British GQ - March 2022

ESTATE OF THE YEAR: GQ World
PORSCHE TAYCAN 4S CROSS TURISMO Car Awards

When S Two years ago, we gave Porsche’s first production
EV, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S, a GQ Car Award.
Two years later and we are giving it another
one. Why? Because, well, look at it. Compared
to the Turbo S, the Cross Turismo is taller, more
versatile, a little more practical and has a little
more headroom. In other words, this is a grown-up,
totally usable EV that instantly bestows a level
of cool that no other family car comes close to.
You can even opt for the off-road design package
that offers a Gravel mode for when you run out
of tarmac. It’s definitely not an SUV though, so
keep your chill. We’ve called it our “Estate Of The
Year”, but you might prefer “Shooting Brake”,
“Hatchback”, “Cross-Over”, or even “Grand Tourer”.
To be honest, we don’t really care. This is a dad-bod
Porsche, if that dad happens to be Brad Pitt.

£88,270. porsche.co.uk

e nsible Gets Sexy

MARCH 2022 GQ 97

GQ World
Car Awards

98 GQ MARCH 2022

A New Br eed of Rockstar

EV RESTORATION OF THE YEAR:
LUNAZ ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM V
The Phantom V was once described as the best
car in the world. John Lennon had one. So did Elvis
Presley. And Elton John’s was pink. But no member
of the rockstar royal family ever had a Rolls-Royce
like this. This Phantom V was created by Lunaz
Design, who have employed the best of British
engineering and design to reimagine and rebuild
automotive classics as EVs. So far, the company
has created an e-powered Aston Martin DB6, re-
booted a Jaguar XK120, converted a classic Mark
I Range Rover, and even given an original Bentley
Flying Spur a new lease of electric life. However,
it is their immaculate work on our award-winning
1961 Phantom V that is truly jaw-dropping. As well
as an electric powertrain and updated brakes,
steering and suspension, it comes with a fully
and sensitively restored interior complete with
sat-nav, air-con, infotainment and drinks cabinet.
No wonder then that last year David Beckham
joined the Lunaz electric bandwagon and became
an investor.
From £500,000. lunaz.design

MARCH 2022 GQ 99

An Off-R OFF-ROADER OF THE YEAR: AVA LAND ROVER CROXFORD DEFENDER
“The world is changing and it has set us a challenge. We chose to accept it and become
part of the solution.” So says Cool Planet CEO Norman Crowley, who in recent years has
turned his attention to the intersection of entrepreneurship and tackling climate change.
In the case of Studio AVA, that means electrifying specialist vehicles. Having already re-
engineered a Fiat 500 for Dev Patel and an old VW Camper for Ellie Goulding’s wedding,
their latest offering is an updated and re-imagined Land Rover Defender that was created
for Stuart Croxford. A former Captain of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, Croxford has
taken part in Ironman triathlons and endurance challenges to raise money for injured
veterans, despite suffering life-changing injuries in Afghanistan in 2012. This eDefender
110 – created in his honour – will accompany him as his support vehicle when he rides from
Land’s End to John O’Groats in May. Aside from being perfectly boxy, it has a range of 200
miles, fully charges in three hours and leaps from 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds. After the event,
a percentage of the sale of the Croxford Land Rover will be donated to the Blesma charity
(visit blesma.org for more information).
studioava.com

o ader with Soul

100 GQ MARCH 2022

The Ferrari GQ World
Car Awards

Slayer Reborn

RACING LEGEND OF THE YEAR: EVERRATI SUPERFORMANCE GT40 (MKII)
If you’ve seen Le Mans ’66 you already know the story of how the Ford Motor Company, having been rebuffed by wily
old Enzo in its attempt to buy the most famous racing team in motorsport, decided to build a car that could dominate
the legendary 24-hour race and, more importantly, “kick Ferrari’s ass”. Carroll Shelby was recruited to rescue Ford’s
struggling GT racing programme and the end result was the era-defining GT40. Now, another collaboration – this time
between US car continuation company Superformance and UK EV powertrain conversion specialists Everrati – has
sensationally and, more importantly, authentically (this is a legitimately registered, fully-licenced GT40) rebuilt a
replica of the car that finished first, second and third at Le Mans. And it is powered by electricity. Grouchy petrol
purists might not approve, but this 21st-century machine represents the future as much as the past. “It’s still fun, it’s
still engaging, and it still looks the nuts,” says Everrati CEO Justin Lunny. And with a sub-four-second 0-60 time and
producing 800bhp, we reckon even Carroll Shelby would approve. (Enzo? Eh.)
POA. everrati.com

MARCH 2022 GQ 101

Space- Age Decadence

LUXURY CAR OF THE YEAR: MERCEDES EQS
With the EQS, Mercedes hasn’t just set the bar for technological opulence, it has launched the bar
into space and it is now heading to Mars (probably with Timothée Chalamet at the wheel). Built and
developed by engineers, chemists, designers, scientists and digital programmers (and probably
witches), Mercedes has taken the S-Class concept and given it an MCU makeover. Honestly, there is
so much going on here that just listing the innovations would be overwhelming, let alone explaining
them all. The astonishing 55-inch curved 3D OLED Hyperscreen alone is worthy of an award in its own
right (even if it does cost nearly as much from the options list as a new Dacia Sandero). “The whole
principle is one of seamless design,” Mercedes chief design officer Gorden Wagener tells GQ. “People
ask about our dream cars and super sports cars, but this might actually be the most dream car we
make.” If this is what the future of e-luxury looks, feels and drives like, we’re in.
From £100,000. mercedes-benz.co.uk

102 GQ MARCH 2022

Fastback t GQ World
Car Awards

ICON OF THE YEAR: ELECTRIC MUSTANG BY CHARGE CARS
First things first – this isn’t simply a 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback with an EV power unit.
It’s considerably more than that. What London-based car builders Charge Automotive
are doing from their London base is redefining the original design classic using cutting-
edge technology and advanced composite materials. By working with engineers from the
likes of McLaren Automotive, Jaguar Land Rover and a couple of F1 teams, the end result
is a hand-built, stupidly modern version of a true American icon that, whisper it, will
be better than Ford ever imagined. Using four electric motors to drive the wheels and a
brand-new steel body shell, this is the best-engineered Fastback ever made.
From £300,000. charge.cars

o the Future

MARCH 2022 GQ 103

An All-Rounder that Compromises Nothing

SALOON OF THE YEAR: BMW I4
If you are an EV sceptic still waiting to plug in, this is the car that will do it. The BMW i4 does exactly what Beemers
have done since forever – finding the automotive sweet spot between sleek-and-sporty styling, aspirational-yet-
understated desirability, and head-spinning, pulse-quickening performance. The only difference? You plug this
one in and help save the planet in the process. Not all zero-emission cars have to shout, “Look at me… I’m all-
electric and kinda futuristic,” y’know. Sometimes getting an EV built for the times is all you need. “As a company,
we are trying not just to be at the forefront of technology, but also at the forefront of design,” says BMW’s design
director, Adrian van Hooydonk. “And we will never, ever sacrifice the driving element.”
£51,905. bmw.co.uk

104 GQ MARCH 2022

The New GQ World
Car Awards

Italo-Cool

CITY CAR OF THE YEAR: FIAT 500E
Of all the retro-styled remakes on the road today, the Cinquecento is
undoubtedly the best. A romantic and reliable re-interpretation of the city car
that first symbolised la dolce vita on four wheels back in 1957, the current 500
ticks every “C” box you can think of: cute, chic, cheap, charming, clever, cool –
you get the idea. Fiat have unashamedly rinsed the franchise to stone-washed
extremes with more special editions and off-shoots than we care to recall,
but the 500e is the version that has made us fall in love again. This Turin-built
third-gen Cinquecento model is all-new (from the body and the chassis, to the
platform and the powertrain) and only comes in one flavour: electric. The top
spec will give you nearly 200 miles of range, and if there is more fun to be had
zipping around town we certainly haven’t found it. This new-school take on a
classic is total sprezzatura.
£19,995. fiat.co.uk

MARCH 2022 GQ 105

COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR: A Luxe Rebel for the Gr e
VIRGIL ABLOH X MERCEDES-BENZ
PROJECT MAYBACH

O CALL VIRGIL ABLOH, The late great Virgil Abloh was the king of
collaborations. His automotive visions – like this
T the late artistic director intrepid Maybach – were as radical as his runway
of Louis Vuitton mens- collections. B y TEO VAN DEN BRO EKE
wear and founder of cult
label Off-White, a “fash- at Outdoors
ion designer” would be like calling a
Formula One racing car a “weekend was radical. An all-electric show could look like,” explains Wagener, who
run-around”. A continent-hopping, car, the two-seater take on one of again partnered with Abloh on the
idea-churning, life-grabbing poly- Mercedes-Maybach’s ultra-luxe coupés project. “For example, under the hood
math in the truest sense of the word, was designed with off-roading firmly you will find solar cells, increasing the
when the world lost Abloh to a rare in mind: a big, bold urban statement imagined range of the showcar.”
form of heart cancer in late 2021, recontextualised for the outdoors.
we lost one of our most uninhibited Wagener hits on some of the
creative visionaries. “As Project Maybach is a show car, extraordinary details of the car: its
Yes, much of Abloh’s finest work we had complete creative freedom, limo-like six-metre length, its eight
could be found on runways in Paris allowing us to collaboratively concep- spotlights, its super chunky off-
and beyond, but the Rockford, Illinois- tualise what the future of electric travel road wheels. “We crafted everything
born designer – who originally trained
as an architect and cut his artistic teeth
working for his friend Kanye West –
was not afraid to dip a toe into other
creative dreampools. He dabbled in
watch design, customising rare Patek
Philippes for his pals – Drake was
one. He collaborated with Ikea on a
homeware collection that collided
democratic design with mass com-
merce. And more recently, he turned
his hand to car design, teaming up
with Mercedes-Benz on a string of
high-concept projects.
The first of these came in September
2020 when Abloh reimagined the
G-Class SUV (a.k.a the G-Wagon) as
a supercharged, super-playful rac-
ing car – jumbo red start button and
all. Dubbed “Project Gelandewägen”
Abloh worked alongside MB’s chief
design officer Gorden Wagener to
create a one-off maquette of the car,
donating all proceeds (some £131,500)
to the Virgil Abloh™ “Post-Modern”
Scholarship Fund, which was estab-
lished by the designer to support
fashion students of Black, African
American, or African descent.
Then, three days after Abloh’s death
last November, Mercedes unveiled
Project Maybach. If the G-Wagon was
adrenaline-laced fun, this Maybach

106 GQ MARCH 2022

with the outdoors in mind,” he says. GQ World
As much as this award is a celebra-
Car Awards
tion of a wild and wonderful concept
car, it is also a recognition of Abloh’s all its yacht-like proportions, is a
uncommon approach to collabora- hulking great case in point.
tion. Where some fashion design-
ers of Abloh’s level sit high in towers “Virgil’s humility, generosity and
of ivory, uninterested in working intelligence shines through in all of
with other creators for fear of dimin- his work,” says Acyde Odunlami, one
ishing their dominion, Abloh bucked of Abloh’s regular collaborators and
the trend. He poured disparate creative founder of the creative incubator No
energy and ideas into the cauldron Vacancy Inn. “He was way more dis-
of his brain, then transformed ciplined and rigorous than you would
those shared dreams into bright, assume, there was always a clear goal
bold realities. Project Maybach, in and a set outcome in mind – it could be
putting together a collection, a party
or a new way of looking at a sneaker,
car or piece of clothing. He treated all
these things equally and he was always
generous because he would let you
explore. He would riff back and forth
via WhatsApp, adding members of his
vast team where appropriate until it
felt like a new idea had arrived almost
effortlessly,” Odunlami continues. “He
was a magician who wasn't scared to
show you how the trick works.”

Abloh may have gone, but his legacy
lives on in the many foundations he
established, the innumerable emerg-
ing artists to whom he gave a much
needed leg up, the countless critically
acclaimed collections he produced, and
of course, in the fantastical objects he
helped design.

Left and right:
Project Maybach
– a collaboration
between Virgil Abloh

and Mercedes-
Benz. Below: The

Gelandewägen,
Abloh’s take on

the G-Wagon.

