British GQ - March 2022

the industry group Cotton Incorporated to who inspired his long-running collaboration Regardless, the signs of his struggle were
use their famed logo for merch, the company with Nike, and Michael Jackson, the subject of apparent in his art: An Alexander Calder–
declined because, as he recalled a representa- his sophomore fall 2019 outing at Louis Vuitton, inspired anvil, made around the time he
tive saying, they thought it would “portray cot- he was his own genre. received the news of his illness, in 2019, was
ton in a bad light”. We laughed at the thought fabricated in pink, the colour of breast cancer
of a Black man being able to portray cotton in Even at the end of his life, V kept working. awareness, and titled Pink Panther. V was suf-
a bad light. He used it anyway, making Cotton He didn’t go public with his battle against fering from cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare form
(2019), an acrylic painting that featured the cancer. I think he didn’t want his art to be of heart cancer, but to my mind the allusion
white logo sharply juxtaposed against a matte pitied. About two weeks before his death, was clear: It was his way of acknowledging that
black background. In V’s mind, anything he a PDF appeared in our WhatsApp chat with he was living with the weight of death. His sur-
took and altered was “7.0’d” – elevated to the a series of works he wanted added to the realist use of clouds in his fall 2020 presenta-
ultimate degree. show – his typographic collaborations with tion – “cloudification” in V’s vocabulary—was,
the conceptualist Lawrence Weiner, a pair of I think, a pondering of the heavens. The kite
V often said he pursued these projects to Louis Vuitton films, his Rocawear painting, a motif in his work was, it seems, a symbol of
satisfy the curiosities of his younger self. But bronze chair and bench. “Phase 1,” he said. “If boyhood. The matte grey-on-grey LV clock he
he also had another, more transgressive moti- more works in the archive come to mind I will gave guests at that show, hands wound coun-
vation. He wanted to wag a finger in the faces package and send.” I wrote that I’d review the terclockwise, moving back in time, suggested
of those he called the “purists” – members of objects and update the exhibition checklist. he was an artist nearing the end.
high culture’s self-serious establishment, even It was our last exchange. I heard of his death as I
as he became accepted among their ranks. As was heading to the airport to fly to Miami, where, The only quote from V in his memorial
the celebrated Dutch architect and theorist the week of Art Basel, he was to stage his LV brochure, designed by Sultan to reference an
Rem Koolhaas said in a 2019 panel discussion, Spring/Summer 2022 spin-off show. I was meant old John Cage poster and evoke the minimal-
V used architecture as “an alibi to enter ter- to meet him for the first in a series of interviews ism of the conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, was a
ritories to which it has not been invited”. He that would form a profile for this magazine. reminder of his joie de vivre and childlike curi-
was, Koolhaas continued, part of a generation osity: “I’m exploring the self-endowed freedom
of “self-declared wunderkinds amplified by The Miami show, held on a makeshift barge to create. Everyday language, grammar, and my
self-organised social media,” a new guard who docked off Miami Marine Stadium, a deteri- own personal philosophies are equal territory
have accelerated the breakup of borders around orating 60-year-old structure marooned in to mine as the art canon.”
professions. V, for his part, explained his dis- Biscayne Bay, was supposed to celebrate the
ruptive spirit as a way to help the “tourists” – as work V made during the first two years of the Toward the end of the service, after a musi-
he termed the younger generation, learn from pandemic that hadn’t been presented to a live cal tribute from Lauryn Hill, Arthur Jafa and
and get past the older cultural gatekeepers. audience. Instead, it became a sombre tribute Theaster Gates rose from their seats and walked
to the artist’s life, lit up, somewhat jarringly, to the podium. Framed by white roses, Jafa took
As the Ghanaian British architect Sir David with fireworks. Ye, Pharrell, A$AP Rocky, out his iPhone and read an elegy he’d written, a
Adjaye tells me, “Virgil used his training as an Rihanna, and the Arnault family were all in poem titled “Virgil”. One line in particular struck
architect, knowing he wasn’t going to build attendance, as were droves of stylists, design- me: “He showed us what God looks like, not in
buildings, to imagine different possibilities. ers, and friends. A monumental multicoloured the / heavens, not in our dreams, but God in the
What we want in the 21st century are differ- sculpture of V, dressed in jeans, an LV sweater, / flesh, in the body, in this life.”
ent models of being in the world. He decided and his singular oversized glasses, and hold-
he was going to make a space for himself, and ing what appears to be a large portfolio, was In the wake of his death, I came to under-
he took no prisoners.” For St˘anescu, his energy erected at the entrance of the show. stand what Jafa may have meant by “God in
was more anarchic. “In a way, I think it was the flesh”. There was something divinely
chaos that he thrived on,” she explains. “He I sat in the front row, in shock, watching inspired about the urgency of V’s output. He
wasn’t interested in a slick, clean narrative.” V two men sob uncontrollably as a procession wanted to show us what was possible with
had “this kind of healthy disrespect towards of young male models came down the runway, a youthful vision. Yet as prolific as he was,
authority and anyone in that position,” she says. each representing a different archetype of boy- V was not in a race against time; he watched
“So any gesture then, whether with a museum, ish masculinity – skater, rapper, jock, gender and worked the clock better than most. Perhaps
whether with galleries…was like a constant queer, all dressed in the palette of the rainbow. he was never racing to create objects because
fuck you.” The collection, which featured tulle shirts; art-making was such a natural process for
bright furs; chicly unconventional, slightly him, so inherently a part of who he was. I have
O N C E V C A L L E D M E to get some advice on a baggy suiting; and spirited leather goods, was always been struck by the title of a series of
photographer he wanted to hire for a fashion as optimistic as ever. At the end of the show, lightbox portraits he made in London with the
campaign. He was after the kind of freedom the artisans from V’s atelier came to the run- German fashion photographer Juergen Teller.
of expression found by Black creatives in, say, way dressed in white and took a bow. The Black One image shows V sitting on a pink stability
the Vibe magazine of the 1990s. And he felt sti- designer best positioned to create fashion’s first ball posing alongside some of his art – a large
fled. Toward the end of the call, almost as an Black heritage brand was gone. inflatable T-Rex, a paint-covered yellow jacket,
aside, he said, “The world wasn’t designed for a United Nations flag taped to the white wall.
us.” As a 6-foot-3 Black man, he felt that the V never mentioned his battle with cancer “What is Virgil Abloh?” the title asks. The use
world didn’t take him into account, physically to me, but a mutual friend told me the news. of “what” and not “who” suggests the artist saw
or spiritually. So he created another world that Just before we began our collaboration, V himself as an object. As I continue to curate
did – blowing up Black boys into large-scale, had taken a three-month break, presumably his exhibition, which is scheduled to open this
fashionable sculptures; making graffiti-laden to undergo treatment. When he returned summer, that’s how I’ve come to see him. To me,
paintings; designing gold- and diamond- and I first saw him on Zoom, I was stunned. V is the kite he so often referenced, adroitly sail-
encrusted paperclip necklaces. Remaking I hardly knew him and didn’t want to ask about ing through a pristine blue sky. As I picture it,
objects in his own image was a message to any his health, but I was concerned. Although I can make out a message, written in Helvetica
young Black kid that their desires and tastes he had publicly said that his constant travel- Neue: Virgil Abloh was here.
mattered, that had they not been ignored, the ing and multitasking had taken a toll on his
world’s cultural hierarchies would look differ- health, I realised that that wasn’t the full story. antwaun sargent is the curator of “Virgil
ent. Like Michael Jordan, V’s hometown hero I wanted to know whether he would be OK. Abloh: Figures of Speech,” which will open at
Yet I refrained from asking. He wanted privacy the Brooklyn Museum this summer.
to focus on his work, and I gave it to him.

MARCH 2022 GQ 147

Men’s fashion
is as big and
exciting right now
as it’s ever been.
Which makes it
the perfect
time to take a
look at some
of the legendary
pieces from
fashion history
that got us here.
Photographs
by Martin Brown

148 GQ MARCH 2022

MARCH 2022 GQ 149

We’re living in a particularly great moment in menswear,
and not just for the obvious reasons. Yes, the big fashion
brands are devoting more creativity and resources than
ever to the once-staid category. And yes, we’ve never
had a more robust and interesting tier of independent
designers, mavericks, and visionaries reinventing the
business. But more than all that, there’s a new cause
for excitement. A thriving network of fresh subcultures
are developing around men’s style, demonstrating that
fashion isn’t merely about what you buy and wear – it’s
something you can participate in, something with layers
of meaning and history that rewards those who lean in for
a closer look. The archival scene – an informal network
of vintage-fashion dealers, collectors, and superfans
– has turned the masterpieces of collections past into
wearable, even essential, pieces of the menswear
universe of the present. Dark-fashion disciples, sneaker
freaks, watch nuts – all of these communities have
helped keep the best parts of their respective histories
in rotation today. These 50 pieces were nearly all
sourced online, and for the right price, if you’re lucky
enough to stumble upon your size, you can buy and enjoy
them all. And if these holy grails don’t move you, there
are surely 50 more out there, waiting to be discovered.

← 1. CRAIG 4. TAKASHI the famous “monster 2
GREEN MURAKAMI X trucks” for your feet, as 3
Quilted Worker Jacket LOUIS VUITTON Owens called them, had
Spring/Summer 2017 Monogramouflage to be revised to avoid legal
Keepall trouble with Nike. – N.J.
Craig Green emerged 2008
as a star of the London 7. NUMBER
fashion scene in 2013, One of the all-time (N)INE
but what’s kept him vital greatest fashion Class Ring
and important after nearly collaborations was Autumn/Winter 2005
a decade in business Louis Vuitton under the
is his willingness to creative direction of Marc Japanese designer
iterate and experiment Jacobs and artist Takashi Takahiro Miyashita was
with his signature worker Murakami, which debuted heavily influenced by
jacket – as he has with on the runway in 2003. American grunge culture
this audacious baroque The rainbow-print LV throughout his time at
patchwork. – Yang-Yi Goh monogram got Number (N)ine, which
the most play then, but he ran from 1996 until
2. UNDERCOVER this more subtle camo 2009. This class ring is
85 Denim from 2008 has stood the a perfect emblem for his
Autumn/Winter 2005 test of time. – N.J. fascination with that era’s
disenchanted youth, and
Skinny, distressed denim 5. TOM FORD Kurt Cobain, their pied
has been a men’s fashion Suede Patchwork Jacket piper. – N.J.
staple for going on 20 Spring/Summer 2016
years now, but no one 8. GIVENCHY
has gone as far with the Tom Ford is both cowboy Rottweiler Tee
shredding, blowouts, and and cosmopolite – a Autumn/Winter 2011
patches as Undercover’s reputation epitomised
punk-obsessed designer by this jacket made When this design debuted,
Jun Takahashi. from camo blobs of red it cemented Riccardo Tisci
– Noah Johnson and white suede, and firmly into the celebrity-
constructed with all fashion firmament.
3. RAF SIMONS the savoir faire of his Rihanna, Kanye, Usher,
Spiderweb Sweater exacting tailoring. The Kevin Hart, Meek Mill,
Autumn/Winter 1998 jacket, inspired by the Rick Ross, Tyga, A$AP
’60s and lava lamps, Rocky, Future, P!nk, and
Simons borrowed equally shows off Ford’s ability even Liv Tyler joined the
from punk and techno for to turn something obvious cult of the canine. The
one of his most revered into something worthy Givenchy Rottweiler is
bodies of work, known of forgoing rent. a true piece of fashion
as the Radioactivity – Rachel Tashjian history – a marker of the
collection. The destroyed coming streetwear-
spiderweb knits were 6. RICK OWENS meets-runway revolution –
his version of venerated Geobaskets and one of the most iconic
designer Vivienne Autumn/Winter 2006 graphic tees of all time.
Westwood’s sweaters – Cam Wolf
made famous by Sex Known as the Rick Owens
Pistols frontman Johnny Dunks, rumour has it that
Rotten. – N.J. this original iteration of

150 GQ MARCH 2022

STYLIST, JOHNNY MACHADO. RICK OWENS: PHOTOGRAPH, COURTESY OF GROUPIE.

