Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Esquire

For the past 26 years, Barton McNeil has been imprisoned in Illinois for the 1998 murder of his three-year-old daughter, Christina. But did he kill her? On page 100, Scottish journalist and filmmaker MATTHEW BREMNER (1) dives into his case, detailing the dark circumstances surrounding Christina’s death. With a focus on long-form features, many in the world of crime, Bremner has also written for The Economist, Financial Times magazine, and Bloomberg Businessweek. “I picked this story up fundamentally because it seemed to me an interesting way of dissecting or outlining how fragile life is and how things can go really terribly wrong even if you didn’t do anything wrong,” Bremner says. “If Bart indeed is innocent, then it is a very tragic set of events that show the kind of…

CHRIS AND RICH ROBINSON, COFOUNDERS OF southern roots-rock torchbearers the Black Crowes, are part of a long tradition of battling brothers in rock ’n’ roll, a dysfunctional chain that winds back through the Everly Brothers and the Kinks. But the Robinsons cranked things up a notch; when they toured with Oasis, even Liam and Noel Gallagher—the textbook example of sibling toxicity—were shocked by the intensity of their fights. “Rich and I are famous for being at each other’s throats—and that’s very true,” says Chris. “But we’re never at each other’s throats when we’re writing.” And so, 15 years after their last album of new material and nine years after a breakup that felt final, the Crowes are back with Happiness Bastards, which Chris, 57, calls “a love letter to rock ’n’…

DAKAR NOLA NEW ORLEANS Chef Serigne Mbaye connects West African foods to Southern cuisines with dishes like the Last Meal, a bowl of black-eyed peas and palm oil—the meal fed to the enslaved from Senegambia during the Middle Passage. UBUNTU LOS ANGELES Spicy jollof arancini. Grits made from the African heritage grain fonio. A Nigerian pie stuffed with lion’s-mane mushrooms. Chef Shenarri Freeman makes crave-worthy, comforting food that draws from West Africa. BAOBAB FARE DETROIT Owners Nadia Nijimbere and Hamissi Mamba shine a light on underrepresented East African classics like a goat shank called mbuzi and ugali, with a hearty okra stew. HAV & MAR NEW YORK Salmon cured in berbere spices, fries with a hot sauce called awaze, crisps made of injera—the flavors of Ethiopia purr through Hav &…

THERE WILL COME A TIME WHEN YOU WANT TO push it. Take your look from easy and everyday to stylishly subversive. Transform a combo as simple as a tank top and jeans into a double-take-worthy outfit. And you can do that with a strand of pearls. You mean like Grandma wore? Well … yeah. If you’ve been keeping an eye on the cool kids—the achingly hip downtown types, the off-kilter artsy guys, the capital-F Fashion fans—you know pearl jewelry has picked up steam. But it’s no longer just the avant-garde going for it. Normal guys with a penchant for interesting style are embracing pearls, too. Why? Because they can inject some rebellious energy and add that essential finishing touch—all without being too loud about it. Pulling it off doesn’t require a…

IN HIGH WATCHMAKING, PIVOTING TO an entirely new approach is essentially unheard of. But at Bulgari, the venerable Roman luxury brand that’s been around for nearly a century and a half, a recent embrace of ultramodernism has proved powerful. “Bulgari is not linked with a specific world, like racing or sailing,” explains Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, who has led the house’s watchmaking operations since 2007. “So at a certain moment, I said, ‘Guys, we have to find our path.’ Bulgari’s secret weapon is its manufacture, capable of making the loftiest technical movements”—like the ones inside watches so slim they could earn the title of the world’s thinnest. Enter the Octo Finissimo, which did just that in 2022. In fact, the collection of angular watches has claimed multiple records—for the world’s thinnest tourbillon,…

_THE SHARP SUIT Any primer on suiting should include at least one reference to Reservoir Dogs. So here it is. Did you happen to notice how every one of those guys—Pink, Blue, White, Orange—looked like a million bucks in a stark black suit, crisp white shirt, and simple black tie? The movie might be three decades old, but the rule holds true to this day. The thing that’s changed, though, is the fit. If you’re going to channel your inner rebel, you want to keep it trim, tailored, and, yeah, sharp as hell. After all, the better it fits, the more you can get away with. _THE SOFT SUIT Lightweight and with minimal construction, especially at the shoulders, the soft suit is conceived for maximum comfort. Inspired by Neapolitan tailoring…

WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange In this sequel to his breakout novel, There, There, Orange tells two linked stories: One centers on a survivor of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre while the other traces his descendants. The result is an epic saga of generational trauma that’s impossible to put down. UNTIL AUGUST by Gabriel García Márquez A lost novel from a literary icon is always cause for celebration. In this one, a married woman indulges her annual tradition: Each year, she takes a lover at a hotel bar. Until August brings García Márquez’s talents roaring back. THE HUNTER by Tana French In rural Ireland, a retired police officer lives in peace. When a “get rich quick” schemer is murdered, French drags us down into the community’s secrets, making for another…

SUFFER ENOUGH HANGOVERS AND DRINKING BOOZE STARTS to lose some of its appeal quickly. It takes just one overzealous happy hour to make you swear you’ll never put a margarita to your lips again. There are alternatives, of course. You could take a break from drinking. You could drink less. Or you could consider a third option: cannabis beverages. As legalized weed wafts across the country—dispensaries seem to be as ubiquitous as Starbucks in California and Colorado—new THC libations are sprouting fast. The global market for cannabis drinks is estimated to be worth $1 billion and is projected to reach nearly $4 billion by the end of the decade. That’s a drop in the bucket compared with the amount spent on alcohol, but it’s significant in that, for the sober curious,…

CHINOS EXIST LARGELY OUTSIDE OF the trend cycle. That means they’re reliable. And timeless. But it can be tough to determine when they’re having a moment. Well, here’s a tip: When you see a pair like this—equally easy and chic, from creative director Simon Holloway’s newly reinvigorated Dunhill—you can rest assured that chinos are, in fact, having a moment. Despite elevated details like side tabs, a coin pocket, and a couple of generous pleats, you shouldn’t think of them as something precious or confine yourself to a certain kind of vibe. Instead, wear them with everything from a sport coat and polished oxfords to chunky loafers and a vintage white tee. Just like your favorite jeans. Which, as it happens, might be spending a little extra time at the back of…

1 THE LAYERS OF FRAGRANCE All fragrances are created with three layers, which are visually represented by a pyramid. It’s a handy tool for understanding not only the notes but how the scent is going to wear and evolve throughout the day. _TOP What you smell as soon as you spray. These are typically lighter notes, like citrus and florals, and tend to quickly disappear, sometimes in a matter of minutes. _MIDDLE Also known as the heart of a fragrance, these notes—frequently floral, fruity, or spicy—act as a bridge between the top and base. They usually remain on the skin for a few hours. _BASE Think of these as the foundation. They are often deep and rich, like woods, musks, and vanillas, and give the scent its longevity. 2 CONCENTRATION…

A AUSTIN BUTLER IS ABOUT TO GET HIS ASS WHUPPED. Butler, towheaded and scrawny, not more than nine years old and painfully shy, cowers. The class bully is on the other side of his front door. Right there, on the lawn. Telling him to come outside so he can pound his face in. Butler looks to his mom. What do I do? His mom is gentle. The least judgmental, most openhearted person he’ll ever know. Not a mean bone in her body. But she also understands how the world works—bullies included. So she looks her younger child dead in the eye and tells him what needs to happen next. “Lace up your shoes,” she says, “go out there, and beat the hell out of him.” Butler does as he’s…

WASHINGTON, D. C. AUGUST 26, 2023 Can’t tell you what Martin Luther King Jr. was doing in the hours, minutes, before he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, but I can tell you that sixty years later, Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is sitting in an upholstered wooden chair in his trailer, parked on a fence line behind the Lincoln Memorial, fielding calls on his cell phone about today’s rally, at which he will deliver his own speech. Can’t tell you the logistical concerns MLK solved himself in the minutes before he gave his most famous public address, but I can tell you that Sharpton’s cell is ring ring ringing with handlers and schedulers panicked about the lineup, about having the event shut down by the National Park Service for…

BY 2004, I HAD LIVED IN LOS ANGELES FOR a full year. One February night, I was walking to my car after dinner with some new friends. Two minutes into the four-minute walk, I thought, It is actually cold right now. Thirty seconds later, I couldn’t feel my fingers or the tops of my ears. This must be a record cold snap, a climate catastrophe out of The Day After Tomorrow, which wouldn’t even be out until that May. Then I got in my car and cranked the heat; the dashboard told me the outside temperature, 59 degrees. One year in L. A. had made me soft. The move west that had seemed like a new start was inexorably changing me into a person who asks the waiter to turn on…