“I’m incredibly proud at the work
we created across both brands,
which have completely different cre-
ative approaches and outcomes,”
says Wagener. “Virgil brought in
interesting new perspectives and a
‘question everything’ approach. He
was always challenging what we see
as typical luxury design, striving to
inspire the next generation. It was
fascinating seeing our designs develop
throughout the whole process… It was
a unique collaboration.”

And with Virgil Abloh, a collabora-
tion could be nothing less.

MARCH 2022 GQ 107

A T E R I M A C S T A R T E D his to make a device that could control Below: Inventor Nikola Tesla, of course, who was from
your phone, keyboard, mouse etc. of the Rimac Croatia. He invented the electric
M business from his par- This was before everyone became Nevera hypercar, motor and I felt that made more
ents’ garage, by himself, obsessed with connectivity and Mate Rimac sits sense to power a car than a internal
in a country with no linking electronics, and I made a at the wheel of combustion engine.
automotive history, and glove that could do all that. My his creation.
very little money to his name. All he professor thought it was interesting, Did you have a vision for the
did have was a wild idea – to convert and wanted me to go to competitions. company right then?
the broken-down, rusty BMW whose I won a local one, then a national Absolutely. From day one, I wanted to
engine he had just blown in a drift prize and then they sent me all over make a business out of it. Back then,
race, into a battery-powered car – and a the world to represent Croatia. That very few people saw electricity as the
dogged belief that electrifying vehicles experience gave me self-confidence, it future, but I had a feeling about it.
would be the future of motoring. showed me how to be competitive – My original concept was converting
Fifteen years, three prototypes, and win – against Germans, French, combustion engine cars to electric,
several visits to the brink of bank- the Japanese, whoever. And best of but I soon realised that was bad
ruptcy, multiple engineering con- all, I learned how to pitch ideas. business. A combustion engine car is
tracts with the world’s biggest car a terrible package to make an electric
companies, one televised celebrity How did you start developing EVs? car – you have space where you don’t
crash, and the creation of the most When my BMW broke down I need it, so then you have to take
technologically advanced hypercar decided to combine my love of space where it isn’t practical. The
later, and Rimac has almost com- electronics and my obsession only way to do it well is to build an
pleted what he describes as “the first with cars. And I was inspired by electric car from the ground up.
chapter” of his vision for his company
(it will culminate in the opening of a PIONEER
€200m HQ in Croatia later this year). OF THE
The founder of Rimac Automobili, the YEAR:
CEO of Bugatti Rimac, and the man MATE
described as Europe’s Elon Musk is, it’s RIMAC
worth noting, still only 34 years old.
“When we started, I was a baby- The Supe r
faced kid from Croatia with some mad
ideas,” says Rimac. “But we built our
reputation by always delivering. Job
after job, project after project. Then
all of a sudden, after 12 years of work,
you’ve made a name for yourself, the
industry respects you, and you even
win a GQ award… That feels good.”

You grew up in one of the poorest
parts of Bosnia – where did your
obsession with cars come from?
My parents tell me I was just born
with it because where I came from
there were no cars – and not even
many roads. Trying to rationalise it
now, I think it’s because cars are a
combination of all human disciplines.
They have to be beautiful, efficient,
fast, safe, and so on. That means
combining design, science,
electronics, aerodynamics...
Everything we know comes together
in that product. I find it fascinating.

When you were a child, did you have conductor
a favourite car on your bedroom wall?
I was always a big BMW fan and my
favourite car was always the boxy
BMW 3-Series from the 1980s. When
I was 18 I bought an old one because I
wanted to start racing. Unfortunately,
the combustion engine blew up after
basically the second race so I decided
to convert it into an electric car. And
that’s how this whole thing started.

As a student your background was As a kid, Mate Rimac fitted an electric motor in his
in electronics. Can you tell me about beat-up BMW. Now, his company is building some of the
the Rimac ‘glove’? buzziest EVs in the world – and the Croat says he’s just
It was 2005 and for my final exam I getting started. B y PAUL HENDERS O N
had to build something. I had an idea

108 GQ MARCH 2022 PHOTOGRAPHS BY KELSEY MCCLELLAN

Was it difficult to convince people of always believed in what we were impression when I finally do, and my GQ World
your ideas? doing. Also I wanted to do it in company is not there yet. I want to Car Awards
At first it was. I was a 22-year-old Croatia – to do something patriotic. close chapter one. And then Elon can
from a country with no automotive I am building a company that will come and I’ll show him the company.
history working with a few friends, still be going in 100 years. This isn’t
building a car powered by electricity. Silicon Valley where it’s just about When does chapter one close?
But slowly, we started convincing fundraising, getting the big valuation Probably when the new campus is
people and we just did whatever it and then you take the money and finished next year. It’s going to cost
took to survive – small jobs, run. This company carries my name, €200m and will be our new base. It
impossible projects with unfeasible I want to do it long term. But to get will be all about the employees – if
timelines. But we delivered and over where we are, you have no idea how you are surrounded by a beautiful
time the projects got bigger and better. many near-death experiences we had. environment that reduces stress, that
will inspire you. An important part
What made you stick with it? Surely it Talking of near-death experiences, of my vision from the beginning was
would have been easier to have gone how do you look back on the moment
to work for a manufacturer? Richard Hammond crashed your “I am building a company
That’s true. For months, I would wake Concept One car on The Grand Tour? that will still be going in 100
up and wonder if the company would With hindsight, you can say it was a years. This company carries
exist the next day. But, you know, I positive thing in terms of PR, but my name” —MATE RIMAC
was all-in from day one. I started a given the choice I would rather it
company, I never finished university, didn’t happen. It could have been
and I had nothing to lose. And I much worse. He flew off the track at
more than 200kmh. The car was
flying and and he rolled over God to be the best employer we can. The Above: The Rimac
knows how many times. Luckily, he rest of chapter one is producing the Nevera EV, with its
was OK. But it was a difficult time for Nevera on a larger scale, working on butterfly wings.
the company. We had 150 employees our partnership with Bugatti, and
depending on us, we had problems continuing to supply EV components
with an investor, and then the to companies all around the world.
customers that we had for our car
suddenly saw the crash, the batteries And chapter two?
on fire and started to panic. We had I learnt early on, if you say something
so little capital that we needed the and promise something early on, you
insurance money from the crash just might make headlines, but if you
to survive. Hammond had the crash, don’t deliver on time, people lose
but it was not easy for us on this side faith. I won’t make that mistake.
of the fence. There’s so much hot air in the
industry, and so many people
The Nevera hypercar is your pride announce stuff that never happens.
and joy, but do you get as much
satisfaction from the other side of Come on Mate… Give us a clue.
your business creating and supplying I will say this: hypercars are really
batteries and electrical components exciting, but we have so many
to manufactuers such as Porsche, interesting things to do in the long
Hyundai, Aston Martin etc? term. We are involved in things such
You know, it’s funny you ask because as new mobility and energy storage.
Enzo Ferrari was only making road Electric cars are the future, but the
cars to finance racing. With me, I just big issue I see is the future of car
wanted to make cars, but out of ownership. It is your second most
necessity to survive, I started doing expensive asset, and you’re using it
stuff for other car companies. But the for maybe two per cent of the time.
truth is because I am such a huge car Factor in pollution, the ineffective
freak, what I love about what we do is infrastructure of cities, three million
that we are part of the future. For me, deaths a year from accidents, the
seeing prototypes or new models model as it stands makes absolutely
unveiled at car shows was always no sense. Finding a solution for that
incredibly exciting. And now I am would be very interesting.
working with these manufacturers,
seeing what they are creating and
contributing to their development
with our technology. Having said
that, nothing is as cool as building
your own hypercar.

You’ve been called the European Elon
Musk. Do you dislike the comparison?
Not at all, I’m a big fan of Elon. I find
him inspirational. I think he is doing
the most interesting things in
humanity right now. I’ve never met
him – I want to make the right first

MARCH 2022 GQ 109

F T H E C L A S S I C car The die may have been cast when Below: Hyundai’s been replaced with what Opel calls the
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Grandeur – a “Pixel-Vizor”, a panel that stretches the
I world values anything, swept away from Windsor Castle in straight-edged full width of the car’s nose. The screen
it’s provenance. An early an electric Jaguar E-type. The majors luxury saloon has displays messages, some of which
Porsche 911 is a lusted-af- have all been dabbling. Take Opel’s had an electric include “My German heart has been
ter thing in its own right. Manta EV. Long considered the “peo- makeover. ELEKTRified”, “I am on a zero e-mis-
But one with Steve McQueen’s name ples’ Porsche”, it switches out the orig- sion” and “I am an ElektroMOD”. (It
on the logbook? A different story alto- inal’s 1.9-litre four-cylinder engine for also garnered more headlines for Opel
gether. A new wave of collectors have a 31kWh battery pack, promising a than anything else it’s done in years.)
begun fetishising what they call “barn range of around 120 miles. It keeps its
finds”: cars whose shonky condition four-speed gearbox, although actually That Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 is one of
actually enhances their value. Unloved, driving the thing is secondary to the the best EVs currently on sale hasn’t
perhaps, and covered in decades worth message Opel is hoping to transmit: stopped the South Korean mega-corps
of dust. But untouched, too. that it’s legitimately cool. from rifling through its back cata-
Now imagine removing the engine logue for electrified kicks. Witness the
and gearbox from a classic and replac- The Manta was also the inspira- Hyundai Grandeur and pretty Pony
ing it with an electric powertrain. For tion for Opel (and Vauxhall’s) new Concept EV, two cars that managed to
the old guard, it’s a sacrilegious act. visor “face” – best appreciated on the stoke an internet fervour far beyond
But for a future-focussed new set, it’s Mokka-e – which means that this is anything the cars they’re actually based
a way to bring a handsome old friend a pretty meta proposition: a 50-year- on could muster. The Grandeur is
into a post-combustion era – one where old vehicle remastered to look like 1980s Asia-Pacific car design in redux:
the very idea of burning fossil fuels the 2021 car that borrowed heavily despite never being sold in Europe,
to get around feels more and more from the car that’s now copying it. The an electric makeover for Hyundai’s
socially irresponsible. original’s headlamps and grille have straight-edged luxury saloon makes

Tesla Parts, Classic Hearts
A fresh generation of EV engineers are rebuilding
automotive works of art with modern power
units, bringing nostalgia (and good looks) into a
whole new era. B y JAS O N BARLOW

total sense. It joins the dots to the GQ World
company’s contemporary EVs with its Car Awards
parametric pixel grille, tail-lights and
clever hardware. Inside, there’s down- shoulder and think: ‘that’s beautiful’.
right sexy velour upholstery, a sin- Because they’re not just a means of
gle-spoke steering wheel and a modern transport,” Lunny says. “The team here
full-length touchscreen. The bronze really understands how to put the best
interior lighting is a throwback to an of the current technology into a car so
1980s hi-fi aesthetic; the result flirts that it feels as close as possible to the
with corniness yet somehow manages original in terms of feedback, while
to be deeply cool. Meanwhile, Nissan’s upgrading it so that it can cope with
Bluebird EV – dubbed “Newbird” – the available performance.”
transplants the electric innards of the
Nissan Leaf into another ’80s relic. The Everrati 964 uses a 53kWh bat-
tery pack with a Tesla-sourced e-motor
Elsewhere, the trend for elec- on the rear axle that’s good for 500bhp.
tro-mods has given rise to a number A single charge will get you around 150
of start-ups dedicated to performing miles – consider it an A-to-A car for
heart and lung surgery on old cars. occasional soul-stirring blasts, rather
Leading lights in this new zero-emis- than a daily driver. There’s electroni-
sions wonderland include California’s cally adjustable suspension, a limited
Zero Labs – whose Ford Bronco EV slip differential, and carbon fibre
conversion continues to evolve – body panels help peg the weight to an
Silverstone-based company Lunaz, impressively low 1350kg. On a 100kW
charger, you can juice up to 80 per cent
Swindon Powertrain, and RBW – who of the battery in under an hour. It’s a
effectively remanufacture the MGB. classic Porsche 911, just… different.
VW, meanwhile, has given its blessing
to Germany’s eClassics for an electric “Am I evangelical about it? I am now,
conversion of the classic Microbus, one yes. As long as we can ensure that the
whose 45kWh battery pack is backed cars are still fun to drive, and that we
up by major mods – including a new can drive them when we like, that’s a
multi-link front and rear suspension. win-win,” Lunny says. “When I drive a
car with a combustion engine, I really
This is important, as the CEO of do wonder how much longer it’ll go on.
Everrati, Justin Lunny, is keen to point Should I be even allowed to do it? It’s
out. A modern electric powertrain can an idea that’s really gathering momen-
deliver a heap of power and torque – tum now. We’re told that Generation
more than enough to overwhelm a car Z apparently doesn’t like cars. That’s
whose chassis and dynamics are rooted not my understanding of the situation.
in a less sophisticated age. Everrati’s They want classics or ‘iconic’ cars, I can
conversion of the type 964-era Porsche tell you they do. But they have to be
911 is art. Despite the fact that the car electric – or they’re not interested.”
now has almost double the power of
the original, the emphasis is on har-
monising the EV part of the equation
with the rest of the German icon.