45

6
87

MARCH 2022 GQ 151

9. POLO RALPH 9 10
L AU R E N 11 12
Sitting Bear Sweater 13 14
2002

In 1990, the employees at
Ralph Lauren got the designer
and his brother Jerry a pair
of Steiff teddy bears dressed
like them. That gift was the
inspiration for the first Polo
Bears, released in 1991. They
sold out quickly and the
mascot now fronts some of
Lauren’s most collectible
gear. – C.W.

10. NIKE
Air Jordan 1 High Chicago
1985

Before the Jordan 1’s were
released in 1985, sneakers
were just shoes. But after
Jordan flew from the free
throw line, they became so
much more. Strip away all the
history, though, and they’re
still probably the coolest-
looking pair of sneakers on
earth. – C.W.

11. ISSEY SPORT
Sport Caretag Bomber
1970s

Decades before sportswear
and high fashion collided,
Issey Miyake Inc. launched IS
– a youth-focussed sub-label
helmed by the rising designer
Tsumori Chisato. Its signature
motif was a blown-up set of
laundry instructions, often
printed or embroidered on the
back of jackets such as this
leather-sleeve varsity. – Y.G.

12. MAISON
MARTIN
MARGIELA X H&M
Leather Belt Jacket
2012

In a brilliant statement of
fashion democracy, Martin
Margiela remade some
of his classics, including
this jacket fashioned from
leather belts, originally part
of the designer’s A/W 2006
collection, for the masses.
After Young Thug wore it in
a 2015 Rae Sremmurd music
video, it became a classic all
over again. – R.T.

13. JIL SANDER
Marble Sweater
Autumn/Winter 2008

While Raf Simons’s most
sought-after pieces may be
from his dystopian-punk
namesake collections, the
work he did for Jil Sander
remains some of his most
refined. The A/W 2008
collection featured marbled
knits that blew past mere
trompe l’oeil into a sublime
rendering of stone. – R.T.

14. SUPREME X
THE NORTH FACE
Nuptse Down Jacket
2011

Supreme’s romance with
The North Face started back
in 2007 but just might have
peaked with this leopard-print
700-fill goose down Nuptse –
a jacket built for the coldest
of winters. – N.J.

152 GQ MARCH 2022

15. AWGE X
NEEDLES
Track Pants
Spring/Summer 2019

The Japanese brand Needles
went from relative obscurity
to streetwear superstardom
thanks to its A$AP Rocky-
approved track pants. So it
was fitting when the rapper’s
multifaceted creative agency
AWGE dropped a Needles
collab. – N.J.

16. CAROL
CHRISTIAN POELL
Prosthetic Drip Boots
2010

The Austrian leather
technician has spent his
career dodging mainstream
fashion fame, crafting totally
original, meticulously made
footwear and clothing for his
cult of fans. The enigmatic
designer’s drippy, sole-dipped
boots are his most coveted

16 design. – N.J.

17. HELMUT LANG
Bulletproof Vest
Autumn/Winter 1997

Helmut Lang retired from
fashion in 2005, but he
just might be the reason
why so much tactical military
gear is incorporated into
streetwear today, and the
iconic “bulletproof
vest” is one of his most
enduring designs. – N.J.

18. MARNI
Mohair Cardigan
Autumn/Winter 2019

SUPREME X THE NORTH FACE: PHOTOGRAPHS, COURTESY OF BRANDS. AWGE X NEEDLES: PHOTOGRAPHS, COURTESY OF BRANDS. The hype in menswear

that was once reserved for

things like logo hoodies and

sneakers has recently been

channeled into…big and

15 17 fuzzy mohair sweaters?
That’s right, and this version

by Marni creative director

Francesco Risso

helped launch the wave –

and remains one of the

best examples. – C.W.

19. GOYARD
Croisière Bag
Year unknown

“The Goyard so hard,”
Kanye once rapped about
his luggage. But this duffel
from the age-old Parisian
house is anything but:
It’s soft and supple, which
allows the monogramming
along its canvas to
shimmer and shine. – Y.G.

20

20. PALACE
Chanel Logo Sweater
2009

When Palace founder Lev
Tanju was getting the fledgling
skate brand off the ground in
2009, his brash bootlegging
(which, incidentally,
foreshadowed the label’s
ambitions in the fashion
world) turned heads. Including
Rihanna’s, who, when she
wore a Palace tee bearing
Versace’s Medusa head
logo, launched Palace into
the stratosphere.
– Samuel Hine

19 18

MARCH 2022 GQ 153

21. BALENCIAGA 21 22
Seven-Layer Jacket 25 23
Autumn/Winter 2018 24

For his technologically
innovative A/W 2018
collection, creative director
Demna made 3D scans of
models to create body moulds
on the computer, which were
then printed and bonded
with traditional materials.
Contrasting with these
streamlined pieces was the
seven-layer jacket, the hero
piece and Demna’s sportswear
magnum opus: a series of
voluminous layered outerwear
that echoed Cristóbal
Balenciaga’s bulbous
opera coats. – R.T.

22. ROLEX
Cosmograph Daytona
2016

It’s no overstatement to say
that the Daytona, which
was first released in 1963, is
the timepiece that shaped
the horological taste of an
entire generation and set the
standard for modern Rolex
collecting. Famously, Paul
Newman’s Daytona briefly
held the title of most expensive
wristwatch in the world when
it sold for nearly £13.2 million
in 2017. Collectors worldwide
now devote extreme efforts
to hoarding the sweet-shop
variety of Daytonas. – C.W.

23. RAF SIMONS X
STERLING RUBY
Bleached Patch Coat
Autumn/Winter 2014

After years of friendship,
Simons and California
artist Sterling Ruby finally
gave high-fashion heads
what they’d been craving:
a proper joint collection,
featuring Simons’ signature
oversized silhouettes
made from bleached
fabrics hand-worked by
Ruby himself. – S.H.

24. DRIES VAN
NOTEN
Backzip Bomber
Autumn/Winter 2014

This overdyed, faded,
washed, worn-in bomber,
with beefy proportions that
recall a princely blouse,
features defining qualities
of Van Noten’s work done in
a singular way – a workwear
staple reimagined with
the designer’s cold
and clean finesse. – R.T.

25. MAISON
MARTIN
MARGIELA
German Army Trainer
1999

Long before Margiela began
making the Replica sneaker
(a reproduction of the ’70s-era
German army trainer), they
reportedly sold actual
vintage GATs – purchased
in bulk from surplus stores,
hand-painted and scrawled
upon in the studio, then
flipped at a monumental
markup. Today the going price
for these would make
Martin blush. – Y.G.

154 GQ MARCH 2022

STÜSSY: PHOTOGRAPH, COURTESY OF BRAND. COMME DES GARÇONS HOMME: PHOTOGRAPH, COURTESY OF ANTHONY PETRUZZI/FRACTURE. 26. STÜSSY
Tribe Varsity Jacket
1990
The International Stüssy Tribe
Jacket was a rite of passage
for early members of the
global streetwear community.
Personalised and gifted
directly by Shawn Stüssy
himself, it is also the piece that
solidified the varsity jacket as
an essential piece
of modern menswear. – N.J.

27. NUMBER
(N)INE
Hybrid Cargo Pants
Autumn/Winter 2005
One of the most sought-after
pieces by men’s fashion
archivists – and another
garment of historical
significance from designer
Takahiro Miyashita – the
hybrid cargos aren’t exactly
based on anything Nirvana
wore but are something
you could imagine they
would have worn had
they started out in Tokyo
instead of Seattle. – N.J.

28. NIKE
Air Yeezy 2 Red October
2014
During his short stint
collaborating with Nike, Kanye
delivered several hit sneakers,
but only the Red Octobers
beguiled collectors. The shoe
was teased in the autumn of
2012, but soon after, Kanye
jumped ship to Adidas,

26 casting doubt that these

shoes would ever be released.
Then, after collectors worked
themselves up for more than
a year, Nike, one random
Sunday in 2014, tweeted a link
to buy them. Ten minutes later,
they were gone. – C.W.

29. COMME DES
GARÇONS HOMME
Split Logo Work Jacket
Autumn/Winter 2001
All CdG pieces that feature
this asymmetrical graphic
arrangement are highly
collectible. But the things
to appreciate about
this otherwise simple
work jacket are the sturdy
cotton twill and durable
construction. Evidence
that Rei Kawakubo and
Comme des Garçons
Homme designer Junya
Watanabe care about
quality as much as they

29 do about concept. – N.J.

28 27

MARCH 2022 GQ 155

30. RAF SIMONS 30 31
Poltergeist Parka 34 32
Autumn/Winter 2005
33
Music has been the driving
force behind much of his
oeuvre, but for his History
of My World collection the
Belgian iconoclast looked
to cinema, specifically
Poltergeist and Fascination.
Collaged with imagery from
the films, this otherwise
classic fishtail parka
is one of the designers
most-worshipped pieces,
demanding over £11,000 on
the second-hand market. – N.J.

31. KAPITAL
Boro Denim Jacket
2019

Kapital elevates a true-blue
American icon – the denim
trucker jacket – to the level
of art using traditional
Japanese craftsmanship.
This patchwork is actually
a time-honoured technique
of sashiko stitching, the
mending of a garment using
a running stitch to resemble
the look of boro, a technique
in which scraps of fabric are
sewn together. – Y.G.

32. TOM SACHS X
NIKECRAFT
Mars Yard 2.0
2017

Artist Tom Sachs originally
designed this shoe to
brave NASA’s Mars Yard in
Pasadena, which simulates
conditions on the red planet.
But galactic travel aside, real
courage is pulling the trigger
and actually wearing the
sneakers that now sell for
upwards of £7,500, should
you locate a pair. – C.W.

33. YOHJI
YAMAMOTO
Saeko Button-Down
Spring/Summer 2002

While men’s fashion was
focused on slick suits
and constricting denim in
2002, this collection was
loose and whimsical, and it
established the legendary
Japanese designer as one
of contemporary fashion’s
foremost humorists: a pinup
on a button-down is a classic
Yamamoto-ism. – R.T.

34. CHROME
HEARTS
Customised Vintage Levi’s
2021

Rather than making its own
jeans, the Los Angeles-based
fine-jewellery-for-bikers
brand Chrome Hearts takes a
perfectly faded pair of vintage
Levi’s 501s or 505s and turns
every detail into a rock ’n’
roll riff. The zippers, button
fly, and even the rivets are
painstakingly remade with
Chrome Hearts-grade silver,
and the brand’s signature
leather crosses are stitched
all over. The craftsmanship
turned a pair of £40 jeans
into one of the most-coveted
possessions in fashion. – C.W.

