Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i Esquire

A fashionable set of frames is a pivotal piece to any wardrobe. So much more than a mere accessory, the perfect pair can add a personal touch to your entire ensemble and seamlessly pull together your look. And since sunnier days are offcially in full swing, the launch of Montblanc’s Spring/Summer 2024 Eyewear Collection could not have come at a better time. Elevating the art of eyewear, the Hamburg-based luxury Maison’s latest range of sunglasses and optical frames pairs its centuries-long legacy of luxury with state-of-the-art engineering. Each piece reflects a commitment to superior craftsmanship and innovation, which is showcased most notably with the brand’s latest limited-edition capsule honoring the 100th anniversary of the iconic Meisterstück. Specially designed for the Centenary, the rectangular rimless design features decorated temples that re-create…

AMONG THE MORE PERPLEXING TRENDLETS we’ve scrolled past this year is “rawdogging,” the act of denying oneself all forms of entertainment for the length of a long-haul flight. No books or games or movies or naps for our rawdoggers; instead, the guys—always guys, only guys—stare straight ahead at the flight map or the seat back of the person in front of them, spending the whole time lost either in thought or in search of a good one. As with all trendlets, there’s no way of knowing whether it’s real or just six goobers on TikTok with the same dumb idea. But it gained traction because it feels real. In a year when guys tried to out-guy each other via Cybertruck purchases and diss tracks, isn’t it more plausible than ever that…

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER IS RATTLING OFF statistics while we wait. It’s just after 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21, and the Georgia secretary of state is standing outside a small conference room in an underground bunker on the east side of Atlanta, where he and his staff gather on election days. A couple dozen workers are spread around an open seating area, quietly fielding phone calls and staring at their computer monitors. With its fluorescent lights and gray carpet, the place has the muted feel of a regional sales office. The secretary, though, is energized. As the official in charge of overseeing elections in his state, Raffensperger is always ready to dive into the details. Today is a statewide primary, and more than 700,000 of his fellow citizens will show up to…

LIKE ANY ICON, CARTIER’S TRINITY RING IS CLOAKED in lore. One story claims that the interlocking bands were created for French poet and playwright Jean Cocteau, who was inspired by a (possibly drug-fueled) dream about the rings of Saturn. It’d be great party banter if it weren’t pure fiction. According to the folks at Cartier, the Trinity’s beginnings were far more straightforward. In 1924, without much fanfare, founder Louis-François Cartier’s grandson Louis added the three-banded ring in yellow, white, and rose gold to the maison’s catalog. It was a design-driven piece, something to hopefully resonate with folks without much interest in opulent, encrusted jewelry. And resonate it did. Adopted by Hollywood A-listers like Gary Cooper and international stars like Alain Delon—not to mention Cocteau himself, who wore two on his pinkie—it…

BACK IN THE ’80S, DIEGO DELLA Valle, president of the Italian shoemaker Tod’s, and his brother Andrea chanced upon the American workwear maker E. A. Fay. The duo instantly recognized the potential of Fay’s signature product—a fireman’s jacket with distinctive hook-and-D-ring closures—and bought the company, repurposing the jacket for casual wear and later renaming it the 4 Ganci (or “four hooks”) for Italian customers. It was a popular piece of street culture before receding from view for a few decades. Luckily for us, in 2019, Fay was relaunched and expanded, still with the 4 Ganci at its center. This season, the design team has released a limited-edition version of the jacket up-cycled from World War II–era U. S. Army tents discovered in a warehouse in Naples, Italy. Patched together, with many…

I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO ANNAPOLIS, Maryland. As I am a die-hard sailing fan, and given it’s the nautical capital of the United States and the home of the U. S. Naval Academy, this is some-what shameful. But at least I got the sweatshirt. Sailing is my Zen. There’s something awesome to me about the idea of harnessing the wind to go places. To go, in theory, anywhere on the planet. It’s such an ancient science—or, if you’re like me, art—that it connects messing about in dinghies on a sunny afternoon in 2024 with the great ocean pioneers of thousands of years ago. It’s restorative, too. A way to disconnect from the thrum of daily life and recharge a bit. The best moment of a day on the water is when…

OREGON YOU KNEW SOME VOTE-OR-DIE, DO-IT-TO-HONOR the-sacrifices-of-the-ancestors, you-can’t-complain-if-you-don’t-participate Black folks. But you also knew scores who didn’t trouble themselves with participating at all. Into your 30s you felt somewhere between those philosophical poles, among those who, each election cycle, needed convincing that their vote mattered a good gotdamn. Why? Despite your mother, grandfather, and great-grandparents all migrating from the Cradle of the Confederacy to your birthplace of Oregon by 1960, none ever told of being bitten by attack dogs or knocked on their back by the surge of a fire hose; of suffering the degradation of a Whites Only water fountain; of a Klansupported governor or the specter of hanging as “strange fruit.” Maybe to protect you. Maybe to forget. Maybe in favor of inculcating you with something stronger than a…