“The cars have to be fun and engag-
ing. You’ve got to look back over your

Top: The Opel
Manta EV.
Above: The Porsche
911 (964) Everrati
EV. Right: The
retro-cool interior
of the Grandeur
EV from Hyundai
is an unabashed
’80s throwback.

MARCH 2022 GQ 111





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stunning beaches, aquamarine waters. And yet, at the beautiful Maxx Royal Kemer

all-inclusive resort, it’s even more heavenly

114 GQ MARCH 2022

GQ PARTNERSHIP

HEN IT COMES to resorts, Whether it’s off-road cycling tours of Top: architecture an in-house chocolatier, and a cute
the local countryside, or yoga, tennis and nature work gelato stand that turns out home-
W size matters. You want and kickboxing classes – they have in harmony at made ice cream. Maxx Royal Kemer’s
something small enough everything you need for an active trip. the resort. Above: Azure Court is an avenue of bustling
to feel intimate and easy staying in the Maxx atmospheric places to eat where you
to get about on foot, but large enough Of course, getting to do any of these Laguna Duplex can choose from the kind of incredible
to sustain your interest for your entire things is only possible if the kids villa is a once-in-a- fish dishes you’d expect from a coastal
holiday. The Maxx Royal Kemer, are entertained, and at Maxx Royal lifetime experience resort, Italian trattoria-style home
just along the coast from Antalya on Kemer they pull out all the stops with cooking and flavour-packed Anatolian
Turkey’s gorgeous Riviera, hits the a dedicated pool, a looping network cuisine. And there are three fine-
sweet spot: it’s the kind of all-inclu- of water slides and their epic fun pal- dining joints, each with their own dis-
sive resort that has enormous variety ace, Maxxiland, which has areas for tinct identity. The Bronze Steak House
– eight restaurants, 11 bars, six pools toddlers, little ones and teenagers. serves choice cuts on its handsome sea-
– without compromising on quality; Meanwhile, there’s the Aven Royal Spa, front terrace, and there’s a wonderfully
and it has a sense of scale and discov- an ultra-slick lair of Turkish baths and theatrical Teppanyaki grill at Azure
ery without losing the personal touch. massage rooms where you can choose Japon, which also turns out plate after
The resort sits on a handsome from an extensive menu of treatments, plate of super-fresh sashimi and outra-
headland just south of the pretty lit- including luxurious Rhassoul mud geous sushi platters. And then there’s
tle marina town of Kemer, and its therapies and hi-tech cosmetology. our favourite, Emerald Gastro, where
28 acres are a lesson in understated Michelin-starred superstar chef Alfredo
contemporary design, with lots of They take food seriously at the Russo has created a menu of beauti-
Scandinavian-style wood detailing resort with a standalone patisserie, fully plated dishes of contemporary
and Mediterranean stone walls. The Mediterranean cuisine.
suites are smart with great views over
the water, but the real draw is the set The resort’s sister property, Maxx
of beachside villas, with their terraces Royal Belek, with its superb Colin
and access to a private beach. Montgomerie-designed golf course,
The resort’s other bay is a gently is 60 miles up the coast and, in 2023,
curving stretch of coast with a back- the family of resorts will grow when
ground of lush forest and dramatic the team opens two exciting new prop-
rocks. Its golden sands are lapped at erties, Maxx Island and Maxx Royal
by waters so flat that they’re a haven Bodrum, both in the lovely coastal town
for offshore sports enthusiasts, and the of Golturkbuku on the Bodrum penin-
hotel does the lot: wind and kitesurf- sular. They’re for next year, though –
ing, parasailing, paddleboarding, fly- 2022 is all about Kemer and Belek.
boarding and jet skis. And the onshore
activities are similarly bountiful. Maxxroyal.com

MARCH 2022 GQ 115

STORE

Timeless, yet modern, prints from
the world’s most iconic photographers

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Use code CNS25 for 25% off

Mary E. Nichols, May 15, 2017, Architectural Digest

How nca Saund GQ World
Fashion

Bia ers

Became
the Beating

Heart of
British
Menswear

MAKEUP: MICHELLE LEANDRA Her work has been hailed by everyone from Ye to Phoebe Philo. She has spent the past
year being mentored by the CEO of Balenciaga. Now, Bianca Saunders is ready to take

her radical and soulful menswear vision to centre stage. B y FINL AY RENWICK

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTINA EBENEZER MARCH 2022 GQ 117

HERE’S NO SPE- Above: “These are a funhouse mirror effect, but not in a Her collections are usually accompa-
clothes to keep,” way that is… laughable.” nied by a film, a zine, an art installa-
T C I F I C time that my says Bianca tion, or all three. Ye is, in fact, a fan.
clothes exist in,” says At the age of 28, just four years since In 2020 he tweeted “Bianca Saunders”
British designer Bianca Saunders, in a suit starting her eponymous brand, Bianca alongside a Vogue Runway screen-
Saunders. It’s January, from her label. Saunders is one of British menswear’s shot of one of her SS/21 looks, which
just a few weeks before her runway most high-wattage stars. She creates is about as glowing a review as you’re
show at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. clothes that explore, interrogate and going to get from him. A co-sign like
We’re standing in a cavernous stu- celebrate masculinity, glamour, sex, that is digitally proffered gold dust for
dio in far west London, the location and heritage. Seams are twisted and a designer on the rise.
for a short film that she’s directing as rushed, hems are split; details are
part of the presentation. “I want it to cleverly concealed – or dialled up to “There is no stopping her, the sky’s
feel like my clothes could have been 11. Waists are tucked and shoulders the limit,” agrees her friend and fel-
worn by anyone, from any period. are dramatically accentuated, padded low young British fashion designer
They’re not for one specific kind of and trucked. Each collection is its own Saul Nash, who has known Saunders
guy.” Around us, stylists, assistants, micro-universe that ties into a wider since their days together at London’s
videographers and makeup artists story, inspired by subjects as broad Royal College of Art. “The way in which
busy about, while the artist formerly as Jamaican tourists, bodybuilders she combines her culture in a timeless
known as Kanye West sings about his and modern romance, with all of its and authentic way. As a Londoner
demons. “Hold My Liquor” booms, self-awareness and stilted yearning. of Caribbean heritage, I had
metallic and plaintive, from enormous
speakers. Outside, it’s a grey January
day, but inside, the room has been
transformed into a glamorous, tobac-
co-choked members club from another
era. Gold velvet curtains swoosh as
models glide in and out of the shad-
ows. ‘OK, I smashed your Corolla/I’m
hanging on a hangover/Five years we
been over/Ask me why I came over…’
Even from a distance, and through
a yellow-tinted fog, there’s a dis-
tinctness to the clothes on the backs
of the models – the way they cinch
and drape. Each garment adds up to
create a totally Saunders silhouette,
the kind which each designer worth
their cloth covets and cultivates. Jean
Paul Gaultier has his conical corsets;
Giorgio Armani, his artfully draped
suiting; Saunders has her impeccable
and masculine body contouring.
One middle-aged model, who I later
learn from a piece of A4 paper taped
to a backstage wall is called Pete G,
looks majestic in asymmetric Klein
blue tailoring; boot-polish-black hair
slicked violently back behind sharp
ears. An American Gothic character
who knows his way around Berghain.
“I hope that, for instance, you can
always go back to a shirt, and find
value in it. These are clothes to keep,”
says Saunders, who’s wearing a black
fleece, olive combat trousers, clean
Air Jordans and three silver hoops
in each ear. “I want people wearing
my clothes to have a different view of
themselves,” she adds. “To give a bit of

118 GQ MARCH 2022

never really seen it approached with that is very straightforward, GQ World
such a modern outlook before.” very concise, and she has this very Fashion
genuine and strong approach
Saunders was born, and still lives, to things,” says Charbit. to perfect a seam on a piece of knit-
in south-east London. Her mother is “There is a real human wear or pair of jeans, for instance.
a hairdresser and her father a plas- touch to the clothes, but at
terer. She recalls an early interest the same time, she’s deter- The laborious process behind the
in dressing up and a big, supportive mined, like she knows vintage patina on ultra-light,
family who fostered her creativity where she’s going. I can luxurious leather. “I’ve been
from a young age. An uncle, a graphic tell you, there was a lot going through my archives
designer, told her that artists only of conversation, a lot of and working on the idea of how
make money when they die, so she excitement in the room when things stretch over the
decided to focus on fashion. “I was we saw her clothes.” male body,” she says. “It’s
always around cousins’ houses, very much a hands-on
closet-raiding things from my The Autumn/Winter 2022 collection, a continuation
grandma,” she says. “I was also inter- collection will be the first time of what I was trying to
ested in making things: I think it was that Saunders has presented a achieve with Autumn/
the first thing that I knew I was good at.” collection in Paris, an experi- Winter 2020 and Spring/
ence that she describes as both Summer 2021. I like
Saunders went on to attend “exciting” and “daunting… but the idea of illusion. So it
Kingston University, before being mostly exciting”. We’re speak- could be a knit that’s actu-
accepted onto the prestigious Fashion ing backstage at the video shoot. ally a jersey, or vice versa.
MA course at the RCA, where she stud- Around us is the scattered detri- Observations, gestures and
ied under the head of programme, tus of the models’ civilian lives: manipulation.” Her hand
Zowie Broach. Saunders’ graduate col- Stone Island coats, house keys, reaches out to touch a
lection was inspired in part by a band scuffed trainers and discarded smooth Spandex that, from
that her uncles formed in their youth. coffee cups. Rails of clothes and a few feet away, appears to
They played a mix of reggae and funk bright, squared-off, clog-like be denim. “Men still want
and combined it with skinhead style. rubber shoes are separated by to be sexy, to feel like they
“I remember seeing all the photos of can attract someone… even
if they don’t always admit
“This is a brand that could really it,” she says with a small
evolve into something big and laugh. “To attract someone
extremely influential” is in everyone’s interest,
isn’t it? I’m thinking of that
—CEDRIC CHARBIT, CEO, BALENCIAGA when I’m making clothes,

them in the band,” she says. “I always look. “I think showing Above and but in a subtle way.”
liked the mix of both cultures, being in Paris is going to give below: “Clothes Gucci’s Alessandro Michele
British and Jamaican, and that inter- her the visibility she
est in tailoring, but on their terms. I needs, but it’s going to that are for a selected Saunders to create a unique
think the reason that I always wanted also bring [something] purpose,” piece of work for the brand’s 2020
to create menswear is the way that the to Paris,” adds Charbit. “It’s GucciFest, a ‘Digital Fashion Festival’,
clothes are created around a man’s not only one way. I know Bianca Saunders where she collaborated with the
body. All the different categories: it’s an emerging brand, on her designs. filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr on a
sportswear and workwear. Clothes but it has a big potential in short titled The Pedestrian, inspired
that are for a purpose. With fashion, I the future and the fact she by The Ideal Man, a series from the
felt like I could take that purpose and selects Paris, I think it’s a eccentric Dutch photographer Hans
make it into something else. To add very good sign and we should Eijkelboom. In the series, the artist
some fantasy to it.” be proud. She has a lot of interviewed women about their fan-
opportunities ahead. This tasy partner, before transforming
“Bianca had a voice that was less is a brand that could really himself into their likeness. Davies
heard,” says Broach, “offering views and evolve into something big Jr and Saunders flipped the script.
expressions that are essential if we are and extremely influential.” Their video, which is three minutes
to locate the future fashion identities of and 10 seconds long, features an
everyone. Her voice as a designer was In conversation Saunders is under- array of men in Saunders’ uniquely
cemented when she started to film her stated, but becomes animated when proportioned, ultra-sculptural coats
friends and allow them a voice that in she gets on the topic of how her and suits, filmed against a kitschy
turn connected back to her make, her clothes are made. The years it took wood-panelled background and
drape, cut and design. Those films still scored to a light jazz soundtrack.
have such potency and, that essence The men are asked about their per-
established, set her forth in how she sonalities, likes, dating lives, aspira-
works still to this day.” tions and favourite chat-up lines. It
is a brief encapsulation of Saunders’
Last year Saunders was awarded
the ANDAM Prize (previous winners
include Martin Margiela, Anthony
Vaccarello and Christophe Lemaire),
by a panel that included Phoebe
Philo and Kerby Jean-Raymond. She
received €300,000 and a year’s men-
torship by Balenciaga CEO Cédric
Charbit. “She has proposed a look

