AUTUMN 2022 £6
HOUSE OF THE DR AGON’S MAT T SMITH / MENSWEAR GOES TO WORK / ESQUIRE’S GUIDE TO THE SEASON / CHRIS FLOYD’S PHOTO ALBUM / TROUSERS
MOHSIN HAMID / PASTA / ANDREW O’HAGAN IS A LOVER NOT A FIGHTER / SAM KNIGHT SEES THE FUTURE / WATCHES / EZR A FURMAN’S EPIC ALBUM
BRIT VODK A / DYL AN JONES WRITES THE BO OK / LEOPARD PRINT / BENJAMIN MARKOVITS TAKES A DUNK / FICTION BY CJ HAUSER / BOARD GAMES
AUTUMN 2022
26 CONTENTS ESQUIRE
Autumn 2022
Bulletin
043 The Pixar-perfect islands of the Maldives 061 Pool resources: Armani’s breezy holiday must-haves
048 Pasta master: in the kitchen with Robert Chambers 062 The author Mohsin Hamid, interviewed
051 Can Brit brand Futsol kickstart a new era in football? 065 Why leopard print is king of the catwalk
053 Cutting edge: the Swiss Army Knife at 125 years 067 Ezra Furman on her new fiery new album
055 Tod’s gives cold weather the boot 071 At the double: the rise of great British vodka
056 Inside the game-changing BMW i7 saloon 073 Our watch of the season, Tudor’s Black Bay Pro
Bianca Baker
051
28 CONTENTS ESQUIRE
Autumn 2022
Journal
075 The Last Dunk by Benjamin Markovits
076 Always Crashing in a Different Car by Alex Bilmes
078 Shitebag by Andrew O’Hagan
080 My One True Premonition by Sam Knight
081 Tunesmith by Dylan Jones
Features
084 Sound and vision by Chris Floyd
108
098 The Esquire autumn culture forecast
108 Mr Smith goes to Westeros by Tom Lamont
Fashion
118 Office appropriate: menswear, tailored for 2022
Fiction
142 Imitation by CJ Hauser
Boo George | Chris Floyd
084
30 CONTENTS ESQUIRE
Autumn 2022
Market 150 Loafters, watches, board games and more On the covers
Backstage 162 Behind the scenes of our cover shoot
Matt Smith
wears: grey wool Prince of Wales checked jacket,
£3,100; green striped silk shirt, £1,200;
grey/camel cotton-wool-fleece joggers, £1,150,
all by Dior. White cotton vest, stylist’s own
Photograph by Boo George
Subscribers’
Matt Smith
wears: navy wool jacket, £1,600; white cotton-twill shirt,
£290; navy/white spotted silk tie, £135; navy wool trousers,
£790, all by Giorgio Armani. Black leather loafers, £850, by
Church’s. White cotton socks, £19.50, by Pantherella
Photograph by Boo George
150
Esquire subscriptions
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Call +44 844 322 1762 and quote reference 1EQ11922 twitter.com/esquireuk @ukesquire
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Workflow Director Editorial Business Director
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Talent
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Editorial Production
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Pictures
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36 AUTUMN 2022 ESQUIRE
Contributors
LUC BRAQUET’S CATHERINE HAYWARD
pictures have appeared in Vogue, ELLE and Kinfolk. is the former fashion director of Esquire and
He has shot advertising campaigns for Graff diamonds, a contributor to The Sunday Times. She has styled
MAC cosmetics and Maurice Lacroix watches. campaigns for Dunhill, Thomas Pink and Nike.
‘OFFICE APPROPRIATE’, PAGE 118 ‘MR SMITH GOES TO WESTEROS’, PAGE 108
CJ HAUSER
is a novelist and teacher of creative writing.
Her collection of essays, The Crane Wife,
is out now.
‘IMITATION’, PAGE 142
CHRIS FLOYD’S DAVID NOLAN
photographs have appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair is a stylist whose work has appeared in L’Uomo Vogue,
and The New Yorker. His retrospective, Not Just Pictures, WILL HERSEY L’Officiel Hommes and Vanity Fair. His clients have
will be published in October. is a writer and editor, and Esquire’s included Anderson & Sheppard, Breitling and Adidas.
motoring correspondent.