FOR YEARS NOW, PIERRE THIAM HAS BEEN patiently waiting for everyone else to catch up with him. You can look at that in a variety of ways. There is, first of all, the unstoppable engine of his enterprise. In recent years, he has published four cookbooks, opened two of his Teranga restaurants in New York City, developed an array of food products with a company called Yolélé, and collaborated with Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver on a series of wildly popular beers that incorporate African ingredients. Trim and scholarly and unfailingly polite, with a demeanor that calls to mind a university professor more than a chef, Thiam has arguably, over the past two decades, done more than anyone else in the United States to raise awareness of the culinary traditions of Senegal,…

NOWADAYS Still don’t want to give up the taste of a proper cocktail? This fruity (but in a good way) no-alcohol cannabis spirit works well by itself over rocks or, even better, in an espresso martini or a spicy margarita. CQ CQ has a line of cannabis seltzers, including a cola sweetened with cane sugar. But we also like its old-fashioned lemonade, infused with sativa for a more uplifting high. You can drink it on its own or mixed into a cocktail. HI5 Hi5’s peach-mango variety is zero sugar and gluten-free yet somehow very enjoyable. Each can of seltzer, weighing in at 12 ounces, is intended to take effect in five minutes. RICKETT BREWING JOLIE FLEUR BLANC For those times when you want a more celebratory high, this sparkling nonalcoholic…

_OLD SPICE Introduced in 1938 in an aftershave, it’s the scent that started it all for American men. _ARAMIS One of the first perfumes marketed to men when it debuted in 1963, this combination of floral notes with woods and leather helped define what we consider a “men’s” fragrance. _DRAKKAR NOIR An ’80s icon, it’s basically a Gordon Gekko power suit in olfactory form. _ACQUA DI GIÒ The aquatic scent to end all aquatic scents. Since its arrival in 1996, it’s become one of the best-selling men’s fragrances of all time. _CK ONE Credited as the first unisex fragrance, this light, fresh scent changed the game by inviting everyone to wear it. _ABERCROMBIE FIERCE The official fragrance of early-aughts mall rats, this fresh, woody scent still has a choke hold…

Esquire has long had a mantra: “man at his best.” And over the decades, as American culture has twisted its way through one radical shift after another, the magazine has enthusiastically embraced its mission of doling out advice on how to achieve that Platonic ideal of manhood—whatever it happened to be at the moment. But delivering such sage instruction to our readers is arguably more challenging than ever. To begin with, consider what it means to be a man in contemporary American culture. Oh boy. If you’ve been looking for a can of worms to crack open, may I recommend that one? In the past, Team Esquire selected at least a couple routes when it came to the dispensing of life guidance. Depending on the currents of the culture, you…

Dan Aykroyd ACTOR, COMEDIAN, DIRECTOR, MUSICIAN; 71; KINGSTON, ONTARIO __ I KNOW FOR SURE that many different types of species are operating hyper-advanced aerodynamic platforms, and they’re visiting Earth, coming and going like taxis. As to who these operators are, I don’t know. Are they interdimensional, inter-realm, interplanetary? __ I’VE HAD four vivid sightings of craft that were not jets, helicopters, or planes. __ I WAS ON MY MOTORCYCLE about eight o’clock at night, and I saw a red beacon flying over the high-tension power lines. There was no sound. It stops right above my motorcycle and shines a light on me. I look up, totally delighted. And the light winks off, and this thing drifts off over the field again. __ MY DAD WAS an absolute absurdist. He would…

STORE INFORMATION For the items featured in Esquire, please consult the website or call the phone number provided. Blueprint, p. 35: Tiffany & Co. necklace, tiffany.com. Ludovic de Saint Sernin shirt, ludovicdesaintsernin.com. P. 36: Dunhill chinos, dunhill.com. Velva Sheen T-shirt, velvasheen.com. Gianvito Rossi loafers, gianvitorossi.com. Falke socks, falke.com. P. 38: Louis Vuitton Men’s bags, jacket, and jeans, louisvuitton.com. P. 40: Bulgari watch, bulgari.com. The New Rules of Suiting Up, p. 51: Dolce & Gabbana suit, shirt, and tie, dolcegabbana.com. Cutler and Gross sunglasses, cutlerandgross.com. Title of Work ring, titleofwork.com. Longines watch, longines.com. P. 52: Brunello Cucinelli suit and shirt, brunellocucinelli.com. P. 53: Ralph Lauren Purple Label suit, vest, shirt, and sandals, ralphlauren.com. P. 54: Givenchy jacket, trousers, and shoes, givenchy.com. P. 55: Canali jacket, trousers, and tie, canali.com. Boglioli shirt,…