MARCH 2022 GQ 119

GQ World
Fashion

120 GQ MARCH 2022

style: funny, strange, compelling, chunky boots and a fleece bucket photographer ready, Saunders dis-
anthropological – building a narra- hat. A makeup artist applies mascara appears from the room and returns
tive beyond just clothes on a screen or while members of her team flit in wearing a leather suit of her own
a runway. A wry, abstract look at the and out, delivering snippets of intel. design. It is beautiful – a cut that’s
male condition. Outside, it’s the kind of day that makes
southern Europeans laugh and shake both boxy and flattering and in a
The men are candid and vulner- their heads, ‘Why would you want to shade that oscillates between yel-
able, warming to the off-camera live there?’ “I do feel like a London low and green depending on the
interviewer. “You can’t be everyone’s designer. It feels important to me,” she cast of the light. “I love that suit,” I
cup of tea, unless you’re going to be says. “Although, I think if you come to say. “Thank you,” she replies. “Even
a mug,” says one young man, his hair one of my parties, you’ll understand
contorted into a half-afro, half-corn- my world more. They’re quite crazy. though I’m designing for men, I
row style, wearing a boxed-off navy The last one there were queues out the still want to be able to wear the
Mac with outsized shoulder pan- door. I love that. It adds to fashion. clothes myself.” And that, I sup-
els. Another discusses a recent It’s all about the celebration. I pose, is the thing about a Bianca
date in Deptford and a particularly definitely want glamour, that’s Saunders garment, it’s womens-
enjoyable chicken wrap. “You’ve what makes fashion fun and some- wear for men and menswear
put me on the spot,” says another, thing you can aspire to.”
smiling awkwardly. for women and something in
Her most recent party, thrown between. A democratic item of
“I don’t want to speak for her,” says last September, was held in clothing. It is a beautiful suit. “I
Davies Jr, who also filmed a short for Soho House’s 180 House to cel- think that she is perfect for now,”
Saunders’ RCA graduate collection, ebrate London Fashion Week says Balenciaga’s Charbit. “She’s in
“but if there is an affinity between us and Saunders’ nomination for sync with the time and she’s bring-
then it is a lot about the mundane, com- LVMH’s Young Designer ing to menswear the right balance
munity and reclaiming aspects of what Award. It was attended of what’s utilitarian, what’s formally
we want to place value on. Ultimately, by the beautiful and tall agreed and what’s a modern mens-
the theory is making people like our- models, photographers, wear line. I remember seeing her the
selves, our friends, family, or our neigh- spoken-word poets other day and she was wearing her
bourhood heroes feel seen.” menswear collection and I looked at
her and said, ‘Well, this is great for
“If you come to one of my parties, women too, you know? It’s great for
you’ll understand my world everyone! C’est très cool.”
more. They’re quite crazy” But what does it all mean for our
wardrobes? If Saunders has anything
—BIANCA SAUNDERS to do with it, you can expect tailoring
to continue its fluid evolution. Suits
“There is always a subtlety to the and socialites, of course, Left: Bianca in unexpected materials. A focus on
work,” adds Davies Jr. “There is a and the model-photogra- Saunders in a suit glamour and a focus on pleasure. A
reconfiguration. A reclamation of sil- pher-spoken-word-poet-so- of her own design. bit 1970s, but in a way that aligns
houettes. I think that takes confidence cialites of London’s creative Above: Looks from that era’s decadence with a
and a huge amount of generosity to member’s club scene: The her A/W22 Palais
make something bigger than yourself.” rapper Sainté, singer-song- de Tokyo show, contemporary approach to fit
writer Priya Ragu and model Paris, in January. and colour (with less crushed
A day later, I visit Saunders in and poet Kai-Isaiah Jamal. velvet – and not a carpeted
Hackney, where she has a studio and Radio 1 DJ and Louis Vuitton bathroom in sight). Clothes
office. Up two flights of stairs and music director Benji B played that make you want to dress
into a modestly sized room which is a set. “People still come up and up and have a good time. That
alive with the charged atmosphere talk to me about that one,” says is the Saunders Effect: more
that accompanies a huge, exciting Saunders. “I’m always getting choice, more fun.
and imminent event – an effect com- asked when the next one is.” Before
pounded by the fact that there’s also a that, Saunders’ A/W20 collection was In the Palais de Tokyo
GQ photoshoot taking place in a con- inspired by grainy VHS videos of 1990s in late January the models
fined space. The countdown to Paris is dancehall parties and the ones she swayed and the gold curtains
on. A small group of well-dressed and grew up attending in south London. shimmered. Sixty guests sat
tired-looking staff hunch over knit- a metre apart (Covid, what a
wear and MacBooks, kicking their feet Which designers does she see as drag) as a dancehall soundtrack
against metal stools. Reminders such aspirational from a success stand- oozed from the speakers. Titled A
as, “Make any amendments for the point? Who is the ‘North Star’? “I Stretch, this was Saunders’ vision of
show,” “Production pack?” and “Attach think of Marc Jacobs in terms of the male silhouette; the “fun house
ribbing to puffers,” are scrawled on a being a household name,” she says, mirror” she’d mentioned when we’d
whiteboard fastened to a wall. The pausing as a brush veers too close to first met. Tailoring, sportswear,
music is turned up loud. There are an eye. “That mix of creativity and denim, and body-wear, cinched and
spools of fabric, a wilting plant and commerciality. Then JW Anderson as twisted. There was one particularly
a board with small paper cutouts of a British designer who has expanded spectacular wide-shouldered red
the models and their corresponding worldwide in, what is it, 10 years? coat. As the final model sloped off
looks for the show. I quickly scan for He’s incredible. It’s more of a slow stage, Saunders appeared in all black
Pete G and his blue suit. Pinned to a growth for me at the moment. It’s at to thank those in attendance. She
corkboard is a retro photo of a pair of my own pace. The most important joined her palms and smiled. Elation
bodybuilders in bright lycra, happily thing is that, above anything else, I and relief. Later there was a dinner at
flexing in sepia tones. want to be known as a good designer.” Soho House, attended by her cousin,
Naomi Campbell. After four seasons of
Saunders is in all black with big With her makeup done and the digital shows, this was the designer’s
return to three dimensions. A chance
to throw a party, with a queue that
snaked out the front door.

MARCH 2022 GQ 121

PRESENTS

The winners of the 2022 This May the GQ Food & Drink Awards is WORDS BY, PAUL HENDERSON AND MILLICIA WEST. PHOTOGRAPHS, GET T Y, ELLIOT JAMES KENNEDY, SIMON UPTON.
GQ Food & Drink Awards back for its eighth year, in association
will be announced in with our partners Veuve Clicquot and
the May issue of British Belvedere Vodka. We’ve counted
GQ, on sale 3 May, and (and recounted) the record number
online at gq.co.uk. of votes. Now, we’re able to confirm
this year’s shortlist: a dizzying array
122 GQ MARCH 2022 of the culinary institutions, radical
newcomers and singular talents that
make British dining great.
In a moment where hospitality has
shown unparalleled resilience, our
mission remains the same as ever: to
search out and honour Britain’s most
exhilarating places to eat and drink.

The 2022 GQ Jake Kasumov & Marco The 2022
Food & Drink Mendes for Casa do Judging Panel
Awards Shortlist Frango, KOL, Vinegar Yard,
Bar La Rampa Introducing GQ’s panel of industry
Best Restaurant The Bridge Arms, casadofrango.co.uk; experts – leaders in the world of
Canterbury kolrestaurant.com; hospitality, interiors, media and food
BIBI, London bridgearms.co.uk vinegaryard.london; and drink – who have been tasked with
bibirestaurants.com barlarampa.com judging this year’s shortlist.
Best Interior
Cail Bruich, Glasgow Max Graham for Bar Douro ADAM BAIDAWI
cailbruich.co.uk Sessions Arts Club, bardouro.co.uk After becoming the first Editor-in-Chief of
London GQ Middle East in 2018, Adam Baidawi was
Frog by Adam Handling, sessionsartsclub.com Amy Corbin & Patrick appointed Deputy Global Editorial Director
London Williams for Kudu, and Head of Editorial Content at British GQ in
frogbyadamhandling.com Beaverbrook Town House, Smokey Kudu, Curious 2021. In this expanded role, Baidawi will lead
London Kudu, Kudu Grill the brand into a new, multi-platform era that
Joro, Sheffield beaverbrooktownhouse. kuducollective.com spans print, digital, video and social.
jororestaurant.co.uk co.uk
Gordon Kerr for Blacklock ALEXEI ROSIN
Sessions Arts Club, Red Room at The theblacklock.com After more than two decades at Moët
London Connaught, London Hennessy, 2020 saw Rosin named as the
sessionsartsclub.com the-connaught.co.uk Sustainability Award company’s new managing director for the
UK and Ireland, where he oversees Veuve
Best Chef Eldr Roof Garden at Fallow, London Clicquot, Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon
Pantechnicon, London fallowrestaurant.com and Hennessy Cognac.
Alex Nietosvuori, Hjem pantechnicon.com
restauranthjem.co.uk The Small Holding, Kent RAVNEET GILL
The Light Bar, London thesmallholding.restaurant Winner of GQ’s Best Breakthrough category in
Clare Smyth, lightbarlondon.com 2021, presenter, writer and all-round pastry
Core by Clare Smyth Inver, Scotland aficionado, Gill is the founder of Countertalk
corebyclaresmyth.com Belvedere Best Bar inverrestaurant.co.uk – a networking and recruitment platform
for the hospitality industry – bakery school
James Murray, Timberyard SOMA, London Silo, London and pop-up, Puff, as well as the author of
timberyard.co somasoho.com silolondon.com bestsellingbakingbible, APastryChef’sGuide.

Simon Martin, MANA Lab 22, Cardiff Humble, London TOM KERRIDGE
manarestaurant.co.uk lab22cardiff.com humble.london Chef, presenter and author, Tom Kerridge made
waves when his venue, The Hand & Flowers,
Tom Booton, The Grill A Bar With Shapes For Overall Experience becamethefirstpubto wintwoMichelinstars.
at The Dorchester A Name, London Since then, he has added a second pub, two
dorchestercollection.com Oxeye, London restaurants and an old-school butchers to
Present Company, oxeyerestaurant.co.uk his name, all while remaining an unwavering
Best Hotel Liverpool advocate for the industry.
presentcompany.bar Nusr-Et Steakhouse,
Callow Hall, Peak District London HONEY SPENCER
wildhive.uk Three Sheets, London nusr-et.com.tr Sommelier Spencer previously Sager +
threesheets-bar.com Wilde, Noma Mexico, and NUALA is founder
Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, Hélène Darroze at The of BASTARDA – a concept pop-up seeking to
Lake District Best Bartender Connaught, London unite creative talents in the food, wine and art
thegilpin.co.uk the-connaught.co.uk worlds – as well as wine director for Palomar,
Giulia Cuccurullo, Barbary, Evelyn’s Table and The Mulwray.
The Londoner, London Artesian Ugly Butterfly, Cornwall
thelondoner.com artesian-bar.co.uk uglybutterfly.co.uk AUSHI MEEWELLA
Meewella, an interior designer, is the founder
Mondrian, London Ludovica Fedi, Gleneagles Soho Farmhouse, of Whitebox, and the artistic vision behind
www.sbe.com/hotels/ gleneagles.com Oxfordshire Kolamba, a.k.a Soho’s favourite Sri Lankan
mondrian sohohouse.com restaurant and worthy winner of GQ’s Best
Maxim Schulte, KOL Interior category in 2021.
The Yard in Bath, Bath Mezcaleria Best Front Of House
theyardinbath.co.uk kolrestaurant.com PAUL AINSWORTH
Emma Underwood, AinsworthisnostrangertotheGQFood&Drink
Best Breakthrough Kat Whyte, Uno Mas The Pem Awards,havingwonBestChefandBestPubin
unomasbar.co.uk thepemrestaurant.com 2019and2020respectively.Rightnow,hisempire
NoMad, London spanstworestaurants,onepub,aboutiquehotel,
thenomadhotel.com Ben Alcock, Filthy XIII Anneka Brooks, chef’stableandhospitalityacademy.
filthyxiii.com formerly Davies & Brook
Trattoria Brutto, London www.claridges.co.uk MONICA BERG
msha.ke/brutto Best Sommelier When Berg isn’t shaking and stirring at her
Diego Masciaga, award-winning London bar Tayēr + Elementary,
Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, Henna Zinzuwadia, Akoko Bibendum she is busy expanding her modern liqueur line
London akoko.co.uk claudebosi.com Muyu, and working on her nonprofit P(our),
imadssyriankitchen.co.uk which provides a collaborative platform for
Melody Wong, Roger Gibbons, A. Wong bartenders, sommeliers, brewers, winemakers
Heron, Edinburgh Jumeirah Carlton Tower awong.co.uk and distillers.
heron.scot jumeirah.com
Luca Maggiora, Bardo IRÉ HASSAN-ODUKALE
670grams, Birmingham Jules Coppier, bardostjames.com Alongside chef Jeremy Chan, Hassan-Odukale
670grams.com Clos Maggiore leads London-based restaurant Ikoyi. Despite
closmaggiore.com Veuve Clicquot a series of setbacks posed by the pandemic,
Best Pub Innovator Ikoyi has retained its cult following and gained
Gareth Ferreira, a Michelin star for its bold reimagination of
Bertie Blossoms, London Core by Clare Smyth Adejoké Bakare, Chishuru West African cuisine.
bertieblossoms.co.uk corebyclaresmyth.com chishuru.com

