long Island summer.
Drink this: An Espresso gin and Fever Tree tonic,
followed this with pork tenderloin, served with balls Martini, while lounging on a or a bottle of Dom Pérignon Drink this: It’s got to be
of ham hock, black pudding crumb, baby onions and red-and-white striped sunbed. for the table. Long Island Iced Tea, right?
carrot purée. With Tenderstem broccoli and red wine Eat that: The free pick-and- Eat that: Chips and caviar. Eat that: The spicy fried
mix by the indoor ping pong Yes, really. chicken tacos from Breddos.
gravy, it managed, despite the busy plate, to stay tables in the Square Bar.
Standout feature: There Standout feature: The
nuanced and balanced, each ingredient contributing Standout feature: The are spectacular views of Hamptons décor: think
to something really special. Other standouts were the heated pool. Swimming ends the Thames – after all, you whitewashed wood and
at 10pm, but they can’t stop are on the tenth floor. palm trees.
venison haunch with rosemary and potato croquettes you falling in after hours...
and the lemon sole. The menu changes every couple Getting cold? Make tracks Getting cold? Er, grab
Getting cold? Head to the makeshift dance a blanket.
of months, but this little piece of Middle-Earth/ downstairs to The Library floor inside, where live
DJs spin electro until 2am. Rooftop rule: Don’t hog
England is consistently good. George Chesterton for some old-school hip hop.
the 13-person sunbeds
Rooftop rule: No phone Rooftop rule: Over 21s only. with only two people. It’s
photos allowed. Sorry kids. not worth the evils.
ONorth Road, Whittlesford, Cambridge, CB22 4NZ.
01223 833025. cambscuisine.com Rooftop rating: 10/10 Rooftop rating: 9/10 Rooftop rating: 8/10 EH

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 63

 TASTE

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Jewellery Quarter,
Birmingham
Old bullion workshops and warehouses are now elegant
bars and restaurants in the heart of the second city
Train: From London Euston to Birmingham New Street, from £40 return.
virgintrains.co.uk. Time: 1h 24min

The residents and boutique hotels are still not

Above: The
exterior of
business folk of the
The Pig & Jewellery Quarter
Tail and a
are rightly proud
selection of
its sharing of how they have turned this
platters (left) distinct and characterful pocket
of the second city into their
own version of Shoreditch via
Southwark. Enclosed within four
main roads just northwest of the
city centre, its old warehouses
and small factories are being
transformed into a vibrant hub
of restaurants and bars, with
soaring property prices to match.
The majestic original Thirties
windows of (1) The Pig & Tail
(12-13 Albion Street. B1 3AH.
Above: 0121 212 9964. thepigandtail.
Lasan, whose
refined
co.uk) give this bar a sense of
Indian menu, the spectacular. The fish platter
includes
Navrataani
with crab, celeriac and apple
slaw is a hit, as is the pulled
lamb (right)
lamb with flatbread. The
Sonoma pale ale combines
tea with oak and there is an
ever-changing list of British
beers to keep regulars on their
toes. The baked Oreo and
Baileys cheesecake is the dessert
equivalent of a punch in the
face. In a good way.
The décor at (2) Lasan (3-4
Dakota Buildings, James Street.
B3 1SD. 0121 212 3664. lasan.
Above:
there in terms of style and Rocket-topped
service – a business-oriented wood-fired
pizza at Chris
but elegant venue with beds James’ Otto
as wide as they are long, an restaurant
excellent spa and a bistro that
serves up braised mutton and
miso-marinated cod.
Emblematic of the JQ spirit,
Chris James’ (4) The Eight
Foot Grocer (15 Caroline Street.
B3 1TR. 0121 448 2388.
the8footgrocer.com) is a deli for
small bites and coffee, with a
range of esoteric products from
British and European suppliers.
Next door, he’s opened (5) Otto,
(14 Caroline Street, B3 1TR,
From above:
07729 747841. ottowoodfired. Pink grapefruit
com), serving classic pizzas from at Two Cats
Kitchen;
a wood-fire oven and full of (right) St Louis
shrewd locals out for the hunter’s ribs as served
salami and seared peppers. at The Church
Chef Niki Astley has taken
ideas and techniques from
around the Baltic and put them
to use in his beautifully simple
menu at (6) Two Cats Kitchen
(27 Warstone Lane. B18 6JQ.
0121 212 0070. twocatskitchen.
com). Hidden down an alley
amid old workshops that lend
the locale a touch of carney,
GQ opted for the smaller four-
course tasting menu (it changes

Jewellery Qu
Above: Hotel co.uk) might be anaemic, but constantly) including duckling,
du Vin; (left) the food definitely isn’t. GQ’s a mountain of crab and moreish
its salt-baked
highlights included paneer and smoked butter.
ar
beetroot dish;
te

(below) The pineapple chutney, soft shell crab If delicacy is not for you, 7
40

Eight Foot
r

with sour mango followed by a head for (7) The Church

A45

Grocer
lamb loin cutlet marinaded in (22 Great Hampton Street,
Li
ve

6
black cardamom, a rillette of B18 6AQ. 0121 448 3866.
r
t

4 5
Stree

St

shoulder and smoked lababdar churchjq.co.uk) for some

re
et
erick

gravy (which sent us into down-home American 2

1
et
et

raptures). It’s better than much snacks, with an emphasis

Fred

re
re

St
St

gourmet Indian food in London: on New Orleans.

e
e

tt
rg

rlo
eo

punchy, varied but subtle. Jambalaya is the signature 3

a
G

Ch

Your best bet for comfort and
convenience is the (3) Hotel Du
Vin (25 Church Street. B3 2NR.
0121 794 3005. hotelduvin.com/
birmingham) – the JQ’s few
dish, but you’ll be happily
stuffed whichever way you
go, as GQ found with the
chilli-cheese fries. Satisfaction 40 m
guaranteed. GC

64 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 The winner of
66 major awards

GQ is the only magazine in Britain dedicated to bringing you the very best in style,
investigative journalism, comment, men’s fashion, lifestyle and entertainment.
British GQ is the magazine to beat
NEW! 2017 CNI Best Brand Financial Performance In 2009 PPA Writer Of The Year
Native Advertising 2008 BSME Editor Of The Year
NEW! 2017 CNI Best Native Campaign Of The Year 2007 BSME Magazine Of The Year
2016 BSME Editor Of The Year 2007 BSME Brand Building Initiative Of The Year
2016 Digiday Awards Europe Video Team Of The Year 2007 MDA/MJA Press Gazette Awards Best Cover
2016 Shots Awards Brand Entertainment 2007 P&G Awards Best Styling (GQ Style)
Of The Year - Series 2006 P&G Awards Best Grooming Editor (GQ Style)
2016 Ciclope Festival Finalist, Best Direction 2006 P&G Awards Best Styling (GQ Style)
2016 Lovie Long Form Or Series Video First Place 2006 MDA/MJA Press Gazette Awards
2016 Lovie Long Form Or Series Video People’s Choice Interviewer Of The Year
2015 DMA Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Of The Year 2006 MDA/MJA Press Gazette Awards
2015 FMJA Stylist Of The Year (GQ Style) Best Designed Consumer Magazine
2014 BSME Digital Art Director Of The Year 2006 MDA/MJA Press Gazette Awards
Subbing Team Of The Year
2014 DMA Designer Of The Year
2006 PPA Writer Of The Year
2014 TCADP Media Award 2005 PPA Writer Of The Year
2014 FPA Feature Of The Year 2005 Magazine Design Awards Best Cover
2014 FPA Journalist Of The Year 2004 Association Of Online Publishers Awards
2014 Amnesty International Media Award Best Website
2014 PPA Editor Of The Year 2004 BSME Magazine Of The Year
2014 FMJA Online Fashion Journalist Of The Year 2003 PPA Writer Of The Year
2013 EICA Media Commentator Of The Year 2002 BSME Magazine Of The Year
2013 DMA Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Of The Year 2002 PPA Writer Of The Year
2013 BSME Editor Of The Year 2001 BSME Magazine Of The Year
2013 FMJA Outstanding Contribution To 2001 PPA Designer Of The Year
London Collections Men 2001 Printing World Award
2013 PPA Magazine Writer Of The Year 2000 Total Design Award
2012 Mark Boxer Award 2000 Jasmine Award Winner
2012 BSME Editor Of The Year 1999 Printing World Award
2012 DMA Lifestyle Magazine Of The Year 1999 Jasmine Award Winner
2012 Help For Heroes Outstanding Contribution 1999 PPA Designer Of The Year
2012 Px3 Prix De La Photographie Paris Gold Medal 1995 Ace Press Award Circulation
2011 Foreign Press Association Media Awards, Sports 1995 Ace Press Award Promotion
2011 Amnesty International Media Award 1995 PPA Columnist Of The Year
2010 Amnesty International Media Award 1994 PPA Publisher Of The Year
2010 One World Media Press Award 1991 British Press Circulation Award
2010 The Maggies Magazine Cover Of The Year Best Promotion Of A Consumer Magazine
2010 P&G Awards Best Styling (GQ Style)
 SOME DREAMS
CAN’T WAIT
THE LODGE, VERBIER

Stay at least 4 nights and

your final night is free
Escape now: +44 (0)208 600 0430
enquiries@virginlimitededition.com
Book online: www.thelodge.virgin.com
and quote ‘ALPINE’
 E D I T E D BY BILL PRINCE

AFTER Bulgari (responsible

TRAVEL
this month: the dorchester collection in italy, plus the ultimate flight experience

for polishing up the Spanish

Steps), Fendi (ditto the Trevi
Fountain) and Tod’s (the
Colosseum), another luxury
business has put its stamp
on a hitherto neglected
Roman landmark. In this
instance, the ten-strong
Dorchester Collection has
overhauled one of the
Eternal City’s most cherished
properties, the Hotel Eden.
Following a 17-month
renovation, during which DC
God’s gift
slimmed down the portfolio
of rooms and sharpened up
its 21st-century credentials
(including in-room tablets
and a vertical garden
to Rome
Experience a spiritual transformation at
crowning a new rooftop the newly renovated Hotel Eden, with its
dining area), the hotel has sprawling views and sprezzatura to spare
been carefully restored with
old-time Italian flair. Marble
bathrooms come with
Bottega Veneta products and
larger rooms are alive with
domestic touches, plus a
propensity to send guests to
the nearest window/balcony
to admire the seemingly
limitless views of this
beguiling and incredibly
overrun capital.
So while the siren call of
wheelie bag on cobblestone
will forever lure first-time
tourists to tick off its sights,
the rest of us can take refuge
in the Eden’s “secret” bar,
navigate the tasting menu
of Michelin-starred Fabio
Ciervo in his 49-cover
panoramic restaurant,
La Terrazza, or relax in the
suites-only spa, where GQ GQ INTEL
submitted to possibly the Hotel Eden’s suites
best massage it’s ever rise in prestige according
to the floor. Book room
enjoyed within the confines 308, which offers the
of a city-centre hotel. BP identical footprint and
Rooms from £498 a night. ceiling height of the
British Airways Villa Malta Suite
Via Ludovisi 49, Rome flies from London directly above.
00187, Italy. +39 06 478121. to Rome, from
dorchestercollection.com £93. ba.com

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 69

 TRAVEL

How to get
airborne in style
Loyalty brings its own rewards, but what
if you were able to handpick the most
luxurious flying facilities? Herewith,
the perfect route out of the UK (with
a little delay on the departure time…)
A new departure:
Security lanes at 1 Check-in 2 The lounge
BA’s First Wing,
London Heathrow British Airways’ First Wing, Cathay Pacific,
Heathrow Terminal 5 Heathrow Terminal 3
Everyone knows to ask the driver to be Few things can take the immaculate edge
dropped at the “far end” when approaching off flying “upfront” like having to queue for
BA’s global hub, but few know what now 20 minutes at a coffee machine in the lounge
lies beyond. First class and Gold Executive beforehand. Fortunately, Cathay Pacific’s new
Club customers can now avail themselves Ilse Crawford-designed lounge (left) does
of their own “private terminal”, a dedicated away with such shenanigans by offering its
check-in area that comes with its own first-class customers a dining room with table
security lanes, after which it’s a blissfully service and meals made to order. If you’d
short stroll to the airline’s First lounge and prefer to wait until you’re airborne before
its flagship Concorde Room. Result: result! eating, you can always make use of one of
ba.com eight shower suites instead. cathaypacific.com

3 The business-class seat

United Polaris
No wonder they’re fought over... United has taken
seating in the sky to new levels with its business-
class product, the result of 12,000 hours of
research into customers’ preferences regarding
configuration (6ft 6in of bed space in a shell-like
“pod”), amenities (bedding by Saks Fifth Avenue
and products from Soho House’s Cowshed, left)
and in-flight services (mealtimes have been
curtailed to maximise shut eye) – all matched at Personal space: The
ground level with new lounges in Los Angeles, San Polaris ‘pod’ onboard
United’s business class
Francisco and London Heathrow. united.com

4 The flight 5 The luggage tag

Perth – London nonstop Louis Vuitton
On 24 March 2018, Qantas will beat its Granted, it already owns the monogram,
The right altitude
(below): Qantas’ current endurance record for the longest but Louis Vuitton has chosen to
Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercial flight (Sydney – Dallas) with extend the range of its instantly
the unveiling of the first ever Oz to Europe identifiable icons with a satisfyingly
direct flight. Departing Perth, its new huge selection of heritage and
Boeing 787 Dreamliner will touch down custom-designed transfers.
at Heathrow 17 hours and 14,498km later. Available from September, only
The first flight from the UK to Australia Louis Vuitton luggage (of course)
departs the following day. Among the will be accepted either at point of
innovations required to make this landmark purchase or by delivering back
voyage palatable to its 236 passengers: to the maison. BP Bag by Louis
two new self-service bars. qantas.com.au Vuitton, £1,430. louisvuitton.com

70 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 WELLMAN.CO.UK
®

I’ve been taking Wellman since

my twenties to support my
health and hectic lifestyle.
David Gandy

Made in Britain

From Boots, Superdrug, supermarkets, Holland & Barrett, health stores, pharmacies
*UK’s No1 men’s supplement brand. Nielsen GB ScanTrack Total Coverage Unit Sales 52 w/e 3rd Dec 2016.
Suit, £1,350. T-shirt, £210.
Bag, £3,495. All by Giorgio
Armani. armani.com.
Watch by Emporio Armani,
£199. armani.com

Photograph by Alexander Kent

EDITED BY ROBERT JOHNSTON

THE MOST WANTED: What a carry-on. Giorgio Armani

knows how to make an entrance and this holdall in butter-soft navy leather will make
seasoned travellers green with envy when you walk into the departure lounge.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 73

 essel and cargo entirely lost,” ran a

V news item in the Sherborne Mercury

on 18 December 1786, following
a storm in Plymouth Sound. With
that, history, and the waters of the English
Channel, closed over the Danish brigantine
Die Frau Metta Catharina Von Flensburg.
She would remain undisturbed until 1973,
when members of the British Sub-Aqua
Club chanced upon its wreck, surrounded
by rolls of tightly bound leather hides,
miraculously in excellent condition. When
exposed to air for the first time in two cen-
turies, they emitted a distinct bouquet, an
aroma part medical, part ecclesiastical, redo-
lent of incense and tar, a lingering olfactory
memory that revived a legend feared lost.

After two centuries at sea, a bounty of rare leather was

LUXURY: discovered in a shipwreck. Now Moynat is searching for

its secrets before supplies are lost forever. BY Nick Foulkes

So began the Lazarus-like comeback of this
rare leather, a reindeer hide curried with seal
fat and birch tar oil, embossed with a lattice
pattern and once considered so precious
that it was a monopoly of Russia’s treas-
ury. Emerging after almost two centuries on
the seabed, this distinctive
leather fast became a staple ‘To see Ramesh
of shoemakers in search of an
exotic material.
Nair in his
I had a pair made in the workshop in
Nineties by Eric Cook that Paris is to see
are still going strong, as it
seems are supplies of this
a man truly
rare resource. But one day in love with
the last of these ancient hides his work’
will be hauled to the surface,
turned into accessories and the leather will
be gone – something that has been preying
on the mind of Ramesh Nair.
Nair is the creative director of Moynat and
the reason why the LVMH-owned boutique
brand is one of the most interesting luggage
makers around today.
To see him scrambling over a pile of hide rolls in the basement of the
Moynat workshops in Paris is to see a man truly in love with his work.
Obsessed by the story of the shipwrecked leather, he bought one of the
hides and spent a year studying it. The characteristics he wanted to rep- Hide and seek (from
licate were the oiliness, aroma and cross-hatched pattern. top): Ramesh Nair
and Nick Foulkes;
He took his ideas to the historic Les Tanneries Roux and got to work the first outcomes of
with a concentrated essence of birch tar oil, a few other Moynat’s experiments
with ‘cuir impérial’
secret ingredients and a stamp salvaged from a tannery
that closed in the Twenties. Last year, he saw the first
results and carried on experimenting with different
leathers, colours and procedures. This tanning imposes
certain limitations. So far, he has only achieved darker
shades and the material easily wrinkles and has to be
discarded. Still, the project is moving forward: the first
piece, a small clutch holdall, has been made under the
name “cuir impérial” (imperial calfskin).
Given that the skins must be pickled in extremely small
batches (no more than four or five at a time), this is unlikely to be a
mainstream product. “I know that there are people who can appreciate
this sort of thing, but nobody ever caters to them.”
It is a niche within a niche. So far a total of 15 skins have been deliv-
ered, of which only six were up to Moynat standards, which means that,
for the moment, Moynat’s cuir impérial is actually rarer than the dwin-
dling stocks of the 18th-century original. A true specialist material.

Wrangler: The children of the Sixties revolution

wore Wrangler jeans religiously and this
year the denim brand enjoys its
70th anniversary. To celebrate this
Photographs Ricardo Gomes

milestone Wrangler has launched T-shirt by Wrangler,

a capsule collection inspired by £25. wrangler.com

archive pieces from straight-leg

Jacket, £230. Shirt, £65.
Both by Wrangler. wrangler.com
jeans to graphic T-shirts referencing
the old Wrangler rainbow logo,
T-shirt by Wrangler,
which also features on backpacks £25. wrangler.com
and bumbags. Perfect for those peace Jeans by Wrangler,
and love moments. RJ wrangler.co.uk £80. wrangler.com

74 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 Baseball collar:
One of the season’s coolest collars isn’t even a collar at all.
Taking its cues from traditional baseball uniforms, this
curved-edge style is an easy hit for sporty types.
By Sasquatchfabrix, £215. At End. endclothing.com
HOW TO WEAR COLLARS: Short-sleeve shirts are the most
stylish way to keep cool. Max out summer dressing by looking hot under the (right) collar.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY Alexander Kent EDITED BY Nick Carvell
Button-down collar:
Potentially the preppiest of short-sleeve shirt collars, and one of
the most versatile. Slip a white crew neck T-shirt underneath for
an added Ivy League vibe.
By Oliver Spencer, £110. oliverspencer.co.uk
Button-up collar:
If your shirt has buttons all the way to the top, use them.
It’s a look that’s sleek, minimal and, for any gym buffs, it
will ensure your arms get top visual billing.
By Ami, £175. amiparis.com
Cuban collar:
Also called the “camp collar”, this originated in the Fifties
and is right back on trend. Look out for silk versions for the
most luxurious way to stay cool in the sun. NC
By Gucci, £640. gucci.com
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 75
 It’s time to practise the art of manscaping

GROOMING:
EDITED BY Carlotta Constant ILLUSTRATION BY Jack Hughes
so that with a little pruning you can make
sure you are ready for some smooth moves
when you hit the beach this summer.

Nose and ears

If you can see a couple of hairs poking out, then
Beard to chest
the reality is other people will probably notice too. While a beard is great
They keep our immune system healthy, but visible
hair from these places is unsightly. Pinch your nose and chest hair can be
and hold it to the left, then trim any excess hairs
you can see with a small pair of scissors.
too, both should never
meet. Shave any
wandering hairs below
Nape of neck your Adam’s apple or
and shoulders
Leave the neck area to the hairs that show above
experts – if you go to a good
barber they should do this the collar of a T-shirt.
for you. If the back of your
neckline grows exceedingly
quickly, a once over with
a trimmer should keep Armpits and feet
things in line between No one wants to see
haircuts. Rogue growth on armpit hair hanging
the shoulders is easily taken out of a T-shirt. Trim
care of with a body trimmer it down so it’s unseen,
or, if light, even tweezers.
but be careful not to
cut it too short. The
feet and toes can be
tricky; trim them with
Mid back and body a comb and scissors
rather than shaving to
“If you have thicker avoid ingrown hair and
hair around your irritation caused by
the rubbing of shoes.
body, take it down
a few lengths with a
graded trimmer. The Laser and waxing
Maria-Louise
Remington Delicates Featherstone, co-
And Body Hair founder of Strip Wax
Bar (stripwaxbar.com)
Trimmer is perfect says, “Our most
for this as a razor popular treatment
with male clients is
will cause snagging,” a full back laser. Men
says Kieran Tudor, worry about it hurting
but our laser machine
Remington brand has a dynamic cooling
ambassador and hair system to minimise
stylist (remington- pain. It’s popular with
men who are getting
europe.com). married or when
summer is coming.”
Male skin is often
Down below tougher as the skin is
Pubic hair has more bend and is thicker. “The back is
coarser so it’s easier for it to curl TOP TIP
GROOM USING
the easiest and least
back into the skin, which leads to painful area to wax,”
ingrown hairs – trimming is best for COLD WATER
this area. For the shaft, foam up (the colder the better) says Featherstone.
shaving cream and use a light touch as it will tighten the “We have a package
on a multi-blade razor – shave skin for a more called ‘The Athlete’ –
outwards in the direction the hair precise trim. a full body wax that
grows. Always use separate tools. includes a Brazilian
and bottom.”

BATHROOM BLITZ: The Vacuum 5 In 1 Grooming Kit from

Remington will actually suck up clipped hairs for a clean shave.
£75. remington-europe.com

76 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 STREET LIFE EDITED BY Carlotta Constant

From stripes to statement accessories,

GQ turns its gaze to the trends taking over
the streets of New York this summer.