‘SOUND AND VISION’, PAGE 84 ‘OFFICE APPROPRIATE’, PAGE 118
‘INSIDE OUT’, PAGE 56
TOM LAMONT
is a freelance writer for The Guardian
and The Observer.
‘MR SMITH GOES TO WESTEROS’, PAGE 108
BOO GEORGE BENJAMIN MARKOVITS’
is a fashion and portrait photographer. His work has DAN MCALISTER novel You Don’t Have to Live Like This won the
appeared in Numero, LOVE and Harper’s Bazaar. His photographs Esquire’s Market pages, among James Tate Black Prize for Fiction. His latest book,
clients have included Chanel, Hermès and Loro Piana. many other things. The Sidekick, is out now.
‘MR SMITH GOES TO WESTEROS’, PAGE 108 ‘MARKET’, PAGE 150 ‘THE LAST DUNK’, PAGE 75
ANDREW O’HAGAN
is editor-at-large of the London Review of
Books and the award-winning author, most
recently, of Mayflies.
‘SHITEBAG’, PAGE 78
SAM KNIGHT DYLAN JONES
is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and the author DAMON SHEELEY’S is the author of many books on music and pop culture.
of The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of SheeleyCo Creative makes prints, stickers, His next one, Faster Than a Cannonball: 1995 and
Death Foretold. T-shirts and more. All That, will be published in October.
‘MY ONE TRUE PREMONITION’, PAGE 80 ‘THE ESQUIRE AUTUMN CULTURE FORECAST’, PAGE 98 ‘TUNESMITH’, PAGE 81
ESQUIRE EDITOR’S LETTER 39
Let’s go For all the endless column inches frittered away
like spare change on the supposed death of the
to work suit. (It’ll never happen!) For all the fulminating
over dress-down Fridays. Smart-casual. (No,
I don’t know what it means, either.) Streetstyle.
And for all those WFH days when you’ve slipped
BEFORE YOU BARGE YOUR WAY INTO THIS ISSUE OF your Zoom shirt over your pyjamas, traditional
Esquire with all the delicacy of a finance bro on menswear remains central to men’s style and
a bonus-week Negroni binge, turn the magazine the male self-image. Even the most committed
face-down to the outside back cover and check hypebeast will concede, when he looks around
out the power shoulder on that Prada coat. Hard from beneath the peak of his limited-edition dad
to ignore that guy on the way in to work. hat, that most of his fellow men — certainly those
All done? Good. Now turn to page 10 and over 30 — look best in smart suit, collared shirt
get a load of the mile-wide lapels on that gold and serious shoes.
overcoat from Dolce & Gabbana. Then, feast That’s not a call for a return to buttoned-up
your magpie eyes on our cover star, Matt Smith, masculinity, strict gender roles and prissy for-
in Giorgio Armani whistle, crisp white shirt and mality. Uniforms are not for everyone. Rules are
tie, on the opening spread of his interview. boring. People should wear whatever they want.
Now take a stroll through our office-appropriate Experimentation is encouraged. Flamboyance is
fashion shoot, spotlighting the best of the fabulous. And just as there are people, of every
autumn/winter collections, and place your orders gender, who look fabulous in tailoring, so there
for the sharpest suits on the market. are people, again of every conceivable persua-
For all the talk of post-gender fashion. Of sion, who can look incredible in a ball gown, or
non-binary style. Of an end to the distinction tracksuit bottoms and a crop top.
Alex Bilmes
between men’s and women’s clothes. For all the But most of us men look our best in some-
hoo-ha over the softening of the male silhouette. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF thing a little more conventional. The messages →
40 EDITOR’S LETTER ESQUIRE
comfortable, but stylish, and flattering, too.
If nothing else, as your boss and mine will no
doubt concur, it’s about time.