The Loch & The Tyne, Alessia Ferrarello, Lucy Vincent, Food Behind
Windsor Restaurant Sat Bains Bars
lochandtyne.com restaurantsatbains.com foodbehindbars.co.uk

The Copper Dog, Best Restaurateur Lorraine Copes,
Craigellachie Be Inclusive Hospitality
craigellachiehotel.co.uk Graziano Arricale for bihospitality.co.uk
Langan’s Brasserie, Chucs
The Lamb Inn, Shipton langansbrasserie.com; Rosie Ginday, Miss
Under Wychwood chucsrestaurants.com Macaroon
thelambshipton.com missmacaroon.co.uk

Shannon Tebay,
The American Bar
thesavoylondon.com

MARCH 2022 GQ 123

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACK BRIDGLAND

After nearly two years STYLED BY MOBOLAJI DAWODU
spent becoming Batman,
Robert Pattinson has
emerged from the trickiest
film shoot of his career
with some new ideas and
fresh anxieties about
the kind of film star
he wants to be now.

BY DANIEL RILEY

is exceptionally handsome. Wide, wild eyes. Large facial ←← In London today, his natural accent is crisp and his
features arranged where a sculptor might have put them words are prudent. But his laughter is freewheeling and
in 16th-century Italy. He is, unlike some actors, taller OPENING PAGES he can’t help but start things off by saying precisely what
than people suppose. (“A lot of Batman fans are like, AND BELOW he feels: “I’m so fucking jet-lagged!” He is underdressed:
He’s tiny, he’s tiny! I’m not fucking tiny!” he says. “I’m, like, “It’s cold! Fuck!” And he is feeling his age (35): “I can’t do
a large person. About half the time, I’m trying to get skin- shirt £390 anything anymore!” The effect is something like: English
nier.”) He has that ability to look convincingly different, by Helmut Lang art dealer after a weeklong fair in Hong Kong. He looks
meaningful degrees, in many different things. It’s not just like he was maybe at his shiniest six days ago.
hair and weight. It’s the way he can lower or raise an internal trousers £1,245
dimmer switch to dial the eyes and mouth along a spectrum Balmain We’re walking through Holland Park. Not 18 hours
from American scuzzbucket to French aristocrat. It permits earlier, the plan had been for us to visit London Zoo but
him to work effectively as both a leading bat and a 12-minute shoes Pattinson had suddenly thought better of it. “I was talking
scene-stealer. “He’s a chameleon,” Matt Reeves, director of (throughout) £290 to my girlfriend” – the model and actress Suki Waterhouse
The Batman, says. “Recently, Rob was telling me that he – “last night and she was, like, ‘You know, people don’t
never plays a character with exactly his voice. The voice is Eytys really like zoos…’ I’d been thinking about a metaphorical
one of his ways in.” thing. But then I was thinking that’s very wrong, a sad
sunglasses £360 bear walking in circles.” He’d talked himself out of it.
Balenciaga
“I just can’t help it,” he says. “I’ll do it for every single
watch (price upon element, every decision, in my life. What is the worst-case
request) scenario for this decision?”

Vacheron Constantin His career to this point has been shaped by a combi-
nation of talent, desire, luck, attendant fame, and bold
necklace £3,495 choices. The fame came quickly, with Twilight, the
bracelet (throughout) teen-vampire saga that grossed millions of pounds and
set Pattinson up for a particular kind of path. The choices
£2,100 – smaller movies with singular filmmakers – came as part
Chrome Hearts of his masterfully planned, decade-long prison break
out of that one particular career. “I’m constantly doing
ring (on right risk assessments, which drives everybody crazy, trying to
hand, throughout) predict every single element that could possibly happen.
And then, at the end of it, just being like: Ah, fuck it!
£280 I’ll just play a lighthouse keeper who fucks a mermaid!
Alighieri I think this is the right move!”

ring (on left His reputational swerve away from blockbuster
hand, throughout) moviemaking had taken such a firm hold in recent
years that Reeves, who had been thinking of Pattinson
£2,020 while writing The Batman, wasn’t sure Pattinson would
Cartier be interested in ever returning from his art-house
walkabout. But a little mainstream exposure, by way
of The Batman, was just as deliberate a choice as turn-
ing away in the first place. Get into the bat cave, bank
some gains, then charter a new voyage out into riskier film
waters again. It was a plan.

Things got off to an auspicious enough start when
shooting began at the end of 2019. “Then I broke my wrist
at the beginning of it all, doing a stunt, even before Covid.
So the whole first section was trying to keep working out
– looking like a penguin. I remember when that seemed
like the worst thing that could go wrong.” Soon, of course,
there were far greater obstacles brought on by the unprec-
edented global pandemic, which triggered production
shutdowns, including the one precipitated by his own
“very embarrassing” positive result in September 2020,
right as everyone was due back from the first intermina-
ble break. The delays ultimately stretched the shoot to
18 months – approximately the total time on set of every
other Robert Pattinson film of late combined.

And yet, when the enormous production was full steam
amid the raging pandemic, he felt grateful – and even
guilty at times – for having a distraction that demanded
every bit of his attention. “I just always had this anchor
of Batman. Rather than thinking you’re flotsam to the
news, you could feel engaged without being paralysed by
it. Everyone I know, if you had a little momentum going
in your career or your life, then stopping, you had to have a
reckoning with yourself. Whereas I was so incredibly busy
the whole time, doing something that was also super high
pressure, by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done.... I was still

126 GQ MARCH 2022



playing Batman at the end of the day, even though the ←← cowl that makes it very difficult to read books, so you have
world might end. But just on the off chance that it doesn’t to kind of almost lean forward to see out of the cowl.”
end…” He puts it another way later: “Even if the world PREVIOUS PAGE,
burns down, I’ve just got to get this fucking thing out.” LEFT He’d said it a few times, and I had no idea what the hell
he was talking about. The cowl?
The set, on the outskirts of the capital, manifested jacket £2,350
as a “bubble within a bubble,” he says. “And the nature trousers £890 “The mask thing. The bat mask. The cowl!” Hours, days,
of the shoot was so insular, always shooting at night, weeks, months, in the dark, in the suit, in the cowl. “I kept
just really dark all the time, and I felt very much alone. Dior Men calling it a mask. But I learned, no, no, it’s the cowl.”
Even just being in the suit all the time. You’re not really
allowed out of the studio with the suit on, so I barely necklace (top) Though they finished shooting The Batman in April,
knew what was going on at all outside.” They built him and wallet chain Pattinson seems to have still only just mentally emerged
a little tent off to the side of the set where he could go (worn as necklace) from the cave. He laughs maniacally when he recalls those
to decompress. And mostly he would pass the time get- (prices upon request) solitary hours in the dark: “I mean, I was really, really,
ting weird in the bat suit. “I’d be in the tent just making really dead afterward. I just looked at a photo of myself
ambient electronic music in the suit, looking over the Martine Ali from April and I looked green.”
cowl. There’s something about the construction of the
PREVIOUS PAGE, At one point, as we enter a half-crowded restaurant
RIGHT together, his eyes zero in on a private cubby meant to
accommodate a discreet party of diners. He’s told that it’s
jacket £2,100 reserved for another guest. You really want back in a cave, I
trousers £1,050 say, and he laughs a laugh of post-traumatic stress.

Versace “I watched a rough cut of the movie by myself,” he
tells me in the not-cave, while eating together. “And
the first shot is so jarring from any other Batman
movie that it’s just kind of a totally different pace.
It was what Matt was saying from the first meeting
I had with him: ‘I want to do a ’70s noir detective story,
like The Conversation.’ And I assumed that meant the
mood board or something, the look of it. But from the
first shot, it’s, Oh, this actually is a detective story. And I
feel like an idiot, because I didn’t even know that Batman
was ‘the world’s greatest detective’; I hadn’t heard that
in my life before – but it really plays. Just ’cause there’s a
lot of stuff where he’s in among the cops. Normally, when
you see Batman he arrives and beats people up. But he’s
having conversations, and there are emotional scenes
between them, which I don’t think have been in any of
the other movies.”

I remind Pattinson that the last time he was in GQ, he
was just getting started on The Batman, searching for what
he called “the gap” in a character that has been played every
which way for decades now. I ask if he achieved that.

“I’ve definitely found a little interesting thread. He
doesn’t have a playboy persona at all, so he’s kind of a
weirdo as Bruce and a weirdo as Batman, and I kept think-
ing there’s a more nihilistic slant to it. ’Cause, normally, in
all the other films, Bruce goes away, trains, and returns to
Gotham believing in himself, thinking, ‘I’m gonna change
things here’. But in this, it’s sort of implied that he’s had a
bit of a breakdown. But this thing he’s doing, it’s not even
working. Like, it’s two years into it, and the crime has got-
ten worse since Bruce started being Batman. The people of
Gotham think that he’s just another symptom of how shit
everything is. There’s this scene where he’s beating every-
one up on this train platform, and I just love that there’s
a bit in the script where the guy he’s saving is also just
like: Ahh! It’s worse! You’re either being mugged by some
gang members, or a monster comes and, like, fucking beats
everybody up! The guy has no idea that Batman’s come to
save him. It just looks like this werewolf.”

Pattinson laughs. “And I kept trying to play into that, I
kept trying to think, and I’m going to express this so badly,
but there’s this thing with addressing trauma… All the other
stories say the death of his parents is why Bruce becomes
Batman, but I was trying to break that down in what I
thought was a real way, instead of trying to rationalise it.
He’s created this intricate construction for years and years
and years, which has culminated in this Batman persona.
But it’s not like a healthy thing that he’s done.” It’s like an
extended crack-up. “Almost like a drug addiction,” he says.