Barton
Cowperthwaite Brandon Good
Occupation: Artist Occupation: Entrepreneur
Instagram: @bartonc Instagram: @goodbhavior
Get the look: Jumper by Kenzo, £200. Get the look: Ring by North Skull, £115.
kenzo.com northskull.com

Paul Zivkovich
Occupation: Performer
Instagram: @paulzivkovich
Get the look: Bag by Filson, £190. filson.com

Max Caleb Fechtor Isaac

Poglia Occupation: Director of marketing Hindin-Miller
Occupation: Creative director Instagram: @fechtor Occupation: DJ
Instagram: @maxpoglia Get the look: T-shirt by Lacoste Live x Agi & Sam, Instagram: @isaaclikes_
Get the look: Hat by Hopper, £320. At mrporter.com £75. lacoste.com Get the look: Trainers by Vans, £55. vans.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHS BY Jonathan Daniel Pryce

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 77

 MILITARY
MANOEUVRES:
Put yourself on parade with this selection
of army-inspired field watches designed to
help you pass muster whatever the occasion.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Michael Thomas

Ranger by Tudor, £1,940.

tudorwatch.com

Military Strap by Citizen, £149.

citizenwatch.com

Chronograph 7020 by Accurist,

£139. accurist.co.uk

78 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 Khaki Field Officer Mechanical
by Hamilton, £295.
hamiltonwatch.com

Engineer II Green Berets by Ball,

£1,750. ballwatch.com

Indiglo Expedition by Timex,

£47. At watchshop.com

Night Vision Chronograph

by Victorinox, £660.
victorinox.com

Mackinaw Field by Filson,

£565. filson.com

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 79


GIUSEPPE
ZANOTTI:
If you want to say it with flowers,
check out the Kyoto loafer. It’s part
of Giuseppe Zanotti’s extravagant
Formal Dandy collection, inspired by
the Shanghai International Settlement
during the Roaring Twenties.
Tissot: Tissot is the official
timekeeper for the Tour de France
and, to celebrate its ongoing
relationship with cycling’s most
glamorous and gruelling competition,
it has released the T-Race Cycling
Tour De France Special Edition.
The ergonomic design is inspired
by bikes and the yellow-striped strap
is a nod to the famous maillot jaune,
giving you some real winning style.
£380. tissotwatches.com
80 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
PHOTOGRAPH BY Alexander Kent
Loafers by Giuseppe
Zanotti, £665.
giuseppezanotti
design.com
Kenzo: This summer, Kenzo is all about clubbing,
Nineties style. With lots of modern sporty fabrics and
wet-look jerseys along with the label’s trademark prints,
it references the glory days of the New
York club scene that designers Carol
Lim and Humberto Leon craved to
be a part of while growing up on
the West Coast. The look never
takes itself too seriously, but it’s
the perfect uniform for serious
partying. Cap by Kenzo,
£100. kenzo.com RJ
JIM
CHAPMAN:
When Dolce & Gabbana
called for fresh faces
on their catwalk, GQ’s
blue-steeling style blogger
put his best foot forward.

ack in February I ticked “walk in

B
  a fashion show” off my bucket
list. Well, technically I walked in
a charity catwalk about nine years
ago when I worked for Aviva (I don’t count it
because it was, well, Aviva), but this time it
was the real deal – for Dolce & Gabbana.
I arrived in Milan on 13 January, the day
before the show, and soon found myself in a
room with Stefano Gabbana, Domenico Dolce
and the large team who work behind the scenes
taking shots, dressing people and making
alterations. I also realised I already knew the
majority of the roster who would join me
on the catwalk: GQ regulars including Oliver
Cheshire, Jack Guinness and Tinie Tempah, as
well as a hoard of Instagrammers and bloggers
that I have bumped into previously.
My fitting was at the same time as Cheshire,
who, having walked for Dolce many times
before, knew exactly what to expect. Almost
instantly he was down to his pants, with
three people helping him put on a pair of
trousers. Following his lead, I also stripped
down, as Domenico came over and asked
me what I wanted to wear for my first look.
I had no idea I would be picking out my own
outfit, so I decided to take full advantage.
I figured that fashion shows aren’t always
about putting together a “wearable” look, but
Prints among men:
It’s not about ‘wearable’ Jim Chapman walks
for Dolce & Gabbana
looks, but showing off at the AW17 show in
Milan, 14 January
what the brand can do
more about showing off what the brand can do and prodded. I fully embraced the moment
– so I decided on silk floral pyjamas, a cash- and had most of my hair cut off into
mere coat and pool slides. Bold. a Fifties military style while waiting for the
Later that day we had rehearsals (not dress show to start. Prada: The briefcase is
rehearsals, the garments were under lock and When that moment came, I wasn’t hugely back in fashion and gives out
key to avoid damage). I got to walk just once, nervous – after all, it was only a walk and all the right signals when you
but decided that was ample. It wasn’t rocket I’ve been walking since I was a toddler. need to look the business.
science. I just had to walk, turn around and Somewhere, sitting front row, was my wife This cool update by Prada is
walk back. and as I descended the steps I heard her make in buffed, antiqued leather
On show day there was a really good vibe a happy little squeal when she saw me, but and comes with lots of clever
backstage, which was a bonus because we I refused to look – I held my gaze into the compartments for your tricks
got there six hours early to get preened middle distance (just like a model should). of the trade. £2,410. prada.com

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 81

 BOSS
THE
SCENT
INTENSE:
A pillar of modern perfumery
gets a 2.0 incarnation
that is confidence bottled.
Styling Jake Pummintr Grooming Charley McEwan Model Liam Bradder at Premier

Tuxedo, £600. Shirt,

£169. Bow tie, £59. All
by Boss. hugoboss.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY Florian Renner

or the last 32 years, Hugo Boss has given a natural progression and an introduction of new

F its name to some of the world’s most

successful fragrances. But one thing that
the house has deduced in recent years is
that nothing succeeds quite like success. When you
have a winner on your hands, what it needs to evolve
is a subtle and masterful touch, a little polishing
around the edges.
When Boss The Scent hit shelves in 2015 it was
pretty obvious from the beginning that it was going
to be one such success, so it follows that its inven-
Boss The Scent Intense Eau
de Parfum by Hugo Boss, tors have now decided to take it to the next level
£49. hugoboss.com with Boss The Scent Intense. The result is both
ideas, created with a concentration of oils to amplify
the experience.
The leather base notes are complemented by the
addition of warm vanilla, which is then mellowed out
with spicy ginger and green cardamom. These notes
combine intoxicatingly with the essence of the exotic
Maninka fruit, a supposed aphrodisiac harvested
from snuff-box trees native to South Africa – so it’s
well worth a try. And, whether or not it lives fully
up to expectation on that front, the overall effect
is powerfully masculine and will definitely get you
some welcome attention. CC

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 83

 Is it acceptable for a man in his thirties to wear a varsity jacket?
Or will I end up looking like a sad throwback to an American
teen movie? Jack, via email

Also known as “letterman” jackets – for obvious reasons – varsity jackets

date back to the Thirties and have always been associated with American jock culture.
The chenille letters were traditionally the initials of the school in question and were
worn to represent a certain level of sporting achievement. This practice can be traced
back to 1865, when the original letter sweaters were introduced
by the Harvard University baseball team. The body of the jacket T-shirt by Oliver Spencer,
£60. At Harvey Nichols.
is usually made from boiled wool with contrasting leather harveynichols.com
sleeves and a banded collar and cuffs. Call it cultural
appropriation if you will, but these jackets
have long been popular among Brits, too, even
if the closest we have come to playing
baseball for Harvard is wearing a snapback
in Harwich. But the varsity jacket, like
the baseball cap, has become such a
staple of men’s style that it has lost Trainers by Common Projects, £290.
At Harvey Nichols. harveynichols.com
any connotation with school and
sport, so it can be worn by anyone
– including Jack. After all, I would love to wear bright colours,
wearing a leather jacket doesn’t but I have a very pale complexion
and feel they would make me look
mean you are trying to look
washed out. What do you suggest?
like Marlon Brando. Beware, Tom, via email
however, when wearing
letter-emblazoned clothing in Growing up in Scotland, one of the most
the US. I recently bought a common descriptions of the natives – and
sweater from a Korean shop one of my favourite terms to this day – was
in Paris emblazoned with a “peely-wally”, or pale and washed out. It
large yellow “M”. If one more certainly applied to me, as I remember my
person had come up to me to PE teacher shouting at me across the gym,
ask if I was an alumnus of the “Johnston, you pasty-faced little individual.”
University Of Michigan when And Tom is right, such a skin tone does
require some thought before it comes to
I wore it on a United Airlines
risking neon and Day-Glo shades; you don’t
flight to New York a few weeks want to look like you’re in imminent danger
later, I would have happily set of death. So now that men have finally lost
Jacket by Polo Ralph Lauren,
£849. ralphlauren.co.uk
about them with a baseball bat. their fear of colour, us Scots and the like
can find our options limited. For example,
unless your family origins are many, many
miles south of Peebles I would avoid bright

STYLE SHRINK:
yellow like the plague. However, as you may
have noticed, this summer the couleur du
jour is pink and this is very good news for
us. Avoid the magentas and the shocking
pinks and you can still inject some welcome
EDITED BY Robert Johnston
interest to your wardrobe with more subtle
dusty and rose pinks.

I am recently single and after years of sharing a bed I really fancy wearing
pyjamas. This is because I like getting changed before settling in to watch TV and
I have no intention of enjoying Family Guy in the buff. Am I weird? Joff, via email

While I normally drift off in the nip, I have
a terrible confession to make. At Christmas,
for reasons I need not go into, for the first
time in my life I bought myself a nightshirt
– a striped flannel one at that. And I
absolutely love it. I may look like Wee
Willie Winkie, but it is just so comfortable
and, much to my surprise, it does not ride
up through the night. And, yes, it is very
comforting (even though I am married, I do
save the experience for lazy weekends). So
no, you aren’t weird and you can happily
enjoy your nightwear while you are living
Pyjamas by Derek Rose, £175.
the single life. When you start dating At Harrods. harrods.com
again it is probably not the best idea
during those early stages to break
the moment by slipping into your
snugly SpongeBob number, but the
appropriate time will come around
again – hopefully not too quickly.

84 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

F R E E L A N C E R
R W 1 2 1 2

C A L I B R E R W 1 2 1 2
#PRECISIONMOVEMENTS
 The G Preview:August
E D I T E D BY HOLLY ROBERTS

Bringing you the very latest in fashion, grooming, watches, news and exclusive events

Junior Retail Editor Michiel Steur

1 Jumper by AG, £180. At Selfridges. selfridges.com

2 Fragrance by Jimmy Choo, 100ml for £62. At The Perfume Shop. theperfumeshop.com 3 Pouch by Prada, £1,200. prada.com
4 Suitcase by Tumi, £855. uk.tumi.com 5 Excellence Regulator watch by Louis Erard, £1,845. At Goldsmiths. goldsmiths.co.uk
6 Backpack by Kenzo, £315. kenzo.com 7 Jacket by Hermès, £6,800. hermes.com
8 Trainers by Remus Uomo, £75. remusuomo.com 9 Trousers by Kent & Curwen, £345. kentandcurwen.com

86 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 PREVIEW

We love
Dior Homme Autumn/Winter 2017
Photograph Matthew Beedle

Autumn/Winter 2017 is set be the season where sartorial meets

street, and no one knows that better than Kris Van Assche at Dior
Homme. The latest collection shows a raw Dior attitude and breathes
life into the brand’s ready-to-wear essentials. Expect streetwear
staples from skate decks to rucksacks in black, brightened with
flashes of colour, sporting the brand’s newest slogan: “HarDior”.
It’s a new and fresh interpretation of luxury.

Skateboards (sold as set of three), £710. Trainers, £820.

Backpack, £1,050. All by Dior Homme. dior.com
 PREVIEW
Modern Classics
Fresh off the catwalk we take the first look at
Massimo Dutti’s latest Limited Edition Collection
and learn how to become the master of relaxed,
effortless style this Autumn/Winter
Walking to the beats of indie band The xx, in the
historic setting at Casa de América in Madrid,
models were wearing an intelligent mix of old
and new at Massimo Dutti’s Autumn/Winter
2017 show. Tailoring remains traditional with
classic autumnal colours in check and pinstripe
patterns, while casualwear, such as the hooded
sports jacket, is reinvented in luxurious leather.
Key accessories include bordeaux monk-strap
shoes, wristlet document holders, soft leather
88 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
tote bags and intricate woven backpacks.
Spicing up this classic autumnal wardrobe are
a bright orange wool rollneck, multi-coloured
concertina tote bag and luxurious grey shearling
coat. Those wishing to opt for an alternative
Edited by Holly Roberts
to the traditional black-tie look, take note and
team a velvet dinner jacket with some tailored
pinstripe trousers in wool.
Massimo Dutti’s runway collection is in shops at
the end of August. massimodutti.com
 E D I T E D BY BILL PRINCE

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The
water’s
edge
The 50th anniversary of the landmark Hôtel Byblos in Saint-Tropez sees Audemars Piguet SY
N ES
unpack the beach watch guaranteed to give summer time a whole new meaning EN
H
S ON
ehold the ultimate “beach watch”. And if you haven’t come across that phrase before, IL

B
 
W
BY
it’s synonymous with the term “beach weights” – the dumbbells required to perk up those A PH
GR
pecs in time for that tell-all reveal sur la plage. In horological terms, it means a watch that OT
O
PH
trumps all others when a man has little more than his timepiece, sunglasses and swimwear
to seal the sartorial deal. Since 1993, Audemars Piguet’s pumped-up Royal Oak Offshore
has owned this particular piece of shoreline (it’s also equipped to go well beyond it, being water-
resistant up to 100m) and in honour of Saint-Tropez landmark Hôtel Byblos’ 50th anniversary, it
has produced this limited-edition piece in pink gold, the shade of which mimics the hotel’s terracotta-
hued Provençal-style architecture. It also comes on a white rubber strap – artfully bringing to mind
the infamous “white parties” that German automotive heir (and one-time Mr Brigitte Bardot) Gunter
Sachs hosted at the height of “Swinging Saint-Tropez” in the Sixties and Seventies. A touch of Côte
d’Azur class that the late playboy would surely have appreciated. BP audemarspiguet.com

90 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 IF WE TO LD YOU P EO PLE
IN ACC IA RO LI, I TA LY, H AVE
FOUND THE S EC R ET
TO A LONG H E A LTH Y LIFE,
WO ULD YOU SWALLOW IT?

No1 Rosemary Water is the first and only drink in the world to contain pure rosemary extract.
It was inspired by the Italian town of Acciaroli, where people are living to over 100 years old in unusually large numbers.
Almost 350 (more than 1 in 10) of them are now healthy centenarians with little or no Alzheimers, Arthritis or Cataracts.
Scientists believe their daily consumption of rosemary is responsible for their incredible good health and longevity.

Order online for UK and European delivery at

rosemarywater.com
 For more
information
on the new
KIA Stinger,
please visit
kia.com/uk

STREET
Great design can be hard to define, but you know it when you see it.
That’s why all eyes are on the trendsetting KIA Stinger

STYLE
 G Partnership

The KIA Stinger is just

as happy traversing
city streets as it is
heading out on a
long-distance road trip
Not all features are available on all trims. Some features may vary by regions. Photographs Hagop Kalaidjian

THE GREAT New York

street-style photographer Bill
Cunningham believed that the
world’s best fashion shows come
together every day in the urban
landscape. It’s not on the catwalk
but in the city where form meets
function to create truly unique, head-turning
style. In places such as New York, the
contrasting gothic, art deco, brutalist and
post-modern architecture has remained
steadfast while cultural waves from punk and
new wave to hip-hop have swelled and crashed
around them. That’s reflected in the way people
live, dress and drive.
The new KIA Stinger is designed for the city
streets and embodies that same combination Sting in its tail
of sturdy reliability and game-changing style. The KIA Stinger’s
It’s a powerful, graceful car which offers the rear-wheel drive
gives it superb
best of both worlds: unparalleled luxury for
balance and handling.
long-distance driving while still looking like Outside the car, it’s
it’s ready to join the urban fashion show. instantly recognisable
Just like the style icons Cunningham found as a KIA by its
on the streets of New York each day, the signature “Tiger
Turn heads with a car Nose” front grille. A
Stinger is a car that’s both good-looking and car with this much
that matches your
own personal style perfectly suited for city living. True style: you personality is hard to
know it when you see it. kia.com/uk take your eyes off.
 D BY OW
E D IT E CALL
N
AA R O
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up for
RAP H BY
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94 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017


10
1 Inflatables by Sunnylife, £40.50 each.
sunnylife.com
2 Ottoman by Minotti London, £1,825. minottilondon.
com. Blanket by The Conran Shop, £199. conranshop. 8 Shark head container by Studio Job,
co.uk. Speaker by B&O Play, £449. beoplay.com
3 Chair by Louis Vuitton. uk.louisvuitton.com
4 Rug by Maurizio Pellizzoni, £1,920.
mauriziopellizzoni.co.uk
5 Sofa by Cane-line, £3,519. At Aram. aram.co.uk.
Cushions, £130 each. Throw, £595. Sheepskins, from
£295 each. All by The Conran Shop.
6 Table by Fermob, £259. At Barbed. barbed.co.uk.
Tray, £275. Flutes, £95 each. All by David Linley.
davidlinley.com. Napkins by The Conran Shop,
£15 each.
7 Floor cushion by Cane-line, £325. At Aram.
Throw by The Conran Shop, £260.
11
12
18
£605. At Qeeboo. qeeboo.com
9 Armchair by Minotti London, £4,170.
Cushion by The Conran Shop, £75.
10 Chair by Stefano Giovannoni, £138. At Qeeboo.
11 Barbecue, tools and trolley by Morsø, £1,695.
morsoe.com. Bowl by The Conran Shop, £59.
12 Trolley by Morsø, £579. Speaker by Bang &
Olufsen, £1,085. bang-olufsen.com. Bowl by The
Conran Shop, £59. Towels by Missoni, £136 each.
At Amara. amara.com
13 Trolley by Fermob, £319. At Barbed. Jug, £350.
Tumblers, £95 each. Highballs, £95 each. All by
David Linley.
INTERIORS
13
14
15
16
17
14 Lounger by B&B Italia, £2,543. bebitalia.com
15 Duck side table by Bonaldo, £508. bonaldo.it
16 Parasol, £450. Stand, £395. Both by
Indian Ocean. indian-ocean.co.uk
17 Stool by Studio Job, £156. At Qeeboo. Sunglasses
by Louis Vuitton, £275. Headphones by B&O Play,
£249. At John Lewis. johnlewis.com
18 Keepall by Louis Vuitton, £1,450.
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 95
Bespoke pantry by Kent
& London, from £2,450.
kentandlondon.co.uk.
Pendant light by deVOL,
£150. devolkitchens.co.uk.
Tableware (inside pantry) by
Choice of Scandinavia, from
£20. choiceofscandinavia.
co.uk. Chopping board by
Rockett St George, £29. Frame art
rockettstgeorge.co.uk. and your own
Kitchen knife by Niwaki, £39. photography
niwaki.com. Apron by The in an Ultra HD
Stanley Supply Store, £49. certified TV
thestanleysupplystore.com.
Stone surface by Diespeker,
£85 a square metre.
diespeker.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHS BY Graham Atkins-Hughes

STYLING BY Florence Rolfe

PICTURE
PERFECT
Give your home a revamp and turn your television into a genuine work of art with Samsung’s latest TV, The Frame

TECH SPEC
Samsung’s ‘near-invisible
cable’ allows you to move
your home entertainment
devices elsewhere,
removing messy wires and
keeping your space looking
uncluttered. Find out more
at samsung.com
*Requires Smart View app with compatible iOS and Android smartphones and Internet connection
BOSS
Jil Sander
Artwork by Nacho Alegre
G Partnership
ometimes, less really is more.
Minimalism has been a sure-fire hit on
the catwalk this season, and the trend
can also bring an air of understated
cool to your home.
To get minimalism right, you need
technology to be as stylish as it is
unobtrusive. That’s why The Frame,
the game-changing new television from Samsung, is
designed to be hung on your wall and look exactly
like any other framed piece of art. When turned off,
The Frame switches from “Television Mode” to “Art
Mode”. In the latter setting, The Frame has 100
works of art by renowned artists pre-installed. You
will find stunning photography, paintings, drawings
and digital art specifically curated to complement a
wide variety of tastes and decors. Naturally, there’s
also the option to easily frame your own art and
photography, allowing you to showcase your
most-loved moments. Choose from a variety of
mount layouts to add your own personal touch and
send photos to The Frame directly from your
smartphone*. The technology looks set to
revolutionise our homes, doing away with the
black boxes we’ve become accustomed to.
The Frame is such a highly advanced piece of
technology that it even uses brightness and motion
sensors to ensure that it only displays art when people
are actually there to enjoy it. The sensors also allow the
brightness of the screen to be decreased so
you can view your art how it was meant to
be seen. Created in collaboration with the
Swiss designer Yves Behar, The Frame offers
a variety of customisable finishes as
additional options designed to suit your own
particular style, including wood, walnut and
white. The “No Gap Wall Mount” means it
can blend effortlessly into its surroundings,
while Samsung’s new “near-invisible cable”
allows you to move your home
entertainment devices elsewhere in the
room, removing the clutter of messy wires
Ermenegildo Zegna
and keeping your space looking clean. As
you would expect from a Samsung TV, The
Frame boasts certified Ultra HD resolution,
delivering true-to-life colour and clarity for
amazing picture quality – perfect for
displaying stunning art.
Expertly designed and capable of
blending into any interior décor, The Frame looks
equally at home displaying an Old Master, the latest
Hollywood blockbuster or an arthouse classic.
Finally, a new television that truly deserves to be
called “state of the art”.
Find out more about the Frame TV at samsung.com
Minimalist masters
The best way to keep your look minimal this season is
by taking your cues from the grayscale palette. From
off-white to soft grey, this trend can add a nod of
Scandinavian cool to any wardrobe. It’s been spotted at
shows such as Jil Sander, BOSS and Ermenegildo Zegna.
E S S E N T I A L W R I ST AT T I R E

Model 7169 RRP £139 www.accurist.co.uk

 WHAT I WEAR

MY STYLE
Hip hop duo Krept and Konan match black with bling and crank casual style into top gear
PORTRAIT BY Neil Bedford

WISH LIST
Hat
“I saw Konan wearing this
recently and thought it looked
sick,” says Krept, “so now I want
one. The tail is so flamboyant.”
£54. At furhatworld.com

Jewellery WISH LIST

“I got this diamond necklace T-shirt
made when my grandparents
“When I saw Kanye wearing
passed away, with their names
this T-shirt on his Watch The
engraved on the back. I wear
Throne tour, I wanted to buy
this almost every time I go out.”
it,” says Konan. “But I got there
By A&S Jewellers, £20,000.
aandsjewellers.co.uk too late and it went out of
season. I was so disappointed.”
By Givenchy, £320.
At farfetch.com
Jacket
“I like matching my clothes to
Konan’s. We want to sync our
styles more for our next campaign. Jewellery
It’s good to bounce off each other.” “I’m from Thornton Heath and
By Christopher Shannon, £265. our postcode is CR7, so we call it
At Selfridges. selfridges.com ‘The 7’. So many musicians from
my area are doing well at the
moment, so we all say, ‘7 Up!’”
WISH LIST By Vault London, £25,000.
thevaultlondon.com
Sunglasses
“The gold trimmings look so
stylish and would match my
Watch
jewellery. Plus, the round lenses
suit my face shape.”
“When I was 14, my friend’s uncle had
an AP. We didn’t rate it because we only
By Thom Browne, £885.
Story by Eleanor Halls Styling Neesha Sharma Grooming Jackie Tyson

At ssense.com
knew about Rolexes. When I got older
and more knowledgeable about watches, I
got an AP to show him I now understood.”
£32,300. audemarspiguet.com

WISH LIST
using Bumble And Bumble and Trish McEvoy

Sliders
“I like Valentino trainers – I have
Trainers them in every colour – so I need the
sliders to match when I’m on holiday.
“I love high-top trainers, especially paired
I would wear these with socks,
with long coats that reach mid-calf. For that
because I have bad toes.”
reason I rarely wear jackets.”
£190. At ssense.com
By Collegium, £325. collegiumshoes.com

From left: Krept wears T-shirt by Astrid Andersen, £185.

astridandersen.com. Jeans by Replay, £150. At Made Man.
mademanclothing.com. Sunglasses by Ray-Ban, £80. At
misterspex.com. Watch by Audemars Piguet, £47,800.
audemarspiguet.com. Konan wears T-shirt by Helmut
Lang, £110. At Harvey Nichols. harveynichols.com

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 99

 E D I T E D BY CHARLIE BURTON & STUART McGURK

Motorbikes,
reinvented
Electric cars have hogged
the limelight, but now
charge-up motorcycles are
having their moment –
and the latest are packed
with all the torque and
speed you would want
in a ride. Here are
our favourites...

100 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 LAB

Johammer J1.200 Lito Sora

The Johammer is, well, a distinctive beast. To some, like
straddling the future. To others, like riding a fridge. Still, its
12.7kWh battery capacity is one of the best available and the
subsequent range (up to 125 miles) is therefore the best on offer.
All that and yet the recharge time is a super-quick 3.5 hours.
Apart from the looks, the biggest downside is the measly top
speed, electronically limited at 75mph so you don’t waste battery
on wind resistance. That’s sensible – but let us decide when
to be sensible. £19,000. johammer.com
Probably the most beautifully old-school electronic bike currently
on the market, the Lito Sora’s styling is not unlike a Ducati Diavel
(partly due to the fake curved bump of a fuel tank, which actually
contains batteries) and it packs some serious power. The 120 mile
range is decent, the 120mph speed the second fastest here and
0-60 in 4.7 seconds is sublime. But the real kicker is the feel: it’s
the most luxurious electric superbike available, even containing
a built-in touchscreen navigation system. Downside: you
certainly pay for it. £59,110. soraelectricsuperbike.com

Range Range
125 miles 120 miles
Max speed Max speed
75mph (electronically 120mph
limited) Acceleration
Acceleration 0-60mph in 4.7 secs
0-62mph in 8 secs Battery capacity
Battery capacity 12kWh
12.7kWh Recharge time
Recharge time 3 hours
3.5 hrs

Energica Ego 2017 Zero DS ZF6.5

The Ego is a brute of a bike: it can cruise to a top speed
of 150mph and would go further were it not for the limiter.
You’d expect that kind of oomph, given that Energica is part
of CRP, which makes kit for F1 teams. Manufactured in the
Italian motor valley of Modena, it’s brimming with style and
will take you from 0-60 faster even than the Lito Sora.
We’d hope for a little more range, but you can’t have it all.
£27,900. energicamotor.com
Parked up, the Zero DS doesn’t scream “electric motorbike”; you
might mistake it for a new model by BMW. On the road, of course,
its near silence speaks volumes, but it nevertheless aims to
handle like a traditional gas-guzzler, full of torque and designed
to be as reliable on dirt as on tarmac. The ZF6.5 is the entry-level
model and the most affordable of this group. The higher-spec
ZF13.0 version with an optional “power tank” can go for 184 miles
at up to 98mph. Punchy. From £10,690. zeromotorcycles.com

Range Range
90 miles 74 miles
Max speed Max speed
150mph (electronically 91mph
limited) Acceleration
Acceleration 0-60 in 4 seconds
0-60mph in 3 secs Battery capacity
Battery capacity 6.5kWh
11.7kWh Recharge time
Recharge time 4.7 hours
3.5 hours

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 101

 HOW WE LIVE

OUR STUFF
This month: Angelo Mitakos, Fashion Assistant, GQ Style
Byredo, Balenciaga and London’s best bakery keep
the world of GQ Style’s arch aesthete spinning
PORTRAIT BY Jason Alden
Home
Culture and gear
Album: Dua Lipa by Home gadget:
Dua Lipa (below) Lamp by Hay (above)
Coffee table books: TV: Serif TV by Samsung
Nigel Henderson’s Streets (above); Computer: MacBook Pro by Apple
David Hockney by Chris Stephens Phone gadget: iPhone
Theatre: The Curious Incident Of charging case by Apple
The Dog In The Night-Time Speakers: Baggen by Urban Ears
Clubs: Tooting Tram And Social, Headphones: Plattan 2 by
London SW17; Heaven, WC2; Urban Ears (right)
The Queen Adelaide, E2 Camera: Instax by Michael Kors
Bakery: Blackbird Bakery, SE15 x Fujifilm (below)
Market: Shepton Mallet, Somerset Luggage: Samsonite
TV: The Apprentice Clock: Muji (below)
Looking forward to:
V Festival (below)

Photographs Alamy; Getty Images Grooming Daniel Ryme using Mac and Aveda
Style
and grooming
Tan: Trystal Minerals
by Vita Liberata
Tracksuit: Palm Angels
Plimsolls: Hurler Low by Good News
Smart shoe: Russell & Bromley (pictured)
Face wash: Kalamazoo by Lush
Haircut: Joe And Co, WC1 Stimulation
Hair product: Matte Hed Extra by Fudge To drink: Curtain Call
Fragrance: Gypsy Water (right) by Byredo cocktail at Swift, W1 (above)
Sunglasses: Clubmaster by Ray-Ban (below) Rooftop bar: Frank’s Café, SE1
Swimwear: Robinson Les Bains (right) Restaurant: Scarfes Bar,
Young brand: Daniel W Fletcher WC1 (above); Bala Baya, SE1
Card holder: Mulberry (above) To calm: Aroma diffuser by Muji
Trainers: Camper Magazines: 10 Men; Attitude;
Shirts: Bally (pictured) Another Man; Man About Town; W
Shorts: Ron Dorff Exhibitions: Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion
Denim: YMC at the V&A; Perfume at Somerset House
Last holiday: Tel Aviv, Israel (left)
Next holiday: Cyclades
Islands, Greece (above)
Next city break:
Lisbon, Portugal