Style is a central focus of this issue, but there’s
much more besides. We know Matt Smith’s is
a compelling presence on screen. In Tom Lamont’s
profile, Smith emerges as more than the sum of
his high-profile parts: a thoughtful, questing soul,
captured here on the cusp of 40, and at the
beginning of what will surely be one of the defin-
ing moments of his glittering career. Smith, who
made his name on TV as the lead in Doctor Who,
and then as Prince Philip in The Crown, is the
star of what will certainly be one of the most
widely consumed and forensically analysed pro-
ductions of the new cultural season. House of the
Dragon is HBO’s prequel to the phenomenal
Game of Thrones. As far as I’m aware, none of its
characters wears a business suit. But you can’t
have everything.
For books, theatre, music, TV and more, the
autumn months are the busiest. This year is even
more frantic than usual. As the arts re-emerge
from the pandemic, blinking in the stage lights,
the rest of us are confronted by an entertain-
ment deluge. It’s a situation both exciting and
potentially overwhelming. Have no fear: Esquire’s
Culture Forecast offers a series of (semi-)educated
guesses about what might, and might not, be worth
checking out as the evenings draw in.
As ever, our Journal section features essays
from an A-team of Esquire writers. In this issue:
Andrew O’Hagan, Benjamin Markovits, Sam
Knight and Dylan Jones. We have interviews
Above: Esquire spotlights Chris Floyd’s photographs of great British musicians on p84;
new iterations of a classic look this autumn on p118 with the novelist Mohsin Hamid and musician
Ezra Furman, plus food and travel and watches
and booze and cars. All the crucial stuff.
And, finally, a sneak preview of photographer
from the catwalks and showrooms of Milan and pioneered by the London dandies of the 18th Chris Floyd’s Not Just Pictures. Floyd’s book is
Paris are consistent with that idea. Not that there century remains: relatively sober tailored jacket, wide-ranging in its subjects, reflecting its author’s
aren’t plenty of tracksuits and trainers on offer complementary trousers, buttoned shirt, neck- versatility. We decided to focus on his photos
— and nothing wrong with that. Not that there wear. It’s lasted so long because it looks so good. of British musicians. Here you will find both
aren’t far more outré outfits available, too. But By both default and design, there is a distinct sportswear (Oasis, Arctic Monkeys) and tailor-
tailoring continues to dominate the collections back-to-work aesthetic to the fashion images in ing (Pauls Weller and McCartney) as well as
from the major designers, and it remains the this issue. Think of this as a celebration, per- points in between (David Bowie, Massive
word on style-watchers’ lips this autumn. haps, of at least one aspect of the stuttering return Attack). Proof that, when worn with conviction,
Granted, some of the outfits are less traditional to the office, after two years of hiding under our pretty much anything can look good.
than others — we’re not talking stiff collars and hoodies: the opportunity to get dressed up again, Not being an international style icon myself
bowler hats — but the essential DNA of the look to make an effort, to wear something not just (did you guess?), I’ll be mostly wearing a suit. ○
BULLETIN
PEOPLE TO WATCH, PLACES TO BE, PRODUCTS TO BUY
Snorkelling near Milaidhoo
Island, the Maldives
Double bubble
Why visit one tropical island paradise when you can take in two?
By Alex Bilmes
44
It has become a commonplace of travel journal-
ism to frame the experience of visiting an
extremely beautiful place through the prism of
Pixar, the American quality-content supplier that
renders every scene in its fabulous movies pixel
perfect. Every city is pathologically well-ordered,
every landscape is gentle and verdant, every sky
is blue, every smile is dazzling. Pixar makes the
world anew. It looks a bit like the one we live
in, but cleaner, shinier… better.
The Cotswolds, according to this rubric, are
the English countryside as if CGId by Pixar.
Notting Hill is London with the Pixar filter on.
The West Village is New York, Pixar-fied. I have
friends, lucky people, who have a splendid house
in a tiny village in rural Provence, and every
other person who visits them there remarks on
the Pixary vibes. It’s the way the light falls softly
on the sleepy town square, the way the lavender
sways lazily in the gentle summer breeze, the
way tanned and toned Lycra-clad cyclists whizz
past you like smug bullets on their pell-mell
descents from the dinky nearby mini-mountains.
It’s the South of France as it only really exists
in the movies. (I once went for a frigid February
half-term. It wasn’t very Pixary then.)