156 GQ MARCH 2022

35. JUNYA
WATANABE
Bondage Pants
Spring/Summer 2003

Upcycling is all the rage
now, but back in the 2000s,
when these cargo pants
were released, Watanabe was
cutting up old military garb
and stitching it back together
to make freaky bondage pants,
rather than trying
to be green. – N.J.

36. BERLUTI
Caractère Instinct Boots
Autumn/Winter 2018

One of the cruelest breakups

in recent fashion memory

was the parting of Haider

Ackermann from Berluti after

the Colombian-born French

designer released only three

crisp, beautiful collections.

Few pieces from his tenure

36 embody the sexy elegance
he brought to the storied

leather house quite like the

Caractère Instinct boots,

which Timothée Chalamet

famously wore to the

2018 Oscars. – S.H.

37. JEAN PAUL
GAULTIER
Safe Sex Tattoo Top
1995-1996

Jean Paul Gaultier was
operating at the height of
his creative prowess when
he turned out a collection
he called “Pin-Up Boys”.
It was a masterful merging of
global fashion references and
astute social commentary,
and a landmark moment
in queer fashion history.
Released around the same
time was this shirt imagining
a post-AIDS world in the
designer’s signature mesh,
which stretches over the body
like a second skin of tattoos or
a muscly pair of tights. – R.T.

38. OFF-WHITE

Oversized Patchwork

35 37 Flannel Shirt
Autumn/Winter 2015

Pieces from the early days
of Virgil Abloh’s Off-White,
before his tenure at Louis
Vuitton, are tough to find.
Especially rare are gems
like this one from his third
collection. Abloh said
that the line was inspired
by mountain climbers
in Jackson Hole – he
admired their ambition
to get to the top. – N.J.

39. KID CUDI X
SURFACE TO AIR
Fire Jacket V1
2011

Before the great merch
revolution swept through
music and film and food and
every other industry, there
was this “Thriller”-inspired
jacket designed by Kid Cudi
for Parisian brand Surface to
Air. Its popularity was a sign
of things to come for Cudi and
for merch but not so much
for the brand, which went
dormant in 2015. – N.J.

39 38

MARCH 2022 GQ 157

40. UNDERCOVER 40 41
Klaus Leather Jacket 45 42
Spring/Summer 2006
43
Fans of German prog rock and
esoteric Japanese fashion are
going to love Undercover’s
“The Amazing Tale of Zamiang”
collection, which features this
jacket made from leather
and scraps of fictitious rock
band T-shirts. – N.J.

41. ANN
DEMEULE-
MEESTER
Backlace Boots
Autumn/Winter 2010

From the undisputed queen of
combat boots, Ann D’s unique
take on utility footwear is one
for the history books. These
are still in production, but the
older pairs with bigger lugs are
the most desirable. – N.J.

42. KAPITAL
Sashiko Boa Fleece
Autumn/Winter 2018

Members of the cult of
Kapital will travel across
many seas to reach Kojima,
Japan, in order to shop for
far-out remixes of outdoor
and military garb at the
label’s HQ. The Boa fleece is
an especially desired prize.
With finger-deep pile and a
traditional Japanese sashiko
pattern, it’s like something
out of a Yosemite climber’s
waviest acid trip. – S.H.

43. GUCCI
Horsebit Loafer
1953

There is still no better
way to let people know you live
a life swaddled in luxury and
elegance than with a pair of
Gucci horsebit loafers. The
originals were released in
the ’50s and quickly became
an upper crust staple. Now,
thanks to designer Alessandro
Michele, they’ve been revived
and reinvented as
an international symbol
of cool. – C.W.

44. WALTER VAN
BEIRENDONCK
Lightning Bracelet
Spring/Summer 2022

The Antwerp Six were a
band of radical Belgian
designers who have had
an outsize influence on
fashion since the ’80s, and
the surrealist among their
ranks, Van Beirendonck, has
always found surprising
ways to make his mark – such
as with this blinged-out
embroidered bracelet. – N.J.

45. HAIDER
ACKERMANN
Velvet Bomber
Autumn/Winter 2015

Kanye wore this bomber
just after it was released
back in 2015 and suddenly
everyone in the world wanted
one. Demand was so great
that Ackermann rereleased it
in 2020. – N.J.

445

158 GQ MARCH 2022

46 46. PRADA
50 47 Impossible True Love Shirt
49 48 Autumn/Winter 2016

Miuccia Prada introduced her
now-standard printed bowling
shirts by enlisting French artist
Christophe Chemin to portray
mash-ups of art-historical
masterworks and pop-culture
ephemera. His image of Elvis
locking lips with Cleopatra
in the foreground of a work
by Renaissance miniaturist
Cristoforo de Predis was one
of 2016’s most popular street-
style garms. – R.T.

47. TAKAHIRO-
MIYASHITA
THE SOLOIST
Face Mask Bag
Autumn/Winter 2018

Grocery tote? Or full-on
apocalypse face mask? This
unique and prescient piece
from The Soloist is both.
Designer Takahiro Miyashita
makes a compelling case
for fashion that is inventive,
unusual, and fun. – N.J.

48. LEVI’S
Type II Jacket
1953

Check your closet – if you’ve
got a Levi’s denim jacket,
it’s probably the Type III.
But real heads know that
it’s all about the Type II,
which was first sold in 1953
and discontinued in 1961.
Its boxy fit and pleated front
was immortalised on Martin
Sheen’s back in Badlands,
and now original versions
can sell for thousands
to Americana nuts and
vintage completists. – S.H.

49. NIKE X MMW
Technical Shorts
2018

Debuted in 2018 amid a
glut of fashion-sportswear
crossover collabs, Nike
x MMW stood out for its
tactical silhouettes, hardcore
colourways, and obsessively
fine-tuned fits. Worn by a
legion of celebrities and
models, from boutique fitness
classes to the streets of Paris
during Fashion Week, the
collection established 1017
Alyx 9SM designer Matthew
Williams as a major creative
force, and positioned him
to take up the reins
at a prestigious fashion
house, as he did with
Givenchy in 2020. – S.H.

50. HELMUT LANG
Astro Jacket
Autumn/Winter 1999

Helmut Lang’s archive is
full of bona fide holy grails.
The Astro Jacket came in
many iterations – short, long,
metallic, with fur or without –
and has become an essential
piece for any respectable
collector. The designer
had thousands of pieces
in his archive shredded as
part of a 2011 art project.
Which has made the current
craze for his work that
much more feverish – and
the prices that much more
jaw-dropping. – N.J.

MARCH 2022 GQ 159

Fifty years after he gave us CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT
The Godfather, the iconic director
is chasing his grandest project yet –
and putting up more than £80 million
of his own money to prove his best
work is still ahead of him.

BY ZACH BARON PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM GOLDBERG

CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT CREDIT

MARCH 2022 GQ 161

Ford Coppola lives – as he has in one way or another since directing 1972’s
The Godfather – in splendour, loosely held splendour. In the ensuing five
decades, Coppola has filed for bankruptcy at least once and has been expelled
from Hollywood more than once. But splendour nonetheless. His primary
residence is in the Napa Valley, on the grounds of a once-great vineyard,
Inglenook, that Coppola has spent the past 47 years making great again.
There is a grand old château here, where the wine used to be made, and a
state-of-the-art facility where wine is made now. There is a carriage house
that holds a film-editing suite and Coppola’s personal film archive – shooting
scripts for The Cotton Club and Jack and The Outsiders; the written score for
Bram Stoker’s Dracula; research material for The Godfather Part III. There is a
two-storey guest barn on a mossy edge of the property, where his children often
stay, and an old Victorian house built by a sea captain, where the Coppolas
raised their family and where they still entertain, though they have since built
themselves another house to live in. There are roaming gangs of wild turkeys
among the trees and creeping vines and an outdoor fountain designed by
Dean Tavoularis, the set designer of The Godfather. There is, in almost every
corner of this place, something beautiful: a first edition of Leaves of Grass;
a painting by Akira Kurosawa or Robert De Niro Sr.; a photo of Coppola’s
daughter, Sofia, embracing Coppola’s old friend George Lucas.

Coppola, who is 82, moves between these film business and then, spectacularly, in the Pavilion of Parting – you’ll never forget it.”
various buildings in a Tesla or a Nissan Leaf wine business. His second fortune has allowed Coppola likes to describe himself as a
that he drives at alarming speed, or on foot, him to spend most of his time here now, he said,
bent over at the waist as if walking into a pow- reading things like the 18th-century Chinese “second-rate film director,” paraphrasing the
erful wind. He has already told me that I’m novel Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the lon- composer Richard Strauss: “But I’m a first-rate
too impressed with what he owns, what he’s gest books ever written. “They spend their time second-rate film director.” In reality, of course,
had and lost and gained again. “That’s what inventing poetic names for things,” Coppola Coppola has directed more than one of the great-
you’re having trouble with, really,” he said. “You told me about the characters in the novel. “For est movies ever made. Anyone who has worked
are meeting a guy who basically can tell you example, if I were to say ‘hello’ to you, I should on a film will tell you that luck plays a role, that
quite honestly my motive in doing what I did have met you on the Steps of Friendly Greetings it’s a collaborative medium, that art and com-
in my life was never to make a lot of money.” He and greeted you there. And when I say goodbye merce and dead-eyed executives and feckless
grinned. “Ironically, I did what I wanted to do to you, I should take you into the Pavilion of actors all come together to make something
and I also made a lot of money.” A brief pause. Parting. And it’s the sort of attitude of making beyond the director’s control, sometimes for
“That’s a joke.” everything in life beautiful and a ritual of a kind. better, often for worse. But Coppola, for a time,
And you can do it! I’ll say goodbye to you in the played by other rules entirely. After winning an
But he has made a lot of money: first in the Academy Award for the screenplay for 1970’s