102 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 Your Exclusive G
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 The luxury of time
Grant Pearce, Editorial Director of GQ Asia Pacific and James Sleaford, Fashion Director of GQ France,
explain how to make meaningful memories in Shanghai and Paris... in just one extra hour.
Advertisement Feature in association with The Platinum Card ® from American Express ®

SHANGHAI

Grant Pearce
Editorial Director
GQ Asia Pacific

How many times have you longed for that

illusive 25th hour? Sixty extra minutes within
which to explore a city of your choosing?
Having spent a decade as Fashion Director of
GQ Asia Pacific, Grant Pearce knows Shanghai
better than most of its natives. “The city has a
rich culture,” he enthuses. “Shanghainese are
merchants; it’s on the street where much of
the trade is done.” Naturally inquisitive and
sure-footed when it comes to his adventuring,
if Pearce could conjure more time he would
devote himself to unlocking one of his
favourite cities even further, especially the
The PuLi Bar: Located in the
food culture. “From the traditional Shanghai heart of the Jing’an district
pancake prepared by a street vendor for The PuLi Hotel is a lush
breakfast, to the steamed pork bun, or resort-style property with a
breathtaking lobby and bar.
‘bazoi’, it’s a mix of global influences and Great for people watching.
Asian cooking styles.” Their Martini’s are a speciality

Ginger by the park
There is no better place to be than
the terrace at Ginger enjoying an
original Ginger cocktail. Though the
food is described as Global cuisine,
the influence is South East Asian with
a strong lean toward Vietnamese.
Along with the food, there is a great
mix of local contemporary paintings.
The Long Museum
West Bund
This is one of two Long Museum
locations and is a true architectural
feat. This privately owned space
houses its owner’s own rare
Chinese art collection and also
provides gallery space for
travelling exhibitions.
Jiashan Market
This is the original site of a laneway
wet market that to this day still
serves locals. In the same laneway
there is contemporary complex
that houses its own Jiashan Market
one Saturday every month, a great
mix of stallholders who sell food
– all organic.
Jing’an Temple
Visiting here is a beautiful and
a spiritual experience. It features
a stunning gold-plated pagoda,
home to the largest jade sitting
Buddha in the country, which
measures 3.8 meters high. The
alluring smell of smoking incense
is mesmerising.
 G Partnership

PARIS
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tree-lined avenues. It’s a great place this is a cavern of creative gems,

to relax in the heart of the city. Pull from books, to gadgets and clothes
up a green metal chair, put on your to art. It has been a reference for the
sunglasses – there is no better way world for over 20 years and contines
to read a book.” to inspire all who visit.”
James Sleaford
Fashion Director
GQ France

Who would turn down an extra hour in a city they love? For James
Sleaford, long-serving Fashion Director of GQ France, the place
where he’d chose to spend those extra 60 minutes is Paris. Talking to
him about some of his Parisian hot spots you can see he pays
attention to his city’s details, rather than trying to simply block out
all the cultural noise. “Paris is a creative city where people enjoy the
finer things in life – a café on the corner, a ‘demi’ of beer at Café de Haut Marais Jardin des Tuileries
Flore, or simply pulling up a green metal chair in the Jardin du “The Marais is a hive of activity – The fountains are centre pieces
there are so many fantastic places where people sit and talk and read
Luxembourg.” So rather than trying to bend environments to our to discover. Oft is a book store If you look up to the Place de la
every whim, try and do what James Sleaford does and simply alter which stocks classic and niche Concorde and follow the Champs-
your perspective - then you might find time is on your side after all. magazines. It’s a great place to get Élysées your eye will note the Arc
inspired and I always leave with my de Triomphe, before finally fixing on
head buzzing.” La Défense.

Café de Flore: Visiting

Café de Flore, 172 Blvd St
Germain on the left bank
of the Seine is always a
pleasure. It’s great for
people watching being in
close proximity to the art
set and the food is
quintessentially French
at its finest

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Annual fee £450*. For more information and to apply for The Platinum Card, search “Amex Platinum”.
For Important Information visit gq.co.uk/platinum-card
WE ARE
OPEN
SUMMER POP-UP
ROS E WOO D LO N DO N

252 H I G H H O L BO RN
+4 4 2 0 3 747 8 6 3 3
 this month: american tales p.110 actors under attack p.111 art and istanbul p.112 like-minded politics p.114

What: Alice Neel: Uptown at Victoria Miro I and Isaac Julien:

‘I Dream A World’ Looking For Langston at Victoria Miro II

On now
When: Until 29 July
Why: Isaac Julien’s award-winning film Looking For Langston (1989) explores
the life of Langston Hughes and fellow black artists and writers of the Harlem
Renaissance in the Twenties. Here, rare archival material and exquisite cinematic
stills crystallise moments we might otherwise miss. Also at Victoria Miro, paintings
by the late Alice Neel fill the space with her unique “generosity of seeing,” says
curator Hilton Als. As a white woman in multi-ethnic Spanish Harlem, Neel
painted friends and neighbours, breaking from the western art canon with her
vision of diversity. Sophie Hastings 16 Wharf Road, London N1. victoria-miro.com

Art, Music,
Sport, Politics,
Films, Books
+ the best opinion
The Joshua Tree: redux for the month
ahead
U2’s epic bears new fruit 30 years on, as the band retour their classic
soundtrack to American discord around a newly divided world
STORY BY Dorian Lynskey
Photograph Getty Images

ce
in

Blood red sky: U2’s second

Pr

Joshua Tree Tour opened

ll

in Vancouver in May while

Bi

the European leg sets off

Y
B

this month in London

ED
IT
ED
 TLC
A decade-and-a-half since their last release, the quintessential

15 yrs Nineties R&B girl group took a long time to recover from the death
of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes in 2002. So it’s a joy to hear T-Boz and
Chilli back. Self-help ballads, slinky slow jams, tart kiss-offs and
party tracks make for a satisfying reunion. Cooking Vinyl. Out now.

MUSIC bankruptcy, with Zoo TV. I like

how Bono spends the currency of celebrity, as
both a heavyweight activist and a mischievous

The Joshua Tree hedonist. I enjoy U2’s old-fashioned belief that

a rock band can matter on a grand scale. They
rarely play safe. Even their failures – Rattle

blooms once more
U2 revisit their 1987 mega-album masterpiece
and, in an ever-more divided and dangerous world,
its themes have never felt so potent or relevant
STORY BY Dorian Lynskey ILLUSTRATION BY Josh Gowen
HEN KENDRICK Lamar
And Hum, PopMart Tour, the iTunes snafu –
are interesting.
I also admire their tenacity. With “Beautiful
Day”, 20 years after their debut single, they
surpassed The Rolling Stones as a creative force
and have never stopped trying to compete
with their back catalogue. A new U2 album,
like it or not, is never just another excuse
to tour the oldies. Reviving The
Joshua Tree therefore feels to
Whenever I write about me like a very un-U2 thing to

W announced the track listing for

Damn in April, many fans had
conniptions about one particu-
lar title: “XXX (featuring U2)”.
U2? What could a hybrid of the world’s most
lauded rapper and its most divisive band pos-
them the comment section
boils with rage, featuring
such familiar riffs as the
band’s tax arrangements,
do. It’s a safe bet and a capit-
ulation to nostalgia – two
things the band have so far
doggedly resisted. What’s
sunglasses, Bono’s alleged more, it further delays
messiah complex and the Songs Of Experience, the

m
Sta

for
di

sibly sound like? One website steeled itself uninvited appearance in album they’ve been working

er
m u

for “the most self-righteous song of all time”.
As it turned out, “XXX” was a highlight of
the MC’s fourth album and U2’s contribution
was a subtle, soulful complement to Lamar’s
damning survey of American violence. Far from
awkward, the collaboration was extremely apt.
U2 were once as untouchable as Lamar is now,
likewise combining artistic ambition, cultural
clout, moral zeal and a compelling struggle
between faith and doubt. U2 are currently
underlining that point by playing their land-
mark 1987 The Joshua Tree in full; the tour
reaches Europe this month.
U2 inhabit a strange place these days.
They’re still loved by millions, yet inspire
an unrivalled degree of knee-jerk loathing.
Playback to the future
Why Radiohead’s OK Computer still feels brand new at 20
rp
be
2014 of Songs Of Innocence dr J on for the last three years. U2
oc en
in 500 million iClouds. I’m not k: B M ull find it difficult to finish an album
ono and Larry
an uncritical fan but the chorus so perhaps this tour is the most lucra-
of disdain makes me want to double tive procrastination in the history of rock.
down on my fondness for the band. I prize the Then again, we could take the band’s word
audacity that drove them to reboot themselves for it. Promoting the tour, The Edge remarked
on 1991’s Europhile Achtung Baby and then that “things have kind of come full circle”. In
invent modern stadium rock, while risking the age of Trump, he argued, the songs on The
Joshua Tree have “a new resonance today that
they didn’t have three years ago”. Heading into
They were untouchable the album in 1985, Bono was both immersing
– a combination of himself in American literature and witnessing
artistic ambition, first-hand the dire consequences of Reagan’s
militant anticommunism in Nicaragua and El
cultural clout and Salvador. This dissonance spawned an idea
moral zeal for an album he planned to call “The Two
Americas”: a double-edged exploration of “my
love of America and my fear of what America
could become”.
The Joshua Tree, which sold 25 million Photographs Getty Images; Dennis Leupold; Wireimage

The July 1997 issue of Select magazine was billed as a “stadium rock copies, is an uncommon blockbuster, with
special”, featuring interviews with U2 and Radiohead. “The kings are dead,” as much rage and grief as transcendence.
read the cover line. “Long live the kings!” That summer felt like a changing
of the guard. Just as U2 were pushing their stadium situationism to breaking
At times, even U2 have found it too self-
point with the PopMart Tour and Britpop was running on fumes, Radiohead important – they described Achtung Baby as
leapt to the front of the pack with a sign-of-the-times masterpiece that “the sound of four men chopping down the
felt like the future. Improbably, OK Computer still does. Radiohead’s Joshua tree” – but these are heavy times:
documentation of the late Nineties sketched the shape of things to come.
worse, in fact, than 1987. The album’s fierc-
It both reflected and resisted a world that was too fast, too busy, too loud,
maddened by technology, incapable of obeying Thom Yorke’s plea on “The est song, “Bullet The Blue Sky”, was originally
Tourist” to “slow down”. That sensation has only intensified over the past 20 an anguished response to the violence Bono
years, so the songs retain their unnerving insight even if the tech has changed saw in Central America, but on every tour it
– the voice on “Fitter Happier” would sound more like Siri if it were recorded has targeted some fresh manifestation of the
now. OK Computer has just been reissued, under the name OKNOTOK, with the
previously unreleased fan favourites “Lift”, “I Promise” and “Man Of War”. The
American berserk. In 2017 it’s obvious where
last line of “Lift”, which the band mothballed for being too commercial, is a the crosshairs should land. If U2’s aim is true,
joke at Yorke’s expense: “Lighten up, squirt.” Fortunately for us, he didn’t. DL then they’ll deliver something more potent and
necessary than a blast from the past.

108 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

The billion-dollar band Since forming at school in Dublin in 1976,
U2 have amassed 13 studio albums, 22 Grammys and more than 1,300 top billings NEW
RELEASES
at venues across the world. Here, GQ breaks down their record-smashing tours...

Haim
Something To
Tell You
Polydor. Out on 7 July.
The Haim sisters’ 2013
debut was a ticket to
pop-rock nirvana,
merging crossover sounds
from Michael Jackson to
Fleetwood Mac. Full of
their distinctive
finger-popping rhythms,
sunlit harmonies and
yearning hooks, the
follow-up is no less fresh.
Another moreish slice of
Californian summer.

Public Service
Broadcasting
Every Valley
Play It Again Sam.
Out on 7 July.
Public Service
Broadcasting’s layering
of archive spoken word
over hypnotic rock veers
between the twee and the
uncannily moving.
Themed around the
decline of Welsh coal
mining (guest vocalists
include James Dean
Bradfield), it’s a poignant,
subtly political tribute
to a lost way of life.

Childhood
Universal High
Marathon Artists.
Out on 21 July.
Three years ago these
south Londoners were a
promising but unformed
indie band. Universal High
is a serious progression,
steeped in smouldering
funk and the synth-happy
end-of-Seventies soul.
The title of the single
“California Light” sums
up their easy charm. It’s
hard to resist. DL

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 109

 BOOKS

The altered states of America

Three fresh tales take in the Midwest, LA’s mean streets and Manhattanites abroad
STORY BY Olivia Cole

YAN GATTIS left readers NEW

wanting far more with RELEASES

R All Involved, his multi-

voiced account of the
1992 Los Angeles riots.
In place of that novel’s urban landscape
wrought from 17 different perspec-
tives, Safe (MCD, £18) takes you back
to LA, zeroing in on two street charac-
ters theoretically on either sides of the The Mare
law, “Glasses” (a gangster-turned-double by Mary Gaitskill
agent) and “Ghost” (a recovering addict Out on 21 July.
now employed as a locksmith for hire, Serpent’s Tail,
most often to the DEA), to deliver a vis- £12.99. Pages 448
ceral, emotive addition to the canon of Mary Gaitskill
contemporary LA noir. Combining All proves the perfect
Involved’s facility for tenderness in the accompaniment
to a summer in
midst of stories of brutality, Safe is the
the city with her
perfect read to have in your suitcase, stylishly captured
even providing a playlist to download so vignettes of bad
you have the soundtrack wherever you Location, location, location: Pack in the best books from the US behaviour. Readers
are reading it. “Tattoo is like a thread of her most recent
novel, The Mare,
under skin. It makes invisible stuff real. It single summer people as playthings, boat, newly minted Midwestern laure- may be concerned
catches up dreams and wishes and mem- The Destroyers is in the great tradition ate Nickolas Butler delivers on the big- that her tame
ories and ties them to you with ink so of American misadventure, whether hearted promise of his bestseller Shotgun subject matter of
you can carry them and show people...” it’s Henry James or Patricia Highsmith, Lovesongs (whose perfectly drawn char- youth mentoring
in Connecticut had
says Ghost. Ryan Gattis’ gift for ventril- with privileged young travellers getting acters are now in development with Fox
become a little
oquism has a similarly emotive appeal. themselves into trouble in the beautiful Searchlight) with The Hearts Of Men wholesome in
A truly literary thriller is a rarity setting and confusing moral landscape (Picador, £12.99), still inspired by his comparison to her
but, like Safe, The Destroyers (Scribner, of Europe. For Bollen, without spoilers, home town of Eau Claire but set in the earlier work. In
£15) earns that accolade. Christopher this is an update of that seductive genre Fifties and Sixties. Once more, friend- 2009’s Don’t Cry:
Stories, from an
Bollen is the thinking man’s choice for as of-the-moment as you can get, with ship is a subject on which he’s pitch attempt to find
a superior sunlounger read – and after the setting the superficially perfect perfect, but this novel’s examination of 1,000 lovers to
Orient, in which he anatomised the Greek island of Patmos. The Destroyers a fracturing relationship between a flail- student/professor
tensions of a gentrifying Long Island will keep you anxiously reading, con- ing father and overachieving young son transgressions,
Gaitskill’s writing
community invaded by Manhattanites, cerned that this idyll will deliver far is superbly judged and Butler’s prose
is wicked and
The Destroyers moves his elegant action more lasting damage than just sunburn. remains a joy to read, even when his surprising. OC
across the Atlantic. With yachts and And if Europe doesn’t float your material is tough.

The pie-chart review 47%

Deadliest
Needing a bigger boat is the last concern Catch

for a pair of unlikely shark hunters...

Shark Drunk: The Art Of Catching A Large Shark 8%
Jaws
From A Tiny Rubber Dinghy In A Big Ocean
by Morten Stoksnes
Out on 13 July. Jonathan Cape, £12.99. Pages 304

One wonders what the Greenland shark – comfortably the world’s longest-living
vertebrate, albeit one uncomfortably fond of chomping away at anything illumined 5%
by its phosphorescent, parasite-covered eyes – did to encourage two Norwegians Karl Ove
Knausgaard
to dedicate themselves to catching one. Its remoteness perhaps. Or simply the
opportunity to spin a salty yarn that draws on far more than simply the perils
of their slightly cockeyed pursuit. Stoksnes’ prose has won multiple awards and 12%
Shark Drunk has picked up a few of its own, making this one literary voyage well Ernest 28%
worth embarking on. BP Hemingway Moby-Dick

110 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 Return of the queen
Later than the Game Of Thrones usual Easter slot and with fewer episodes

17 Jul – eight rather than ten – the expected penultimate series of everyone’s
favourite bloodbath should nonetheless be more spectacular than ever,
with bigger budgets for each episode allowing them to do justice to the
full-scale war to come. Out on 17 July on Sky Atlantic.

FILM

Why actors
will never
really die
Thanks to fountain-of-youth
technology, your favourite
stars can go on and on...
STORY BY Stuart McGurk

N WAR For The Planet Of The

Apes, all the actors are humans,

I but most of them make grunt-

ing sounds. In fact, look at
the cast list and only eight –
notably Woody Harrelson’s colonel waging said
war against said apes – get the luxury of scripts
with lines that don’t end “ooo-oooo”. The rest
are the apes, led by Andy Serkis (naturally),
who probably has it written into his contract
that he must play the CGI lead in a Hollywood
film where there is a CGI lead to be played.
Technically this is nothing new. We have had,
Illustration Joe Waldron Photographs Photoshot; Planet Photos
Evolution of man:
Andy Serkis doing what
comes naturally in War
For Planet Of The Apes
using a combination of old footage and digital
mapping to give him a (virtual) sendoff. There
was even talk – swiftly denied by Disney –
that they were planning on bringing back a CGI
Carrie Fisher, who died last year, for the entirety
of the ninth Star Wars film. Don’t actors ever
get to retire in this CGI world?
could not be used in the service of another per-
formance for at least 25 years after his death.
It’s not just bringing actors from the dead.
It can be used for actors to play younger ver-
sions of themselves. Everyone from Jeff Bridges
in Tron: Legacy (who played a 1984 version of
himself, using a CGI face mapped from Against

after all, two previous films in this particular
saga. But the size of the nonhuman cast, done
via motion capture, does represent a new water-
mark. While Avatar had a fair chunk of the
actors playing CGI creations, now, finally, we
have a film where if you’re an actor acting with
your own face, you’re in the minority.
It raises, of course, interesting questions
about the future of acting. CGI is no longer
about a thesp playing the odd motion-capture
monster, but playing CGI humans. Just last year,
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story brought Peter
Cushing back from the dead 22 years after he
had met his maker. Holby City actor Guy Henry
played the role, with Cushing’s likeness digitally
mapped on later. Furious 7 did something similar
after the untimely death of star Paul Walker,
CGI is no longer about
a thesp playing the
odd motion-capture
monster, but playing
CGI humans
Still, no film can go ahead without consent.
Any studio hoping to digitally revive the dead
must negotiate “re-use” fees with the actor’s
estate, which stems from a 1985 California law
enacted after the son of Dracula actor Bela
Lugosi objected to the widespread use of his late
father’s image. Robin Williams was so against
the possibility that his will specified his image
All Odds) to Arnold Schwarzenegger (who also
played a 1984 version of himself, taken from
the original Terminator, in 2015’s Terminator
Genisys) have had digital face-lifts.
The technique will reportedly leap across
from sci-fi to serious cinema next year, with
Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, about the hit
man who killed Teamsters union boss Jimmy
Hoffa, expected to tell the story through differ-
ent decades. It means we’ll likely see Seventies-
era versions of Robert De Niro (who plays the
hit man) and Al Pacino (who plays Hoffa) squar-
ing off, old actors with CGI masks.
Still, at least they’re playing themselves. After
they’ve gone, Andy Serkis could well be playing
both of them.
War For The Planet Of The Apes is out on 14 July.

1 2
Spider-Man: Homecoming (3-D)
Out on 5 July. The latest web-slinger – former
Billy Elliot Tom Holland – plays the world’s most
famous bite victim in yet another reboot of
the franchise. This one, however, will exist
in the extended Marvel universe, meaning
Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark/Iron
Man acting as mentor and a
post-credit sequence that
sets up Spidey’s role in
next year’s royal rumble
Avengers: Infinity War.
3
Dunkirk
Out on 21 July. This epic telling
of one of the biggest disasters
in British military history – and
the subsequent rescue – sees
Christopher Nolan gather A-
list actors (Kenneth Branagh,
Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy) and
fresh-faces (Fionn Whitehead,
Harry Styles) in what promises to be a
Second World War version of Titanic: we know
the ending, it’s how he moulds the middle.
The Big Sick
Out on 28 July. Massive in the US but probably
still only known to UK fans as “that guy from
Silicon Valley”, comedian Kumail Nanjiani
makes his big-screen big splash with The Big
Sick, from his own screenplay. Based loosely
on his own experience of moving to the States
from Pakistan and the trials and family
tribulations of falling in love with an American,
this was (rightly) the toast of Sundance,
razor-sharp, touching and witty, and saw
Amazon snap it up for $12 million. SM

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 111

 Kamiar Maleki is social media
accredited: he’s now verified
on Instagram, a distinction that
Maryam Eisler, Kenny Schachter,
Anita Zabludowicz and Evgeny
Lebedev have yet to be granted.

ART

All that
glitters on the
Golden Horn
Kamiar Maleki draws
creators, collectors
and investors to boss
it on the Bosphorus
STORY BY Nimrod Kamer

AMIAR MALEKI is the new

director of annual art fair

K Contemporary Istanbul (CI). He

is also the youngest Anglo-
Iranian art collector around
and determined to rebuild Istanbul’s diminished
reputation as a global art hub. He knows it
won’t be easy, given the recent turmoil, but CV
Maleki is on a life-defining mission. His family
home in Mayfair is clearly an art lover’s Name: Kamiar Maleki
paradise, where young and established artists Age: 39
rub shoulders – from Gerhard Richter to Rashid Job: Director,
Johnson to Adam Pendleton to Sterling Ruby Contemporary
– the result of decades spent collecting Istanbul
contemporary art. His transformation from Education: American
collector to curator began two years ago when University Of Paris
he came up with Hashtag Abstract, a show Home: London
dedicated to how we view, research and buy Life: Married to
art through the internet. Richard Hoglund, fashion designer
Kasper Sonne, Christopher Kuhn and Oliver Leila Maleki, one son
Clegg participated, with the Hoglund piece Collected artists:
bought by Charles Saatchi before the opening. Eddie Peake, Ida
Ekblad, Dean Levin,
As its new director, Maleki set out to redo
Paul Kneale, Neil
and reimagine CI from scratch. He had Victoria Strait man: Kamiar Maleki, Beloufa, Kour Pour,
Miro take one of the biggest booths and, with director of Istanbul’s most Shirana Shahbazi
influential contemporary art fair,
founder and chairman Ali Güreli, moved the at his London home, 9 May
whole thing to 14 September to coincide with

DON’T MISS
What: Bold Tendencies, Peckham
On When: Until 30 September
Why: Bold Tendencies made
12
Peckham a summer destination ten
years ago when this local association
now of galleries and artists first exhibited
work in a disused car park. Now, you
July
can wind down with cocktails at
Frank’s Cafe, live classical music,
views of the city and new art, all in
the company of endless hip young
things. Levels 7-10, 95a Rye Lane,
London SE15. boldtendencies.com
What: Soul Of A Nation: Art In The What: Matisse In The Studio at Royal
Age Of Black Power at Tate Modern Academy Of Arts
When: Until 22 October
05 When: Until 12 November
Why: Examining what it meant to be Why: Step into the studio of Henri
an artist during the civil rights era, Matisse and explore the extraordinary
this exhibition focuses on art as
a platform for protest.
Aug objects that fed his visual language.
Statuary from Thailand, Bamana
Featuring works from 1963 figures from Mali, textiles from North
to 1983, it includes 1978’s Africa, props from the Islamic world,
“Muhammad Ali By Chinese calligraphy and masks from
Andy Warhol” (right). Africa all took him beyond the limits
Bankside, London SE1. of western art. SH Burlington House,
tate.org.uk London W1. royalacademy.org.uk