128 GQ MARCH 2022

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There’s a moment when Alfred asks Bruce what his family → our heads – Pattinson’s eyes scan reflexively for threats.
would think of him tarnishing the family legacy with his sweater £225 He has been incomprehensibly famous since he was 22,
new side hustle. “And Bruce says: ‘This is my family legacy. and around every corner for the past 13 years has lurked a
If I don’t do this, then there’s nothing else for me.’ Diesel fan or a camera or a fan with a camera. The park, on this
I always read that as not like, ‘There’s nothing else,’ like, winter day, seems harmless to these untrained eyes, but
‘I don’t have a purpose.’ But like: ‘I’m checking out.’ And I necklace (top, Pattinson knows better.
think that makes it a lot sadder. Like, it’s a sad film. It’s kind price upon request)
of about him trying to find some element of hope, in him- There are some tables outside the park’s coffee shop that
self, and not just the city. Normally, Bruce never questions Martine Ali seem like a nice enough place to sit and talk, but there are
his own ability; he questions the city’s ability to change. But some old ladies chatting close by, and a path that passes
I mean, it’s kind of such an insane thing to do: The only way necklace (bottom) near enough to potentially expose him. “Hmm,” he says,
I can live is to dress up as a bat. £3,495 “how about…” He leads us in a different direction, toward
an abandoned heap of construction materials, where a bench
“DC is the kind of emo comic,” he continues, laughing. Chrome Hearts faces some fencing. He says it faux-ponderous: “Let’s just
“There’s a nihilistic side to it. Even the artwork is really, find the most dull area, hidden in a corner.”
really different. So, hopefully, there are a lot of sad people
in the world.” I ask him if this is how he experiences the world: as a
constant search for dull areas hidden in corners.
Outside, it is cold, dark, and Covidly nihilistic (in other
words, all vaguely DC), and the weather reminds Pattinson “Oh, a hundred percent. Actually, if I see a bar that’s
about how his boiler recently needed fixing. “The guy empty, and it has no vibe at all, I’m like, Oooo!”
came around the other day,” he says, “and he just ran-
domly started talking about what a DC fan he is. And I’m Masks have been a godsend, he says. “It’s funny with all
sitting there facing the other direction, and my girlfriend these anti-mask things, because I’m like, I will be wearing
just keeps continuing the conversation with him. And I’m a mask for the rest of my life. I think I’ve gained a few years
looking at her like: Shut the fuck up!” He cracks up. “Why of life from lack of stress. It’s ideal when everyone else is
are you doing this to me? She was very entertaining. Just wearing one as well, so it’s not like I’m standing out. It’s
talking to an obsessive fan.” incredible.”

I ask him if he’s anxious at all about how this multi-year Since wrapping The Batman, Pattinson has made his
endeavour will land. With the superfans. With those who first definitive move behind the camera, pleasantly con-
know what a cowl is. cealed, having set up a production deal at Warner Bros.
He says he’s a “terrible writer” but “moulding stuff I find
“It all depends. If people like the movie, it’s great. All really, really, really satisfying.” First up are a few projects
of it.” But if not, I suggest, you’re answering for people’s he’s been conceiving for a while, long enough at least that
anguish. “You never really know until it happens.” he’s no longer right to star in them, and instead “wants
to find an unknown”. He likes HBO Max, with whom
A S W E W A L K around Holland Park in the early after- he’s working as part of the Warner Bros. deal, because
noon – the sky seems to just barely clear the tops of “they’re not afraid”. “I feel like they’re so new and still
trying to establish their identity. And there’s space for
“I used to think it.” Development work was under way while he was still
I had a relatively filming The Batman: “I’d have my burst of energy in the
long-term plan, mornings. I’d go and do a workout, and I’d have about
the one I made after 15 minutes before I had to get into the suit. And so I’d liter-
the first Twilight. ally be, like, for seven minutes on the toilet in the morning
But trying to make when I’d scramble out a stream-of-consciousness email to
a plan now... Well, the writers.”
there are wolves
everywhere.” He describes the thrill of pitching shows like these,
which, like acting, requires his own little personal journey
to hell: “I seem to only be able to have ideas when there’s an
enormous amount of adrenalin. It’s almost like my process
of doing anything now. I have to really, really feel like I’ve
hit rock bottom. Where right up until the moment I have
to perform it’s: Wow, I’m the most empty piece of shit.” He
laughs the bat-tent laugh. “You have to feel the pain. And
then suddenly it’s like God gives you a little treat: Here’s an
idea you’ve never thought of before. Run with this.”

He is a voracious consumer of other people’s work. He
reads constantly, watches everything, chisels his taste, his
tone, down to the sharpened points he uses to collaborate
effectively with filmmakers to fashion bizarrely novel char-
acters. In 2019’s The King, he plonked a campy dauphin
right smack in the middle of one of the most unsmirk-
ing movies of all time. “I’d been trying to do it seriously,
but then I was talking to someone at Dior, and I started
mimicking them and doing it in this funnier way,” he says.
That is, transporting a figure from French fashion into
Shakespeare. “I started doing it as a joke at first, but then I
filmed myself and watched it back, and thought this actu-
ally kinda works.”

Pattinson threw another curveball into 2020’s
The Devil All the Time, in which he plays a creepy, corporeal

132 GQ MARCH 2022

MARCH 2022 GQ 133

134 GQ MARCH 2022

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Ann Demeulemeester
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(prices upon request)

Martine Ali

MARCH 2022 GQ 135

Southern preacher who seduces young parishioners → work with directors who make good films. Work with direc-
and then gaslights them about their sexual encounters. jacket £2,660 tors who generate so specific an energy that people want
“But I thought that one was supposed to be a comedy. trousers £880 to both watch their films and be part of the subculture
I remember reading the script and it was so extreme, with Louis Vuitton that they alone can cultivate. Directors who make people
such monstrous characters, I was thinking it had to be.” want to literally dress like them. “If you provide a movie
(It wasn’t.) necklace (top, which kind of provides an entire culture with it,” Pattinson
price upon request) says, “I think people really, really like that, and really
It is his way of articulating his desire to see something he’s respond to it.”
never seen before by doing something he’s never seen before. Martine Ali
It is his way of almost, to paraphrase Gandhi or Batman or P A T T I N S O N I S , it becomes clearer with each passing mov-
someone, being the change in movies and movie stardom necklace (bottom) ie-promo cycle, one of those authentically weird, bound-
he wants to see in the world. Here is what my version of a £3,495 lessly energetic, deceptively chaotic creative types who are
film star can do – any takers? So far, post-The Batman, not mixed up in 10,000 things while projecting a false sense of
really. “It’s ironic that the two films I thought were the most Chrome Hearts passivity. Here’s Pattinson, not much of a sports fan him-
sure-thing movies you could do, the entire landscape of the self, romanticising his friends’ football fandom: “There’s
industry shifts,” he says. “I really thought that after Batman, just something so lovely about having something every sin-
I’d be a lot more...” He trails off with genuine dismay. One gle Sunday, where it’s like, This is what I’m doing. Rather
can feel the heat coming off him from his desire to find a than just, when anybody asks me, What are your hobbies?
workable blueprint. I’m like: Fucking fretting. Worrying about the future.”

“I think I maybe even said it the last time I did an inter- He says the last part in a sort of comic accent. And then
view with GQ,” he says. “Before Tenet, my agents were like, he laughs. The sentiment – the anxiety, the uncertainty of
Yeah, you’re just not on the list for stuff. And I just totally, what the world holds for him and anyone – feels almost
by fluke, get these two massive movies. And I’m like, OK, too real, like sad eyes shining from behind the bat cowl.
am I on the list now? And they’re like, Yeah, you’re on the It reminds me of what Matt Reeves said about Pattinson:
list now, but there’s no movies.” By which he means the sort that he’s never played a role with his own voice, that the
that many filmmakers and watchers lament not existing in voice is his way into different people. Pattinson tells me that
excess anymore. A movie-star movie for adults. At a scale sometimes he’ll just make something up in an interview, in
somewhere between The Lighthouse (£8 million budget) order to say anything at all – and that it has at times come
and Tenet (£149 million). “And so it’s strange: The eye of back to bite him (for instance, comments he made years ago
the needle, which I was trying to thread before, gets even about not washing his hair that have followed him to this
smaller now,” he says. “I used to think I had a relatively day). It all gets a little slippery when someone tells you they
long-term plan, the one I made after the first Twilight to sometimes deliberately lie. But it feels like it adds up with
work with various different directors. But trying to make several of the other stories Pattinson shares with me. There
a plan now when you have to factor in a kind of existential are some things that are honest, there are some things that
doubt, as well as being like, I’m competing with teenagers are constructed, and in between there are just a bunch of
for the same part... Well, there are wolves everywhere.” roles Pattinson’s playing besides a film star and celebrity.
Among them:
Against all those personal career concerns, he also
wonders aloud about the troubles the wider industry has Porn peddler (formerly). He’d steal the magazines
seizing the centre of the culture. “Even when movies try: from a local newsagents and sell them to classmates
Oh, let’s do something that captures the zeitgeist, it’s not for a handsome profit. It got him expelled from
possible if not everyone’s watching at the same time. Films his first prep school. The entrepreneurial spirit was
used to generate the zeitgeist. And now I just find, opposed organic, irrepressible.
to music or fashion, movies can’t keep up with the culture.”
Sham drug dealer (formerly). “I haven’t thought about
There is an exception, though. A glimmer of something. this in years, but during secondary school my first proper-
And it has to do with the way certain filmmakers, he says, ish kind of girlfriend was a few years above me, and I
seem to identify subcultures and curate more than just always wanted to hang out with the cool kids, who were
movie experiences for those who are tuned to the same in the oldest year. And some of us decided that I’d pretend
frequency. He describes the scene at a screening for the that I was importing drugs. But I didn’t even know what
Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems, “where there were proba- drugs looked like. So I had this idea I’d get floppy disks,
bly 30 people in the audience wearing Elara hats”. Elara open up the floppy disk, pour this kind of powder stuff
Pictures is the Safdies’ production company, but, via fash- inside, and then spray it with, like, some kind of clean-
ion-famous people like Timothée Chalamet (a fan) and ing product so that it’d smell chemical-y, and seal all of
Emily Ratajkowski (who’s married to one of the producers), it in. I bought, like, 40 floppy disks, and then I’d show it
also now a sort of inadvertent fashion brand. There are to kids who were probably 15 or 16, and I’d be like: Yeah,
certain filmmakers, Pattinson says, who can transform even I’m importing drugs in floppy disks.” He says it like a real
smaller films into something much bigger – something that scumbag. “And everybody believed me. And I kind of got
does rub against, or even define, the zeitgeist. Or proba- this reputation that: This kid is crazy. He’s a drug dealer!
bly more precisely: a zeitgeist. He saw it with fans at the Like: Want to try some? Some sawdust with Febreze on it?”
screenings for The Lighthouse, too: “They were all dressed
the same way, like fishermen.” He says director Robert Rap pirate (formerly). He was the only one he knew
Eggers understood “how you can sort of make this cross- who had Noreaga albums from overseas. He and his friend
over to fashion and music”. Pattinson saw it at a screening would take the Noreaga lyrics, transpose their voices in a
for The French Dispatch last year, as well. “I thought it was music programme he had, and then send “their” raps to the
a themed screening. But all these people, they were just venerated hip-hop DJ Tim Westwood to try to get them on
Wes Anderson fans. They just dress like Wes Anderson.” his radio show. “My mum would be coming into the room,
and we’d be saying other people’s lyrics verbatim, thinking
There, perhaps, is the best explanation, by a series of no one would ever find out.”
examples, of what Robert Pattinson has been trying to do
with his career choices over the past decade. Don’t just Skateboard impostor (formerly). “I could not actually