162 GQ MARCH 2022

Patton, Coppola went on to make, consecutively, make it, and the more like a dream in me that 85-year-old, 300-pound men – not that I was
The Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974), I do it, the harder it will be to finance. And the ever that weight, but I was always in that vicin-
The Godfather Part II (1974), and Apocalypse longer it will earn money because people will ity – walking around. So I understood that my
Now (1979). To point out that Coppola won five be spending the next 50 years trying to think: weight was going to be the factor limiting my
Oscars by the time he was 36 is to understate What’s really in Megalopolis? What is he say- life.” It had been three years since his trip to
what was going on at this time; better to just say ing? What does that mean when that happens?” Duke, he said, and his body was just now getting
that for a while he saw something like the face of used to what it had become.
God, and leave it at that. And so this is Coppola’s plan. He is going
to take some £90 million of his own fortune, During the worst of Covid, his whole fam-
This year marks the 50th anniversary of The at 82 years of age, and make the damn ily had been here: his two filmmaker children,
Godfather’s release. Nominally, this is why I’ve movie himself. Roman and Sofia, and their children, all of
been invited here, to discuss the film and par- them having dinner together every night. The
ticipate in what has become a familiar ritual T H E F I R S T T I M E we met, it was for lunch in kids had left again, but Coppola said he hadn’t
for Coppola as past anniversaries have come the solarium of Coppola’s old home. I’d come travelled much, despite the fact that he and
and gone. But Coppola’s relationship to The over from the rambling house he’d invited me his wife own hotels in Belize and Italy, among
Godfather is complicated. “That film ruined to stay in on a remote part of his property. This other places. “I find that as I get older, I become
me,” he told me, “in the sense that it was so is Coppola’s way: a hospitality that is so total it much more of a hermit,” he said. “It’s what I am.
successful that everything I did was compared feels like intimacy. And so I’d woken that morn- I was always alone as a kid.”
to it.” Coppola still has fascinating things to ing to the sound of a creek roaring and watched
say about the film and will do so in the course the sun dawn sleepily above the grapevines If you know anything about Coppola’s busy
of our conversations. But what he’s really Coppola spends much of his time these days life, this statement seems improbable. But it is
interested in talking about is something else. obsessing over. Coppola arrived for lunch in a true he had a lonely childhood. Coppola was
Something new. yellow shirt, an ascot, and a zip-up sweater, his born in Detroit but grew up around New York
hair rakishly pushed back. He removed from City, where he spent some time bedridden and
It is a film called Megalopolis, and Coppola his pocket a pair of hearing aids – “I did a lot isolated with polio. His father was a musician
has been trying to make it, intermittently, of research,” he said. “Eventually, I came up who moved the family constantly as he pursued
for more than 40 years. If I could summarise with the fact that the best hearing aid of all was work. By the time Coppola had graduated high
the plot for you in a concise way, I would, but the one that you could get from Costco” – but school, he had gone to more than 20 different
I can’t, because Coppola can’t either. Ask him. otherwise seemed almost frighteningly youth- schools. “I was always the new kid,” he said. “I
“It’s very simple,” he’ll say. “The premise of ful. The willful stamina you see exhibited by never had any friends. I was pretty much a loner
Megalopolis? Well, it’s basically…I would ask Coppola in old documentaries such as Hearts of and an outsider. And it made my big desire to
you a question, first of all: Do you know much Darkness or Filmmaker is still exactly what you be one of the group, which is why I like theatre.”
about utopia?” see now: like he’s going to talk and talk and talk
until everything makes sense and everyone gets He is a big personality from a family of big
The best I can do, after literally hours talking in line. Coppola was noticeably thin, the result, personalities. “My mother was very beautiful,”
about it with him, is this: It’s a love story that is he said, of a sustained stay a few years back at a Coppola recalled. “My mother looked like Hedy
also a philosophical investigation of the nature place in North Carolina called the Duke Health & Lamarr. Everyone would say, ‘Oh, what a beau-
of man; it’s set in New York, but a New York Fitness Center. He scrutinised me carefully. tiful mother you are! She looks like a movie star.’
steeped in echoes of ancient Rome; its scale My father was a concert flutist. Which was sort
and ambition are vast enough that Coppola has “How old are you?” he asked. of like, for years I thought he was a magician
estimated that it will cost around £90 million to “Thirty-nine,” I told him. – but he was a musician! So I had a very charis-
make. What he dreams about, he said, is creat- “Right. So, when I was your age, I was quite matic family.” He worshipped his older brother,
ing something like It’s a Wonderful Life – a film successful. But I was very overweight. So you August Floyd Coppola, and styled his name the
everyone goes to see, once a year, forever. “On are fortunate. Now, are you married?” same way in imitation. His younger sister is the
New Year’s Eve, instead of talking about the fact “I am,” I told him. actress Talia Shire. Growing up, Coppola was
that you’re going to give up carbohydrates, I’d “So you’re lucky that you’re that trim,” he always the ordinary one in his family, he said,
like this one question to be discussed, which is: said, earnestly. and his success, when it came, had a somewhat
Is the society we live in the only one available to Coppola told me that as part of preparing to destabilising effect on his parents and siblings
us? And discuss it.” make Megalopolis – and after seeing himself on – particularly his father, who was ambitious but
TV during an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s thwarted, creatively. “My father used to go in
Somehow, Megalopolis will provoke exactly show – he’d made a concerted effort to lose the city and work as a musician,” Coppola told
this discussion, Coppola hopes. Annually. weight. “I realised that there are not a lot of me. “And apparently he had a mystic he would
see, and he came home happy one day. Totally
You may be wondering at this point: “I was always the happy. Because his mystic had said that one day
What Hollywood studio, in the age of new kid. I never he would be a household word, his name. And
Marvel, will fund such a grand, ambitious, had any friends. we all had cannoli. My brother later laughed. He
impossible-to-summarise project? How do I was a loner and said: ‘Yes, [Coppola] would be a household word,
executives at these companies react when he but it wasn’t him, it was you!’ ”
describes the film to them? an outsider.
And it made my Coppola went to Hofstra to study theatre,
“Same way they did,” Coppola answered, big desire to be one and then to UCLA for film school. But he was
“when I had won five Oscars and was the hot- of the group. ” disappointed by Hollywood almost immedi-
test film director in town and walked in with ately: “I got the number pretty fast in LA that
Apocalypse Now and said, ‘I’d like to make this it wasn’t like the theatre troupe that I dreamed
next.’ I own Apocalypse Now. Do you know of being part of. It was extremely hierarchical.
why I own Apocalypse Now? Because no one You couldn’t even get into the studio if your
else wanted it. So imagine, if that was the father didn’t have a job there.” Still, Coppola
case when I was 33 or whatever the age and found ways to make movies right away: nudie
I had won every award and had broken every pictures, films for legendary producer and tal-
record and still absolutely no one wanted to ent-spotter Roger Corman, and his first two stu-
join me” – imagine how they’re reacting now, to dio projects – You’re a Big Boy Now, his UCLA
present-day Francis Ford Coppola. But, he said,
“I know that Megalopolis, the more personal I

MARCH 2022 GQ 163

Coppola, at 82, feels closer than ever to finally commencing work on Megalopolis, an audacious film project he’s been chasing for 40 years.

164 GQ MARCH 2022

thesis project that was released by Warner Bros. Paramount owned the rights to a novel called Godfather is this dark, boring, dull movie.’ And
in 1966 and garnered Geraldine Page an Oscar The Godfather, which was then climbing the he said, ‘Yeah, I guess you’re right.’ ”
nomination; and 1968’s Finian’s Rainbow, a best-seller list, and though no one had partic-
Broadway adaptation that starred Fred Astaire ularly high hopes for an adaptation, the stu- What Coppola told me next, however, he
and Petula Clark. Neither film was a hit, and it dio asked Coppola, now somewhat humbled, says less frequently, and it perhaps reveals
was while shooting 1969’s The Rain People, a if he’d direct it. At first he said no. “I never something more true, and less valedictory,
movie Coppola wrote and directed, that he first wanted to do The Godfather,” he told me. He about his ultimate feelings about the film and
began to dream of a way of working outside the had dreams of making more personal films, the effect it had on its maker. “I joke about this,”
Hollywood system entirely. “The whole movie dreams he retains. Movies from his heart. Coppola said, “but to hell what people think.
was made on the road – I remember when we Stuff he wrote himself, about things that pre- The only way what happened could have hap-
were in Ogallala, Nebraska, we were shooting occupy his mind – things like Megalopolis. But pened is if, on that night, after the kid said,
there. The city fathers of Ogallala said, ‘If you eventually he was persuaded by his family and ‘Yeah, I guess so,’ and got on his bike, out of
kids stay here, we voted that we’ll help you friends to take The Godfather on. the bush, there was smoke and a little guy
and we’ll make some sort of a movie studio.’ in a red suit who said, ‘How would you like
In Ogallala, Nebraska. I realised: Why did it all What happened next is nearly as well- The Godfather to be one of the most successful
just have to be in Hollywood? The equipment known as the film itself. The production of movies in history?’... And I said, ‘Well, what do I
was lightweight. It was cheaper. We knew how The Godfather was fraught – Robert Evans have to give?’ And he said, ‘You know what you
to work it.” and the studio initially hated the cast, partic- have to give.’ And then he went away and I went
ularly Al Pacino; they hated the dark, murky to bed in Jimmy Caan’s maid’s room.”
Soon after, Coppola led a caravan of film stu- cinematography, by Gordon Willis; and they
dents and filmmakers north, to San Francisco: hated Coppola himself, who seemed to them Coppola stared at me with an expectant
the future creator of Star Wars, George Lucas; to be both slow and indecisive. Coppola will look, but I’m a little slow, I guess.
the future Academy Award-winning editor dutifully tell you how the studio conspired to
Walter Murch; the famous wild man and future replace him with Elia Kazan. He will recount “What did you have to give?” I asked.
screenwriter of Apocalypse Now John Milius. “It how he had to fight for Marlon Brando to be “What do you give the devil?” Coppola asked
was a whole crowd of us. No one had any money. cast in the role of Vito Corleone. He will talk in return.
Being five years older, I had a little. I was mar- about how unhappy and full of doubt he was “Your soul?”
ried. I had a house. So, I was able to sell my house while making the movie. Coppola has told Coppola nodded. “Doesn’t he always want
your soul?”
“That’s a joke,” he said, finally.

“If I just had made a career of 15
mafioso movies, I would be very rich,
but I wouldn’t know as much as I do now.
Now I’m still rich, but I learned more.”

and take that money. I even had a little summer these stories many times and will do so again A T O N E P O I N T during our conversations,
house, which I sold, and I used that money to if he is asked, and these stories are indeed Coppola became concerned that he had become
buy film equipment, editing equipment, and fascinating, because the only thing more tan- too digressive, that he had wandered away from
sound mixing equipment.” They called their stu- talising than greatness itself is the idea that the point, which is something he does, after a
dio Zoetrope, and they had grand dreams of set- greatness can remain hidden even from the fashion. He will be reminded of something that
ting up their own, more artist-friendly system. artist who is calling it forth. can only be explained in reference to the his-
tory of North Korea, or humankind’s first king
But The Rain People was not a commercial But there is another story about The (Sargon, according to Coppola), or the work of
success any more than Coppola’s previous films Godfather that Coppola volunteers without Hermann Hesse. Few men in history have done
had been, and the director swiftly learned that prompting. The first part of it is familiar too – more for audiences than Coppola, and so he’s
it was neither money nor equipment nor an I’d heard Coppola tell it before – and involves used to a certain amount of leeway: He will get to
improbably talented group of colleagues that Coppola’s time in Los Angeles, editing the film. the point when he’s ready. But he also knows time
made Hollywood Hollywood. “You could have Coppola by then had run out of confidence in is finite, that I can’t stay on his property forever.
all the money, but there’s more to it than that, himself and the movie and was full of dread.
because distribution depends on networks of One day, Coppola recalled, a young editing “So, here’s what we’re going to do now, if
friends,” Coppola said. “It’s a kind of influence assistant rode his bike to work and told every- I may,” he said, trying to get us back on task.
that you have by being part of an old friends’ one there in the editing room how great this “Let’s do the format where you just ask me ques-
network. So, little by little, I began to realise new film The French Connection was. At the tions and I’ll try to answer them without talking
even when I had amassed some money and I time, Coppola was staying at the house of one too much. Because I’m a friendly guy, and I’ll
owned the equipment, there’s still more. You of his actors, James Caan. “I decided to walk just talk to you about stuff.”
can’t release the film yourself because releasing home. I was so poor that I had to send all the
a film requires that, to be in on that network money I had to my family. I had kids and I was “Great,” I said.
that you’re not in on, so what can you do? It living in Jimmy Caan’s maid’s room. So I walked “But I want you to get what you came here
always seemed that the cure to be able to just home with this kid and he was walking his to get.”
make movies from your heart was always one bike, and as we walked, I said to him, and I’m getting what I came here to get, I said.
step more elusive than I had thought.” I shouldn’t have done this, but I was so “OK, well you ask me questions, and I’ll
curious, I said, ‘Well, I guess if everyone thinks answer them.”
By 1970, Coppola was in debt to Warner The French Connection is such an exciting, OK, I said. The Godfather started off as a stu-
Bros., and had young children at home, with thrilling movie, maybe they’ll just think The dio project that had nothing to do with you. Did
no real plan for how to provide for them. it become personal to you in the end?