112 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017


Smiles ahead (from top): Wallpapers
Photographs Christopher Rudquist; ©2017 The Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts, Inc/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
(2016) by Turkish artist Yagiz Ozgen will
and DACS, London; Courtesy of Pg Art Gallery; Courtesy of Yagiz Ozgen and Sanatorium Gallery Grooming Daniel Rymer using Aveda
be at Contemporary Istanbul; Kamiar
Maleki’s former show, Hashtag Abstract,
was hosted by London’s Ronchini Gallery
in 2015; Fiftysixdoublezero (2016) by
Mehmet Sinan Kuran, also at this year’s CI
the 15th Istanbul Biennial. From that moment
his position in the art world changed from mini
curator to sought-after director.
NK: Is there a ban on nudity and other
controversial materials at CI?
KM: No, but we also cannot ignore realpolitik
and won’t encourage participants to be
controversial on purpose. There are 70
galleries at the fair and the aim is to attract
as many local art lovers as possible. We are
not giving them instructions on who or what
to show. Overall, we want the best art in the
region and try to bring the most exciting and
internationally acclaimed western creators.
NK: Is the fair in competition with the
Istanbul Biennial?
KM: Quite the opposite. It’s brilliant for us to
coincide with them. CI has worked hard to
internationalise the Turkish art scene over
the past eleven years. Running
alongside a successful Biennial
will only enhance this.
We support it in every
sense and want to see it
thrive. The combination
of CI and the Biennale
moves us one step
closer to becoming
a must-visit for the
international art cabal.
NK: Who are the most notable Turkish
contemporary artists?
KM: Historically speaking, Turkey has always
had a tradition of excellence in art, from
Bedri Rahmi Eyüboglu to Fahrelnissa Zeid,
who was an important figure in the Turkish
avant-garde group of the early Forties and
has been shown at the Tate Modern since
June [until 8 October].
NK: With all the air miles and travelling
you do to so many fairs, why Istanbul?
KM: Having lived in the Golden Horn for
three years ten years ago, I always wanted
to find a way back to work in this city.
NK: I saw you in Art Basel Hong Kong at
every single party, from Hauser & Wirth
to White Cube to Le Baron. The only other
collector I see as frequently is Lawrence
Van Hagen.
KM: These are some of the privileges we
enjoy in the art world. It’s important to
remember we work extremely hard to
achieve many goals. Van Hagen is a world
traveller, but also a gifted young curator.
His show during Frieze, What’s Up New
York, was ingenious. His mother, Susanne
Van Hagen, is a CI ambassador.
NK Any London galleries you recommend?
KM: We are privileged in London to have
such a fantastic array of galleries, from
Waddington Custot to Hauser & Wirth,
Almine Rech, Sadie Coles, Herald St,
Massimo De Carlo and the new kids on
the block, Thaddaeus Ropac.
NK: Which hotels do you recommend
for visitors to CI in September?
KM: My personal taste is the Sofa Hotel
and St Regis, both located in the chic
district of Nisantasi and a stone’s throw
away from the fair. If you prefer the
Bosphorus, try the Shangri-La. Funkier
options would be Soho House
Istanbul or the Walton
Hotels Galata.
The 12th annual
Contemporary Istanbul
is at Istanbul Congress
Center and Istanbul
Convention And
Exhibition Center,
14-17 September.
contemporaryistanbul.com
FUTURISM
Can global
hegemony be
crowdsourced?
The Swedish billionaire’s
hunt for a new world order
STORY BY Emily Wright
It’s easy having a political
opinion. Especially against the
backdrop of one of the most
uncertain geopolitical periods
we have seen in modern history.
Dinner parties, social media, the odd
conversation with a stranger on public
transport – the world is awash with makeshift
political forums. And they will likely change
absolutely nothing.
So what if you could take those opinions,
thoughts and wine-fuelled rants and formulate
them into a workable manifesto for a change
in global governance? Not so easy. But now,
one progressive Swedish billionaire is having
a go.
László Szombatfalvy, who once worked
odd jobs before becoming a successful stock
market investor by creating his own model for
value and risk, has offered a $5 million (£4m)
prize to anyone who can successfully formulate
a “UN 2.0”. The worldwide competition, A New
Shape, is calling for ideas to reimagine how
modern society is governed.
Set up through Szombatfalvy’s Global
Challenges Foundation, the competition is
looking for individuals or organisations to
create an international model which will
improve the “current state of humanity”.
“Our current international system – including
but not limited to the United Nations – was set
up in another era, following the Second World
War. It is no longer fit to deal with 21st-century
risks that can affect people anywhere in the
world,” writes Szombatfalvy in an open letter
on the Foundation’s website (globalchallenges.
org). “We urgently need fresh new thinking
in order to address the scale and gravity
of today’s global challenges, which have
outgrown the present system’s ability to
handle them.”
The deadline for entries is 30 September
and all eligible and complete submissions will
be assessed by a group of leading academics
between October 2017 and March 2018.
Whether the winning idea makes it to
“market” will depend on its efficacy, as ruled
by the judges. But then, it’s easy having an
idea; putting it into action is where it gets
tricky. Just ask Donald Trump.
Apr 2018
Shortlisted candidates will
be invited to a judging day
in Stockholm when the final
results will be announced
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 113

04 Aug
The revolution will not be digitised
Rather than liberating our minds, technology is herding us into like-minded tribes
hy is politics becoming so
polarised? This is the question
W that agonises centre-ground
parties around the world. In
the US, the election of Donald
Trump appalled those who believed a bigoted
braggart could never win the presidency.
Last year’s EU referendum revealed a nation
divided as if by a diamond-cutter. Jeremy
Corbyn, a son of the hard Left was twice chosen
by Labour as its leader. It is a measure of how
far politics has drifted from the centre that so
many were relieved that the Front National’s
Marine Le Pen secured only 34 per cent in the
final round of the French presidential election.
In spite of all this, it remains commonplace to
argue that voters tend to cluster in the middle
ground, except in circumstances of great pres-
sure and grievance. Many liberals reassure
themselves that we are merely witnessing an
opening of the steam valve on the global pres-
sure cooker – an angry, populist response to the
crash of 2008, its painful aftereffects and the
transformative power of the technology – and
that normal service will be resumed before long.
But is it right to assume that the default
location of modern citizens is the political
centre? Consider a study recently published in
the Journal Of Experimental Social Psychology,
in which 200 participants were presented with
a choice. Either they could read and answer
questions about an opinion they agreed with,
and be rewarded with the chance to win $7
in a raffle, or they could carry out the same
exercise with an opinion contrary to their own,
with the potential to win $10.
On the edge: Social
media exposes
individuals to
ideas they already
agree with, feeding
the polarisation
of politics
114 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
Fringe benefits
Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Richard Gadd returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a limited
run of his critically acclaimed show Monkey See Monkey Do. Offering a fresh insight into mental
illness and what it means to be a man, Gadd’s genre-busting performance has been hailed as one of
the most memorable ever seen at the Fringe, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.
edfringe.com
POLITICS
STORY BY Matthew d’Ancona
The economically rational choice was clearly
to take the $10 option. But, remarkably, 63 per
cent opted for the $7 ticket so they could read
an argument that chimed with their beliefs (the
subject was same-sex marriage). When asked
what it was like to listen to a political oppo-
nent, the participants compared the experience
to “taking out the trash”, “standing in line for
20 minutes” and discomfort not far off “having
a tooth pulled”. As one of the study’s authors
put it, “They don’t know what’s happening on
the other side and they don’t want to know.”
The greatest resource
of information in
history is being used
to tamp down what we
know and think already
Of course, people like to imagine that
they form their opinions in a more cerebral,
considered fashion, weighing up the facts and
the arguments and drawing a conclusion. To
support this conviction, the philosopher John
Stuart Mill is often quoted: “He who knows
only his own side of the case knows little of
that. His reasons may be good and no one
may have been able to refute them. But if he
is equally unable to refute the reasons on the
opposite side, if he does not so much as know
what they are, he has no ground for preferring
either opinion.”
Well, yes. But is that actually how we
think? Studies show that human beings have
a tendency towards “homophilous sorting” –
that is, to congregate with the like-minded and
to ignore information or analysis that conflicts
with our presumptions.
The counter-argument is that this has always
been the case, since one tribe fought with
another over the gods in which they believed.
Certainly, there is nothing new in political fac-
tionalism or cantonisation. What has changed,
and radically so, is the technological context.
More than newspapers and even cable
television, the digital revolution has put
rocket-boosters under existing instincts. Social
media and search engines are powered by
algorithms that drive us, by design, towards
arguments we will like and people who share
our opinions. It is a bleak irony: the greatest
source of information constructed in human
history is being used to tamp down what we
know and think already.
As Barack Obama put it in his farewell
address, “We become so secure in our bubbles
that we start accepting only information,
whether it’s true or not, that fits our opinions,
instead of basing our opinions on the evidence
that is out there.”
If we want to escape those bubbles, we
are going to have to take action: not only to
broaden our own horizons, but to teach the
Photographs Getty Images
next generation to seek out differing opinions
online and elsewhere as a matter of necessity.
But the first step is to acknowledge that the
political polarisation of our age is more than
a global tantrum that will quickly pass. History
has awful lessons to teach us about the cost of
such complacency.
 this month on

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 THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED #1

In a new three-part series, GQ investigates how some

of the fastest men on two wheels balance life on and off
the track. This month, we went for a drive with MotoGP rider
Andrea Dovizioso in his SEAT Leon Cupra

THE
BALANCING
ACT
PHOTOGRAPHS BY Leon Csernohlavek
STORY BY Ailis Brennan

ndrea Dovizioso

A
lives a far from
quiet life. You’d
be hard pushed
to believe it,
however, from
visiting his home
in Forli, situated
among the rolling hills surrounding
the Italian city of Bologna. “It’s really
nice going uphill and downhill to
Bertinoro,” he says, on the drive
over to the small hilltop town where
he went to school. “It’s always nice
to see where they make the wine –
and there is a lot of that here. The
mood is really nice, it really relaxes
you to see that.”
Dovizioso is a rider for the Ducati
team in MotoGP, the premiere class of
motorbike racing. He is a world
champion, clinching the 125cc title at
the age of 18, and has since spent
almost ten years battling it out with
the finest riders in the world in the
MotoGP class. He spends the majority
of his year travelling to 18 races across
four continents – reaching speeds on
the track of over 220mph. In his work
life, fierce competition, adrenaline and
danger are all part of a day’s work. In
his time off, Dovi (as he is known to
The back streets
of Bertinoro where
Andrea Dovizioso
grew up
his fans) enjoys the simpler things
in life: seeing his daughter, his
girlfriend, his mother and his father,
who kick-started his passion for
motorbikes in the very earliest
years of his life.
“I did a bet with him when I was
almost four years old, because I
wanted a bike.” Dovizioso’s father
told him that if he could learn to ride
his bicycle without stabiliser wheels
in the space of one day, he would
buy him his first motorbike. Needless
to say, the younger Dovizioso won
the bet. “I have that bike in my
Prize assets:
house,” he says. Andrea Dovisioso’s
On occasion, Dovizioso still trains trophy room

TECH SPEC
THE CONCEPT:
The new SEAT Leon
Cupra features both
KESSY keyless entry
and wireless charging
ENGINE: 300PS, 2.0
litre, four cylinder
PERFORMANCE:
0-62mph in 5.8sec;
top speed 155mph
‘This car is really close to the bike:
compact, very reactive, but with a
lot of power, so the mix is really good’
with his father, the man who
introduced him to Motocross, his first
two-wheeled passion. When he’s not
on the MotoGP circuit or at the
Motocross track, a drive among the
vineyards and villages of his local area
in his SEAT Leon Cupra is the perfect
downtime exercise – relaxing, but
never dull. “[The car] has reactivity
and power – on the bike, you try to
find the same things,” he explains.
“This car is really close to the bike:
compact, very reactive, but with a lot
of power, so the mix is really good.”
Getting the mix right is crucial for
Dovizioso, particularly in perfecting
his technique on track. “It’s always
G Partnership
Gran Premio Motul
de la República
Argentina, 9 April
2017, at The Termas
de Río Hondo circuit
about balance,” he says. “The perfect
mix is to be aggressive, very
aggressive, but very smooth. The
best riders give a lot of intensity in
a smooth way. It is very difficult to
get it but it is the key.”
Balance is the key in the car and
on the track, but getting a balance
between the immense pressure of his
sport and the serenity of his home
life is perhaps the most important
equilibrium of all. “I refresh my mind,”
he says, of his time at home. “That
is really important for an athlete,
because when we go to the weekend,
the stress and the intensity is really
high, and you have to be ready.”
 FOR THE PRINT ISSUE FOR THE DIGITAL ISSUE
CALL 020 7499 2798 TO HAVE A DOWNLOAD THE CONDÉ NAST
COPY DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR TRAVELLER APP IN THE APP STORE
 E D I T E D BY
PAUL HENDERSON

Exclusive column

CHRIS
HOY
PART 1

CYCLING KIT p.121 WELLBEING AT WORK p.122 BEAR GRYLLS p.124 PERSONAL TR AINING p.125 HUGO RIFKIND p.126

Track record:
Sir Chris Hoy has
an angle on every
aspect of cycling
after 30 years of
experience and
success
Photograph Alexander Rhind

Get back on the bike

GQ’s new columnist and six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy reveals his golden rules of cycling.
This month: what to wear and why

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 119

 L I F E C YC L E
What
to wear
when
you ride
Sir Chris Hoy, Britain’s
six-time Olympic
champion, is the latest
star to join Team GQ.
Each month he’ll
address a different
biking dilemma – this
time, the sartorial issue
IT MIGHT seem ludicrously simple,
but the obvious answer to what to
wear on your bike is whatever that
helps you enjoy cycling. Of course,
the reality is a little more complicated,
especially for us Brits. If you look
at nations where cycling has been
popular for years, such as Denmark,
Holland and Germany, it really isn’t
an issue. And yet in the UK, we are
still in that awkward phase of finding
ourselves in an unfamiliar situation
and feeling uncomfortable. So we
overthink things and end up assuming
120 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
Exclusive column
Ride the rails: GQ’s new
CHRIS
HOY
PART 1
to ride a bike in any way seriously
you need to be wearing a full Team
Sky racing kit.
Of course, that makes most cyclists
look as ridiculous as an overweight
football fan wearing the shirt of his
favourite club for a pub five-a-side
game. Hence the popularity of the
famous acronyms of Mamil (“middle-
aged men in Lycra”), and the less
well known but much funnier Puffin
(comedian Alexei Sayle’s “pathetic
unfit fat f***ers in nappies”).
Personally, I feel sorry for Mamils.
When they walk into a café dressed
head-to-toe in Lycra, you’ll always
spot people sniggering at them. And
yet you don’t know what that person
looked like six months or even a year
ago. It may be that they were once
twice the size they are now until
cycling transformed them and they
feel great about how they look.
Of course, that is the positive way
of looking at it. The flipside is that
Lycra isn’t the most elegant material
you can wear and professional cycling
gear generally looks awful on pretty
much anyone heavier than eight stone
and with more than five per cent body
fat. But there is a better solution.
For me, the most important
consideration is to choose attire that
is functional, but looks stylish too.
That means going for colours that are
understated and use smart fabrics.
A lot of people think they have to
cycling correspondent wear something black (because it is
Sir Chris Hoy swapped
racing for recreation
flattering) or something Day-Glo (to
be safe and seen). That isn’t the case.
Decent cycling clothing today is
designed with reflective strips or
subtle detailing that is visible under
streetlights or in car headlights. You’ll
find that you can be seen just as well
as you would in a builder’s fluorescent
vest. Plus, you’ll feel better in what
you are wearing.
Another common mistake is buying
the most expensive cycling gear just
because it is perceived as fashionable
or cool. For many cyclists, there is a
reverse snobbery where they will
look down on a rider if every item
they own comes from the same brand.
You will get more respect if you mix
and match items that look good.
The bottom line is that most cycling
kit exists for a reason. The padded
shorts, for example, might look silly,
Chris Hoy’s
rules of
the road
but if you are riding for any length
of time on a small, thin saddle you
are going to feel it. Alternatively,
if you want to protect your
undercarriage (and your dignity), you
Do wear
cycling shoes.
You’ll be quicker,
can wear a pair of merino wool boxer
shorts with a padded insert under
and you’ll have
more control over
the bike if you
your clothes – they’re unobtrusive yet
very comfortable. And for the urban
commuter, the best advice when it
hit potholes or ride
up kerbs. comes to buying trousers or jeans is to
make sure they have a diamond-cut
crotch sewn into them. That will make
Don’t wear
them more comfortable and stop them
underpants under
your cycling shorts. wearing out so quickly.
The whole point
of wearing padded
Then there is the issue of shorts and
shorts is that you the option of leg shaving. I know that
have no seams for a lot of men this is a big issue, but
between you and
the saddle. funnily enough it can run both ways.
For instance, if you are part of a
cycling group that takes their riding
Avoid white shorts.  seriously, you can expect a lot of
They’re terribly
unflattering (from
mickey-taking if you turn up with
hairy legs. Likewise, if you ever wear
Photographs Alexander Rhind; Roger Stillman
the front, men look
like a percentage
sign) and become
shorts to the office and you have
see-through when shaved your legs you are certainly
wet. Enough said. going to hear about it. It’s a fine line,
but here’s the thing: the more cycling
you do, the more toned your legs get,
And never wear...
an aerodynamic the better you will look and so you
helmet. Unless you should be proud to show your legs
are taking part in
a time trial at the
off, with hair or without. And if you
Olympics or one can get to the stage where you feel
of the grand tours,
don’t do it.
confident enough to shave your legs,
why would you worry about what
you are wearing anyway?
 LIFE
155,000 The number of Londoners who cycle to work in the capital.

KIT

Gear up
for the MT21 multi-
tool by Brooks
Bike shop for
your pocket.

summer... £45. brooks

The ultimate cycle computer.

england.com

Take to the saddle and

Edge 820 by Garmin
Variotronic

£370. garmin.com
put yourself in the sunglasses
by Uvex
frame with the best in Automatically
tinting shades
high-spec cyclingwear, for all conditions.
£233. At
from helmet to pedal alpinetrek.co.uk

Shorts by Foffa
Stretchy, strong and
water-repellent.
£80. foffawear.com

Climber’s Shoe by Rapha

Biomechanically brilliant. £280. rapha.cc

Passoni Jersey
by Ashmei
Ultra-lux
collaboration jersey.
£129. ashmei.com

Helmet by Rapha Watch 2 by Huawei

Light, fast, safe and unmissable. Latest 4G smartwatch for cyclists.
£250. rapha.cc From £329. amazon.co.uk

S-Works 6 shoes by
Specialized Explosive
speed with maximum
comfort. £310.
specializedconcept
store.co.uk

WIN! Sequoia Expert by

Specialized (worth £2,750) For a chance to win,
answer this question:
COMPETITION

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To submit your answer (and find T&Cs), visit: gq.uk/specialized and enter your details. For more information on the Specialized cycling range, visit specialized.com

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 121

 M E N TA L H E A LT H

Battling burnout: It is time to

abandon the culture of overworking
Investing in a structured wellbeing programme can curb absenteeism,
boost productivity and prevent stress and depression in the office

THE FACTS speak for themselves: one in religion and sexuality. It wouldn’t be the first
four employees blame work as the primary time something profoundly in need of an
cause of poor mental health. Twelve overhaul has been dismissed as shallow
billion working days are lost every year and frivolous by a shortsighted
to stress and depression at a cost of economy. Following on from the recent
more than £650 billion to the world’s royal evangelical call to arms, from
economy. Half of all employees do not Prince William and Prince Harry, the
feel their workplace is an emotionally nation’s high achievers need to be
healthy environment, with 55 per cent more proactive in terms of facing up to
of organisations having no formal mental health instead of waiting for the
strategy for handling employee wellbeing. cracks to appear, when action is far less
Absenteeism increased 25 per cent over effective and far more costly.
the course of the past year in the UK, Studies have shown those in competitive
highlighting that burnout is set to get worse, and high-pressure roles will work hard
lost every year
The number of

not better. regardless of exhaustion, stress, eating

working days

disorders, or even clinical mental conditions,

The high-pressure problem doing whatever is required in order to get
A typical commercial jet cruises at around the work done. Job cuts in corporate hubs
36,000 ft, while many military jets are able and increasing expectations to do more with
to stress

to fly considerably higher. So what
differentiates these aircraft besides the
bravado of the pilot? Fundamentally, their
inherent resilience.
Ironic then, that those at the higher
echelons of organisations should be so
ill-equipped for life in the fast lane. For
those earning ballpark six-figure salaries,
shouldering significant corporate
responsibility and maintaining a tight
work-life balance, the pressures and
expectations to maintain sky-high
performance are exceptional – ordinary
people, capitalising on extraordinary talent.
We know it often requires things to get
toxic before any significant change is
triggered in the workplace. First it was
gender, then there was race, disability,
less means stress levels are now past
breaking point. It’s a question of when and
not if for most.
Recreational drugs, excessive caffeine,
antidepressant medication and promiscuous
behaviour are but a few of the supposed
panaceas offering respite – masking the
swelling underlying issues rather than
tackling them.
The wellbeing solution
Yes, mental health has a silver lining: the
individual, the employer, the team and the
entire business can benefit significantly
Pressure drop: Rather than
from seemingly minor interventions. New a major upheaval, small
research this year from the University Of changes can help prevent
staff turning to destructive
billion East Anglia reveals that feelings of being
supported at work can help prevent
forms of stress release

Not on my watch subconscious, or autopilot, takes over. This happens not

only when we drive, but also when we go to work and when
we are with our loved ones, living our lives. It is estimated
We have all experienced driving a long distance and arriving that 80 per cent of our lives are spent on autopilot.
M I N D P OW E R

at the destination without remembering large chunks of the
journey. This is our body’s clever way of saving fuel. Our
conscious brain is a gas-guzzling V8 engine – when we
concentrate hard, we tire quickly, such as when we’re
learning a new language or instrument.
To be more efficient we need to get our subconscious
to run the show when we can: it ticks over like a Tesla.
Our subconscious saves energy by looking at what we are
experiencing now and seeing if it looks familiar. If it does, it
assumes it’s the same as yesterday and behaves as such.
When we drive a car, we recognise the wheel, road and
whole experience as similar to before and therefore our
This means that huge chunks of our time is habituated,
doing what we always do and not seeing and using the
unique context of the moment. Our lives become a blur.
A simple way to override the system is to put your Rolex
(or vintage Seiko, depending on which way your taste and
budget goes) on the other wrist.
80 per cent of our Each time you habitually look for your watch and find it
lives are spent missing, take in a deep breath, smile and ask yourself,
on autopilot “What’s needed here?” because it’s different to what was
needed yesterday.
You will have turned off the Tesla and switched on the V8.
Enjoy the ride. Chris Baréz-Brown

122 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017


Flexibility: ‘Allow staff to balance their personal and
working life,’ says Christopher Harvey
emotional exhaustion and create happiness,
building resilience, which in turn produces
higher productivity rates. Everybody wins
and there’s a resilience intervention to fit
every company budget.
How organisations can
boost wellbeing…
Managerial mental health training
Create a supportive working environment
almost immediately. Courses for line
managers are tailored at improving
awareness and understanding of mental
health at work, how work can impact on
staff and how to broach the subject,
making referrals where necessary.
Flexible working
Allow staff to balance their personal and
working life and be more flexible about
managing their health, whether it be
controlling daily habits such as meditation
and fitness or even taking medication and
tucking the children in at night.
Make healthy options appealing
A healthier body means a healthier mind.
Swap the supermarket chocolates and
chemical grade coffee for fresh, local,
independent-branded produce. Studies
show that something as small as even
a better selection of tea can create a
culture that stimulates collaboration
and productivity.
Engage with a coach
Executive coaching is a great way to
improve confidence, communication and
create vitality in the workforce. The
Chartered Institute Of Personnel And
Development conducted research concluding
that individuals being coached become more
engaged and enthusiastic in their day-to-day
work in addition to becoming more proactive
as their confidence levels increase. Qualified
coaching targeted specifically at wellbeing
can have a whole team performing at their
Internal buddy-ups: top level.
Meetings once a The positive impacts will flow throughout
month between
the organisation, while improvements in key
younger and older
staff retention, productivity, attendance,
generations of quality of work and morale – not to mention
employees from
Illustrations Matt Murphy
the resulting competitive advantage in the
different departments marketplace – prove addressing mental
encourage insight- wellbeing isn’t so frivolous after all.
sharing between very The key is to have a deliberate
different perspectives wellbeing strategy that provides all
on work life. employees with structure at all times, not
just those in need. Christopher Harvey
LIFE
The Thought Record:
How to build on your
individual wellbeing
“The Thought Record” is a
mental checklist that helps
you reframe negative
thoughts, process problems
and readdress their impact
on your working practices.
Remember, you can’t always
control what happens, but
you can control how you
react. Once you practice, you
can start doing it in your
head if you find yourself
becoming anxious. Draw up a
simple table and brain dump
your thoughts under each of
the following categories:
The situation/trigger
1 Briefly describe the situation that
led to your unpleasant feelings.
For example, “An argument or an
upcoming interview.”
Your emotional reaction
2 What do you feel in response to the
trigger/confrontation? For example,
“Anxiety, guilt, anger, doubt or fear.”
Unhelpful thoughts
3 and images
Identify the negative thinking behind
your feelings and literally write it out.
For example, “My interview is going to
go horribly and my wife is going to
think I’m bad at my job.”
Process the negativity
4 Find evidence that supports your
unhelpful thought. For example, “My
wife has told me in the past that she
thinks I lack confidence.”
Counter the argument.
5 Facts that provide evidence against
your unhelpful thoughts. For
example, “I have worked on my
interview skills since my last interview
and I have improved.”
Reassess
6 Now that you’ve considered the facts,
write down a healthier, more balanced
way of thinking. For example, “While I
have struggled with interviews before,
I’m fully prepared now and have no
proof that it won’t go well.”
Outcome
7 Rate how you feel now. “Less anxious,
calmer, reassured.”
Repeat throughout the day
as required
8
The more you do it, the more impact
it will have. CH
Christopher Harvey is the founder of
coaching firm Harvey Sinclair: The
Executive Wellbeing Experts. For
more information, visit
harvey-sinclair.com
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 123
 BEAR GRYLLS: #27
Find the
hero inside
yourself
Take a load off your mind
with forward-thinking
survival tactics to steer
you in the right direction
when your wellbeing stalls
HOWEVER strong we think
we are, we’re all vulnerable
to mental health issues at
times. In fact, probably a lot
more than we might admit to
ourselves – myself included.
Life is tough for people and
the pressures and struggles
nowadays are greater than ever. Whoever we
are, modern men and women have to deal with
a lot of things all at once and that can take
a toll. But dealing with it isn’t always that easy.
To start with, though, I want to state that it
is those pressures and struggles that make us
human. The great survivors learn to embrace
these emotions, not to hide. They understand
that light can only shine through cracked
vessels and that it is the chinks in our armour
that show we are out there in the battle of life.
And, ironically, it is in our perceived weak-
nesses that we can find our greatest strengths.
Whoever we are, anxiety can be very hard
to manage. It can bring even the greatest to
their knees. So step one is to speak up. When
my father died unexpectedly I was just a
young man, so I sought out counselling. I did
it covertly because I was embarrassed that
I needed help, and felt overwhelmed and pan-
icked by silly stuff. Sharing it helped, and
reminded me of the fundamental truth that
the first step toward empowerment is honesty.
We Brits sometimes find this stuff hard to
talk about, maybe because of our natural
national stoicism. That stoicism has its good
parts, however. We like to crack on and don’t
want ever to create a fuss, even if we might be
suffering inside. It’s that old lion heart.
But a lion heart is good. Remember that even
though lions are strong and courageous, they
are also very tender, often showing great vul-
nerability within the community of their pride.
Indeed, to be truly strong you also have to be
able to be vulnerable. There is no shame in
124 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
Head strong: As Chief Scout, Bear Grylls understands the mental health benefits of being part of an active community
being open and honest with the people we
love. In fact, it’s when we hide things away in
the dark that they fester and anxieties grow
like bacteria. But shine light on bacteria and it
breaks down. It is the same with our struggles.
Many people have suffered incredible
trauma, whether from battle, injury or from
other terrible events in their lives. It is so
important to be respectful of the effect that
those traumas can have on people’s lives. It
can be hard for those who haven’t suffered
from mental health problems to understand
this. The most important thing we can remem-
ber, as the family or friend of someone
suffering in this way, is that at the core of love
is empathy. Sometimes people don’t want you
When my father died unexpectedly,
sharing it helped, and reminded me
of the fundamental truth that the first
step toward empowerment is honesty
to give them a solution to their problems. They
just want to be heard and to know that
somebody is standing alongside them.
As with all health issues, prevention is better
than cure, and there are some good measures
that can help us manage our wellbeing. Firstly,
it is always beneficial to have a focus and
a goal. When we’re highly focused, we tend
naturally to be positive and determined in pur-
suing that goal. It is how we are made – the
survivor genetics of the hunter-gatherer.
Think of mental health as being like a stream.
When we dam it up, the water has no flow and
it becomes stagnant. The stream is at its best
when it’s heading somewhere with unrelenting
purpose, hitting boulders, taking falls, working
hard and powering through. Movement keeps
it clean. The more we can get going, the better
we’re going to feel about ourselves.
Gratitude is also key – it is such a strong,
positive emotion. I seldom meet people who are
incredibly grateful for what they have and yet
are also desperately unhappy. They are contra-
dictory emotions. You can express thankfulness
in small ways – saying grace at mealtimes or an
unprompted, heartfelt thank you to your
partner – but I find that living with a strong
sense of gratitude changes us for the better.
And, ultimately, remembering how hard other
people have it is a powerful weapon in our
arsenal of remaining positive and grateful.
Equally important are exercise, sleep and
good nutrition. I find that regular activity and
healthy eating benefit every aspect of my
wellbeing, both physical and mental.
As Chief Scout, I see first-hand the positive
impact of Scouting, which helps build commu-
nity, gives access to adventure and reminds us
all to show kindness, gratitude and tolerance
in everything we do. A recent study shows that
those who have been members of Scouting or
Guiding groups are 15 per cent less likely to
suffer mood disorders, including depression
and anxiety, than those who haven’t. The more
you give, the more you share – and the more
you endeavour towards a positive goal, the
better your mental health is likely to be.
But we should never be complacent. In some
ways, mental health difficulties are like the
common cold. We might not be expecting
to get one, but it happens to us all now and
then. That’s OK. Welcome to the human
race. Just keep going, share the journey and
never give up.
 LIFE