136 GQ MARCH 2022



skateboard, but try as hard as I could, and I’d practice Early on, casting
by myself, and then literally anytime it was time to do agents worried
anything, I was terrified of hurting myself, so I’d just sit about Pattinson’s
there, dragging the skateboard around. Rolling it back and English accent.
forth, hit it with things, and kind of put little gashes into “So I used to
it, so that it looked like I’d been riding it. But I never got always come in as a
on it ever.” different person,
an American. I’d
Designer of chairs (ongoing). He used to have a studio say, ‘Hi, I’m from
in London. But now he just makes little chairs out of clay, Michigan’”.
little maquettes, takes pictures of them, and then sends
them to a designer he knows who helps get them built. → suddenly hear these heaving sobs. I’m thinking, Who
The first one, “an insane sofa,” is inbound soon. He is con- tank top has managed to get a sob out of this?! And then fucking
sumed by chairs. Thinks about them incessantly. When it (price upon request) Eddie comes out, goddamnit.”
came time to design the logo for his production company, Burberry
he just kept sending people pictures of chairs. But then all of a sudden, the days of sleeping on his agent’s
necklace (top, couch in Los Angeles were over. “She just told me she still
Photographer (ongoing). And not just of the maquettes price upon request) has my suitcase,” he says, “filled with my dirty laundry from
of his chairs. He was in a store recently, looking for a new back then. In her garage, fossilised.”
camera, and scanning the internet to find out what kind Martine Ali
photographer Daniel Arnold uses. “I ended up just standing Post-Twilight, Pattinson has worked with David
there looking at a load of his photographs,” he says, “and necklace Cronenberg, Werner Herzog, James Gray, Claire Denis. But
was ultimately like, it has nothing to do with the camera, (bottom) £3,495, no match has seemed quite as electrified as the one with
does it? Same as anything, you can train yourself to see sit- Chrome Hearts Josh and Benny Safdie, with whom he made 2017’s Good
uations in a different way – to start to see surreality every- Time: “They’re very kind of anarchic. But it’s not out of con-
where around you.” trol at all. They’re some of the only directors I’ve worked
with who thrive on the chaos but where they’re also always
Handheld pasta hustler (ongoing, for now). Close readers just in control of the car.”
of GQ may remember that, two years ago, Pattinson tried
to demonstrate his concept for a portable pasta snack via The Safdie brothers seem to relish this kind of discomfort.
Zoom interview, to devastating results. The internet received Their movies are powered by the high blood pressure of
the effort as a stunt, or at least as a knowing performance wrong decisions and the worst-case scenario. And though
of ineptitude. “But I was fully, actually trying to make that Pattinson’s risk-assessment monitor would suggest that
pasta,” he says. “Like I was literally in talks with frozen-food he avoid the kids on the block who like to play near fallen
factories, and hoped that that article would be the proof of power lines, Pattinson is, naturally, thrilled by the proxim-
concept. My manager was like: Is this really what you want ity: “They’re so fun, so funny, so brave. That’s the main thing
to do? You want your face on handheld pasta? You know that I kind of like to gravitate toward. It’s scary when you’re
you’ve got to go to Walmart and really sell it, for potentially putting out a movie now. Even if no one sees it, you can still
very little return.” He laughs as though it were someone get cancelled for it.”
else’s idea. “And there was a part of me that was, like: Is
there a world where this works?” The air at the rare altitude of Pattinson’s celebrity can be
disorienting. “It can be fucking scary,” he says. “People think
All of which is to say: Pattinson seems to have long been
good at being at least two things at once. An authentic sin-
gular somebody to his core. But also someone very good at
pretending to be somebody else.

W H E N H E S T A R T E D auditioning, anytime he’d introduce
himself as English while trying out for an American
role, the casting agents would act concerned. “They’d
always question it: ‘We’re worried about the accent…’ ” he
says. “So I used to always come in as a different person,
an American. I’d say, ‘Hi, I’m from Michigan.’ But then
I was doing an audition for Transformers 2, right after
Twilight had come out” – in other words, precisely the
moment that Pattinson became a globally famous actor – “and
I went in as some guy from Denver. And they called my
agent and were like, ‘What’s wrong with him? Why was he
doing an improv? A really boring improv?’ ”

And so he started auditioning as Rob, for better or
worse. “If I hadn’t got really lucky,” he says, “and had
instead been forced to audition all these years, I wouldn’t
have a career at all. I’m so bad at it.” He has vivid memo-
ries of having his lunch handed to him by the other actors
his age. “Eddie Redmayne and Andrew Garfield were so
fucking good at auditioning, it’s just unbelievable. You’d
see them, and then if you were waiting outside, you would
literally hear casting directors inside going, Oh, my
God! Oh, my God! And you’d be like, Fucking hell, who’s
inside? And Eddie would come out and be like: Hey, mate.
I’d be doing something thinking it was a comedy, and

138 GQ MARCH 2022



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you have an army kind of protecting you, but you really art direction do next on every front – including his next film. “I said, ‘I
don’t. You’re on your own. You have to have crazy amounts by hensel martinez. don’t want to make a mistake on what to do next.’ And then
of, I guess it’s some kind of mental fortitude. Obviously, it’s my manager’ was like, ‘I understand this, but the longer
this incredible life. But like anything, if you can’t turn it set dressing and you wait, you’re not going to have a film come out until
off… Even the people closest to you assume that your life driving by jonathan 2024. And by then, no one will give a shit what you’re
is probably more like the way it’s told in a magazine. Even doing.’ It’s the strangest thing that up until three years
my relatives. But then again, that’s the whole point of it: to villalobos. set ago, we kind of sort of had basically the same traditional
capture people’s imaginations.” dressing by logan career route-ish. If everything went well, it still sort of exist-
ed-ish. And now it’s like: What on earth is the direction
W E M O V E A R O U N D quite a bit during the afternoon, from one blue. scenic by to go in?
zone of safe-seeming inactivity to another. His eyes really do angel manjarrez.
appear to read the world like a thermal scanner. A dismal set illustrations “You just have to kind of think: Well, my plan is maybe
bench to empty public toilets, to a vacant path through a a miracle will happen and everything will be fine. Which is
random park. And still, there’s a guy waiting for us with a by michael what I think everyone has been thinking for two years. Just:
camera. Mask up, Pattinson is undeterred. We walk past mendoza tattoo. Uhhh, I guess the plan is to just hope?”
some children playing soccer and I ask him if ever har-
boured youthful delusions of football grandeur. daniel riley is a gq correspondent.

“The opposite. I still have the same terror when I’m walk-
ing past little kids, and the football rips into the path. I just
have this terror of passing it back, and I go straight back to
being a 10-year-old, and kicking it in the wrong direction.
People being like: Wow! What an idiot! Eventually, I’m prob-
ably gonna have a child. So I’ve started training myself so
that I can be somewhat… So that I can play football with a
three-year-old.”

He feels himself getting older by the instant. “Thirty-
five was definitely the year when things changed. I really
stretched out my adolescence to about 34,” he says as we
jump into a black taxi and start driving through Notting
Hill. “I remember a few years ago, I was talking to my
friend on some pretty street up this way. Years ago, I always
thought it was so chichi, and now it just seems so nice. I was
like, I wonder what changed about the area?...”

Growing older, while being closer, he’s starting to see
his family in new ways, the “delineation between the
personality types” in his parents, his father (the introvert,
the cynic, the worrier) at one end of the spectrum and his
mother (the extrovert, the laugher, the emotionally acces-
sible one) at the other, and his sitting in the middle of it, or,
really, as he clarifies. “Swinging from one to the other. The
things that used to drive me crazy about my dad, being con-
trarian all the time, constantly playing devil’s advocate – I’m
drifting that way.”

Back home, closer to family, Pattinson seems to be
setting upon some new stage of his life and career.
Despite making what could be characterised as count-
less right decisions, they seem to have amounted to
no obvious path forward. Which is a fact of life-and-
career that plants Robert Pattinson firmly in his
micro-generation. He exists in that highly specific age
range of people (that is, those born in the mid-’80s) who
grew up to see the Old Way – saw it work from the lowest
rung, from the entry level – before watching their chosen
industry disassemble for the past decade, as they sort of
scrambled up a heap of old rubble and new growth to reach
the top of… What exactly? Many people his age, in many
different professional capacities, will have encountered this
existential emoji shrug and feel like vomiting. Pattinson is
just old enough to have really seen up close the thing he
wanted – he made a plan – only to be confronted, when
it was his turn, with the now obvious fact that absolutely
no one has a clue what comes next. It’s thrilling. It’s terri-
fying. It’s what’s so hauntingly familiar about his nagging
career sentiments: “I really thought that after Batman, I’d be
a lot more...”

Not long ago, he was having a conversation with his
manager about his paralysis and indecision about what to

MARCH 2022 GQ 141

BY ANTWAUN
SARGENT

PHOTOGRAPHS BY I spent two
TYLER MITCHELL years trying
to bottle up
But only when the genius of
I travelled to our greatest
Chicago for his multihyphenate
memorial service for a museum
did I realise the
full extent of show.
his talent and
influence.

MARCH 2022 GQ 143

At the Oliver, the cofounder and design director
memorial, of Hood by Air. Together V and Shayne had
shared notes on culture, trying to make noise
I sat a few rows behind his family, next to to understand his impulses and concerns, to cat- as Black designers on the outside of the fash-
the artists Arthur Jafa and Theaster Gates. alogue his prolific output. I had wrestled with ion and art worlds, looking in. To memorialise
It was Monday, the sixth of December, at noon, the seemingly impossible task of curating one that time, they created In Conversation With
and we were gathered in the two-storey glass of the most polymathic artists of our time. And Shayne (2019), an installation consisting of
atrium of the Museum of Contemporary Art yet, as I listened to his friends, collaborators and T-shirts folded inside cardboard boxes labelled
Chicago, to pay our respects to the artist Virgil protégés, I realised the truest gesture he made “virgil abloh official files”. A comment on their
Abloh, who had, a week earlier, died of a rare was to inspire acts of creation from nearly every- upstart spirit and their staying power, the work
heart cancer at the age of 41. Inside, it was one he, and his objects, came in contact with. The also showed, as Shayne has said, that they “had
like a sombre Met Gala; the assembled crowd depth of that desire – to usher us into a new age ideas to bring to fashion, but not specifically
included Rihanna, Frank Ocean, Drake, models of creativity – wasn’t completely clear to me until for fashion.”
Karlie Kloss and Bella Hadid, and young design- that moment. We had known V was working
ers Kerby-Jean Raymond and Rhuigi Villaseñor. hard to get his ideas out into the world. But his After that initial meeting, V’s longtime chief
We sat on white chairs in a large light-filled, greatest ideas were the ones he had culti- of staff, Athiththan Selvendran, known as Athi,
modernist room that looked out on the city’s vated in the procession of artists taking the created a WhatsApp group chat so that we could
skyline. Outside it was cloudy and cold, which lectern – the youth who had seen what he did all communicate in real time. Also in the chat
mirrored the mood in the room. and decided that they, too, could create art of was Sultan, who had studied architecture at
their own. Harvard and would help us conceptualise the
The service began with a sermon by Pastor show. From the beginning the ideas flew. What
Rich Wilkerson Jr, who had officiated at Kim I F I R S T M E T V on a call arranged by the struck me immediately is that V was as focussed
and Kanye’s wedding and first met V, as he was Brooklyn Museum’s director, Anne Pasternak, on other artists’ work as he was on his own. We
known to those who worked closely with him, in the autumn of 2019. She told me that she were curating a man who was constantly curat-
during the years he served as Kanye’s creative wanted to bring Virgil’s “explosive creativity” ing the culture around him, sampling ideas,
director. In the wake of V’s diagnosis, in 2019, to the museum. At the time, he had a travel- making them his, ceding space to those who
Wilkerson had become a kind of spiritual ing exhibition – “Virgil Abloh: Figures of inspired him. There was, for instance, the idea
adviser, helping him reckon with the work he Speech” – and she told me that he wanted me to incorporate into the show works of his choos-
would leave undone, and here he functioned as a to guest-curate the show’s final iteration. “He ing from the museum’s collection of 1.5 million
master of ceremonies, inviting V’s wife, Shannon was doing something where there was a gap,” objects – a gesture that alluded to installation
Abloh, to eulogise him. She wore a black silk Pasternak recently told me. “He was putting artist and sculptor Fred Wilson’s “Mining the
dress that V had designed, with the word woman a spotlight on a gap, kicking the gates open, Museum”, a seminal 1992 show in which the
emblazoned across the back, and was followed to make it possible for other young Black artist used the Maryland Historical Society’s
at the podium by some of V’s closest collabora- creatives to see themselves in these positions.” collection to expose the beauty, contradictions,
tors – Don C, the streetwear designer; Benji B, She added, “I think that there is a wave of cre- and erasures of art institutions. Other ideas were
the British DJ and producer; Mahfuz Sultan, the ative excellence that’s been coming at us, that more radical. One day, V dropped into the chat
architect and writer; Tyler, the Creator, the rap- maybe would not have existed had Virgil not a sketch of large-scale neon signs that spelled
per. They recalled the sacrifices V made for his torn down those gates.” out, in his loopy handwriting, words such as
art, the endless flights and far-flung DJ sets, the “IRAK”, a reference to the legendary late-’90s
constant WhatsApp messaging, the Instagram At that point, V’s show had opened in downtown New York graffiti crew. V suggested
account he used as an open studio where he Chicago and would go on to Atlanta, Boston, we install them across the Beaux-Arts façade of
shared “cheat codes” to beat the game that is and Doha before reaching Brooklyn. But the museum to make a statement. This wasn’t
our culture. They were awed by the disparate he told me, on our first call, that he wanted going to be an ordinary exhibition.
assemblage of people he gathered into a constel- to say something new in New York. With a
lation that lit up a new aesthetic universe. They deep fondness, he recalled his time in the One early idea I had was to create an exhi-
mourned the dashed potential of the years lost. city, just over a decade before, as a member bition where everything was for sale – a show
of the streetwear fashion and art collective where you could buy the chairs, paintings,
And I mourned too. For me, this service rep- #BEEN #TRILL; he reminisced about friend- sneakers, jewellery, speakers, sculptures, bags,
resented a coda – the epilogue to my two-year ships with young downtown creatives such and everything else off the walls and pedestals
journey to package the work of this unorthodox as Venus X, the DJ and founder of the under- as a critique of art world consumption and
genius into a museum exhibition. I had tried ground party GHE20G0TH1K, and Shayne consumer culture. As the readymade objects
to get to the heart of what drove V as a creator, were bought, messages, written in V’s signa-
ture quotation style, would reveal themselves
in the emptied-out galleries of the museum’s
Great Hall. After some research, though, we
abandoned the plan. Takashi Murakami, the
acclaimed Japanese Pop artist who collabo-
rated with V most recently on a trio of shows
at Gagosian Gallery, had explored a similar
premise with former Louis Vuitton creative
director Marc Jacobs at the Brooklyn Museum
in 2008. V had no problem sampling ideas, but
this approach had to be fresh.