MARCH 2022 GQ 165

“Well, I believe that. I believe… I’m going one prototype movie that is made over and The Outsiders; 1986’s Peggy Sue Got Married
to have to say this fast. I once read a Balzac over and over and over and over again to – have aged better than others. But he kept
article – I wish I could find it, but it’s not pub- look different. Even the talented people – you working, even, improbably, through 1987’s
lished, and I don’t know where the book is.” (I could take Dune, made by Denis Villeneuve, Gardens of Stone, during which Coppola lost
think this was Coppola’s way of telling me he an extremely talented, gifted artist, and you his eldest son, Gian-Carlo, in a freak accident.
owns, or once owned, an unpublished work could take No Time to Die, directed by…Gary?” “Nothing that I have ever experienced in my
by Balzac.) “But people said, ‘Oh, these young life comes even close to that profound thing,”
people are stealing your stuff.’ To Balzac. And Cary Fukunaga. he said.
Balzac said, ‘That’s why I wrote it. I want them “Cary Fukunaga – extremely gifted, tal-
to take everything, whatever I have, they’re ented, beautiful artists, and you could take Still, Coppola finished Gardens of Stone,
welcome, these young authors. Take all you both those movies, and you and I could go and and kept going all the way through 1997’s
want. One, because it can’t really come out like pull the same sequence out of both of them The Rainmaker before finally stepping back
me because each one of them is an individual and put them together. The same sequence from filmmaking for a time. “I always felt that
and it’s going to come out like them, so they where the cars all crash into each other. They I didn’t leave the movie business,” he said.
can’t steal it. They can appropriate it, but it’s all have that stuff in it, and they almost have “The movie business left me. It went another
going to come out through them. And num- to have it, if they’re going to justify their direction” – toward sequels and preexisting
ber two, it gives me immortality, so whatever budget. And that’s the good films, and the IP, and away from brand name directors such
I do, if young people take it, are influenced by talented filmmakers.” as Coppola. “So, the movie business changed.
it, and so and so, it’s great. Because that then Unlike most people who complain about As it changed, it was less interesting to me.
makes me part of their work. And I go on.’ So the current state of Hollywood, Coppola has I began to focus more on my own personal
what was your question?” tried many times over the years to actually cinema dreams.”
change it, or even escape it entirely. At the end
At another point, Coppola decided I had been of the 1970s, after he successfully financed This, of course, is the paradox of Coppola’s
too easy on him: “Ask me the most provocative Apocalypse Now himself and the film proved career: that for all his success, he has, to some
question you think you could possibly ask me.” to be a hit, Coppola decided to purchase a lot extent, been waiting to make his own films,
in Los Angeles and open his own studio, which rather than someone else’s, for practically his
I thought about it for a moment. he once again called Zoetrope. The plan was entire life. “I always tell my kids, like Sofia –
In certain histories of the movie industry in to have actors on contract – “who were taught ‘Let your films be personal. Always make it as
the ’70s, such as Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, how to fence and how to dance and how to personal as you can because you are a miracle,
Raging Bulls, you are depicted as a sybaritic everything” – and to use the newest possible that you’re even alive. Then your art will be a
king: pasting up million-dollar royalty checks digital technology; Coppola would cut out the miracle because it reflects stuff from someone
from The Godfather around the San Francisco studios and their financing and do it himself. who there is no other one like that.’ Whereas
editing suite you shared with George Lucas; But the very first film he made for Zoetrope if you’re part of a school or ‘Yeah, I’m going to
flying around on a private jet; gathering more Studios, 1982’s One From the Heart, was a com- make a Marvel picture, and that’s the formula
houses, and more women, to yourself with each mercial debacle: Coppola spent £19 million and I get it and I’ll do my best,’ sure it will
titanically successful year. Does that depiction of his own money to make it and lost every still have your individuality, but as art, do that
ring true for you? cent. The lot was sold. “Dreams are not long,” and do something else. But if you’re going
“I didn’t have a life like that,” Coppola Coppola told me. “I’ll tell you something about to make art, let it be personal. Let it be very
answered. “I didn’t have a private plane at that dreams. Dreams don’t have time.” personal to you.”
time. I got a private plane later and it was only This was a dark period in Coppola’s
because of money I had made from something life. “It was traumatic,” he said. “I was As for Coppola and his break from movie-
other than movies.” very depressed. I was very heartbroken. making, well: He’d paid back the bank. He
So you were not like some Roman emperor I was embarrassed for my wife because she found himself increasingly invested in mak-
in the ’70s? couldn’t get credit at the grocery store. I felt ing wine – he’d owned vineyards in Napa for
“No, never, and even now I’m not like that. I had fallen from grace, that I was a failure.” years, but over time the business became less
I wasn’t a lot different than I am now. I always He spent the rest of the decade working on and less like a hobby and more and more like
liked kids. I was a good camp counsellor.” He the studio fare he’d been trying to liberate another career itself as he became fascinated
grinned. “I was a great camp counsellor.” himself from in order to pay back debt that with how to improve and further build on
he’d accrued, with varied success. Some of what he already had. He didn’t have to work
I T W A S D E C E M B E R when we talked, and Steven these movies – the pair of S.E. Hinton adap- for a living. “So, I became very interested in
Spielberg was about to open his newest film, tations Coppola directed, Rumble Fish and other topics,” he told me. “Where could cinema
West Side Story, in cinemas across the coun- go? I knew it was going to go somewhere.”
try. Coppola had not seen the movie, he told “I think the biggest
me. But he was so excited to do so that he was thrill in life is to I N T H E O L D C H Â T E A U at Inglenook, there
planning on not just going to his local Napa cin- have a dream or are tasting rooms on the first floor, where at
ema to see it when it opened on Friday, but also Christmas during non-pandemic times the
speaking in front of whoever was there before imagine something Coppolas host a holiday reception for the
the film, to convey his enthusiasm. “To remind and then get to town, like benevolent nobles. There is what
them of the thrill about going to a movie the- see it be real. used to be called the Library and is now called
atre,” Coppola said. “I want West Side Story There’s nothing the Athenaeum. Coppola’s extensive jazz
to do incredible business, to remind people like that.” record collection is in one corner, where a
that the cinema debut is much more import- painting of his also hangs. There is framed
ant than the so-called streaming. Streaming is sheet music from Coppola’s maternal grand-
just home video.” father, Francesco Pennino, and there are
many cosy armchairs, where Coppola and I
Coppola loves movies but does not partic- sat one morning and talked. I was still
ularly recognise or enjoy the modern movie trying to figure out, among other things,
industry. “There used to be studio films,” he what Megalopolis was actually about,
said. “Now there are Marvel pictures. And and whether he was really actually going
what is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is to make it.

166 GQ MARCH 2022

“It’s a love story,” Coppola said, trying “I always tell my So, figure that takes us to 2025, he said.
again. “A woman is divided between loyal- kids, ‘let your films “Now, if I’m still kicking, I’ll no doubt want
ties to two men. But not only two men. Each be personal. Always to do this movie that I had abandoned before
man comes with a philosophical principle. make it as personal this, called Distant Vision” – a “live cinema
One is her father who raised her, who taught as you can, because project” Coppola started around 2015, about
her Latin on his lap and is devoted to a much you are a miracle, three generations of an Italian American
more classical view of society, the Marcus family not unlike his own, told in parallel
Aurelius kind of view. The other one, who that you’re with the story of the birth of television and
is the lover, is the enemy of the father but is even alive’.” what followed.
dedicated to a much more progressive ‘Let’s
leap into the future, let’s leap over all of this amazed at how many people are still looking That’s what you would do after.
garbage that has contaminated humanity at it. And how many films did One From the “Yeah. And what would I do after that? Well,
for 10,000 years. Let’s find what we really Heart influence?” how much time do I have?”
are, which are an enlightened, friendly, I don’t know!
joyous species’ .” I meant more of the financial impact it had “You want to give me another five years? I’m
on you. You lost a lot. sure I’ll dream of something to do.”
I suggested to Coppola that his ambitions for
the film, along with its subject matter, sounded “I couldn’t care less about the financial BEFORE I LEFT, Coppola wanted to show me
notably optimistic for a filmmaker who is impact whatsoever. It means nothing to me.” something – a different project, one that he’s
best known for a quartet of films about been working on for a few years now. Coppola
various human failings: greed, paranoia, You have a big family. Is everyone on board is a filmmaker first, of course, but the busi-
corruption, war. with this plan? ness of making wine has taken up more and
more of his time over the years. There are, he
Coppola agreed. But he said he could never “Well, it’s not as if $120 million is the extent told me, 120 distinct growing areas of grapes
really remember a time in his filmmaking of what I have. I have bequeathed much to all on his property. On most vineyards, the fruit
career when he was making exactly the kind my children. And then they themselves, the from these unique parcels of grapes go into
of thing he really wanted to make. Back when greatest thing I bequeathed to my children far fewer fermenters, where they mix. But
he was directing his most renowned films, he is their know-how and their talent. Sofia what if, Coppola wondered, you could build
said, “I was so busy trying to survive and sup- is not going to have a problem. Roman’s 120 fermenters, one for each growing area,
port my family, and have a successful career not going to have a problem. They’re all and in doing so, learn which ones are truly
as a movie director, and not have the pro- very capable. And they have Inglenook, great, which are average, and so on? The only
found fall from grace that I saw myself as. I where we are. There’s no debt on this place. limit was space and the neighbours, who
made this big movie, The Godfather, and the None. So, no.” probably would not take kindly to a giant
next thing I know, I’m making all these pic- fermenter plant being built anywhere they
tures that maybe are embarrassing. And of Last year, he sold a significant piece of his could see it. So, Coppola decided: We’ll build
course I criticised myself.” But he also sought wine empire so that he could use a percentage it underground.
out challenges – “pictures I didn’t know how of the sale as collateral for the line of credit
to make,” as he puts it now, in order to learn. to finally make Megalopolis: “If I’m going to He loaded me into the Leaf and drove over
“If I just had made a career of 15 mafioso mov- invest $120 million of my own money –which to the entrance of what is still a construc-
ies,” Coppola said, “I would be very rich, but I’ve already done basically, I have it there, tion site. Men in hard hats stood out front
I wouldn’t know as much as I do now. Now I’m waiting to be written to make it – I want it to on a patch of dusty concrete. Inside it looked
still rich, but I learned more.” have a good result for humanity.” like the Hadron Collider – tanks and tunnels
stretching out as far as the eye could see.
When Coppola came back from his filmmak- Do you think of this film as the next film “If you imagine this was a baseball stadium
ing hiatus, it was to make the kind of idiosyn- you’ll make or the last film you’ll make? here,” Coppola said, orienting me, “this is
cratic, personal movies he’d been talking about home plate. So you would have home plate,
making from the beginning: 2007’s nearly “I have no idea. I had an uncle who died, first base, second base, third base. So the 120
incomprehensible Youth Without Youth, an my father’s brother died at 103 almost. He fermenters are going to all go on either side.”
investigation of two of Coppola’s long-term fas- had all his marbles. He was writing operas.
cinations, consciousness and time; a charming He was reading in French all of Proust. The space was cavernous; it boggled the
noir, in 2009’s Tetro; and a 2011 Roger Corman– You could talk to him. He was 102, and you mind. We stood there taking it in. And then he
style horror film he shot in part right here in could talk to him on any subject. He had walked me back to the car.
Napa called Twixt. None of them demanded a great memory. He had lived a life and knew
the budget, or commensurate audience, that everything about music. So, I’m 82. I could “I’m so proud of this because I think the
Megalopolis would seem to demand to be suc- well live to be 100 or thereabouts. Say that biggest thrill in life is to have a dream or imag-
cessful. So…Was he really going to spend all that means roughly I could well have 20 years ine something and then get to see it be real,”
money? I wondered. Where would it actually of productivity.” Coppola said. “There’s nothing like that.”
come from?
Coppola started doing maths in his chair. You’ve had that happen more often than
“Well, if I were Disney, or if I were “Say I’ve got another 20 years of productive most people have.
Paramount, or if I were Netflix,” Coppola said, life, well, if I was an insurance company I’d say,
“and I had to raise $120 million, and I had to ‘Well, just for the hell of it, let’s cut that in half.’ “Yeah. But the more far out it is, the more
start saying yes and paying people, how would OK: I have 10 years of active life. That means thrilling it is. I mean this was such a crazy
I do it? They all do it one way. You have a line of I’m going to die at 92. Well, that would be a idea. When I said we’d do it this way, I can’t
credit, OK? I have a line of credit.” wonderful long life. No one could complain. tell you the reaction.”
So, what can I accomplish? This movie is
You spent years paying the bank back for going to take me easily three years to make.” It was not positive?
One From the Heart. It’s a gamble, right, to go “Well, it was the other one I get: ‘It sounds
into debt to make a movie? great. But how are you going to really do it?’ ”
Which is something you’ve heard a lot in life.
“A gamble for what? What’s at stake for me?” Coppola threw the car in reverse.
I don’t know! That’s what I’m asking. “I hear it all the time,” he said.
“Even One From the Heart, you’d be
zach baron is gq’s senior staff writer.