PERSONAL TRAINING: #7

Preparation
Start in split stance, one
foot forward, other foot
back, knees slightly bent.
Lower your body
down by bending
legs until the rear
knee almost
touches the floor. This month’s ultimate
Keep arms in
sprint position
exercise is one that will
with elbows at
90 degrees.
pump up your workout’s
Engage the
intensity and challenge
core muscles
of shoulders,
your leg and core
torso and hips. training. Jump lunges
will add plyometric
power to your quads
and glutes, stability to
your ankles, knees and
hips and attack your
oblique, core and arm
muscles. Jonathan Goodair
jonathangoodair.com

Shorts, £35. Trainers,

£90. Both by Adidas,
Jump
adidas.co.uk. Socks
by Falke, £15. falke.com
Maintaining a good,
straight posture, jump
explosively upward,
switching legs and
arms in midair and
landing under control
Grooming Samantha Cooper Model Paul Knops at W Model Management

with feet in opposite

positions.
Photographs Martyn Milner/The Scout Association; Ben Riggott

Perform
3 sets of
20 jumps with
Lunge 60 seconds’
rest.
Immediately bend legs
until rear knee almost
makes contact with floor
and repeat.
Maintain upright torso
and stable hips
throughout.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 125

 LIFE
COMMENT
round this time
I’m never
 A of year I like to
go to a music
festival, to
remind myself
who I am.
Beforehand, I look forward to it
enormously. I could pretend that
this is because of drink, drugs
or dancing, but that would be
happier than
when I’m with
my children.
But I love it
when I am not
a lie. Really, it’s because of the
amount of time I’ll get to spend
in a small one-man tent that
contains only my stuff, and no
stickers, and no Lego, and no
dried Cheerios, and most of all,
no bloody children.
I love my children. What’s
more, I love them in that
proactive, actually-being-with-
them way that society only
seems to have invented for dads
in, oooh, 2003 or so. We hang
out, we chat, we go swimming.
We have a game where they run
at me as fast as they can across
our living room to see how much
they can make it hurt. I am never
happier than when I am with
them. And yet, oh my God, how
much I love it when I am not.
Not all the time. Often, in fact,
I’ll miss them horribly. I’ll be in
a hotel, in the restaurant alone,
and there will be another family
with somebody small. “Man,”
I’ll think to myself, “I wish my
children were here.” But then
this child will scream. And not
because of the weird bearded
man watching them across a
restaurant. Maybe the butter
will be too yellow or something.
A scream that makes you twitch,
that makes your nearest eye
close, because your animal brain
is trying to close your nearest
ear. And often, I will find myself
cherishing that sound, almost
enjoying it. Bathing in the
knowledge that I don’t need
to do anything about it at all.
A few years ago, I was
tortured by the SAS. I know that
sounds like the sort of expansive
lie you make up in the pub. It
was for a magazine. They threw
me in the boot of a car, then
they held me in stress positions
for ages with a bag on my head
126 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
and headphones in my ears
blasting disorientating sounds
of horror. I mean, how good
does my job sound right now?
The first of these sounds of
horror, anyway, was a man in
agony. I didn’t like that very
much. The second, though, was
a screaming baby. On my knees,
with a killer’s knee in my back,
I actually started laughing. With
this? They were going to break
me with this? It wasn’t even my
baby. I knew the sound of my
baby. This was just the glorious,
heartening sound of somebody
else’s f***ing problem.
It is not necessary for a father
to subsume himself into the cult
of the dad. We should be better
at talking about this. Women
know. They are well aware
that society expects them to
surrender to mummishness
without complaint. Sometimes
this means getting sensible hair
and dressing like Americans.
Sometimes it means going the
“hot yoga mum” route – think
Me time is the
right time
The perks of parenthood are rich and
plentiful, but nothing compares to the
stolen moments spent far away from
the constant demands of being a father
Miranda Kerr breastfeeding in
a kimono. Really, it’s the same
thing – the substitution of
a personality for a role. All
my favourite women, though,
complain plenty. They have lives,
jobs, motorbikes, speedboat
licences. That’s feminism, innit?
When you’re a mum with
daughters, you need to show
those daughters that being a
mum need not be all that their
future can hold.
Men are less experienced
with this stuff. All parenthood
is role-play at first, and our
roles, too, are now ready and
waiting. You’re either Daddy Pig
or you’re that man holding the
baby from the Athena poster.
That’s basically it. Choose one.
Sure, hang with your dad mates
and talk dad things. Tell
competitive tales about the
size of your children’s poos,
the startling greenness of them,
all that. Yet don’t give in to it.
Don’t accept that, from now on,
this is all you will ever be. For
you will regret it. Parenthood,
as John Updike might have put
it, is a mask that eats the face.
And one day you will wake up
and your sons will think you
a flabby, boring loser. And
they’ll be right, too. And dimly,
perhaps, you will remember a
time when you were somebody
else and wonder where the hell
that man went while you were
looking the other way.
A friend of mine, with older
kids, once showed me an actual
graph about how much children
and parents like spending time
with each other. For a parent,
the trend goes up and up. For
children, it goes down and down.
The sweet spot, he said, the cross
of the X, comes when they’re
about 12. So no, it is not wrong
to cherish time without your
Illustration Ricardo Fumanal
children. Use it, like I do, to
remind yourself of who you are.
You cannot afford to forget. For
there will come a time, sooner
than you can imagine, when they
will cherish time without you.
Hugo Rifkind is a writer for
the Times.
 Cara Delevingne is showing her mettle. As a
singer and an actor this one-time
star supermodel has found her
place in the universe. Ahead
of her first blockbusting lead
role in Luc Besson’s new sci-fi
spectacular, GQ joins the French
director for a journey inside the
head space of this very British
rule-breaker, who silenced
self-doubt to unleash a talent
that was never just skin deep

PHOTOGRAPHS BY Mariano Vivanco

CREATIVE DIRECTION Paul Solomons

STYLING BY Teddy Czopp

128 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 CARA DELEVINGNE

Neckpiece, bra and

knickers from
Thierry Mugler Archive.
Ring, Cara’s own.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 129


STORY BY Stuart McGurk
he Cité Du Cinéma,
located about six miles north of central Paris,
is more city than cinema. A complex of some
700,000 sq ft set up by French director Luc
Besson five years ago, it houses not just studios
but also a university, devoted to everything
from makeup and lighting to cameras, car-
pentry and costume. There is also a cinema.
It’s here that Besson – best known for Leon,
The Fifth Element and Lucy, the last starring
Scarlett Johansson – gathers in late March with
his production team and a smattering of stu-
dents to watch the first full-length trailer of
his latest sci-fi epic, Valerian And The City Of A
Thousand Planets, along with his star, a certain
24-year-old by the name of Cara Delevingne.
Currently, Delevingne – sparrow-small,
dressed in Ugg boots and an oversized hoodie
that, on her, looks more like a cloak – has
stopped everyone from entering, having spotted
the neatly lined table of 3-D glasses by the
entrance and wanting to take a picture before
people disrupt the display. “Hold up! Hold up!”
The film sees Delevingne and co-star Dane
DeHaan as special operatives in the 28th
century – tasked, naturally, with saving the
universe – and the trailer displays the stakes.
A CGI phantasmagoria of fantasy worlds and
fantastic aliens, it’s not hard to imagine where
the ¤197 million budget went and, indeed, the
business it’ll need to do to earn it back.
After we watch it twice over, Delevingne is
giddy, jumping over the bearded Besson like
a puppy happy to see its owner. After sup-
porting roles in the likes of Suicide Squad and
leads in smaller indies, this is her big shot at
jumping that perilous chasm marked “model-
turned-actress”, turbocharged by being one
of the world’s most famous faces and a social-
media following in the tens of millions (8m on
Twitter, 40m on Instagram).
Screening over, we take the lift to Besson’s
office on the third floor, where he’s had the
last Rihanna album playing nonstop since it
came out (Rihanna has a cameo in the film),
and settle down.
“So,” says Besson to GQ, with the kind of
cultivated laissez faire it’s illegal for French
film directors not to possess, “last night I saw
the questions you sent over, which obviously
I didn’t read. So, it’s me, my questions!”
And with that, we begin...
130 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
INTERVIEW BY Luc Besson
LB: So what interests me is when parents
realise their daughter or son is good for
something and accept it. For me, not only
are you very talented, but you’re good at
almost everything you touch, like music or
anything. You’re full of skills.
CD: [To GQ] I paid him...
LB: So my first question is when do you
realise and accept that you have this talent?
CD: I find it very hard when people pay
me compliments because I don’t think I’m
specifically talented. It’s more that I just
love doing something. As a kid, I didn’t
think I was good at anything. I did what I
loved, rather than the academic thing. At
school, I was surrounded by kids who were
incredibly talented, musicians and artists
and actors, and I would always think in
comparison to these kids I’m terrible.
GQ: You always felt that?
CD: Yeah. As a really small child I always
wanted to be an actress. And I wanted to
be a musician. But going to school with
all these incredibly talented people I
was like, “I have no chance.” I still did it,
because I loved it, but I didn’t ever think
I’d do this. That’s why I’m so happy that
I modelled. I wouldn’t have made it into
acting or music if I hadn’t modelled first.
LB: But I can recognise when I see someone
like a ball of energy, ready to go pffff! into
music, singing, to beatboxing, to pictures, to
films, you know? So did your parents think
this ball of energy could become something?
CD: When I was a kid I used to make noise
the whole time, like beatboxing before I
knew what it was. My parents just found
it annoying. My dad called me Whistling
Willie. They said they need to put me into
something that will release this energy. But
they definitely understand how hard it is to
make a living in these creative industries.
‘If I don’t do yoga
for a few days
bad things start
to happen. I make
bad decisions...’
LB: Did you feel a kind of pressure being
the youngest sibling – because you’re the
smallest you have to do more?
CD: My sisters were angels to me. I
remember the grades they got at school...
GQ: So you still remember that now, what
grades they got?
CD: Yeah, in GCSEs and A-levels. It’s not
that I wanted to do better, I just wanted
not to be the stupid kid, or the letdown of
the family, so it was really like, “I’ve got to
make these grades.” Then I didn’t and I felt
like such a failure. But it’s not a mark of
who you are, because you’re judged on the
fact you can learn something from a piece
of paper and write it down again. Some
people just don’t work like that. I can’t.
GQ: Luc, what was your impression of Cara?
LB: Well, my first thing was to check she’s real.
CD: Fair enough.
LB: Because, you know, you hear things:
she’s a model, she wants to make films. So
my first thing was, “Do you really want to be
an actress? Since when? Where does it come
from? Is it real?” Because you cannot afford a
part like this to go to someone who just wants
to have fun for a couple of weeks, you know?
The first meeting she was by herself. She was
on time and she had no make-up. And just
these three points for me, it was like, “Oh, OK.
So she’s serious.” OK, I have more questions.
CD: Oh, no, please don’t. This is so weird...
LB: Do you remember the first person who
trusted your ability to do things?
CD: Um, there have been stages of it, but
it happened first in modelling. I worked
in modelling for a year before I ever got
a high fashion job. And I was working at
Asos five days a week, doing catalogue
stuff, and I met [Burberry’s] Christopher
Bailey and instead of just looking at me
and saying, “No, you’re too short,” or, “No,
you don’t look right,” he said, “What do
you want to do? What are your passions?
What makes you wake up in the morning?”
And I was like, “What?” He actually
wanted to know what drove me, and the
first big campaign I got was Burberry.
GQ: And what about music?
CD: In music, Pharrell [Williams] was one
of the people who made me think I could
even attempt to do music.
GQ: Do you remember what he said?
CD: Again, I met him through modelling.
We were doing a Vogue shoot together
and we were eating McDonald’s. I was just
chatting about music and I would kind of
be sitting there beatboxing and drumming
away and he was like, “I want you to come
to my hotel room tonight – and bring your
guitar.” I was like, “What? That would be so
weird.” I went, and he had all his amazing
team, and he was like, “Sing a song.”
 CARA DELEVINGNE

‘Pharrell said,
“I want you to
come to my hotel
room tonight.
And bring
your guitar”’
Helmet, neckpiece and glove
from Thierry Mugler Archive.
Ring, Cara’s own.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 131

132 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
 CARA DELEVINGNE

‘People say this

is the way it’s
got to be and I’m
like, Bhaaaah!
Break all the rules!
Smash all the
things down!’
Jacket and basque from Thierry Mugler Archive.
Boots by Christian Louboutin, £1,042.
christianlouboutin.com. Ring, Cara’s own.

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 133

GQ: No pressure...
CD: He could see it in my face, thinking I
can’t do this and he was like, “Look, just
close your eyes, remember what it feels
like to sing in the shower and just enjoy
it.” And I did. I sang [George Gershwin’s]
“Summertime”. So I feel like I’ve had
really amazing mentors along the way.
GQ: Luc, you’re known for strong leading
ladies, from Milla Jovovich in The Fifth
Element to Scarlett Johansson in Lucy, do
you see elements of either in Cara?
LB: I’m actually fighting against this idea,
because I think I just pay the same attention
to female and male.
GQ: But the fact is a lot of people don’t. That
you do sets you apart.
LB: It’s true that in recent history, the last 50
years in cinema, it was about the man and
the girl is crying on the
balcony. I always thought
that it was unfair. At some ‘I have so
point, in Valerian, my big
fear was that I cannot
many fears...
choose one [lead actor] If I pretend
without the other. Then
when I met Dane DeHaan, I they don’t
said, “OK, but I want to see
them together.” So I was
exist it comes
preparing a plan to have out in my skin’
Cara meet Dane and to be
there and to see the electricity. I was prepping
the exact conditions, how to do it, then Cara
called me and said, “I saw Dane last night!”
Oh, f***! I was so frustrated! So I was calling
her and him: “How was it? How do you feel?”
CD: And that’s the interesting thing,
because me and Dane are so different.
Like, completely different. But we get
on. I would never have put us together.
GQ: In what ways are you different?
CD: Well, he’s an incredibly dedicated
and serious actor who’s never been to a
club before. And I’m kind of the opposite.
Obviously I love what I do and work very
hard, but I learnt so much from him.
GQ: Did anything from you rub off on him?
CD: I really think it did. There were a
couple of moments on set [where] we’d be
laughing a lot and Dane was like, “I never
have fun on set.”
LB: OK, I have a question for you. Maybe
you don’t want to answer it but still...
CD: I will try.
LB: For me, you look so free. You don’t fear
trying things, like a stunt. Or if you f*** up
a line, you don’t care, you do it again. You’re
open, free, no problem. And at the same time
sometimes your skin shows an anxiety inside.
CD: That’s a great question, Luc. Jesus! So
to explain a bit more, I have psoriasis, and
during this film especially my skin was
really bad. And in the last weeks we had
134 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
this bikini shot. The closer it got the
worse my skin was getting. I am a very
outwardly free person, even though
sometimes I don’t feel that way inside.
The way I view the world is... there are
so many rules. I see the world like a box
and a maze, and in everything I’ve ever
done, people have been like, “This is the
way it’s got to be.” And I’ve always been,
like, “Bhaaaaah! Break all the rules! Smash
all the things down!” But obviously if I felt
like that inside, I would be crazy. I would
have nothing grounded. Inside, I have so
many fears. I work in an industry where
I care what other people think and I’m
nervous all the time. If I don’t admit that
it’s going on, it comes out in my skin...
You pretend it doesn’t exist, that’s when
it comes out, whether it’s heartbreak or
something at work. You
know, it’s hard for me
to cry. But you have to
release it, so that was my
body’s way of releasing
bad feelings.
GQ: So was there a scene
where you had to cry and
that was difficult for you?
CD: It’s very hard and I
find it so difficult... I
don’t know why.
LB: No, it was not hard...
CD: It was hard!
LB: No, it was not. She was blocking herself
off. Some people can’t cry because they are
dry inside. You can show her a picture of a
puppy dog and she’ll start crying. But to let
it go, in front of a camera with people...
CD: I find it hard to cry in front of even
one person. If I cry, I want to cry alone. For
me, to cry meant I had to, in my head, beat
myself up and make myself feel really shit,
but what I learnt that day was I actually
had to be strong to be vulnerable.
GQ: Are you getting better about not
bottling things up?
CD: Well, this is the thing. Once you’ve
dealt with one thing that’s happened
in your life, something worse comes
along. But I think I’m getting better at it.
LB: I noticed also, before we started, that
you were... I don’t know if it was yoga [but]
I can feel the difference when you do it.
CD: Yeah, I do yoga every morning. But
when I stopped the film, I stopped doing
yoga. I always have a problem when I
finish films. For six months you create
this family, you get so close, it’s like a
home, and then suddenly it’s over and my
abandonment issues go through the roof.
GQ: It’s like the end of a relationship.
CD: Yeah, it’s like the end of relationship.
And also, I’d been given a part where I play
this stable, together person. Then you’re
not that person anymore and you’re like,
“Who am I?” I’m suddenly hit with this
identity crisis and then abandoned and
then everything. When I finish films, I
have to spend months picking myself up.
GQ: So is yoga something you do to balance
yourself now?
CD: I started doing it, like, four, five years
ago. When I started is when I first broke
into acting.
GQ: What did it do for you?
CD: I had no... I didn’t feel anything. I think
I would have turned into a sociopath if I
hadn’t started yoga. I had no contact with
my emotions at all. It was really crazy,
because, honestly, I remember meeting my
yoga tutor for the first time and crying for
the first time in years. I felt blind before.
Now, every year I go away to Thailand to
a yoga retreat for a week and even before
I signed on to the film I was like, “You have
to let me go to this yoga retreat.” I mean,
it’s one of the biggest budget productions,
and Luc was like, “Yeah. If it’s going to
help you, you should go.”
LB: Hoping it would be in Switzerland! It
wasn’t the yoga that bothered me, it was
the distance!
GQ: So, if you don’t do it for a few days...
CD: Bad things start to happen. I make
bad decisions. It’s weird. It’s really weird!
LB: I have one last question... So, for me,
you really...
CD: Smell?
LB: You’re a person of the world. You know
every kind of person, you go in every part
of the world. So when you’re so global like
this, what do you think makes you English?
CD: My ability to drink alcohol... No, I’m
joking. I’m joking!
LB: That’s French too, don’t worry.
CD: I think my constantly saying sorry. My
father taught me that manners get you far.
Um, my ability to be in any weather and be
happy about it? [Laughs.] Also, I think, my
thing is just to get on with it, no matter
what, no matter if you’re neck high in mud
and everything is going wrong. So you’re
like, “Well, onwards and upwards, like,
stiff upper lip. Get on with it.” While
remembering that I still need to cry...
Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets
is out on 4 August.
MORE For these related stories,
FROM GQ visit GQ.co.uk/magazine
Prada’s Next Act (Jessica Punter, December 2016)
How Cara Delevingne And Margot Robbie Made
Friends Over Tequila (July 2016)
The Man Who Got Inside Scarlett Johansson’s Brain
(Alice Howarth, August 2014)
 CARA DELEVINGNE

‘ I thought
for me to
cry meant
beating
myself up.
I learnt I
had to be
strong to be
vulnerable’
Neckpiece from Thierry
Mugler Archive

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 135

 CARA DELEVINGNE

‘I went to school with all these incredibly talented actors

and musicians. I thought I had no chance’
Dress by Versus Versace, £1,700. versace.com. Stockings by Atsuko Kudo, £99. atsukokudo.com. Shoes by Francesco Russo, £460. francescorusso.fr.
Helmet from Thierry Mugler Archive. Ring, Cara’s own.