Tom Selleck ACTOR, 79, LOS ANGELES I WAS PLAYING BASEBALL in our little neighborhood. I got ahold of one and it broke a window. We all scattered and ran. My mom found out. I said, “Are you going to tell Dad?” She said, “No. You’re going to tell Dad.” HE WASN’T ONE to fly off the handle. He said, “Thank you for telling me. I’ll see you in the morning.” In the morning, he took me down the block to the Rockwell house. He said, “Knock on the door and tell him.” Mr. Rockwell answered. I said, “I’m the one who broke your window.” He said, “Thank you for telling me.” WE WENT IN THE HOUSE and measured the window, and then my dad took me to the hardware store.…

THERE ARE MORNINGS WHEN THE CYNIC arises and believes with his first blinking half-thought that the righteous already have lost. That the forces of apathy, stupidity, and anesthetic comfort, enabled and armed for battle by the forces of radical religion and corporate oligarchy, have broken through all the barricades. That they’ve worn down any who were still hoarding a stubborn and invulnerable hope. The Cynic remembers what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence: Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. Yes, Jefferson goes on with all that “It…

IT’S 8:00 P.M. ON A WEDNESDAY. YOU’RE EN ROUTE TO MEET YOUR buddies for dinner—a plan that (although you suggested it) now seems ambitious. You arrive at the restaurant with your exit strategy in place. I’ll stay for an hour and a half, you resolve internally. Just enough time to ask if James’s boss is still a dick and find out whatever happened with that woman Matt met on Hinge. You skim the menu, eyes darting past the cocktails to the drink you know and love. A pilsner it is. Everything is unfolding according to plan. Then the waiter approaches. You listen as your friend to the right orders an espresso martini. Bold choice for a Wednesday. A Saturday? Sure. On a Wednesday, though? That’s a very different journey from the…

MUSICIANS AND FRAGRANCE MAKERS use different senses but share the same goal: capturing a vibe. And if there’s one thing Pharrell Williams understands, it’s how to capture a vibe. (If you doubt that, please put down this magazine, play the song “Happy,” and reacquaint yourself with reality.) So when you hear that the idea behind his debut fragrance for Louis Vuitton was to bottle the scent of the sun, it doesn’t sound quite as off-the-wall as it might coming from someone with a more literal approach to the world. Master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud clearly saw the potential, working with Williams to distill an amorphous concept into something you can smell by focusing on the process of photosynthesis. “It may sound abstract, but if you look at life, photosynthesis is…

EVERY YEAR, WE SLATHER, SCRUB, and spray our way through hundreds of grooming products to find the very best out there. To accomplish this feat, we assemble a group of testers—editors, experts, and enthusiasts (bordering on obsessives)—who consider the tiny differences in aesthetics and performance for longer than normal people would consider, well, normal, and who spend months trying every new product they can get their hands on. Our standards are high because yours are, too. Whether your grooming routine is simple or extensive, these products will transform the way you take care of yourself. FRAGRANCE DIOR SAUVAGE EAU FORTE The new alcohol-free formula turns the typical Sauvage notes into something smoother and more robust. It’s grown-up, modern, and, dare we say, surprising. $160 MICHAEL KORS POUR HOMME This new fragrance…

A creative rebellion is crackling through Tinseltown. Yes, AI looms, the algorithm pushes us toward the same dull programs, and the way we consume our movies and TV has never been more fragmented. But that’s precisely why we are craving—demanding, really—art that feels authentic. We want bold and daring entertainment. Storytelling that surprises us, propelled by characters who ring true. After more than a decade of Marvel totality, Hollywood is finally answering this call. The spirit that thrived in Hollywood in the seventies and again in the nineties has returned. And these ten men and women embody the movement. They possess bold creative vision, unique talent, and a fearlessness that is undeniably real. JESSE EISENBERG 40, actor, writer, and director JESSE EISENBERG PAYS ATTENTION. ESPECIALLY TO HIS OWN WORDS. HE’LL…

Stylist CHLOE HARTSTEIN (01) knows the clothes don’t make the man, but her clothing choices do make the man stand out. For our “Mavericks of Hollywood” shoot (page 65), she brought that ethos to bear, selecting clothes that let the people wearing them shine through. Hartstein has styled the likes of Michael J. Fox, Chris Rock (for Esquire), and Steve Martin, and she remains astonished at where her work has taken her: “If you’d told little Chloe that she’d get to meet and work with all of these incredible people, she wouldn’t have believed you!” In 2011, Esquire launched the Politics Blog with CHARLES P. PIERCE (02), promising he would cover “perhaps the craziest time of our lives” with his signature wit and historical perspective. Good thing we hedged with…