MARCH 2022 GQ 167

Every year, the art and fashion By Samuel Hine.
worlds collide in Miami Beach Photographs and Artwork
for a week of high-culture madness. by Charlie Engman.
We spent a few days with the Styled by Mobolaji Dawodu
insiders, outsiders, and party animals and Jon Tietz.
at the centre of the scene.

168 GQ MARCH 2022



The Artforum Crew and Friends and fashion have been in conversation as long as either has existed
(can you imagine the Renaissance occurring without resplendent
Opening pages, from left: Jacob fits?), but as branches of global pop culture, it seems the two have
Bixenman, model; Nash Glynn, painter; never been more powerful. And for a week every December, Miami
David Velasco, Artforum editor in becomes the epicentre of it all, where both worlds fully collapse
chief; Sarah Nicole Prickett, critic; into each other and take over all of our feeds.
John Belknap, writer; Hari Nef,
actor; Jacolby Satterwhite, artist For many years, Miami Art Week – technically a constellation
of major art fairs including Art Basel, NADA, and Design Miami
This gang of Art Week Avengers has been – was an industry event, a venue for blue-chip galleries to move
travelling to Miami Beach for years to show work six- and seven-figure works to their wealthiest collectors, and
(in the case of Glynn and Satterwhite), cover the for art insiders to take a holiday from winter in New York and
scene (Prickett and Belknap), and cause trouble London. And then art became the hottest thing in fashion. Since
(says Nef, “I used to treat Art Basel Miami as taking over Dior Men in 2018, Kim Jones has launched splashy
my spring break when I was in college”). More than artist collaborations with the likes of KAWS, Raymond Pettibon,
just tight-knit friends, they all inspire and amplify and Amoako Boafo. Hedi Slimane turned Celine’s stores into the
one another’s work. As Artforum’s David Velasco coolest galleries in any given city, merchandising his latest collec-
puts it, “It’s important to have muses, and we tions with the work of buzzy contemporary artists. Bottega Veneta
all act in some way as the muse to each other.” replaced its Instagram with a vibey art zine. By the time Matthew Williams spent a
year developing a Givenchy collection with Josh Smith, an NYC-based artist on David
←← ON BELKNAP Zwirner’s roster, it felt weirdly normal that the head of one of Paris’s biggest luxury
houses would be 3D-scanning ceramic basketballs in a Brooklyn art studio to come
OPENING PAGES, tuxedo £4,290 up with the next ‘It’ bag. And because Miami Art Week is a world away from the
FROM LEFT Brunello Cucinelli traditional fashion circuit, it became the perfect venue for these brands to showcase
ON BIXENMAN new ideas and unveil cross-culture collaborations.
boots £750 Now, Art Week is for art about as much as Coachella is for music. This past
shirt £2,690 Jimmy Choo December, the hottest ticket in town was not Art Basel’s VIP day but a seat at Virgil
Jil Sander Abloh’s Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2022 runway show, a multimillion-dollar pro-
jewellery, his own duction on a barge in Biscayne Bay. After Abloh, the groundbreaking Vuitton men’s
turtleneck £915 designer, tragically passed away just days before, the show became just about the
Marc Jacobs ON NEF only thing anyone in Miami seemed to talk (or care) about.
Abloh had a keen sense of just how much art and fashion could amplify each other
his own trousers dress £2,640 when they crashed together, which is why he was a ubiquitous presence at Miami Art
Gucci Saint Laurent by Week over the years. “It was his favourite thing, being here in Basel, because every-
Anthony Vaccarello one was here,” Denim Tears founder Tremaine Emory told me after the Vuitton show.
his own shoes Even though he wasn’t present in Miami, Abloh’s influence on a new generation of
Prada her own shoes cross-pollinating creative directors could be felt. “This week, we’re here to embrace
Gucci Virgil and his dream and his vision,” said A-Cold-Wall* designer and Abloh protégé
ON VELASCO Samuel Ross, who was following in his mentor’s footsteps by showing a collection of
watch £7,400 conceptual furniture at Design Miami.
his own shirt bracelet (on right Abloh also knew better than anyone that art insiders can be unwelcoming to
Tom Ford arm, bottom) £37,100 interlopers. Once upon a time, the fashion crowd were the party crashers during Art
Cartier Week. This year, they were the party. “When did it become Fashion Week?” asked
his own jeans model Jordan Barrett, who was in town to celebrate his 25th birthday with a func-
A.P.C. her own bracelet tion at Gitano. Saint Laurent designer Anthony Vaccarello kicked things off with the
(on left arm) sexiest art fête since the reign of Louis XIV, a candlelit dinner attended by the likes
his own boots Ragbag of Hailey Bieber, Zoë Kravitz, and Olivia Rodrigo. The rest of the week saw enough
Raf Simons for bashes to make a club rat’s head spin, with Givenchy, Loewe, Chanel, Valentino,
Calvin Klein bracelet (on right Kering, Gucci, Balmain, Dior, Chrome Hearts, Burberry, Ferragamo, and Moncler
arm, top) £18,900 flying in their own roll-call of A-listers for big-budget parties.
his own belt Tiffany & Co. With all the energy in the air, it’s no surprise that Miami Art Week can still blow
Maison Margiela up a new name or two. Even the most committed partygoers made it over to the ICA
rings, her own to see Hugh Hayden’s show of large-scale sculptures that have firmly established him
his own earring as a rising star. Hayden, who ditched his architecture career in 2018, is an Art Week
Varon ON SAT TERWHITE veteran having his first major solo show. “It’s funny to be at Art Basel now that I’m
really participating in it,” he told me. “It’s surreal.”
ON PRICKETT coat, turtleneck, And then there was filmmaker, photographer, and poet Sky Hopinka, who was
trousers, and boots exhibiting a three-channel video installation, In Dreams and Autumn, at Broadway
jacket £1,935 (prices upon request) gallery’s Art Basel booth.
trousers £965 Louis Vuitton Men’s Hopinka, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, whose work centres on Indigenous
shoes £805 stories of loss, had never been to Miami Art Week before. “I still don’t necessarily
Saint Laurent by ring, his own know where I fit into all of this, what my role is here, or what to make of the spectacle
Anthony Vaccarello of this event in this city,” he said. That might soon change. As the fair wrapped up,
ArtNews reported that celebrity curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, a friend of Abloh’s who
necklace, her own serves as a bridge to the fashion world for young artists, had been seen admiring
Hopinka’s installation. Reiterating that, at the end of the day, Art Week wouldn’t be
much without the art.

170 GQ MARCH 2022

Anthony Vaccarello

Creative director,
Saint Laurent

“Saint Laurent was

always linked to

art,” says Anthony

Vaccarello. At the

helm of the historic

house, Vaccarello has t

brought a sense of

big, juicy romance to

his menswear – and

reconnected Saint

Laurent to the art

world, working with the

likes of Doug Aitken

and Sho Shibuya,

whose Instagram-viral

paintings Vaccarello

curated for a gallery

show on the beach

during Art Week. “It’s

a kind of selfish thing,”

he says, “for me

to approach those

who I admire, and

have them in the Saint

Laurent family.”

his own clothing t
Saint Laurent by
Anthony Vaccarello

all shoes and
accessories, his own

MARCH 2022 GQ 171

Samuel Ross lineage. We need to be
wearing the garments.
Artist and creative We need to be reflecting
director, A-Cold-Wall* the optimism and grace
and elasticity that he
“It’s so bittersweet,” says brought forward…That’s
Samuel Ross about what made me.”
presenting his growing line
of conceptual furniture at jacket, shirt, and trousers
Design Miami without his (prices upon request)
mentor Virgil Abloh, who Louis Vuitton
hired him as an intern in
2012. “There’s a duty, man. trainers £80
We talk about carrying on his Converse

172 GQ MARCH 2022

Sky Hopinka Indigenous artists,” he says.
“I feel really fortunate to
Artist and filmmaker have my work recognised
and to be shown, but
Following the release of there are a lot of Indigenous
several critically acclaimed artists out there that
short films, Sky Hopinka is have been doing it for a
shooting a new feature- long time that haven’t
length this summer – and been recognised.”
thinking about how his
rising profile can lift other jacket £1,395
Indigenous artists with him. Dunhill
“I feel such a strong pull to
try and help others out or t-shirt,
to figure out how to make his own
space for other Indigenous
filmmakers, other sunglasses £340
Moscot