136 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 137
138 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
 CARA DELEVINGNE

‘When I finish a film

Hair Olivier Schawalder at Atomo
I spend months picking
Makeup Sabrina Bedrani
Manicurist Chloé Desmarchelier at Atomo myself up. It’s like 
Fashion assistant Maya Pambaguian
Photography assistants Scott Archibald
Paul Jedwab; Pablo Freda
the end of a relationship’
Digital technician Halldora Magnusdottir Jacket from Thierry Mugler Archive. Rings, Cara’s own.
Set designer Samirha Salmi Opposite: Neckpiece, bra and knickers from
at The Magnet Agency Thierry Mugler Archive. Rings, Cara’s own

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 139

 Sign O’
The Times
Thirty years ago, Prince’s ninth album was launched into (and out of) this world to
become the greatest record of its generation. The story of how a pop prodigy was able
to defy genre and expectation with a postmodern magnum opus obsessed with sex, death
and faith remains a milestone of Eighties culture – and the late singer’s ultimate legacy
he Eighties were not a decade to
T
  be trifled with. By 1987 they had
reached both the zenith and nadir
of their tasteless excess and exuber-
ant pomposity. They were, however,
the last decade to have a truly distinct identity:
their own colours and sounds, a design ethos,
their own internal coherence and newness.
The years that followed do not share the
bookended unity that make it easy for us to
sense when one era ends and another begins.
The Eighties were also the decade of the
mega-album. Few of these giant records
represented an artistic high, but rather
embodied the total victory of corporations
over the industry. Michael Jackson’s Thriller
began this phenomenon in 1982, followed
by Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Dire Straits,
Whitney Houston, George Michael and U2. It
was an exclusive club with ten million album
sales as the minimum price for membership.
Prince signed up with Purple Rain in 1984.
140 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
STORY BY George Chesterton
Thirty years ago, Prince released another
album (his ninth). It did not sell as well as Faith
or The Joshua Tree, and nowhere near as well
as Purple Rain, but it’s not easy to find anyone
around in 1987 who does not agree that what
he wrote and recorded eclipsed all his contem-
poraries. Sign O’ The Times was much more than
the career triumph of a musical magus. The
sheer Eighties-ness of the Eighties can be so
suffocating it is difficult for its culture to survive
unscathed or untainted – but Prince made the
Eighties sound good. Really, really good.
Sign O’ The Times is the double album that
confirmed Prince’s greatness and signalled his
slow decline (though no one knew it at the
time). It coincided with yet another step back
from the outside world and his retreat to the
Paisley Park complex being constructed in
Minneapolis. Prospero was on his island. It’s
ironic that Sign O’ The Times was a calling card
during his battle for creative independence,
because if it had not been for the meddling of
the dreaded Warner Brothers – against which
he would wage a long, seemingly futile, conflict
– the album may never had made it out at all.
f all the losses during the festival
O
  of death our fragile psychologies
constructed in 2016, Prince is the
one that still upsets me. I have a
terrible habit of listening to music
and saying, “It’s all very well, but it’s not
Prince, is it?” I know it’s a self-defeating tick,
but there you go. He was, no doubt, a distilla-
tion of James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone,
Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, George Clinton
Vinyl photographs Jody Todd
and Rick James, yet these influences do not
diminish him – he remains ineluctably Prince.
Conversely, no Sign O’ The Times means no
Outkast, no Pharrell, no Kanye, no Drake and
no Frank Ocean.
Prince was 19 when he released his first album,
For You, in 1978, a showcase for his extraor-
dinary skill and self-possession. Among
 HEROES

‘Color U Peach And Black’: Prince, photographed for the Sign O’ The Times album by Jeff Katz, 1987

Prince believed he was a protagonist caught in a cosmic war

between good and evil, waiting for the end of days
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 141
 the Minneapolis scene he led, he earned
his reputation as a workaholic and perfection-
ist, qualities that would take him through the
Eighties in a haze of nonstop writing, recording
and performing, with hundreds of unreleased
songs accumulating in the famous “Vault”.
Prince followed For You with three more
albums of middling success, developing his
hypersexed androgyny and rock/soul hybrid
until 1982 when he had his first big hits from the
album 1999 (no major label today would indulge
an artist for four relatively unsuccessful albums
in a row). Minneapolis is a predominantly white
city, so he was more exposed to rock than most
African-American children. That mix bore fruit
in the film and album of Purple Rain, which
dominated American then global pop culture
for an entire year in 1984, allowing Prince to
lead his band, The Revolution, into the under-
appreciated psychedelia of Around The World
In A Day (1985) and the crystalline pop of
Parade the following year. But there was always
someone who was disappointed: his record
company (and most of his newer fans) wanted a
second Purple Rain; much of his black audience
thought he was becoming too white; polite
society was uncomfortable with his prurience
and sexual ambiguity.
The first wave of fresh songs in 1986 came
to be known under the umbrella of Dream
Factory (although other band members recall
another project called Roadhouse Garden),
a continuation of their chart-friendly pop with
increasing input from guitarist Wendy Melvoin
and her musical (and one-time actual) partner,
keyboardist Lisa Coleman. It was Prince’s fear
of losing control that led this project to be
abandoned. During the Hit N Run/Parade
tour, cracks widened between Prince and
other members of The Revolution, especially
Wendy and Lisa, who resented the imposition
of dancers Prince had added to the lineup. This
tension was not helped by Prince’s engagement
to Wendy’s twin sister, Susannah Melvoin, also a
backing singer with the band. Keyboardist Matt
Fink told biographer Matt Thorne, “Wendy and
Lisa didn’t want to quit. It was a shock when he
got rid of them and [drummer] Bobby Z in one
fell swoop. I tried to dissuade him.”
Prince’s need to distance himself from the
past is evident in his 1986 side-project Camille,
in which he assumed an androgynous alter ego,
recording his vocals at a slower speed then
speeding up the tape to feminise his voice (an
old trick of Clinton and Wonder). The electro-
R&B songs were a calculated move away from
the pop of The Revolution. The idea for Camille
came from the 19th-century journals of the
French hermaphrodite Herculine Barbin, who
was in vogue among American Francophiles
(of which Prince was one) thanks to the writ-
ings of philosopher Michel Foucault. Like
Dream Factory, this would become one of the
142 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
building blocks of the near-perfect album to
come. Prince felt able to shelve Camille as easily
as he retired several albums’ worth of material
with The Revolution. Producing so much music
meant he could always move on to something
new – there was no need to see everything
through to the end. For him there was no end.
Yet another Prince project in 1986 was a
high-concept rock-funk opera called Crystal
Ball, and the song of the same name and the
wreckage of this idea did find its way onto
the next list of songs he wished to release. It’s
worth hunting down the original eleven-minute
version of the song “Crystal Ball” to get an idea
of where Prince was at the time. It illustrates
his ambition, with ominous synth-funk riffs,
jarring jazz interludes and classical allusions
interlaced with spoken word passages and
apocalyptic sound effects. It’s not your average
Eighties pop song. Prince’s arranger, Clare
Fischer, orchestrated this abandoned epic and
other lost tracks (as the only associate permit-
ted to work on his music without interference,
Prince refused to meet Fischer, preferring to
send him material like a pen pal) but his efforts
survive on only one song from Sign O’ The
Times, “Slow Love”.
Aids, heroin, gangs,
disasters – he was
a pop Caravaggio
fetishising
the apocalypse
It’s impossible to know whether Roadhouse
Garden, Dream Factory or Crystal Ball the opera
were ever fully realised ideas for Prince, or if
these were just song titles that became asso-
ciated with concepts for convenience’s sake
(this vast range of material was recorded in
seven studios in LA and Minnesota). In late
1986, Prince finally presented Warner Brothers
with a triple album made up of material from
all these projects called, confusingly, Crystal
Ball. The company baulked at the idea of a
ruinously expensive triple LP, especially after
the underwhelming sales of his previous two
records. Prince, reluctantly, cut seven songs
to reduce it to a double LP, while embellishing
others to produce his first official solo album
since 1981’s Controversy.
Being prolific is no guarantee of quality
(1986 is the year in which the myth of The
Vault was born) and a mind overrun by ideas
for songs of every conceivable genre, design
concepts, film scripts, dances, costumes and
collaborations is prone to a lack of focus as well
as great productivity. Sign O’ The Times is the
rescued strands of his consciousness, brought
into one coherent work that he had not even
conceived in that format until Warner Brothers
rejected his first proposal.
ign O’ The Times is really a record
S  of two instruments. In an act of
self-sufficiency and bravado, Prince
turned to the defining technology of
the period which, for lesser talents
would – and did – scuttle their music at the
bottom of the Eighties ocean. In his hands they
created something more compelling, darker and
stranger. Not content with mastering guitar,
bass, keyboard and drums, Prince became
a virtuoso on the Fairlight CMI sampler and the
Linn LM-1 drum machine as well.
What Prince would do with them is clear
from the title song that opens the album. He
used the stock sounds of the Fairlight, rather
than samples, and twisted and burnished
them until they became his alone. The
famous opening bassline of “Sign O’ The
Times” deserves its reputation as bleakly
beautiful noise – jarring and plastic but full
of foreboding. It is one of the only times in
his career that he looked outward beyond
his immediate kingdom. Prince is rarely
talked about as a great lyricist – though he
is an underrated one – but the words are as
unsettling as his music. Like a dark reflection
of “What’s Going On” he sings, “A sister killed
her baby ’cause she couldn’t afford to feed it/
And yet we’re sending people to the moon.”
Aids, heroin, gangs, natural disasters, the
Space Shuttle Challenger accident – he is
a pop Caravaggio fetishising the apocalypse,
as he had before in “1999”, “Let’s Go Crazy”
and “Crystal Ball” and introducing an album
layered with the chiaroscuro of sex, death and
faith. And it’s an opening shot that must have
put the fear of God into his rivals.
Of course, this is meant to be the latest album
by a global pop star, so Prince brings things
back with the upbeat “Play In The Sunshine”
and the syncopated call-and-response of
Camille in “Housequake”. He follows that
with the album’s second masterpiece, “The
Ballad Of Dorothy Parker”. Amid the intoxicat-
Photographs Larry Falk; Getty Images; Warner Music
ing, humid lyrics about a man meeting a wait-
ress who tries to seduce him, it’s the musical
vision that really holds you. Prince manipu-
lates the drum machine with an astonishing
deftness and control, effectively playing a
continuous drum machine solo. The gnarled
keyboard sounds he ekes out of the Fairlight
unnerve, while the voices of these characters
narrate, whisper and tease their way around
this most lugubrious scenario. Like “Play In
The Sunshine” it ends with a “Prince coda”, an
extra couple of bars in which he drops in some
unconnected or unfinished musical line. It may
not seem like a big deal, but it shows Prince’s

Leader of The Revolution
(clockwise from top):
Prince in MoonSound Studios,
Minneapolis, before his first
record deal, 1977; Susannah
Melvoin (left) and her twin
sister Wendy Melvoin in the
Boys & Girls video, 1986;
Wendy, Prince and Lisa
Coleman accept the Best
Song Score Oscar for Purple
Rain, 1985; Prince performs
a showstopping solo on
George Harrison’s While
My Guitar Gently Weeps
during his 2004 induction
to the Rock And Roll Hall
Of Fame; Prince and The
Revolution from the When
Doves Cry single artwork;
his 1978 debut album,
For You; Purple Rain, 1984
HEROES
commitment to dazzle, attaching seemingly
throwaway musical phrases that add layers of
value and interest to everything.
On “It” he sings, “I think about it all the
time.” No shit, Prince. “It” seems little more
than a chant to carnality, but he smartly allows
space for the song to build without overload-
ing the instrumentation (it contains the classic
Fairlight “stab”, one of the Eighties most ubiq-
uitous effects). Prince is, as usual, insatiable
and ashamed, a push and pull that dominated
his work until he became a Jehovah’s Witness
around the turn of the century. However his
feelings about sex evolved (sex as sin or life or
both), he had always been a milliennialist, a pro-
tagonist in a cosmic war between good and evil
waiting for the end of days. It might be hokum,
but for someone with his volcanic creativity it
probably helped him make sense of the world.
“Starfish And Coffee” is a slice of McCartney-
esque levity, a nursery rhyme written about a
school classmate of Wendy and Susannah
Melvoin (one story is that the girl used to sing
“starfish and pee-pee”). The big band sound of
“Slow Love” further mellows the mood before
“Hot Thing”, a pounding electro-groove held
down by a Fairlight bass sound. This incidental
detail shows Prince at his bravest – an entire
song anchored by a single atonal note that
never changes even when the chords do. It fea-
tures some suitably filthy saxophone by Eric
Leeds and a lot of screaming. Nobody screams
like Prince and, even though it seems serious,
you feel sure he knew how funny it sounded.
on’t bother looking for anything
D
profound or interesting in 30 years
of Prince’s gnomic public utter-
ances (believe me, I’ve tried). He
dismissed critics as “non-singing,
non-dancing, wish-I-had-me-some-clothes
fools” and the only thing he was clear about was
that in interviews he was never clear, employing
platitudes and nonsense rather than engage-
ment. But fans never felt that distance. Many
of the girls I grew up with were obsessed with
Prince, but it was not as a traditional pin-up.
The female fans I knew felt a deep connection
with him, as if he understood them in a way
no other star could. Although he possessed the
lust of a satyr, his lack of machismo made him
a less threatening – though no less desirable –
idol and much has rightly been made of the help
he gave so many women during his career (my
favourite song by someone else is his “The Belle
Of St Mark” by his brilliant drummer Sheila E).
The Sign O’ The Times engineer Susan Rogers
said, “I’d like to point out his generosity of spirit
with regard to women. For all of his love of sex,
Prince never approached women as a conqueror
or a predator.”
Some of the best songs Prince ever wrote
were about Susannah Melvoin (including
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 143
 the rarely heard “Go” and “Empty Room”)
and there are at least four songs on Sign O’
The Times about his muse: “If I Was Your
Girlfriend”, “Forever In My Life”, “Strange
Relationship” and “Adore”.
One of these begins with the sound of
an orchestra tuning up, then a street and
market, then a wedding march... “If I Was
Your Girlfriend” is exhibit A in the case of
Prince vs Everyone Else. It is probably the
most emotionally complex hit single ever
released, with Prince turning the conventions
of a corny slow jam on their head. The most
common interpretation of the origins of this
extraordinary song are that Prince was jealous
of Susannah Melvoin’s closeness with her sister
Wendy, and here he begs to share that intimacy
by proposing his own metamorphosis. He
becomes – all at once – the worried boyfriend,
the manipulator and seducer, the hermaphrodite
Camille, the “girlfriend” and, most bizarrely of
all, perhaps even Wendy herself. He inhabits
these multiple personalities in the lyrics: “Would
you run to me if somebody hurt you/Even if
that somebody was me?” The complexity is
pushed even further by his multitrack backing
vocals, all at different pitches. This being Prince,
it suggests physical intimacy as an expression
of something deeper and ends abruptly,
unresolved, in the middle of a line.
Though not part of the Camille project, “U Got
The Look” sees the character return to spar with
Sheena Easton in the album’s most obvious,
most fun and biggest single, while Prince takes
up another short story with “I Could Never Take
The Place Of Your Man”, a song rescued from
an earlier 1982 session and featuring the only
true rock guitar solo of the album. What makes
an artist great is not ability but taste. Prince
had more ability than anyone, but he could
have spent his life making prog-rock sympho-
nies about sci-fi goblins and no one would have
cared. Taste is knowing when to slow down,
speed up, go soft or go loud, knowing when
a touch says more than a shove and a whisper
more than a scream. Compare it with the pre-
posterous poodle rock of the same year and it’s
easy to see this line being crossed with abandon
by almost everybody else.
Even though it’s followed by the semi-live
“It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night” (one of The
Revolution’s last performances) and the soul
ballad “Adore”, it often feels like the album’s
obvious climax is “The Cross”. It’s such an over-
whelming experience by preacher-man Prince
that when he sings, “Don’t cry, He is coming” it
could make even the most fervent nonbeliever
consider some old-time religion. “The Cross”
works in mysterious ways because, having
portrayed and punished himself as a sinner,
Prince’s plea for salvation becomes even more
potent. He is the perennial prodigal son, break-
ing up with God to make up with God.
144 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
remember 1987 as an unsettling year
I  punctuated by disaster: the Zeebrugge
ferry, the Hungerford massacre, the
King’s Cross fire. A Conservative gov-
ernment had a record high 50 per cent
support in the polls and luxuriated in another
landslide general election victory. In the US,
Ronald Reagan was playing hardball with the
Soviet Union and keeping the nightmarish
threat of nuclear war alive. I also remember it
as the year everyone I knew learnt the words
to Sign O’ The Times. Today, it’s still box-fresh
every time you listen to it. “I could say any-
thing at that time,” said Prince.
It is not a concept album, but more like a
piece of postmodern architecture, reflecting
how Eighties styles converged in a distinctive
and sometimes brazen new way in art, design,
film and TV. The album cover was suitably mys-
terious, with only part of Prince’s out-of-focus
face in the foreground and a seedy stage behind,
the drums perched on an old Pontiac Grand
Prix, everything in peach and black (his desig-
nated colours for the project). “Prince looks at
all his music, in his whole life, as a movie, and
everybody who’s involved with him on whatever
level is a character in his movie,” said Eric Leeds.
‘If I Was Your
Girlfriend’ is
Exhibit A in the
case of Prince vs
Everyone Else
It is easy to forget that this was a major album
by one of pop music’s biggest global stars, not
some experimental outrider. What was the
competition? Rick Astley? And 1987 was the
year the wheels came off pop music in Britain,
with adverts driving a rash of tired Sixties soul
rereleases. In the US the big beasts remained,
but more troubling for Prince was the start of
house music and the proliferation of hip hop.
The bludgeoning libido of The Black Album
was recorded then ditched immediately after
Sign O’ The Times, its reputation as a great lost
album undermined once it was heard in full.
Prince supposedly abandoned it because he
thought it was “evil”. It seems he was being
overwhelmed by the weight of his own con-
cupiscence and complained of a spirit called
“Spooky Electric” amid rumours he had himself
been spooked after a bad experience with
ecstasy. His tenth official album, Lovesexy, was
him turning away from the darkness and into
the light. He was never quite the same again.
Prince always had an uneasy relationship
with hip hop. He felt threatened by it, both
as a style that would overrun his territory and
as a sign of his own vulnerability and age. He
regularly turned down requests for permission
to sample his older work, his attitude deter-
mined by his religion, commercial paranoia and
an increasingly eremitic existence in Paisley
Park. “Some of these acts I really dig but I don’t
want my music used that way,” he said in 1997.
Can it be coincidence that, as so often
happens to great men, the retreat to Xanadu
brings about a kind of madness in which awe-
struck acolytes exist only to serve – to bend
to the will and whim of their master – and that
the achievements of the past become impos-
sible to repeat? That’s not to say Prince was
a tyrant, but that, after Sign O’ The Times, in
striving for freedom he found himself trapped
in a prison of his own making. By the late
Nineties it seemed Prince wasn’t quite Prince
any more. He was like a Japanese soldier, still
fighting the last war.
Susan Rogers says, “Prince was smart
enough, as a young man, to know that he’d
need to let people in if he wanted to have a
long career, so he did it. But, to the outside
world, he appeared as a big enigma.”
What is left is art and art endures. At his
induction to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame
in 2004 he said, seemingly unaware of the
irony, “Too much freedom can lead to the soul’s
decay.” Then he went on to not just steal the
show but take it, frame it and mount it on his
wall with his embarrassingly brilliant guitar
solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.
By today’s standards, Sign O’ The Times may
seem a cold album. But all things being cyclical,
Prince and the plastic, superficial Eighties
followed the sincerity of folk-rock and the
ideological purity of punk. In this context,
Prince was the successor to David Bowie, in
that the art and artifice were the point. Heart
for heart’s sake was not an issue. It was the
ideas that mattered. Now we value emotional
nakedness above all else, in a culture where
workaday honesty is judged to be “real” while
around us songs, radio, TV and films become
reflections of Facebook status updates.
He was different then and he’s different now.
He is just different. And Sign O’ The Times
is as wondrously, deliciously different as he
ever got. Prince believed he was engaged in
a cosmic war between good and evil, but for
us his most important fight was against an evil
somewhat closer to home. The evil of banality.
Thankfully, he won.
MORE For these related stories,
FROM GQ visit GQ.co.uk/magazine
In Bruges (Robert Chalmers, July 2016)
Manic Street Preachers (Mark Russell, June 2016)
Tusk By Fleetwood Mac (Dylan Jones, January 2016)
 HEROES

After Sign O’ The

Times, in striving
for freedom, he
found himself
trapped in a prison
of his own making
Photograph Jeff Katz/CPi Syndication

That Eighties show: The poster

of the 1987 Sign O’ The Times’
concert film, a commercial flop
that recovered its reputation
as a video release

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 145

When one self-taught scientist discovered a substance so black even NASA
couldn’t find it, the potential was game-changing – from SPY JETS, watches
and SUPERCARS to missile-defence arrays and telescopes that look back
to the dawn of time. Yet, for all the applications, it was an art-world
altercation that made the headlines. Now, as the battle for VANTABLACK
continues to throw shade on Britain’s most pioneering visionary, GQ asks
why ANISH KAPOOR’s controversial new project is still shrouded in mystery

STORY BY Stuart McGurk PHOTOGRAPHS BY Christoffer Rudquist

ast spring, in central London, forgive the confusion. The bust sat next to an misguidedly decorated, are very much still

L
the Science Museum exhibited a
face that no one could see. This
was not a prank, or some form
of psychological concept writ
large, but an actual face, a bust around 20cm
high and 8cm wide that didn’t much look like
a face, because it didn’t much look like any-
thing at all. Sitting in a glass box, in a space
that sat as far back on the ground floor of the
museum as the museum goes, past the hulking
steam turbines in the Energy Hall, past the
Eagle lander and the J-2 rocket in the Exploring
Space section, past Babbage’s difference engine
and the first Apple computer in the Making
The Modern World exhibit, past all the past,
there it lay, the future, and maybe because of
that, because the future is sketched in pencil,
it wasn’t getting much interest.
“What’s that?” said one small girl, engaged in
the familiar staggered pullback of a hand-led
child. “But...” she said, as her father swept her
away, “that man doesn’t have a face.”
This was not entirely accurate, but you could
identical bronze replica of itself, though you
wouldn’t know it to look at it.
On the bronze bust, the features were
obvious: expansive forehead, bulbous nose,
goatee with two breaking waves of mous-
tache – a man of a certain age, frozen at a
certain time. On the other bust, the only clue
they depicted the same man was the outline
– the same broad forehead, the same outcrop
of hair from chin.
The bust was coated in a material called
Vantablack, officially the blackest mate-
rial known to man, which was developed
three years ago by a UK company called
Surrey NanoSystems.
A regular matt-black paint, of the kind you’d
purchase from a paint shop, absorbs roughly
93 per cent of all light. That’s what makes it
black, but also means you can see it. The seven
per cent bouncing back makes what’s there
there. A black jumper is still clearly a jumper;
a black phone still clearly a phone. Even the
walls of a teenager’s bedroom, no matter how
a teenager’s bedroom walls.
Vantablack, meanwhile, absorbs 99.96 per
cent of light. That’s a lot. That jumper becomes
abstract (and, bonus, seemingly creaseless).
That phone, placed on a desk, would resem-
ble not a phone, but a hole. Stand in a room
with all the surfaces coated in Vantablack,
and, even with the lights on, it would feel like
you’re standing in infinity.
On the bust, Vantablack displayed one of
its many curious properties: with virtually no
light bouncing back, it gave little clue as to its
texture, shape, or even if it was an object in
three dimensions at all. This happens below 0.5
per cent reflectance. Face on, it simply looked
flat: the man didn’t have a face. It was only
side-on that you could even make out a nose.
The interactive information panel below
made clear some of the myriad applications
for this strange material, but even in the two
months since it had been installed, was already
interactively out of date. It made clear its
applications in space telescopes, allowing

146 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 VANTABLACK

Ace in the hole: British scientist

Ben Jensen (left) graduated
from building his own plasma
reactors to discovering the
blackest black on earth

art’s dark
nd li
W s behi

ttle
secret?
ho’

‘Imagine walking
into a room with no
walls... Loss of self
and fear go hand in
hand. Inevitably, we
bump into death’
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 147

Blank face (clockwise from top left):
The Vantablack bust shown in London’s
Science Museum; a newly grown
batch; the carbon substance is applied
in a vacuum reactor; Sir Anish Kapoor
with his piece It Gleamed Like Blood
(2016); apparatus used to test the new
sprayable variant
148 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
them to see further into the cosmos; its
uses in military applications; in architecture;
in heat absorption. There were already more:
in Hollywood; in luxury goods; even in fashion.
In all, it was an invention already worth
hundreds of millions, possibly billions, which
wasn’t bad for a company based on an East
Sussex trading estate next to a Screwfix.
But the main application the exhibit did
not mention was art. Earlier that month, in
a decision that had courted much contro-
versy, the Turner Prize-winning artist Sir
Anish Kapoor – known for his red observa-
tion tower, ArcelorMittal Orbit, created for the
2012 Olympic Games – had signed an exclusive
deal with the creators of Vantablack to be the
only artist allowed to use it.
The outrage of the art world went to the
heart of a simple question: can someone own
a colour?
In the Science Museum, the girl now came
back, roles reversed, arms at full stretch, her
father dragged behind. “Look!” she said to
him as they came to a halt. “Look! I told you!”
“Oh!” the father said as he crouched down to
look at the bust head-on. Then: “Oh...”
“I told you! I told you!” shouted the girl.
“I told you!”
“Oh,” repeated the father. Then another
pause. “Oh.”
en Jensen is 51 years old, slight,
B thoughtful, close-cropped and
the creator of Vantablack. He
is the kind of scientist who’s
so excited by every sentence
he says, he can’t help but break into a grin as
he says it, as if he’s a hunter returning with a
particularly bounteous catch, or maybe just
someone excited by life. His ringtone is a
nuclear fallout siren, which is alarming when
it goes off next to a reactor that’s replicating the
atmosphere of space, and he is a fan of plaid
shirts. He is not a hard man to like.
The offices of Surrey NanoSystems, the
company he set up and of which he is the CTO,
are not, despite suggestions to the contrary, in
Surrey. Instead, they are in Newhaven Town,
just past County Office Supplies, in a small
industrial space at England’s end. It is not a
place people go to so much as a place people go
Photographs Photoshot; Surrey Nanosystems
to in order to go to other places, via the A26.
As Jensen himself says, when I first met him
there last summer, “No one has any concept
that we’re here, because there’s not much in
Newhaven apart from an exit.”
Sitting in the sparse reception room, which
houses a table, four chairs and not much else,
Jensen says he didn’t set out to create the
blackest substance known to man (black holes
don’t count: they’re not made of anything).
Rather, it happened, as these things tend to,
almost by accident.