So the Pixar thing has become a cliché, and
lost some of its gloss. If I struggle now, as I strug-
gled when I was there this past spring, to avoid
comparing the Maldives to an island paradise
as conceived on a computer in the California
campus of a certain Disney-owned, blockbuster-
generating animation studio, at least I can say, in
mitigation, that it’s not as if I wasn’t provoked.
The rinsed-out simile swam in to view
as I embarked on the Finding Nemo snorkelling
expedition at the Milaidhoo Maldives resort.
With masks, snorkels and flippers on, the
kids, their mother and I followed a wet-suited
marine biologist through the island’s teem-
ing, kaleidoscopic coral reef in search of the
stripy little suckers made famous by the film of
that name. Taking the Finding Nemo tour
at Milaidhoo really is like being in the movie
Finding Nemo. If Pixar did beach holidays, they’d
look something like this.
There is nothing commonplace, to me, about
a Tuesday morning in which I waddle, with
penguin-like grace, across my own private beach,
and plunge — or perhaps sink, with a gurgle —
into the warm, turquoise waters of the Indian
Ocean, where I’m immediately surrounded by
shoals of dazzling tropical fish. The Maldives is
a blissed-out archipelago, southwest of India, a
chain of mostly tiny atolls, green palms lolling
over white sandy beaches, that has become, not
Clockwise, from left: Baros was one of the first luxury resorts in the
Maldives and has welcomed guests since 1973; water sports available at
Baros include kayaking; the Baros Suites have a secluded feel, away from
main facilities; the Lime restaurant at Baros is situated by the Lagoon
without good reason, shorthand for fantasy- are worth the price of the flights: pale lemon five-star beach-resort holidays. (There’s a sec-
holiday-of-a-lifetime destination. The many, many shading into orange crush, then pink grapefruit, ond series on the way, set in Sicily.) Sad to report
luxury resorts, most occupying their own islands, then deep aubergine; then night, and torches there were no meltdowns from management
are beloved of honeymooners, vows-renewers are lit on the beach, the band strikes up and the or guests in either of the resorts we visited, at
and wealthy families in search of sun, sea, spa buffet barbecue begins. least not any that I witnessed. But it was fun to
treatments and complimentary sarongs, all of Finding Nemo wasn’t the only Hollywood prod- imagine that the potential was always there, sim-
which we found without any effort at all. You fly uct that glided to mind during our time there. mering beneath the surface: trouble in paradise.
to the capital, Malé, and from there it’s a short The White Lotus, Mike White’s mischievous The pleasure of going on holiday has been
boat ride or propeller flight to your chosen pandemic hit, about pampered tourists and made all the keener by the fact that recreational
upscale-resort brand. The natural beauty of the hectored hotel staff at a Hawaii resort, will travel was largely suspended for two years. It
place, seen from the sky, the beach, the bar and now and possibly forever define and dominate, may not be healthy, as The White Lotus reminds
underwater, is awe-inspiring. The sunsets alone for those who have seen it, the experience of us, to exist in a bubble of outrageous privilege →
46 Bulletin
all your life. But it sure as shizzle feels good to
enter one for a week or two. In the real world…
well, you know as well as I do what’s been going
on in the real world. One must not turn away
from such things. But hiding out for a week far,
far away from the horrors of the 21st century, in
a timeless heaven on earth with really good wine
lists, is a balm and a tonic and by no means some-
thing to be sniffed at.
Understandably, no doubt, most visitors to
the Maldives pick the one place and stay put.
Your correspondent is more adventurous, and
greedier, than that. We started at Baros, one of
the first resorts to open the Maldives to luxury
tourism in the 1970s. It retains some of that
pioneering charm, which is not always evident
at more modern developments. Milaidhoo,
our second stop, has it, though, in spades. Both
offer extraordinary accommodations, first-rate
catering, top-notch activities and friendly and From top: an aerial view of Milaidhoo Island; dine by the sea at the Shoreline Grill Restaurant on Milaidhoo
efficient service.
What did we do? We fished by twilight and
ate our catch as sushi. We swam with rays. We
saw dolphins and turtles. We marvelled at coral.