Antwaun Sargent, ON SARGENT bracelet (on
Awol Erizku right arm) £190
coat £7,479 Saint Laurent by
Director, Gagosian; artist trousers £3,813 Anthony Vaccarello
Fendi
When writer and curator ON ERIZKU
Antwaun Sargent was boots £895
appointed as a director at Giuseppe Zanotti jacket £2,100
Gagosian, his stated aim was trousers £890
to promote more artists of his own hat Dior Men
colour. And the first person Esenshel
he called was multi- shirt £825
discipline artist Awol Erizku, watch £10,200 Dolce & Gabbana
whose show “Memories of his own bracelet
the Lost Sphinx” opens at (on left arm) custom boots
Gagosian on Park Avenue, ring £12,000 Lucchese
New York, this month. “I Cartier
want to do exciting and belt £140
ambitious shows with artists necklaces, Anderson’s
who are defining not only his own
their medium but also who necklace (top)
are some of the defining cuff (on £14,435
voices of their generation,” right arm) Chrome Hearts
Sargent says, “and Awol £14,400
is one of those artists.” Bulgari gold chain necklaces,
his own

174 GQ MARCH 2022

Michèle Lamy to creative longevity?
Lamy compares the life
Fashion Icon of an artist to the life of
a smoker: “When you pass
A designer, musician, boxer, a certain age, everybody
restaurateur, and fashion says, ‘Keep going. It’s
icon (and collaborator with good for you. That is the
her husband, Rick Owens), right drug for you.’ ”
Michèle Lamy is one of the
original multi-hyphenate her own clothing
artistic visionaries – and, and shoes
as she nears 80, she has Rick Owens
no intention of slowing
down. What’s her secret jewellery, her own

Raul Lopez ready to troll the system
once again.
Founder and
designer, Luar coat £2,490
turtleneck (price
Miami Beach fixture Raul upon request)
Lopez developed a knack trousers £795
for sending up mainstream gloves £325
fashion culture at Hood Balenciaga
by Air, which he cofounded
in 2006. Now, he’s back sunglasses £425
on the scene with his own Maison Alaïa
label, Luar. Armed with
photoshopped celebrity watch £383,807
ad campaigns and an Jacob & Co
aesthetic motto he calls
“premium trash,” he’s necklace, his own

176 GQ MARCH 2022

Fernando Casablancas, more zigzaggy; the “I love watching Jordan belt £95 watch £23,900
Jordan Barrett Rio native had to fit work,” says Casablancas. Maximum Henry Bulgari
modelling gigs in between “Once he steps in front
Models (and partners) experimental theatre studies of the camera, it’s like necklace £56,000 necklace £3,010
at Tisch. When they met at a energy pours out of him. Bulgari Chrome Hearts
Jordan Barrett’s path to party last year, It’s beautiful to watch.”
model stardom started early, the connection rings, his own his own rings
when he was scouted at was instant, and they ON CASABLANCAS and bracelets
the tender age of 14 pledged their love ON BARRETT Jordan Barrett
in Australia. Fernando soon after in Ibiza in a jacket £1,105 for Eli Halili
Casablancas’s route was spiritual ceremony overseen trousers £595 shirt £1,200
by Kate Moss. Dries Van Noten trousers £1,400
shorts £670
Prada

Hugh Hayden custom jacket
custom hat
Artist Bode

“All of my work is interested trousers, his own
in camouflage,” says Hugh
Hayden, who drapes tree his own glasses
bark on trench coats and Micromega Eyewear
zebra hides on La-Z-Boy
chairs to explore metaphors link bracelet £18,463
of cultural assimilation in Jacob & Co
America. When he had extra
zebra hides after finishing bangle £25,800
his ICA Miami show, he had Tiffany & Co.
New York fashion brand
Bode use them to make ring £1,480
the coat and bucket hat Bulgari
he wears here.

Matthew Williams

Creative director,
Givenchy and
1017 Alyx 9SM

For his most ambitious
Givenchy collection
yet, Matthew Williams
spent weeks in the
studio with spooky
painter Josh Smith,
incorporating his
off-tone colour palette
and ceramic finishes
into the clothes.
“There’s something
to be said for
consistency, and then
there’s something
to be said for being
fearless enough to
explore something
uncomfortable and
find a new space and
a new dialogue,”
Williams says, “and
I’m in that place now.”

coat, hood,
and bag
(prices upon
request)
jeans £2,143
his own shoes
Givenchy

belknap, bixenman,
erizku, glynn, nef, prickett,

sargent, satterwhite,
vaccarello, velasco, and

williams: hair by nina
alcantara for creative
management. barrett,
casablancas, hayden,
hopinka, lamy, lopez,
and ross: hair by daniel

pazos for creative
management. skin by
claudia lake for chanel.
set design by kate stein
for 11th house agency.
produced by gaby schuetz

for select services.

MARCH 2022 GQ 179

IN

F When Netflix – and Drake – rebooted L
London crime drama Top Boy,

Micheal Ward staked his claim as one of
Britain’s most electric young actors.

His next move: architecting something
bigger than himself.

BY CHANTÉ JOSEPH

UL

PHOTOGRAPHS BY O O STYLED BY
ELLIOT JAMES KENNEDY ANGELO MITAKOS

BL M

MARCH 2022 GQ 181

“GO TO SCHOOL,”

bellows a thick Jamaican accent from some- when you come from this world, there’s not His mother settled in Romford, where he lives
with her and his three sisters (“Bare gyal, just
where in the background of our Zoom call. much stuff that gets made in it, whether it has bare gyal,” is how Ward describes his childhood
home). He doesn’t mind being the only man in
“Hold on a minute. That’s my mum,” says violence in there, whether it’s love or whatever. the house. “I’m quite in tune with my emotions
because of them. I feel like that’s what allows
Micheal Ward. “Sorry about that.” There’s not much to represent, so [Top Boy] was me to be a good actor. I’m allowed to feel vul-
nerable.” Ward guards this vulnerability closely,
Ward is determined not to let all this go to his something that we latched onto.” but he cherishes his softness. “A lot of people
take the mick out of it or whatever, but at the
head; the quick fame and the beefy roles. Three Arriving seven years after the original series end of the day, that’s me, man. I wouldn’t have
it any other way.”
years ago he was toiling in virtual anonymity. came to an abrupt end, the Netflix reboot
He was voted “class clown” when he was at
Now he’s got a BAFTA on his mantelpiece, – rather confusingly badged as season one – school. “I was always that guy that was trying to
set the trend. I was never disrespectful to teach-
can call on Drake for advice, and is about to saw the return of veterans Dushane and Sully ers, but we always used to do silly little things.”
We go on a journey through Ward’s school
start filming Sam Mendes’ next movie. But he’s (Ashley Walters and Kano) to the fictional years, and he has stories for days. He can tell
you exactly what song he performed in the Year
aware that this is where the danger lurks too – Summerhouse Estate in Hackney. The pair, Five talent show (a far from age-appropriate
rendition of Snoop Dogg and Akon’s “I Wanna
so he still lives at his family home in Romford, having lost years of their lives – the former was Love You”). “In school, if someone said some-
thing dumb or tried to be funny, but it failed,
East London, knows that there’s a hierarchy, in hiding in Jamaica, the latter in prison – dis- me and my boy used to look at each other, and
I used to say: ‘FA’ and he would reply: ‘IL’. Soon,
and is wise enough to appreciate he’s not at the cover that Ward’s character, Jamie, has taken the whole class started replying ‘IL’.”

top of it. over their turf. Jamie is the kind of role an actor After realising he wasn’t going to make the
grade as a professional footballer, Ward scram-
“Who was your mum telling off?” dreams of: multifaceted, sympathetic, flawed. bled for something else. And while a love for
drama wasn’t exactly firing, the role of Macduff
“My little sister.” He is hardened and ruthless, and yet nurturing in a school production of Macbeth planted a
seed. Still, it took a route through modelling
“That reminded me of my grandma so much as a stand-in parent to his younger brothers, to make real progress, after he beat several
pouty teens to win the Face of JD Sports com-
I almost got PTSD. For a second I was like, I’m who lean on him for stability in the absence petition (it’s no surprise: he has those doe-like,
almost cartoon-ish eyes that give depth to hard-
sorry, Grandma. What did I do?” of their mother and father. Viewers ened characters such as Jamie in Top Boy, but
they’re also perfect for romantic roles such as
“It’s all good,” Ward says calmly, ←← are all too aware that Jamie’s life Jamaican mechanic Franklyn in Small Axe).

as the madness of the daily school OPENING PAGES has been bereft of choices – that, From there, Ward dropped out of Sixth Form
run washes over him and he zeroes deep down, he’s just trying his best to go to Epping Forest College, and take up a
back in on our conversation. jacket, £845, to keep his family on the up and up. performing arts course, where he would meet
trousers, £570, Ward’s performance was studied, his teacher-turned-assistant-turned-man-
“The first lockdown I was Tokyo James brutal, and cunning. ager Ellie Nelson, who still manages him
injured. I ruptured my Achilles, so today. Taking the more practical route has
I was at home just asking my mum shoes, £650, After the reboot dropped in 2019, always been more engaging to Ward; when his
to do everything for me.” Ward John Lobb Ward, at warp speed, found himself A-levels got too “courseworky”, it took the fun
explains that he injured his Achilles at the sharp end of things, tipped out of the craft. This approach can be tricky,
playing What’s the Time, Mr Wolf?. hat, £200, for greatness by industry insiders but it paid off. “I used to take risks and, as an
I cannot contain my laughter. “I Nicholas Daley who smothered his name on every actor, that’s one of the biggest things you can
know, man. It’s bad,” he says. Ward ‘must-watch’ list in sight. Two years do. You’ve just got to be willing to take risks,
came home crying that day, only necklace, £125, later, he hasn’t let them down,
Vivienne Westwood “I USED TO TAKE

socks, £18, Falke RISKS AND, AS AN

vest, stylist’s own AC TOR , THAT’S

to find that his mum had thrown earring (throughout), shooting two massive films for ONE OF THE

him a surprise party because, just Michael’s own the streamer, The Old Guard with BIGGEST THINGS

a few days prior to this playground → Charlize Theron and the upcom- YOU CAN DO. YOU’VE

injury, he had beaten Awkwafina sweater, £658, ing The Beautiful Game, about the GOT TO BE WILLING

and Kaitlyn Dever to the most cov- Stefan Cooke homeless world cup. He also starred TO TAKE RISKS .”

eted prize a young actor could hope gloves, £400,Gucci in Steve McQueen’s astonishing

for in this country: BAFTA’s Rising anthology series Small Axe (Ward’s

Star Award (previous winners include John film, Lovers Rock, was named by Barack Obama

Boyega, Tom Holland and Daniel Kaluuya). as one of his favourites of the year).

“I remember walking off [stage]. Then Quentin In between all that, he has repped some of

Tarantino, when I was coming back into the the biggest fashion brands on the planet (he

auditorium, was like, ‘Good job, mate,’” says was handpicked by the late Virgil Abloh to

Ward, mimicking Tarantino’s accent. He makes showcase Louis Vuitton’s Autumn/Winter

it sound almost regular. 2020 collection) and in a few weeks will start

When Channel 4’s cult crime drama Top filming Empire of Light, a period love story by

Boy – a series about warring drug dealers on a Sam Mendes that co-stars Olivia Colman and

housing estate in East London – was revived by represents a levelling-up to Hollywood wattage

Drake for a new Netflix series in 2019, it was a status. Mendes’ last-but-one film had James

towering cultural moment. The show was that Bond in it and Colman is probably Britain’s

rare thing: a cutting-edge prestige TV series greatest living film star: not bad company to

with a virtually all-Black, all-British cast. And be keeping at 24.