His career path as a scientist was not a
typical one. He couldn’t afford to go to uni-
versity, so left school at 16, and it was around
then that he started making rockets. He’d
always been obsessed with fireworks and so
decided to create ones with a bit more kick,
using rocket fuel that he made himself and
begging parts from engineering companies.
“Getting liquid oxygen was a problem. I’d
phone up these companies saying, ‘Can I buy
liquid oxygen?’ They’d say, ‘Why?’ I’d say, ‘I’m
making a rocket...’” Brrrrrrr.
It was only when he blew himself up –
“There was a crack in the fuel grain... it took
chunks out of me” – that he decided to move
on. He backpacked around the world, picked
fruit and taught himself science on the hoof,
reading books such as Rocket Propulsion
Elements by George P Sutton, figuring out
the equations by himself. In his early twen-
ties, using his rocket knowledge, he invented
a way to miniaturise liquid-oxygen plants so
they could be used in field hospitals. He found
an investor, worked on it for three years and
was just about to be certified when the inves-
tor died. Back to the drawing board.
He worked in a machine metal shop for
a couple of years, making parts for reac-
tors, before deciding he could do a better job
himself. “I started teaching myself physics and
chemistry,” and before long he was designing
and building his own plasma reactors: easy
when you’ve taught yourself how. Business,
he says, was good.
“I had the ability to convince people I knew
what I was doing. I said I could solve their
problem and I always delivered... I guess I was
lucky in that I had always had to design things
creatively and solve things other people hadn’t
been able to solve. I think if I’d had a formal
education, I might just have believed I couldn’t
do it. That’s the philosophy I had as a kid: if no
one else has done it, it doesn’t mean it can’t be
done. I’ll give it a go.”
The creation of the blackest black may
sound like a gag out of Spinal Tap (“None more
black...”) but the competition was no joke.
Nasa had been trying to create a super-black
material for decades, along with another 15
or so companies around the world. It was the
holy grail for space telescopes. Space may seem
dark, but up there, in our solar system, the sun
is blinding: this is not ideal when you’re trying
to detect light from stars that are ten million
light years away.
The darker the coating behind the sensor, the
less pollution from the sun, and the clearer you
can see. Previously, a coating called Aeroglaze
Z306 was used, which absorbs 97 percent of
light. Because the light takes so long to reach us,
what telescopes capture is the distant past. The
creator of a super-black coating would, effec-
tively, let astronomers see further back in time.
It is not the first time there’s been an arms
race to create a colour. The first company to
create a convincing chrome paint, it’s widely
thought, for use in everything from lightweight
airline seats to everyday furniture and archi-
tecture, will make a fortune. Yet it’s fair to say
the stakes have never been higher.
Nasa had come close, having created a mate-
rial that absorbed 99.5 per cent of light. Yet it
had a fatal flaw: it needed to be coated at such
a high temperature (around 750C) it melted
pretty much anything except diamond. This, it’s
fair to say, was not ideal for space telescopes.
Jensen only happened into super-black
materials after the market fell out of the reactor
industry, “So I looked
around and thought ,
right, what’s the next big
‘We had
technology that we can do top fashion
now but no one else can?”
This is how Jensen thinks:
designers
what big problem can I
solve next?
and pop
He alighted on nano- stars asking
technology and soon
found himself working at
to use it’
the University Of Surrey –
hence his company’s name
– with a professor named
Ravi Silva, who headed
the Advanced Technology
Institute there. It took just
two-and-a-half years for him to crack it.
Vantablack isn’t technically a colour or a
pigment at all, but rather a molecular trap for
light. It consists of something called “carbon
nanotubes”. These are pretty much what they
sound like: small tubes, around 10,000 times
thinner than a human hair, made out of carbon.
Imagine a microscopic game of beer pong: the
nanotubes are the cups, the photons of light
the balls. When they land in a cup, they rattle
around and so don’t bounce back out as light,
but are converted, instead, into heat. Score.
“People email in saying, can you coat my
supercar?” says Jensen. “And we always say:
well, it’s possible, but when you’re driving
and the sun comes out, it’s going to get incred-
ibly hot, and people don’t generally want to
cook themselves.” (It is also for this reason that
the Daily Mail’s report that Vantablack will
be used to coat spy planes is... not accurate).
The few photons that hit the rims, mean-
while, account for the 0.04 per cent of light
that bounces back. This is why nothing can
absorb 100 per cent of light.
Nanotubes aren’t built, but grown, like blades
of grass, albeit ones that grow at a few hundred
degrees, take 12 seconds from start to finish
and use chemical layers instead of compost.
At the University Of Surrey, they bumped up
against Nasa’s 750C problem, but the break-
through came, in the pub one day, after they’d
VANTABLACK
almost given up, in working out a new way
to heat them: from above, not below, almost
halving the surface temperature in the process.
And just like that, Jensen beat Nasa to the
punch. The darkest substance in existence, and
one you could shoot into space.
When they first unveiled it , at the
Farnborough International Air Show in July
2014, Jensen was expecting to get ten or 15
enquiries. Instead, they were featured on
CNN, the BBC, NBC and were inundated for
months. Upon seeing it the first time, most
people’s reaction was equal parts prosaic and
profound: mostly, they simply said it looked
like reality had been “Photoshopped”.
Jensen can’t discuss mili-
tary applications, but it was
soon classified by the UK
government for exactly that
purpose and its uses are not
hard to imagine. An infrared
heat-seeking sensor on a bat-
tleship, for instance, uses a
black coating in a similar way
that a space telescope does:
to focus on what it wants to
detect (heat from missiles)
and ignore what it doesn’t
(heat from the sun). With
missiles that fly at Mach 3 –
about one kilometre a second
– any shaving of automated
anti-missile response time could be crucial.
Other applications Jensen hadn’t even con-
sidered. Luxury watch manufacturers soon got
in touch: could they Vantablack their watches?
“Imagine,” says Jensen, “you’ve got a black
hole on your wrist...” The first, a $95,000
(£74,000) MCT, came out last year.
Hollywood came calling. Using a Vantablack
backdrop for CGI instead of green screen
could, potentially, save hundreds of millions
of dollars a year. The camera wouldn’t detect
the background at all, meaning none of the
frame-by-frame tidying currently required in
postproduction offices.
There was even a use for it in skyscrapers,
which struggle to stop heat rising through
the floors. The heat-absorption qualities of
Vantablack could solve that instantly.
The fashion industry made desperate pleas.
“I think we had five of the world’s top fashion
designers saying please can we make some-
thing with this?” says Jensen. Some famous
pop stars also got in touch: “I can’t say which
ones, but you’d know them...”
Mostly, Jensen had to disappoint. He had to
explain that Vantablack was not a paint, it was
not a pigment, it wasn’t sold in pots, it was not a
dye. It was a carbon material that could only be
applied in a reactor, in a vacuum that resembles
space, by growing it at around 400 degrees. Oh,
and it was probably best you didn’t touch it
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 149
 afterwards because nanotubes irritate
the skin.
Yet when Anish Kapoor’s office got in touch,
Jensen was intrigued. He went to Kapoor’s
studio and explained, as he always did, that
this wasn’t something that came in a bucket
and, no, you can’t wheel a sculpture into a
reactor. Yet he found himself nonetheless
blown away by Kapoor and his work.
“Honestly, I’m a bit of an art philistine.
I know what I like, but I don’t know much
about it. But I walked into his studio that day
and inhaled my breath. The vision... the way he
works with light and shadow and reflection...”
He began thinking what a shame it was
Kapoor couldn’t use Vantablack. It spoke to his
inquisitive nature: what could be done that no
one else has tried?
There were, beyond the obvious limitations,
some benefits for an artist. Vantablack had such
a low density, for instance, it was almost air:
99.9 per cent less dense than paint. Your fingers,
running across it, would not detect its existence.
A single gram of it would coat a square metre.
A single can of it, if you could get it into a can,
would coat 500 square metres – you could carry
enough to cover a Kapoor sculpture in your
pocket. That, of course, appealed to Kapoor too:
“Yes, that’s another reason why Anish likes it:
the concept of a material that almost doesn’t
exist, that’s not quite there.”
And, as it turned out, Jensen was working on
exactly that: a way of pre-growing the nano-
tubes; a Vantablack spray, called Vantablack
S-Vis. He told Kapoor they hadn’t quite cracked
it just yet, but that they should stay in touch.
A year-and-a-half later, Surrey NanoSystems
announced that Kapoor would be the only
artist licensed to use the new sprayable
Vantablack: the sole custodian of the black-
est black in existence. Those in the art world
were appalled. They saw Kapoor as the villain
of the story, hoarding the black all to himself,
the only artist in the world to have the temer-
ity to own a colour. Gollum with his precious.
rtists have always been
A fascinated by pure black.
Indeed, Renoir once declared
it “the queen of all colours”.
The first truly abstract painting
is said to be Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square”,
which is what it sounds like, created with the
idea to “free art from the dead weight of the
real world”. He liked it so much that between
1915 and 1930, he painted four of them.
Ad Reinhardt picked up the “art-as-art”
baton with his “ultimate” paintings; from 1955
until his death in 1967 he worked almost exclu-
sively in near-black, declaring them the “last
paintings” any artist could produce.
But it is not just the preserve of hardline
abstractionists. Goya, in the later years of
150 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
his life, became obsessed with it, produc-
ing 14 works collectively known as the Black
Paintings, which he painted directly onto his
walls, without names, and which many believe
were never meant for public display. They
depicted insanity, death, cannibalism, witches,
some more death and Goya’s general feeling
things weren’t going to end well. (Death has
been a common theme for black ever since it
was mentioned in the Egyptian Book Of The
Dead, at around 1550BC, as the colour of the
underworld. It is no shock the Grim Reaper
does not wear sky blue.)
Monet became famous for the black in his
portrait work, using it to highlight knife-
edge contrasts between it and colour. Yet
he later renounced it, deciding later in life
that he only wanted to paint in light colours.
When he died, his friend Georges Clemenceau,
the former French prime minister, refused
to allow the black sheet
covering his coffin, exclaim- ‘He’s an
ing, “No! No more black
for Monet! Black is not amazing
a colour!” and promptly
replaced it with a lighter
artist, but the
one – depicting flowers.
In Britain, we were tem-
way Kapoor
porarily obsessed. At the acts is a bit...
height of the Victorian cult
of sartorial grieving – which
cartoon villain’
saw people regularly wear
black for up to two years
after the death of a loved
one and Queen Victoria
stretch it out for another 38
– the town of Whitby was
famous for being the best source of jet, a type
of hard coal formed over millennia from highly
pressurised wood and from which matching
black jewellery could be made.
But a pure black, of course, goes deeper. It
becomes, suddenly, not a colour at all, but a
void: something beyond the real world and
beyond our perceptions.
“It’s the holy grail,” says the artist Stuart
Semple when I meet him in his studio in
Bournemouth. “Because it’s no colour and
that’s the starting point.”
Semple has become the leading antagonist
in the fightback against Kapoor’s super-black
monopoly ever since it was announced last year.
Many others have spoken out, not least
Christian Furr, the youngest artist ever com-
missioned to paint the Queen, who had
planned to use Vantablack in his own work
(“I’ve never heard of an artist monopolising a
material. This black is like dynamite in the art
world. We should be able to use it. It isn’t right
that it belongs to one man”), but it is Semple
who has taken the fight to Kapoor.
He is the instigator of the popular Instagram
hashtag #sharetheblack, and the creator of the
self-styled “Pinkest Pink”, which is available for
anyone to buy for £3.99... unless your name is
Anish Kapoor, who is banned. He is 36, smiles
readily and has a lopsided flop of hair and a way
of making statements that sound like questions.
Before we meet, he requests I sign a form
declaring I’m not a secret Kapoor stooge posing
as a GQ journalist. Recently, he says, his secu-
rity was breached and Kapoor got his hands on
a pot of Pinkest Pink. Kapoor posted a picture
on his Instagram of his middle finger dipped in
it. “Up yours,” it read.
The Instagram comments were not kind. A
selection: “ShareTheBlack, bro! Stop being
such a greedy bastard”; “You should be
ashamed calling yourself an artist”; “This finger
is directed to artists all over the world”; “You’re
a disgrace to the art community”; “You suck”;
“Paint your ass with that finger”; “Grow up”;
“You’re a petty little man”; “People like you
is what destroys good art”;
“You’re the Donald Trump of
the art world”; “You really
are an insufferable c***.”
User @tonoolvera
summed up the mood:
“What a disgrace of an
artist. Art is not supposed
to be about greed and self-
ishness. You managed to
poison what is meant to be
an inspiration to mankind’s
collective spirit. You want
your black? Keep it. A real
artist doesn’t need this type
of ‘exclusivity’ as the value
of their work comes from
within, not from business deals they make with
some company. Your art is tarnished because
of your malice.”
“Yeah, that kind of backfired,” says Semple
with a grin.
When I’d spoken to Jensen, he’d said the
decision to grant exclusive rights to Kapoor
had been purely a practical one. Simply, he’d
said, “Anish has exclusivity for a very good
reason. We took the view that the original
material couldn’t be used in works of art
because of the sheer complexity to make it.
And this new material is still very complex and
very difficult.” It is, he says, a collaboration;
they meet regularly. “And the other side of it
is we’re a small company. We can’t work with
hundreds of artists. We don’t have that scale
– it’s just not our business. Our business is to
create engineering components for satellites.
It’s not to create works of art. So we took the
decision internally that to do this justice we’ll
work with one person because we had enough
time to make that work. And not belittling
other artists, but who else would you want to
work with?”
Jensen wouldn’t say, however, how long

Kapoor owns the rights for: “You’ll have to
ask Anish about that.”
For Kapoor’s part, he declined to speak
to me for this story – or rather, he agreed,
before delaying over a period of six months,
before, on the day, having his assistant
patiently explain the interview was now
cancelled due to the negative publicity gener-
ated by Semple. Maybe check back in another
six months, she said.
I mention Jensen’s reasoning, now, to Semple.
“I use a lot of fabricators for my big work,”
he says, “Public art projects and things like
that. People to cast bronze, very complicated
processes. I use the same fabricators as Jeff
Koons uses. I’ve got guys in China who also
do Damien Hirst’s stuff. I’m yet to find any
who say, ‘No, I won’t make your thing.’ And
also... you can collaborate without exclusivity.
What is Anish so scared of? Everyone is going
to make something different.” Semple gets agi-
tated as he warms to his theme.
“I mean: why? Fundamentally: why? Because
if I ring them and say I manage a band, I want
to coat their new LP in it: ‘Yeah, sure, it will
cost this much.’ Or I want a Vanta watch: ‘Yeah,
sure.’ I’m a really rich person that wants some
dice done in it: ‘Yes.’ But I’d like to coat a sculp-
ture in it? ‘No.’ I’d like to coat a canvas in it?
‘No.’ It’s morally wrong. It’s a moral issue.”
Kapoor, he says, was never the most popular
artist to begin with. “The community has a thing
with Anish because of his not letting people
take photos of ‘The Bean’ [Chicago’s huge reflec-
tive bean-shaped public artwork, “Cloud Gate”].
Or take photos with it in the background. Or
even not letting people call it ‘The Bean’. It’s a
flipping bean! He’s an amazing artist. There’s no
doubt about that. But some of the ways he acts
are just a bit... cartoon villainy?”
Semple – known for the neon-bright colours
in his canvases – is perhaps not the most
obvious artist to be leading this particular
charge. But he says it stems from his love of
all colours. “I think it’s one of the most impor-
tant things we have as a species.”
Photographs Instagram/@dirty_corner/@stuartsemple; Splash
He still remembers, he says, seeing Van
Gogh’s “Sunflowers” for the first time when he
was eight, at The National Gallery. His mother
found him standing in front of it, shaking
(“Like, I was literally awestruck”). The blue
Hockney used for the swimming pool in “A
Bigger Splash”, meanwhile, did something
similar some years later (“That blue is... like
nothing I’ve ever seen”).
In his own way, Semple is also pushing colour’s
boundaries – by using an innovation from the
cosmetics industry. Their latest development is
something called “mattifiers”: essentially a base
that absorbs as much light as possible, developed
specifically to take that perfect selfie. Semple
developed a super-matt black using them.
“The people’s Vantablack!” he says. “It’s not
His dark materials: Artist Stuart Semple (top)
criticises Anish Kapoor’s exclusivity deal. When
Kapoor took to social media to mock parody
product ‘Pinkest Pink’, Semple posted two
fingers dipped in his ‘tenner-a-tub’ alternative
VANTABLACK
‘Vanta’ good, but it’s art-world good. Plus, it’s
a tenner a tub.”
When he took a picture with two
fingers dipped in it on his Instagram – a
V for victory, in riposte to Kapoor’s one-finger
salute – Vantablack’s creator couldn’t help but
get involved.
“Nice try!” Jensen wrote in the comments.
“You would have cooked your fingers at over
100C to apply visible spectrum super-black
paints... If it was Vantablack you would have
roasted your hand at a pleasant 400C, and if
it was Vantablack S-Vis then 100C.”
Semple gently pointed out it was his own
black and was privately amused Jensen had
seemingly mistook it for a Photoshop job –
the ultimate super-black compliment.
emple’s vision for using
S Vantablack in his own work
is relatively modest. He’s
interested in the edges of art
– the dividing line between an
artwork and the world – and so paints the sides
of his canvases black. In a gallery, he says, it
would seem as if his pieces are floating.
“But likewise,” he adds, “it’s not just about
me. What would Damien Hirst do with it? Or
what would Banksy? You know, he’d probably
paint Road Runner tunnels with it.”
(For the uninitiated, this is a sight gag in the
Looney Tunes cartoons where Wile E Coyote
paints a tunnel on the side of a wall to fool the
Road Runner to run into it. This idea, it’s fair to
say, is probably not recommended for A roads).
Kapoor, meanwhile, has been vague about
his plans for it, but has had this to say:
“Imagine walking into a room where you lit-
erally have no sense of the walls,” Kapoor said.
“Where the walls are or if there are any walls
at all. It’s not an empty dark room, but a space
full of darkness... This has haunted us through
literature, science and art – the invisible, the
non-space or the non-object... Loss of self and
fear go hand in hand. Inevitably, we bump into
fear, death and all the human realities of an
emotional world – as an artist especially, but
always as a human being.”
Or, as he said at the launch of his Seoul show,
Gathering Clouds, last year: “Perhaps the darkest
black is the one we carry within ourselves.”
Even Semple finds it hard to argue that Kapoor
isn’t an obvious choice to use Vantablack. From
his large public sculptures to his obsession
with voids, not least his black whirlpool vortex
“Descension”, it makes sense.
Yet in Bournemouth, sitting with a tub of
his “people’s Vantablack”, Semple says he is
sure of one thing: when Kapoor does unveil
what he’s been working on, it better be good.
“Like, he’s made a rod for his own back,
because it can’t be, you know, I made a black
cube! It has to be,” he says, “incredible.”
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 151
 hroughout history, colour has
T been to mankind as water is to
castaways. It’s everywhere: but
how to make use of it?
The browns – for obvious
reasons – came first. The earliest pigment was
black: created as soon as man’s ancestors made
fire, hundreds of thousands of years ago, and
decided to do something with the leftovers.
For many years, creating colour was a mortal
occupation. Lead white, first created around
2300BC via a chemical reaction involving lead,
vinegar and dung, had, according to an entry
in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions
journal in 1678, the following unseemly side-
effects: “Contortions in the guts... acute fevers...
asthma... vertigo... dizziness... continual pain in
the brows, blindness, stupidity, paralytick affec-
tions, loss of appetite, sickness and frequent
vomiting.” Curiously, this did not stop ladies
painting their face with its powder. Many died.
Even the ones that didn’t kill you were
unlikely to make you stronger. The bright-
yellow gamboge, for instance, which was
laboriously milked from the sap of garcinia
trees in Colombia over the course of a year
and popular in the 19th century, had an unfor-
tunate side effect. Despite boasting both
Rembrandt and Turner as fans, it made anyone
who smelt it in desperate need of the loo.
Yet that’s nothing compared to the poor
insects unfortunate enough to form a bright
colour when crushed. The cochineal bug, a
tiny insect the size of a pinhead, has the mis-
fortune of producing the deep-red dye carmine
and has been crushed for colour in Central and
South America since at least the fifth century.
More than 70,000 are needed to make just
one pound of raw carmine. Once the Spanish
discovered it, it quickly became third only to
gold and silver in their exports. In 1587 alone,
around 72 tonnes was shipped to Spain, or
roughly ten billion bugs. They’re still used
today, in everything from M&Ms to lipstick
to jelly to Cherry Coke (though on the label it
will say something far more prosaic: “E120”).
Many mysteries of colour’s past, however,
remain. “Lead-tin yellow”, for instance, is known
as “the yellow that vanished”. The dominant
yellow from the 15th to the mid-18th cen-
turies – used by Old Masters from Rubens
to Rembrandt – suddenly disappeared from
1750 onwards for reasons no one really knows.
Before 1941, no one knew it had existed at all.
Another yellow, the luminous “Indian yellow”
– used in the 17th and 18th century – was
a mystery even to the painters who used it,
beyond the fact it came from Calcutta and pos-
sessed a curious whiff of ammonia. When Sir
Joseph Dalton Hooker, the director of Kew
Gardens at the time, sent a letter in 1883 to the
India office to find out, he got a reply, a year-
and-a-half later, from a 36-year-old civil servant
152 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
Growth industry (from top): Vessels for storing
the magnetron plasma used as a catalyst to
cultivate the nanotubes; MCT’s Vantablack-
coated Sequential One S110 Evo; the substance
is made in the reactor in just 12 seconds
saying he’d looked into it and it came from the
boiled-down urine of Bengal cows fed nothing
but mango leaves. Soon after, it, too, vanished,
and still no one knows if it was a joke or not.
We still don’t know exactly what Tyrian purple
looked like, despite it being the toast of the
Roman Empire. It was laborious in the extreme
to make, coming from two species of sea snail.
Just a single drop of vibrant purple liquid could
be squeezed from each one and so required
around a quarter of a million molluscs to lay
down their lives for an ounce of dye. It also
meant Tyrian cloth was literally worth its weight
in gold. By the fourth century, only a Roman
emperor was allowed to wear it (to be fair, only
a Roman emperor could afford it); anyone else
could face death... and possibly bankruptcy.
When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453,
its secret was lost to time, which was good
news for the snails at least. The method was
only rediscovered almost four centuries later,
in 1856, by a French marine biologist.
Some colours have fallen into such disre-
pute they technically no longer exist, at least
in name. Paint companies, for instance, will sell
you “leather satchel” or “nutmeg white”, but
no longer a “beige”. (This also perhaps explains
why when two scientists surveyed over 200,000
galaxies in 2001 and found the combined colour
of the known universe was not un-beige, they
settled on a different name: cosmic latte).
Throughout history, a new colour has always
been big news. London has, at various times,
gone colour crazy.
A pea-green known as Scheele’s Green was
created by Swedish scientist Carl Wilhelm
Scheele in 1775 while studying arsenic and it
proved much more vibrant than the copper-
based green of the age. Dickensian London went
nuts. By 1863, the Times estimated between 500
and 700 tons of it were being made each year.
People used it for fabrics and wallpapers, toys
and bedsheets, paper and candles, even colour-
ing for desserts. Turner used it in an 1805 oil
sketch of Guildford. Dickens wanted to redec-
orate his whole house in it.
That Mrs Dickens didn’t let him was fortunate
for us all. It was, after all, made from arsenic.
People started dying. One person was poisoned
by their own bed curtains. The craze abated.
Yet it wasn’t long before London was at it
again. When mauve was created in 1856 – by
accident, it turned out; a young chemist called
Sir William Henry Perkin had been trying to
synthesise quinine as a cure to malaria – the
city was soon, as Punch magazine put it, “in
the grip of the mauve measles”, making its
18-year-old creator a very rich man indeed.
This time, thankfully, no one died.
There has even been colour theft. As recently
as 2014, a court case was brought against a
technology consultant named Walter Liew, who
was accused of attempting to steal American

company DuPont’s closely guarded formula for
“titanium white”, worth some $2.6bn (£1.5bn),
in order to sell to the Chinese. (He was sen-
tenced to 15 years. The judge, rather aptly,
referred to is as a “white-collar crime spree”).
Many famous colours are not what they
seem. Apple’s famous white, for instance, is
not white at all, but a very light shade called
“moon grey”, due to a subtle tweak made for
Steve Jobs’ benefit.
For his famous “Sunflowers”, in 1888, Van
Gogh used the vibrant “chrome yellow”, the
mineral for which, crocoite, had been discov-
ered down a Siberian gold mine some years
before and a French chemist called Louis Nicolas
Vauquelin had subsequently managed to syn-
thesise in the lab. The only problem, it turned
out, is chrome yellow has a habit of browning
as it ages, so the colour we see now is not the
colour it once was. As Kassia St Clair points out
in her sublime book The Secret Lives Of Colour,
“Van Gogh’s sunflowers, it seems, are wilting.”
We may think, meanwhile, that blue for a
boy and pink for a girl is steeped in tradition,
but it’s actually a modern phenomenon. An
1893 New York Times article on baby clothes
confidently suggests the opposite. The reason?
Soldiers wore red and the colour of the Virgin
Mary was blue.
The latter – following the discovery of ultra-
marine – is one of colour’s greatest stories. It
is also St Clair’s favourite colour, so I meet up
with her in The National Gallery in London to
discuss it. St Clair texts me instructions so I’ll
recognise her: “Scarlet jeans, green notebook.”
For years, a true blue was the holy grail
of the art world – many blues were muddy
things, tinged with green. Eventually, a
single source of deep-blue stone called
lapis lazuli was found: down the Sar-
i-Sang mines in Afghanistan. It quickly became
the most sought-after and expensive pigment in
the world and a staple of Silk Road trade routes.
“It’s an absolutely magical colour,” says St
Clair. “It’s probably the pigment that’s had the
biggest impact on art. It had to travel 3,000
miles as lumps of rock and such was the artists’
desire to get hold of it, they were willing to pay
an extortionate price and go to these extraordi-
nary lengths.” We walk over to “The Conversion
Of Mary Magdalene” by the Italian Renaissance
artist Paolo Veronese, which shows both Christ
and Magdalene in luminous ultramarine. Due to
its incredible cost, the colour came to represent
divinity. This is why the Virgin Mary wears blue.
Its cost was so great, some Renaissance works
are even left unfinished, a gap where the blue
was never quite saved up for. If ultramarine was
required in a work, it was common for a contract
to be drawn up specifying exactly how much,
lest the artist find themselves out of pocket.
“Now, we have colour so easily,” says St Clair,
gazing at the painting. “I can turn up wearing
red jeans and not think about it. Just contrast
that with the struggle people went through
to get hold of a colour like that in the past.”
New colours, points out St Clair, are still
being created. In 1960, for instance, French
artist Yves Klein patented a deep shade of
a matt blue, subsequently
named International Klein
Blue (IKB). It used to be part
When Kapoor
of an artist’s job, she adds, to finally unveils
source their own colours: to
know a pigment alchemist, what he’s
known as “colourmen”, or a
Silk Road trader who knew
been working
how to get things, or at least on, it better
make a trip to Venice, at one
point the pigment trading be good...
capital of the world.
Perhaps this is part of
where the outrage about
Vantablack comes from:
a generation of artists too
used to getting their colours
in a shop. In some ways, Kapoor sourcing
Vantablack for himself is a throwback to what
an artist’s job used to be.
“Yes,” says St Clair. “We’re so used to colour
being democratic, to going into a shop. But,
originally, artists would have to make their own
pigments or source them from particular place.
That was part of your craft. That would,” she
says, “have been part of your reputation.”
lmost a year after I first met
A Ben Jensen, Vantablack’s
creator, I return to the offices
of Surrey NanoSystems in
Newhaven Town to see how
he’s been getting on. He’s stopped, he says,
using the nuclear fallout siren as his ringtone
(“I think it annoyed people”), but otherwise
has been as busy as ever.
The applications for Vantablack, he says,
have kept on coming. There’s huge inter-
est, for instance, in the driverless car market.
Currently, sunlight can blind the vision system –
Vantablack would all but eliminate that. There’s
interest in the supercar market: “Aesthetic appli-
cations, such as car dials with bottomless pit
effects, but also using Vantablack to absorb and
tailor headlight beams.” General photography,
he says, is another. In a stroke, Jensen came
to realise, Vantablack might be able to all-but
eliminate lens flair, “so you can shoot in bright
light without issues. We had no concept of that.”
A new office and lab around four times the
size of their current office is being built a
few miles away. Another, in the US, is being
planned. They’ve just taken on Nasa as a cus-
tomer and are about to announce a linkup with
a major mobile phone manufacturer.
Jensen has had no shortage strange requests.
One person wanted to coat eggshells in
VANTABLACK
Vantablack. Someone phoned up saying they
want to be the first person to eat it (“You may
as well eat some cement,” he says). Others
have requested body parts to be coated in it
(“It would be inadvisable”).
One project he would love to do, he says, came
from David Bowie’s record
label. As a memorial for ★,
the last album before the
artist’s death, Sony recently
asked if they could coat a star
in Vantablack, which would
tour the world, before being
launched into space. “It’s
such a cool, cool concept,”
he says, his face lighting up.
“And I’m a huge Bowie fan.
That would be amazing.”
They’re currently waiting
on the go-ahead from the
European Space Agency.
But they’ve also, he says,
had hate mail. He’s wary of
this article publishing too many personal details,
as, he says, “We’ve had creepy people trying to
stalk us and stuff like that.” For the Vantablack?
“Yeah. Some really weird people.”
Of what Kapoor is coming up with in his
studio, all he’ll say is they’re still meeting
regularly and that “it will be phenomenal.
Phenomenal. That’s really all I can say.”
They’ve just created a second sprayable
version – called Vantablack S-Vis-IR – which
works solely in the visible spectrum and doesn’t
fall under Kapoor’s exclusivity agreement.
So if someone wanted to use if for art, could
they? Might, I ask, he finally free the black?
Jensen begins by explaining that it would need
to be applied by professionals with the correct
equipment; you can’t apply it by a brush and...
Sure, I say, I understand. But artists like Semple
use industrial contractors all the time. So could
Semple use it?
“It doesn’t fall under Kapoor Studio’s
exclusivity, but please note that we’re most
definitely not seeking to undermine the agree-
ment.” Noted. But could Semple use it?
“Because of our industrial focus,” he says, “it’s
unlikely that we would coat other artists’ works
at this time.” But, he adds, “That may change.”
“It’s quite amazing,” he says, just before I go,
“how emotional people get about the colour
black.” After all, he says, “it’s everywhere.”
MORE For these related stories,
FROM GQ visit GQ.co.uk/magazine
Try Your Hand At Virtual Reality Art (Ailis Brennan,
March 2017)
Will The Next Andy Warhol Be A Robot?
(Antony Micallef, December 2016)
Bitcoin: Inside The £8bn Swindle (Stuart McGurk,
September 2016)
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 153
 – Roger Ailes (1940-2017), former chairman and CEO of Fox News