Over time, the chat became a stream
of reference images for the exhibition
design, a place for V to share old and new
work, and a space to think together about
the relationships between, say, billboard
advertisement and painting, garments and

144 GQ MARCH 2022

Virgil Abloh
in Paris, 2018.

THESE PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS: ART PARTNER. architecture. In January 2020, I visited V in his with V’s work, designed with the principles of the Herzog & de Meuron-designed furni-
large and messy Louis Vuitton atelier in Paris, what the artist David Hammons once termed ture museum Vitra Schaudepot, in Weil am
a sprawling, maze-like laboratory that was like “negritude architecture”, which he defined as Rhein, Germany. The building would occupy
an entryway to the artist’s brain. There was DJ “the way Black people make things, houses the centre space of the exhibition hall. As visi-
equipment for impromptu office sets, bags and or magazine stands in Harlem, for instance. tors moved around it, they would encounter a
racks of his LV clothing, a large mirror framed Just the way we use carpentry. Nothing fits, black tactical ladder – a metaphor for the way
with the red Time magazine logo. In between but everything works. The door closes, it keeps V was storming the museum, with metal steps
fittings for his fashion presentations, V shared things from coming through. But it doesn’t etched with the names of various “figures of
ideas for our show. On an orange table was a have that neatness about it, the way white peo- speech,” from the pan-Africanist musician Fela
foam model of the Brooklyn Museum’s Great ple put things together; everything is a thir- Anikulapo-Kuti to the rapper Ghostface Killah.
Hall and, displayed inside, the objects he ty-second of an inch off.” One side of the house would be lined with ped-
wanted to present – shoes from his Nike col- estals displaying, say, a shoe or a bag or a kite V
laborations, his first ad campaign for LV, man- The idea became concrete in October 2020, had designed, as a way to elevate objects of cul-
nequins wearing his designs, sculptures he’d when V dropped into the chat a rendering of ture (whether low or mass or luxury) into the
built, chairs he’d designed, silkscreens from a one-storey black house with exaggerated realm of sculpture, which is to say art. At the
Pyrex Vision, his first fashion label. It was a proportions that lightly took direction from entrance would be a black-and-white sign that
survey representing every chapter of his career said “coloured people only”. The interior would
as a maker. have dark wood flooring, conveying a note of
intimacy and history. It was a living sculpture
This was right before the pandemic and the that would double as a house museum, a nod
racial protests, which would make us rethink to Black interiority and a reminder that before
the show. By July of that year, we realised it museums let Black folks into them, we used
needed to be more responsive, have a more our living rooms as places to show off our art
direct social dimension. We started thinking and our histories. Above all, the space would
about the idea of a social sculpture, a con- be autonomous; V and his collaborators would
temporary take on what V called “a Trojan set the rules for what was displayed and why.
horse”. It would be a Black space, populated
It was a way for V to play with the dynamics
of power and history that had largely kept Black
art off the white walls of art institutions. It was
also a way to show that V did everything along
what Hans Ulrich Obrist, the art historian and
artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries, in
London, calls a “DIY path”. Obrist, who collabo-
rated with V on a series of talks that considered
everything from the modern city to bookmaking,
tells me that V’s “post-medium condition” was
the result of “this idea of DIY, that the artist or
designer could do something as a way to pro-
vide instructions so then anyone could just do
it.” V “had a very concrete connection to utopia,”
Obrist explains. “What he meant by utopia is
‘something is missing,’ as he would say. I always
had the feeling that he was also interested in
producing and making things happen that were
missing.” What was missing to V was real Black
space – a place to dream, ideate, and create –
and the structure he proposed for the Brooklyn
Museum was a way to make it real.

As our dialogue went on, it became clear that
we were particularly interested in, as V put it
in one Zoom call, “what three Black kids” – V,
Sultan, and myself – could get away with in a
museum. That for him was “our North Star”.
The “dope” part of planning the exhibition was
the rare opportunity for a Black artist, architect,
and curator to make their concerns known in

“I think that there is a wave of creative
excellence that’s been coming at us, that
maybe would not have existed had Virgil
Abloh not torn down those gates.”

—ANNE PASTERNAK, DIRECTOR, BROOKLYN MUSEUM

MARCH 2022 GQ 145

the halls of one of America’s most distinguished Air Force 1’s (which he called icons), he lifted and finally as the first Black artistic director
museums. When V was not into an idea, as them into the realm of metaphor, shot through of Louis Vuitton menswear, he patiently prod-
Benji B recalled at his memorial, he would with questions about identity, labor, and value. ded other young artists, activists, architects,
politely pause, turn his head sideways, scratch These artistically elevated everyday objects rappers, and designers to action. Samuel Ross
it, and say, in his professorial drawl, “Yeaaaaah”. were a nod to art history – Duchamp, Warhol, and Luka Sabbat, Tyler, the Creator, and Heron
I told him I wanted more fashion in the show, Hammons – as well as an homage to hip-hop- Preston have all acknowledged that V helped
because I thought the audience would appre- inflected graffiti writers like Futura, Zephyr, and clarify their visions and make them real. He
ciate it. Yeaaaaah. This is not to say he wasn’t Jim Joe, who wrote wherever they saw fit. But V understood, as the old African American adage
incredibly open in our conversations. “I’m was also interested in the essence of objects, and goes, that you lift as you climb.
siked on this new sculpture I just made – and would often strip traditional luxury items down
just shot images of it, will toss it in here in case to their utilitarian purposes (“FOR WALKING” One way V did that lifting was by telling
it sparks any ideas,” he wrote in the chat, in he wrote on a pair of Off-White black leather young people to simply do what he did: try out
December 2019, referencing a monogrammed boots). It was all a way to make us reconsider every idea that came to their minds, without
LV Coffret Trésor treasure case he had refash- contemporary culture. For me, that ethos was stressing about whether they’d be successful.
ioned into an old-school boombox, mounted best encapsulated by one piece in particular. In our conversations he was always pushing for
with horns, feathers, and bike mirrors – a work PSA (2019) is a black nylon flag with two white what he called “some big shifts.” He once said
that would later appear in the Louis Vuitton words in quotes that now read like an urgent to me, after sharing a project he was working
Men’s fall-winter 2022 show at Paris Fashion warning: “QUESTION EVERYTHING”. on, “If kids you come across are special for this
Week. He didn’t want the show to privilege mission, send thru and let’s all do a project.”
one form of making over another. It was V W A S A M A S T E R of signs and symbols, and
not to be a fashion show masquerading as an spent his career upending long-settled cul- A few years back, V’s friend Oana St˘anescu,
art exhibition. tural hierarchies with playful irony. He also an architect he bonded with working on Ye’s
raised questions about what art even was: He Cruel Summer and later collaborated with on
The initial installment of the show, V’s first reminded us, for instance, that to some an the design of several Off-White stores, invited
at a museum, had been curated by Michael expensive bag is a sculpture, equal in weight him to speak at Harvard’s Graduate School of
Darling and mounted, in 2019, at the MCA and stature. Very few Black men have exer- Design. Before V, she tells me, an architect and
Chicago before travelling to the High Museum cised that level of power in our culture. To historian named Kenneth Frampton gave a
in Atlanta, the ICA Boston, and Doha’s Fire me that was worth investigating. But the real short talk. “He’s five decades almost to the day
Station. As Darling wrote, it focused on how V’s reason I decided to curate the exhibition was older than Virgil,” St˘anescu says, “and he’s the
“approach to conceptual art relies on the most because of his central creative subject: Black guy who wrote the modern history of architec-
impactful tools contemporary culture has to ture, like he’s super known.” Frampton’s talk,
offer – music, fashion, social media, celebrity – she recalls, was incredibly bleak. “It was dark
filling his work with borrowings, rebrandings,
claimings, critiques, and deconstructions that “What we want in the 21st century
have all the hallmarks of Duchampian irony.” are different models of being in
Darling presented objects such as V’s 2006 grad- the world. Virgil decided he was going
school thesis, which imagined a Chicago sky- to make a space for himself, and
scraper bending, like a tree in the wind, toward he took no prisoners.” —SIR DAVID ADJAYE
Lake Michigan; the gold plate he made to press
Jay-Z and Kanye’s Watch the Throne; the black boyhood. I had come of age in Chicago, in the as fuck,” she says. He told the bright minds of
“Queen” tennis skirt with a tutu-like silhou- same neighbourhood where V would move tomorrow, between politics and the environ-
ette he designed for Serena Williams; and The with his wife to create his work and start a ment, you guys are fucked. “I remember asking
Reality (2016), an Off-White showroom rug that family. And until V, I had never encountered him, ‘Any opportunities in this?’ And he’s like,
quoted a critical review of a collection from his a Black creative person who spoke so openly to ‘no.’ And then one hour later, Virgil comes, and
first label, Pyrex Vision. “Pyrex simply bought the next generation of Black makers. Born the he is like, ‘This is a great time to be alive’. ” The
a bunch of Rugby flannels, slapped ‘Pyrex 23’ son of Ghanaian immigrants in the suburb of brief, she remembers V telling them, was to
on the back, and resold them for an astonish- Rockford, Illinois, V always remained motivated reimagine the world they inherited.
ing markup of about 700%,” the text read. He by the curiosity and dreams of what he called
had named Pyrex for the glassware used to cook his “17-year-old self”. As a teenager, he loved hip- One way V reimagined the world was
crack cocaine, and The Reality subtly suggested hop, graffiti, low and high design, and skate- through his rule of three percent, which he con-
the convergence of two buyers: drug addicts boarding; everything he created flowed from sidered the exact amount of creative reworking
and hypebeasts in need of a fashion fix. It was a those obsessions. needed to transform an everyday object into a
provocative point about race and class and con- work of art. This controversial dogma led him
sumerism. Here he was, a Black man pushing When he went off to college, that love of to sample everything from Caravaggio’s The
a highly desirable product, not unlike the dope design grew into a fascination with engineer- Entombment of Christ to the United Nations
boys he saw on the streets of Chicago – only he ing, and then architecture, which he studied logo (until the U.N. asked him to desist). His
wasn’t being arrested but celebrated. at the Mies van der Rohe-designed campus of slight modifications left some critics feeling he
the Illinois Institute of Technology in the early wasn’t particularly innovative. “I’m inspired by
Using Darling’s framing, I was intent that aughts. And then he graduated into a totally dif- people who bring something that I think has
our Brooklyn show reveal the creative process ferent world – Kanye’s burgeoning new chapter not been seen, that is original,” designer Raf
of a Black artist who had taken the seemingly of hip-hop, where he became a kind of prophet Simons said of Off-White in a 2017 interview
disconnected cultural codes of hip-hop, high of the power of youth. First as Ye’s creative with this magazine. Those critiques didn’t mat-
fashion, design, architecture, and art, and, director, then as the founder and designer of ter to V, though. You couldn’t break that Black
using a can of spray paint, a Sharpie, and two fashion labels, Pyrex Vision and Off-White, man’s spirit. V told me that when he asked
Helvetica Neue Bold, scrambled them into a
unique visual language. You go to war with the
army you got. By writing on mundane objects
like office supplies, zip ties, flags, kites, belts,
handbags (which he called sculpture), and Nike

146 GQ MARCH 2022