A$AP ROCKY, DON’T BE DUMB August 30 Flacko has been teasing a follow-up to his psychedelic 2018 outing, Testing, for several years—and whether or not the MC’s fourth LP actually drops this August is anyone’s guess. But with three singles down and a promise that it’s his “best work yet,” he’s got our attention. MIDLAND, BARELY BLUE September 20 With clever wordplay and a mischievous blend of honkytonk and Laurel Canyon folk, the Texas trio charmed hard across their first three albums. Here they team up with alt-country super-producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell) for their most introspective, stripped-back collection yet. When it sways, you’ll swoon. JAMIE XX, IN WAVES September 20 Four years in the making (and nine years after his Mercury Prize–nominated debut), the British DJ-slash-producer’s second…

IF YOU AREN’T FAMILIAR WITH GIORGIO ARMANI—IT MUST BE nice and cozy under that rock—here’s a brief primer. He made Italian fashion the focal point of global good taste when he founded his brand in 1975 and has kept it there ever since. His knack for riffing on his own style for different markets created the business playbook for the contemporary fashion brand. His pioneering success in Hollywood—he’s outfitted more than 100 movies since his debut, including dressing Richard Gere for 1980’s American Gigolo—propelled his cachet into the stratosphere. Armani is widely credited with establishing red-carpet fashion as an idea, and the Hollywood machine would be nowhere without him. And he still has plenty to say about it. Days before he turned 90 on July 11, Armani granted Esquire a rare…

I KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT. BOTH OF MY PARENTS HAD EXPERIENCED RETINAL detachments, so I was terrified but prepared. The warning signs sounded vague: “Be wary of sudden bright flashes or arcs of light,” doctors told me. In reality, it was more like hot white blaster fire ricocheting off the hull of an Imperial light cruiser. “Be wary of any new ‘floaters,’ ” they said. When the floaters came, they were like black, stringy Dementors descending unexpectedly over my field of vision. I’ve always seen the world through this perspective—everything filtered through what I watched, heard, read, and loved. But consuming pop culture like the world was ending when it actually was wasn’t so much fun. By December 2020, we had binged, read, spun enough. My wife and I decided…

ZOË KRAVITZ JUST WANTED TO MAKE her mother laugh. She needed to get her attention first, though. They were at home in Topanga, California, and her mom was surrounded by her closest friends. The group was tending to her in a way that Kravitz, just nine years old at the time, could not. The funeral for Kravitz’s grandmother—her mother’s mother—had taken place only hours earlier, and everyone had gathered at the house after, wanting to help. Help host. Help clean. Be there. Kravitz didn’t yet fully understand mortality. But she felt her mother’s sorrow and was desperate to alleviate it. So Kravitz snuck off to her bedroom. She put on her little pinstripe-suit costume and added a fake mustache, too. Then she grabbed a CD, popped it in the player,…

2015 I FIRST BECAME WORRIED ABOUT THE BULLET IN MY MOTHER’S HEAD TWO days after she died. I was afraid the bullet was going to explode. In truth, it was bullet fragments, and they weren’t what ended my mother’s life. She was the rarest of cases: a woman who had survived her own murder. When the mortician handed me her death certificate, it read, “Age: 58. Cause of death: Cardiopulmonary failure”—as a result of her lung cancer. One room away, my mother’s body was being prepared for cremation. I imagined the fire incinerating her flesh, then tried to shake that thought. She was in her white nightgown, the one with lace, the one she always wore when she appeared in the kitchen at night, emerging from a dream, crinkles around…

STORE INFORMATION For the items featured in Esquire, please consult the website or call the phone number provided. Blueprint, p. 43: Cartier rings, cartier.com. Fendi Men’s shirt, fendi.com. P. 44: Louis Vuitton cologne, louisvuitton.com. P. 48: Fay Archive jacket, fay.com. Fursac blazer, fursac.com. Dsquared2 tank, dsquared2.com. Connor McKnight trousers, connormcknight.com. Golden Goose sneakers, goldengoose.com. P. 50: Parmigiani Fleurier watch, parmigiani.com. A Kind of Guise shirt, akindofguise.com. Ambush shirt, ambushdesign.com. Fursac shirt, fursac.com. Mavericks, p. 66: The Row cardigan, shirt, and trousers, therow.com. Omega watch, omegawatches.com. John Lobb shoes, johnlobb.com. Falke socks, falke.com. P. 67: Dior Men shirt and trousers, dior.com. Christian Louboutin shoes, christianlouboutin.com. David Yurman ring, davidyurman.com. Chopard ring, chopard.com. P. 68: Ralph Lauren Purple Label suit, vest, shirt, tie, and shoes, ralphlauren.com. Pantherella socks, pantherella.com. P. 69: Brandon…