154 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

Photograph Vincent J Ricardel/Contour by Getty Images MICHAEL WOLFF

THE LEGACY OF FOX NEWS

Roger Ailes’ death in May ended 20 years of agenda-setting domination in
which ultra-conservative Fox News bullied US political debate and piled
high its profits. Now, a once-shy liberal media has decided to play dirty
too by copying the rule book of its right-wing nemesis. Game on...
STORY BY Michael Wolff

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 155

 he week in late May that con-

T
  servative television mastermind
Roger Ailes died marked the first
time that MSNBC, the liberal
cable competitor to Ailes’ right-
wing Fox News, beat both Fox
and CNN in the primetime total viewers and in
the all important 25-54 demographic.
At the same time, at Ailes’ funeral in Palm
Beach, a by-invitation affair of only hard-
core Ailes loyalists, Sean Hannity, the local
Atlanta-area radio talk show host who Ailes
had recruited at Fox 21 years ago and turned
into one of the most powerful voices in US
conservative politics, remarked to friends,
“It’s really over, isn’t it?” He meant Fox’s reign
as the most important factor in American
political life.
More than even the quickly changing nature
of political parties, the sudden upset in news
media, particularly cable television, and a
surge in newspaper readership has created
unprecedented levels of political uncertainty
and disorder.
Ailes, dispatched at Fox over sexual harass-
ment charges and dead ten months later, had
Sean Hannity remarked of Fox’s
not so much exited the stage as left it with
a whole new concept of political theatre.
reign, ‘It really is over isn’t it?’
American news media – a generation ago still
a cross-demographic study in even-handedness
and enforced, self-conscious respectability –
had, during Ailes’ bravura leadership at Fox
(with profits of almost $2 billion, the most politics became fronted by media organisations including the once-dominant network CNN,
successful enterprise in the history of news), – if liberal riches were to be made from doctri- hopelessly declined
discovered the power of target marketing, naire and fanciful liberal news? But suddenly, as though overnight, three
cannily matching news to market segment Galling for left-wing activists and the main- factors changed all this.
tastes and biases. Many liberals, full of equal stream media’s bottom line – in its way as The rise of Donald Trump established a new
amounts self-righteousness and self-pity, galling as Fox’s daily agitprop – was the fact ground zero for liberal media, requiring no
accused Fox of undermining the very founda- that liberal media did not have the talent or pretence of balance – better yet, with a kind
tions of journalism and civic wellbeing. the savvy or the passion to match conservative of political brain haemorrhage, everybody
But if the liberal media had felt sorry for media’s success. Even when liberal media tried seemed to have lost the ability to be balanced.
itself, losing market share against the Fox to go head-to-head with Fox – with pastiches The liberal media had happily (as it took teary
onslaught of brilliantly marketed and pack- like the Huffington Post or MSNBC – it missed selfies) entered moral end times. Nobody
aged news for the better part of 20 years, it the secret sauce. needed to suspend disbelief about Trump –
was, in the Trump age, waking up from a long he was universally recognised in the liberal

slumber and finding it could target-market too.
Of course, just as conservatives were
unable to recognise their media bias, liberals,
intoxicated by their new success, suddenly
believed themselves wholly virtuous purvey-
ors too. But neither the New York Times nor
the Washington Post, evermore touting their
claim on respectability and righteous in their
contempt for Fox, could see that their dramatic
subscriber growth in the wake of Trump’s
election logically represented the triumph
of consumer segmentation rather than the
pursuit of truth.
If, as liberals maintained, Fox News had
come to direct Republican politics and produce,
along with fabulous profits, seismic cultural
disruptions and an ever-widening spectrum
of fake news, what would happen now if all
A
fter many generations of establish-
ment aspirations – the traditional
news anchorman became the pro-
totypical figure of self-importance
– mainstream news media lacked
range of expressiveness and the dramatic shame-
lessness and cat-that-swallowed-the-canary glee
of conservative media.
Then, too, there was a huge advantage in
the conservative demographic – less rich,
less young, less urban, less technological, Fox
viewers remained in front of the TV as the
liberal audience explored media’s other myriad
and fast-developing information options.
And then there was the brutish multiplier
effect of ratings dominance in an advertising-
driven world. The dominant player, always
Fox, reaped all the attention, as the others,
world as the prince of darkness. Animosity
toward him was instinctive, reflexive, dramatic
and profitable. Conservative media found
its voice during the Clinton-Lewinsky affair,
merging message machine and ratings machine.
Donald Trump and the chaos and crisis of his
White House now served the same purpose
for liberal media.
At the same time, the ousting of Roger Ailes
in July 2016 presaged the end of Fox and
conservative media’s industry dominance.
The cable television business would soon no
longer consist of the leader and the also-rans,
but would become a genuine competition of
psycho-graphic targeting. If Ailes was a sui
generis talent, without him the playing field
was suddenly level. The extraordinary rofl irony
was that Ailes’ ousting had been propelled

156 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017


Liberal reform (from top): The New York Times’
front pages on 20 January 2017 and 15 May 2016;
(left) anchorman Sean Hannity has for 20 years
epitomised the aggressive style of broadcasting
mastered by Fox News, 28 October 2014
by the aspirations of Rupert Murdoch’s sons,
Lachlan and, most of all, James. Assuming more
and more executive authority in their father’s
rough-and-ready and ever-unPC company,
they aspired to respectability and an anodyne,
cool media. Ailes, militantly protective of his
message and fiefdom, had long run a corporate
guerilla campaign against Murdoch’s yuppie
sons. A seething James Murdoch, embarrassed
by Fox’s operatic politics and with a family
blood score toward Ailes (for years, Ailes spread
cruel and hilarious rumours about the Murdoch
boys), had long worked for his exit. Curiously,
a test of liberal media’s new focus and power
– who adopted the terror of Ailes-like com-
munication and the steady drumbeat of a
demonising narrative – was the part it played
in Ailes’ departure (aided by leaks to the liberal
press from the Murdoch brothers themselves).
And then there was a technological
convergence. If liberals had suffered in an
ever-fragmenting universe while conserv-
atives stayed unified at Fox, cord-cutting
and over-the-top new options had caught
up to the conservative audience too. What’s
more, while Ailes’ Fox News had largely
Photograph Reuters
dominated the Republican Party, Trump’s
forceful, canny and self-dramatising voice,
that Twitter phenomenon, helped grab back
that franchise – Trump made his own news, a
feast for everyone.
ong-running scandal fuels targeted
L political media. It’s the stuff of
obsession, which is the basis of a
passionate core audience. More
obsession means more passion
and a crazy, over-the-top audience. Equally, of
course, this obsession leads to less soberness,
moderation and disinterest in the media world.
Ailes, a born storyteller and gossip, whose
decades in politics had merrily destroyed all his
illusions and generally confirmed his political
operative’s bias that all politicians were mooks,
built Fox around the shocked, hyperbolic
melodrama of constant liberal scandal – every-
thing liberals did was the product of conspiracy
and infamy. Liberal journalists put on the
defensive found themselves always shilling
for the status quo and begging for peaceable-
ness – hardly good television.
But Trump, a figure of his own exaggerations,
suddenly seemed to give the liberal media a
licence for wild hyperbole cloaked in stone-
faced self-seriousness. At CNN, on Sunday
mornings, the presenter Brian Stelter, a young
man of no stature except for his studied
outrage, looks directly into the camera and
delivers a weekly sermon about Trump’s immo-
rality and wickedness. At the Washington Post,
its columnist Margaret Sullivan, a figure of
near-religious literalness, describes in column
after column the postapocalyptic landscape of
the new Trumpian world.
Fox’s Sean Hannity, usually a master of
outrage, tried to pump a scandal in which
the death of a young Democratic National
Committee staffer somehow indicated a con-
spiracy that explained the email leaks that
undermined Hillary’s Clinton’s campaign. But
in this, he was a kind of yapping dog against
the Democrats’ new unified field theory, which
proposes that the crazy reality of Donald
Trump can only be explained by a narrative
of international skulduggery, dirty money,
diabolical hacking and a level of spy craft
vastly more effective than any thing that was
ever pulled off during the Cold War.
The New York Times could, with its new
breathlessness, lead with a story in late May,
that, presupposing operatic conspiracy, turned
out to say only that Russian diplomats tried
to argue the case for Russia’s interests to
American officials. That’s it. Nothing else!
Diplomats doing what diplomats do. But,
somehow, doing it darkly – cue the sinister
music. Then there’s the front-page story, also
in the New York Times, equating the almost
daily leaks from the intel community to the
Times itself with the president’s disclosure of
secret data to the Russians. This is quite some
media distortion in that the former – disclos-
ing classified information to an unauthorised
party – is a felony, while the latter is a legal
act by the president.
MICHAEL WOLFF
If the president decides it is in the national
interest to tell a foreign country about US
secrets, he has the absolute power to declassify
that information at will. Now, the New York
Times, defending its leaks, revelling in them,
suggests that there is no difference between
its powers and that of the president. That’s
media chutzpah!
The narrative, the excitement, the daily
frisson is all about will-he/won’t-he be
defenestrated. How will it happen? How
will it end? Who in the administration will
go first? The tension is not so much in the
nature of a whodunnit, but about how it will
be dun to him.
The only crime that anybody has so far sug-
gested might be an issue – that Trump colluded
with the Russians to arrange his own election –
seems not only wildly improbable but borders
on the farcical. And yet, it is impossible to go to
a dinner party in any more-or-less liberal home
in any upscale urban centre in the US and not
have as the main topic will-he/won’t-he be
impeached. That is, impeachment by an over-
whelmingly Republican-dominated congress.
The answer, of course, is that he won’t be, or
at least that it’s so remote a circumstance as
to be merely silly talk.
But the media story – an irresistible,
delicious and edge-of-the-seat one – is that,
against all the odds, yes he will. And you, the
rapt audience, believe it too because that’s why
you’re watching. After all, all it takes is for you
to believe. If Donald Trump got elected, if that
level of cosmic improbability could occur –
and remember that happened not least of all
because the media gave him so much atten-
tion – then, equally, why can’t he be removed
by the media’s attention?
There are moments in which you can pin
down heretofore professionally fair-minded
colleagues about the extraordinary inversions
of journalistic protocol that now occur on
a daily basis and get them to at least not deny
that the world has come unstuck. But the
response, quite a happy one, is that this
is just what Fox did for so long and so well.
And, indeed, in some ontological sense, this
is the point: the liberal media, bullied for
a generation by Ailes and Fox News, now,
to right the wrongs of the universe, must
seize the day and prove itself as determined
and ruthless and clever as its enemy.
All the while thanking its lucky stars that
Roger Ailes is gone.
MORE
For these related stories,
FROM GQ visit GQ.co.uk/magazine
Democratic Deficit (Michael Wolff, July 2017)
The Old Empire Strikes Back (Michael Wolff, June 2017)
News Is Over... If You Want It (Michael Wolff, May 2017)
AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 157
GQ reels in the summer essentials to keep you cool, calm and protected as the season hots up.

Clockwise, from left: Cushion by Hermès, £520. hermes.com.

Trainers by Giuseppe Zanotti, £430. giuseppezanottidesign.com.
Speaker by UE Wonderboom, £90. At John Lewis. johnlewis.com.
Blazer, £430. T-shirt, £79. Both by Boss. hugoboss.com. Watch by
Timex, £60. At mrporter.com. Sunglasses by Polo Ralph Lauren,
£125. At Sunglass Hut. sunglasshut.co.uk

158 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 FASHION

From stylish grooming to graphic towels and trunks, ensure you make a splash by the sand

er
feath
Gil
ce
Gra
BY
ING
YL
ST
n
wa
Kir
Luke
Y
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AP
GR
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PH

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 159

 Clockwise from top left: Cap, £12. Swim
shorts, £18. Both by River Island.
riverisland.com. Sliders by Givenchy
by Ricardo Tisci, £180. givenchy.com.
Maximum Hydrator by Clinique For Men,
£34. clinique.co.uk. WetForce Expert
Sun Aging Protection Lotion SPF 30 by
Shiseido, £32. At John Lewis. johnlewis.
com. Backpack by Coach, £650.
uk.coach.com. Towel by DSquared2,
£129. dsquared2.com. Crème Solaire
Sécurité SPF30 by Clarins, £21. clarins.
co.uk. Sunglasses by Tom Davies,
£295. tdtomdavies.com

160 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 FASHION

Clockwise from top:

Headphones by Beats By Dre,
£250. At Apple. apple.co.uk.
T-shirt by Champion x Beams,
£48. At matchesfashion.com.
T-shirt by Paul & Shark, £99.
paulandshark.co.uk. Surfboard
by Vision, from £175. At Shore.
shore.co.uk. Hoodie by Second
Layer, £160. At mrporter.com.
Polaroid camera by Impossible
x Urban Outfitters, £160.
urbanoutfitters.co.uk

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 161

From top: Ping pong set by Sunnylife, £32.
At Urban Outfitters. urbanoutfitters.co.uk.
Towel by Vilebrequin, £80. vilebrequin.com.
Sunglasses by Tom Davies, £295.
tdtomdavies.com. Cap by Kenzo, £85.
kenzo.com. Headphones by Master &
Dynamic, £370. At mrporter.com. Polo shirt
by Orlebar Brown, £95. orlebarbrown.com

162 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 FASHION

From top: Trainers by Christian Louboutin,

£495. christianlouboutin.com. Mandarino Di
Amalfi body spray by Tom Ford, £44 for
150ml. tomford.com. Swim shorts by Marks
& Spencer, £10. marksandspencer.com.
Watch by Swatch, £38. shop.swatch.com.
Sun Control Stick For Sun-Sensitive Areas
UVA/UVB 30 by Clarins, £14. clarins.co.uk

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 163

From top: Jumper by Giorgio
Armani, £920. armani.com.
Towel by Hermès, £385.
hermes.com. Private Blend
Sole Di Positano Eau de
Parfum by Tom Ford, £155
for 50ml. tomford.com.
Watch by Gucci, £780. gucci.
com. Hat by Lock & Co,
£265. lockhatters.co.uk

Opposite page, from top:

Hair In The Sun by Sachajuan,
£20. sachajuan.com. Bag
by Bennett Winch, £295.
bennettwinch.com. Swim
shorts by Frescobol Carioca,
£145. frescobolcarioca.com.
Sunglasses by Ray-Ban, £161.
ray-ban.com. Sandals by
Berluti, £520. berluti.com.
T-shirt by David Gandy
For Autograph, £15. At
Marks and Spencer. Set designer Zena May Hendrick
marksandspencer.com Styling assistant Polly Bartlett

164 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 FASHION

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 165

The camera doesn’t lie and summer’s boldest shirts
will not stay in the shadows. GQ presents
a paparazzi portfolio of the patterns to be seen in
with a story of pinstripes and pop prints
PHOTOGRAPHS BY Neil Gavin STYLING BY Eric Nicholson

Ashley wears dress by Julien

Macdonald, from £7,955.
julienmacdonald.com

Berthil wears shirt by Lanvin,

£470. lanvin.com. Trousers,
£410. Belt, £135. Both by
Dolce & Gabbana.
dolcegabbana.com

8:25:42PM
166 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017
 FASHION

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 167

Shirt, £665. Trousers, £410.
Both by Dolce & Gabbana.
dolcegabbana.com.
Tank MC by Cartier,
£8,000. cartier.co.uk

Opposite page: Ashley wears

jacket (part of suit) by Canali,
£1,120. Dress, £1,700. Bra by
Agent Provocateur, £95.
agentprovocateur.com.
Sunglasses, £139. By Michael
Kors. michaelkors.co.uk.
Chain, £470. Moon charm,
£350. Lightning bolt charm,
£720. Star charm, £480.
All by Jennifer Fisher.
jenniferfisherjewelry.com

Berthil wears shirt, £180.

Trousers (part of suit),
£1,120. Both by Canali.
canali.com. Sunglasses by
Persol, £320. At Sunglass
Hut. sunglasshut.com

168 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 FASHION

+ .

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 169

 Shirt, £540. Trousers,
£290. Both by Fendi.
fendi.com

Opposite page: Shirt by

Louis Vuitton, £940.
louisvuitton.com. Tank
MC by Cartier, £8,000.
cartier.co.uk

170 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 FASHION

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 171

 1:1

3:1

172 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 FASHION

Ashley wears dress by

Fendi, £1,930. fendi.com

Berthil wears jacket, £1,150.

Blazer, £960. Trousers, £700.
All by Giorgio Armani.
armani.com

Opposite page: Ashley

wears top and skirt set,
£2,600. Belt, £625. Both
by Elie Saab. eliesaab.com.
Shoes by Giambattista Valli,
£650. At Moda Operandi.
modaoperandi.com. Chain,
£470. Moon charm, £350.
Lightning bolt charm,
£720. Star charm, £480.
All by Jennifer Fisher.
jenniferfisherjewelry.com

Berthil wears Shirt, £320.

Trousers, £615. Both by
Bottega Veneta.
bottegaveneta.com.
Tank MC by Cartier,
£8,000. cartier.co.uk

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 173

 Jacket, £4,385. Trousers,
£570. Shoes, £980. All
by Brunello Cucinelli.
brunellocucinelli.com. Shirt
by Ami, £175. amiparis.com

Opposite page:
Jacket, £1,750. Trousers,
£500. Both by Berluti.
berluti.com. Shirt by Coach
1941, £155. coach.com

Hair Leon Gorman at

Walter Schupfer
Make-up Rommy Najor at
See Management
Models Ashley at The
Society; Berthil at Ford
Styling assistant
Reiner Reyes
Shot on location at
The Mandarin Oriental,
New York

174 GQ.CO.UK AUGUST 2017

 FASHION

AUGUST 2017 GQ.CO.UK 175

A fabulous first floor flat with a grand GUIDE PRICE
£4,500,000

reception room in a period building SHARE OF FREEHOLD

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 #OTL
JONATHAN HEAF IS...
...with Stanley Tucci
Food and art connoisseur
(who also happens to act
and direct) is the model
of charm at Isabel
ctor Stanley Tucci made me laugh
 A recently. Actually, it was more
than just a laugh. It was a guffaw.
The sort that contorts a man’s
face so he resembles a Spitting
Image puppet, a laugh so powerful a man
should throw a napkin over his face to avert
his grotesque features from God’s gaze. It
happens to me all the time, much to my girl-
friend’s shame. And His.
Tucci was on The Graham Norton Show, as
ever the very personification of charm. (Has
there ever been a more charming actor?) It was
put to him that he based his maniacal character
from The Hunger Games, one Caesar Flickerman,
host of the aforementioned games, on the very man sat across from him,
Norton, and not just the jazz hands and sequined jackets.
“The intelligence is yours,” Tucci concurred, a slip of a grin indicting
that, yes, the smallest slice of Flickerman was perhaps based on the
chatty Irishman, although probably not his intelligence. A subtle but
exquisitely deployed backhander. A most charming gag.
It was illuminating for two reasons. Firstly, it is clear Tucci under-
stands (and indeed enjoys) toying with the nuances of British humour
– he’s lived in London for five years now, in sleepy/expensive Barnes,
with bambini from his first marriage and another from his second wife,
Felicity Blunt, sister of Hollywood star Emily – and
secondly, that the actor would make for a thoroughly ‘Uncooked prawns
entertaining lunch companion. There’s a refined
mischief about the man, like a rock star in an expen- make me nervous.
sive suit. He’s like Bill Nighy in that way – too bright, We’ll be bold...’
frankly, to be just an actor.
“Uncooked prawns make me nervous.” I’ve taken
Tucci to a new restaurant, Isabel, to be found (behind
drawn blinds) on Albemarle Street in Mayfair, a veritable oligarchs’
canteen decked out with hundreds of gold lamps and sumptuous blue
velvet sofas. It’s Juan Santa Cruz’s new joint – he runs Casa Cruz over in
Notting Hill and if you’ve been there you know what to expect. Isabel
is similar gear, like eating in a 22nd-century jewellery box.
Throughout the venue there is a buzz that cuts through like an old ana-
logue radio scanning for an FM station. I realise it’s the faint but distinct
whir of Cruz’ anxiety. He’s glad-handing his way round the room, watch-
ing his staff pirouette round a murder of critics, luxury publishing suits
and hedge-fund managers. However, he need not worry, as the décor is
such that the place will be a hit with the iPhone elite long before they
VERDICT Crowd ++++, Conversation ++++,  Food +++,,  Décor ++++,  Instagramability +++++  Charm +++++  Overall ++++,
even sample the food. It’s got the kerpow factor
– an essential ingredient in a world where the
social-media snap is currency. Isabel was built
for nothing if not the Instagram generation.
“We’ll be bold. Let’s get the red raw prawns,”
Tucci insists. “And let’s add the watercress
salad, the radicchio thingy and – for you? –
the peppered tuna. Is it a small dish? Good.
What about the white and green asparagus?
No white left? Oh, shame. The green then. And
let’s get a pasta. The conchiglie. No other sides.
Wine? Surely. A glass of the La Marchesa Gavi
Gold Label. Why not? It’s Tuesday after all.”
Coming from a family with Italian heritage,
food has always been something of an obses-
sion for Tucci, as perceptible as a rich tomato
sauce stain on a freshly starched white napkin.
Art, however, was Tucci’s first love, even before
cinema. Next month will see him combine the
two through his poignant biopic of the Swiss
artist Alberto Giacometti, Final Portrait, star-
ring Geoffrey Rush. It’s well worth seeing: a duel between the artist and
his young sitter, played succinctly by Armie Hammer, who, through a
series of independent films, seems to be coming into his own.
Yet food connects many of Tucci’s life-dots, both on screen and off.
“It’s in my DNA” he shrugs. “If I hadn’t been interested in food I fear
I would have been ostracised.” He’s right, of course. As chef Fergus
Henderson once put so neatly, “I don’t understand how a young couple
can begin life by buying a sofa or a television. Don’t they know the
table comes first?”
Indeed, Tucci wrote, co-directed and starred in one of the very best
films about food, Big Night, a movie that shows two
brothers preparing a make-or-break meal that will
decide the fate of their restaurant, Paradise. The scene
depicting the creation of a traditional timpano, a sort
of giant pasta cake with meatballs and eggs prepared
in a dish the size of a snare drum, is worth a gregari-
ous Italian hand gesture alone.
Today Tucci has his own cookbook, although he does
try to play down his culinary talents. When asked if he goes in for all
the kitchen gear, the Wi-Fi-assisted cooking knives and the like, he
scoffs – then proceeds to list an arsenal of tech weaponry he owns for
Illustrations Anton Emdin; Zohar Lazar
just such a purpose. “You got me,” he chuckles.
Much as he would like to remain more aloof, Tucci’s vast talents hide
in plain site – they can’t help but poke through the wall of modesty
he’s attempted to construct around himself. His wry humour sits like
melting butter on the risotto of his personality – his self-deprecation
the mantecato that creams and binds.
Well, that and his charm. Did I mention how charming he is?
26 Albemarle Street, London W1. 020 3096 9292. isabelw1.london