We practised sunrise yoga. (Well, I didn’t but
others did, and I was kind enough not to inter-
rupt them.) We ate like pachas at restaurants
offering food almost as diverse as the aquatic
wildlife. We frolicked in the surf, and lounged
poolside in our private villas. We flew on
a seaplane — exciting! — and bounced over the
slapping waves in a speedboat. We were mas-
saged at the Serenity Spa. When it all felt like
too much, I took to my hammock with my dog-
eared Denis Johnson and snoozed, or shuffled
over hot sand to one of the numerous bars
for a frosted glass of lager, a bowl of nuts and a
chat with a fellow guest: Austrian industrialist,
Lancastrian construction magnate, Aussie
fintech investor…
We checked our emails only occasionally —
but social media was consumed, and I confess YouTube. Danielle, their mum, soaked up Baros Maldives is situated in the central southern
I took a perverse pleasure in shopping online the sun, swooned through the latest Knausgård part of North Malé Atoll, 25 minutes by speedboat
for unnecessary fashion items, in the knowledge and dropped another ice cube into her Sauvignon from Malé International Airport. Rates at Baros
that the little cardboard boxes would be waiting Blanc. In other words, we all did exactly Maldives start from around £464 per night in
for me in the bin shed outside the family manse what we enjoy doing most and to hell with a Deluxe Villa on a B&B basis, excluding taxes. For
when we got home. (You can take the boy out everything else. more information, visit baros.com
of lockdown, but you can’t take lockdown But, oh! Sorry to leave you on the edge of Milaidhoo Maldives can be easily reached
out of the boy.) your sunlounger there: Yes, we did find Nemo. via a 30-minute seaplane from the international
When he wasn’t practising his dives, Oscar, We found loads of Nemos. Or, as Oscar, con- airport in Malé or a 15-minute domestic flight
aged nine, played Pokémon Legends: Arceus on his sulting his guide to the local fauna and flora, to Dharavandhoo domestic airport in Baa
Nintendo Switch. When she wasn’t paddleboard- corrected me: we found Ocellaris clownfish — Atoll, followed by a 15-minute speedboat to
ing, or coral planting, or shark-spotting (white- bright orange with white stripes outlined in Milaidhoo Island. Rates start from about £1,235
tipped reefs that you could have reached out black. Surprisingly small, and certainly not the per night in a Water Pool Villa on a half-board
and touched, if they weren’t so speedy), 12-year- most spectacular of all the many fishes we saw. basis, based on two sharing. For more information,
old Penelope watched nail-polish tutorials on Cute, though. ○ visit milaidhoo.com
48
Find someone in your life who talks about you ingredients in ways that are inventive and sur-
the way Robert Chambers talks about agnolotti. prising but also rigorous and refined. There are
“There’s a special technique to getting them the primi, yes, which might include tagliarini of
right,” says the 39-year-old chef, who heads up A taste Cornish lobster with tarragon, chilli and garlic;
Luca in Clerkenwell, London, of the Piedmontese but also the antipasti, like roast Orkney scallops
pasta variety. “They’re the most perfect shape, with spicy chickpea and ’nduja; the secondi, such
like a cushion. They hold the sauce beautifully. as Hereford beef fillet with friggitello peppers
When you eat them, they’re just lovely. The of Britaly and Parmesan; and don’t even get us started on
shape, the mouthfeel… To be honest, any ravi- the dolci (cherry Bakewell tart with pistachio
oli or tortellini or agnolotti I can fill with maxi- gelato, anyone?).
mum flavour, I just love that.” Chambers, who has been head chef at Luca
Whatever qualms Esquire had about asking In Clerkenwell, since it opened five years ago, is something of
a grown man to name his favourite pasta shape a Britalian himself, having been brought up by
were quickly allayed talking to Chambers, for a pasta master his Italian grandparents in Luton from the age
whom pasta — and Italian food in general — is of six. His own interest in restaurants began while
a serious business. Luca is the second fine- works his magic helping out at his uncle Michele’s trattoria (not
dining restaurant from the founders of the a proper uncle, he explains, but a family friend
Michelin-starred The Clove Club, and has gained By Miranda Collinge who, like his nonna and nonno, moved to the Anton Rodriguez
a reputation for Chambers’ “Britalian” menus, UK from Corleto Monforte, a town in Campania
combining Italian and British techniques and where his extended family still has a farm).
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