Ward was right at the centre of it. He had done Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Ward moved

a bit of TV prior – a little-seen teen drama for to the UK when he was just four, after his father

the BBC called The A-List – but this was dif- passed away. Twenty years later, he doesn’t

ferent. This was Netflix and it was a show he’d remember much of his time in the Caribbean

been watching since he was 14. Now his idols and hasn’t been back since he left. “I have a

were his co-stars. lot of family that knew me when I was a baby

“I remember going to my agency, and they who haven’t been able to see me. We speak now,

asked me the type of thing I would like to be but it’s a different kind of connection,” he says.

in. I was like, Well, maybe something like Top He wants to return to Jamaica later this year,

Boy one day. I was such a big fan. I feel like after he’s got this next movie under his belt.

182 GQ MARCH 2022

MARCH 2022 GQ 183

and so even now, my whole approach to this play a lot of games. I wasn’t someone who liked In 2013, Ward, then a 15-year-old schoolboy
thing is childlike.” to sit down and watch a lot unless it was easy tweeted, “Can’t wait for topboy, gna be sick :D”.
popcorn stuff like the Disney Channel.” Like most people his age, he was a dedicated
You get the impression that the lack of formal fan of the series. The show was a wild success
training is preying on his mind a little more as he I T ’ S B L U E M O N D A Y when we next catch-up, a because it gathered together familiar artists
moves up through the ranks. “On The Beautiful day officially badged as the most depressing of and faces that brought nuance and insight into
Game, there were a lot of people who had been the year. In reality, it’s all just marketing hype life on the road – and what that actually meant
in the theatre. Two of them trained at RADA, started by a travel company trying to harvest outside of the tropes. Top Boy wasn’t some
one of them trained at the Royal Welsh, and it’s your hard-earned holiday cash, but its gloom trendy cultural blip: it was a sustained moment
just, like, Wow; I’ve really got a lot of work to do.” appears to be legit. With the sun beaming onto in the zeitgeist, anchored by the weighty story-
his face from a balcony at a members’ only club telling of writer Ronan Bennett, and by the kind
He’s also self-conscious about having not in Ladbroke Grove, West London, Ward is in of on-screen representation that is still rare.
binged through the classic films that everyone the middle of an existential crisis.
is supposed to have seen: “You might say I’m Ward, the superfan, went as far as DMing
crazy, but at the BAFTAs, Pacino and De Niro “I’m going to be 25 this year,” he says. Ashley Walters, asking for the chance to
were there, and I’ve never watched a Pacino or “It’s scary.” audition. “[Walters] posted something about
De Niro film. I remember Scarface, but from a casting, and I messaged him saying, ‘I’d love
Home Alone.” I tell him that’s not so crazy. There “Why?” to be in Top Boy.’ Obviously, he never saw it,
is often a desire to herald films as the greatest, “I don’t know, man. I just feel like I’m getting but I was just trying to shoot my shot, and
but cultural significance changes from genera- old. I booked Top Boy when I was 20; it was lit- when I look back at that, all of those things just
tion to generation. “Of course,” he says, “but all erally four years ago that I started filming the fall under manifestation. It’s been a mad Top
in all, I just didn’t watch a lot of stuff. I used to first season. Since then, so much has happened.” Boy journey,” he says. And while he is quick to
point out that he’s lived a life far removed from
the criminal orbit of his character, Jamie, he
says that the two do share some similarities.
“Jamie’s hungry; I’ve always had that hunger.
Jamie has all of these different sides to him; he
moves differently with different people; that’s
kind of how I am with my sisters, my mum,
my bros and when I go to meetings. Jamie is
manoeuvring through life and being adaptive
so that he can manipulate a situation.”

Ward was in Glasgow filming The A-List
when he got the call to say he’d got the part.
The weekend before the first read-through of
Top Boy was Wireless Festival. “[The Top Boy

“I’M SEEING BIG

SECURITY COMING

THROUGH, AND

DRAKE’S WITH

THEM... I’M JUST

S TANDING THERE

LOOKING INTO

SPACE AND TRYING

TO ACT NORMAL.”

cast] were making up theories that if Drake was
there on Sunday, I was going to meet him.” As
it turned out, that’s pretty much what hap-
pened. Following a great read-though, Ward
headed outside to take it all in. A little over-
whelmed, he called his manager. “As I’m on the
phone, I’m seeing big security coming through,
and Drake’s with them. I tell my manager
and end the call, but I’m just standing there
looking into space and trying to act normal.”
Future, Drake’s business partner, motioned to
the rapper that Ward – still standing outside
and trying to play it cool – was the lead for the
show. “That’s when I realised my importance
in this series and the character of Jamie. For
the first time, I’m realising how much I’m

184 GQ MARCH 2022

←
coat, £1,650,
t-shirt, £350,
trousers, £850,

Burberry
ring,£525, Pawn Shop

↓
top, £1,900,
trousers, £1,565,
Bottega Veneta

durag,
Michael’s own

MARCH 2022 GQ 185



top, £630,
Salvatore
Ferragamo

MARCH 2022 GQ 187



speaking and how much involvement Jamie big screen. I was phoning everyone ← that is required to get Black films
has, especially in the first two episodes,” he says.
trying to figure out what’s going on. sweater, £990, on screens, Ward reminds me.
As we edge closer to the new season, Ward
can see the pieces gluing together. “This season But, at the end of the day, all of that top, £1,200, “People also forget that with some-
has been a mad learning curve, but everything controversy helped push the film. Prada thing like Blue Story, Rapman got
just makes sense. Jamie this season is building
a lot of bridges that were broken in the last,” he Because you know what they say, durag, that commission because peo-
says, “although they’re not all entirely his fault. in terms of publicity, I don’t even Michael’s own ple were watching Shiro’s Story.
When you’re involved in that life, that’s your duty
now. It’s either you’re going to let it eat you up, know the quote.” ↓ If Steve McQueen trying to do
or you’re going to get back on your feet and fight
back. You see a lot more of that this season.” Ward “All publicity is good publicity?” sweater vest, £330, Small Axe takes a while to even get
explains that the show, whose cast now spans
multiple generations, has grown to be a collab- “Yeah.” JW Anderson commissioned, what kind of hope
orative process. “I remember reading the initial
script, and I didn’t really like the opening scene. I The broad-stroke accusation top, £520, do you think we have for other
was just thinking, If this comes out, it’s not going
to make any sense. I think we all had the same crops up again and again: that Ahluwalia stories?” To flatten these films and
sort of feedback, and so they changed it.”
too often Black British content TV shows as glorifying gang
Shortly after he wrapped Top Boy’s revival
season, Ward started filming Blue Story, a revolves around gang culture and violence – as though the charac-
musical gang rivalry drama soundtracked by
Rapman, known for his YouTube short film crime. Being in two huge Black British pro- ters aren’t layered and emotional and based
series Shiro’s Story. “I walked in there with con-
fidence, you get what I’m trying to say? Even in ductions that orbit these issues, Ward has on real people with real issues – is a mis-
the initial audition, I was, like, Yes, I’m on Top
Boy, and no one knows this. So I’m going in some thoughts: “I am 100 per cent sure there take. “When you actually watch Blue Story,
there with mad confidence, which obviously,
if you watch Blue Story, Marco – a young man are many Black writers who don’t write about you realise it shares values that people care
from Peckham who is also the younger brother
to local gang leader Switcher – has.” this stuff and a lot of films that aren’t about about and want to see.”

Blue Story was a unique piece of Black violence, but people won’t go and watch Ward has made a big value call of his
British cinema that had its success blighted by
a mixture of fearmongering and racism in the that.” It’s easy to dismiss the amount of work own, recently. One that has had a major
mainstream media. Its release coincided with
GROOMING: NADIA ALTINBAS. SET DESIGN: NUHA MEKKI. a brawl that broke out in front of Birmingham’s
Star City Vue cinema involving more than 100
teenagers and which left seven police officers
injured. In the aftermath, Vue decided to pull
the film from all of its screens. Naturally, the
line parroted was that a film that explores gang
culture must, of course, be the reason for these
fights as it “promotes violence”. “Blue Story, a
violent gang film made by the BBC, was axed
from cinemas after 100 thugs armed with
machetes and knives crashed its opening eve-
ning,” read the story in The Sun.

“At the time I was filming in America, I
remember waking up and hearing all of this,
and I was so upset. You have to understand, it’s
my first movie. It’s my first movie in the cin-
ema,” says Ward. “This is my moment on the

“I’M 100 PER CENT
SURE THERE ARE
MANY BLACK
[SCREEN] WRITERS
WHO DON’T WRITE
ABOUT VIOLENCE,
BUT PEOPLE
WON’T GO AND
WAT CH THAT.”

MARCH 2022 GQ 189

effect on his downtime. When we speak,
he has just deactivated his Instagram account.
He hasn’t Tweeted since December last year.
“It just allows me to have more time to be able
to put my energy in the right place; I’m
able to speak to God more, read more scripts,
and watch more movies,” he says. He’s also
aware that being on social media with any
celebrity status makes you subject to praise
and yes-men. “When everyone has good things
to say, you start to become desensitised to it,
although you really appreciate it,” he says.
“But when you hear the negatives, it helps
to shape you. [People] want to stay on your
good side – like you might be sensitive to
what they have to say, so they don’t say what
they really feel or believe. That doesn’t allow
you to elevate.”

Talking to Ward is an absorbing experience.
He’s like a fiery ball of enthusiasm and moti-
vation, gesticulating wildly as he talks. He is
almost evangelical in his delivery. But this
drive and passion isn’t just there for his
own ends; it’s also to create more for those
around him. The next phase: taking control.

“PEOPLE WANT

T O S TAY O N YO U R

GOOD SIDE – LIKE

YOU MIGHT BE

SENSITIVE TO

WHAT THEY HAVE

T O S AY. T H AT

DOESN’T ALLOW

YO U TO ELEVATE .”

“I’m inspired by people like Daniel Kaluuya.
He’s amazing but he’s still that guy; he hasn’t
lost himself. But these big actors also have their
own production companies. Hope [Ikpoku Jnr]
is my little brother,” he says of his Blue Story
co-star. “I’m thinking about the future when
he’s grown up and how exciting it is to know
that one day I could potentially make a film for
my little bro, and he’s going to be leading it. I
know he could go on to do a mad ting,” he says.
“And not just for him but, like, even my others,
like Kadeem [Ramsay], too.”

Ward tells me about a recent experience he’d
had working on a short film that was being
directed by his mentor, the actor Yasen Atour.

“I saw how happy he was and how accom-
plished he felt when it was done. It made me
think, If I don’t become a creator, then the stuff
I want to watch might not get made. Do you see
what I’m saying? No one has my brain, no one
might want to tell the stories that I want to tell.
And really, sharing your passion... well that’s
what this is all about.”

The new season of Top Boy launches on Netflix
on 18 March 2022.

190 GQ MARCH 2022

coat, £2,620,
Gucci

shirt, £6,200,
shorts, £4,900,

Hermès

sweater, £545,
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socks, £20,
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shoes, £190,
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