Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2016 i Maxim

BLOCK FROM G-LAB DESIGN FIDELITY This custom-engineered integrated tube amp from Polish audio house G-LAB is the perfect marriage of industrial-modern form and acoustically jaw-dropping function. To reduce interference, designer Mateusz Główka carefully compartmentalized BLOCK’s internal components, producing the sort of high-fidelity sonic precision you only find in the most rarefied studio-grade equipment. 1960 AP ORIGINALS LOUNGE CHAIR Unlike so many midcentury classics that have been endlessly reproduced, this rare 1960 lounge chair from Dutch design firm AP Originals is a rugged individual. Suspended from a spartan brushed-steel frame, its supple cognac leather allows a man to recline the right way. When one of these does come up for auction, it usually goes for around $7,000.…

I knock on the door of an unmarked red brick industrial building in southwest Los Angeles, and the actor Keanu Reeves answers. He doesn’t lead me onto a movie set, but instead into a motorcycle shop— his motorcycle shop, in fact. Arch Motorcycle Company, a bespoke studio he founded with master builder Gard Hollinger in late 2011, produces tailor-made bikes for those with at least $78,000 to spare. Each example of Arch’s KRGT-1 model, pictured here, is individualized to fit a customer’s tastes and style, with creative oversight from Hollinger, who has been building custom motorcycles for the better part of three decades. “Sometimes the second you meet somebody, you think, I’m going to be connected to that person,” says Hollinger, who has built some of the most imaginative and…

You’re rappelling down the crater of a 4,000-year-old dormant volcano in Iceland, hoping to hell the thing really is inactive and you’ll find a cold microbrew at the bottom instead of boiling lava. Your arms feel like they’re about to snap off and there are still 300 feet to go. Even better, you’ve actually paid money for this. A lot of it. But all you can think about is recovering in time for the next potentially fatal, deeply satisfying feat—and capturing it all for your feed. The more dangerous and inhospitable certain parts of the world become, the more determined some of us are to explore them. And there’s never been a better time to go in with guns blazing. Hitching a ride on one of the world’s first commercial…

Husband-and-wife photography duo BJ Formento and Richeille Formento, of Formento & Formento, first met on a trip to Cuba in 2005, vowing to return again to capture the arresting mix of decay and desire that they found emblematic of the country. In 2014, they finally got their chance to record the last days of a rapidly changing post-Fidel Cuba. Their project, She is Cuba, chronicles the country’s aesthetic allure and rich cultural pathos through the faces of some of the island’s most beautiful women. The photographers shared the stories behind their favorite images.…

COBALT CO50 VALKYRIE For the aspiring aviator, there’s no plane more seductive than the Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie, a single-engine piston five-seater designed for maximum maneuverability and safety. With a design descending from classic fighter jets, the Valkyrie is the fastest private aircraft in its class, melding luxury and acrobatic functionality into one of the slickest birds in the sky. Priced at a relatively grounded $595,000. SKYRUNNER Why drive when you can fly? Then again, why not do both? The SkyRunner flying ATV combines muscular off-road design with paraglider aviation technology, allowing it to take off from almost anywhere. On the ground, it can conquer the roughest passable terrain at speeds of up to 70 mph. But with its parachute deployed, it can literally carry you up and over a 10,000-foot…

Welcome to the daydream. Step into the central cockpit, slide into the seat, buckle into the racing harness, and hit the button to start the most powerful automotive experience available to nonprofessionals: the single-seat, $250,000 Mono, from the Briggs Automotive Company. People buy exotic cars to fuel their racecar fantasies. Trouble is, streetlegal sports cars, even ones built by the production arms of Formula 1 racing teams like Ferrari and McLaren, are nothing like racecars. They are just louder, less comfortable street cars. To make it street legal, BAC builds the aptly named Mono as a one-seat rocket that is little more than a racecar with fenders and lights. Compared to fire-breathing, 1,000-horsepower monsters like the McLaren P1, the Mono’s 305 horsepower might seem lacking. But because it weighs only…

Makeup, Azra Red using Decléor Aurabsolu Intense Glow at Honey Artists. Hair, Leonardo Manetti at the Wall Group. Nails, Casey Herman at Chanel Le Vernis. Models, Arthur Kulkov at Re:Quest Model Management; Anais Pouliot at the Society Management…

For the past 25 years, Yann Fillioux, Hennessy’s master blender, has been the key figure behind the iconic brand’s celebrated cognac. Now, at age 69, he is ready to anoint a successor after 50 years with the brand, but not before presenting his final, and greatest, creation for the famed maison. Priced at $39,000 a bottle and available this May, Hennessy 8 is a blend of eight utterly exceptional varieties of eau-de-vie, the fermented, double-distilled spirit at the heart of cognac, representing eight generations of incomparable heritage—with just 250 bottles being produced for the entire world. Seven selections were chosen by Fillioux— who’s also the seventh person ever to serve as Hennessy master blender—from the greatest distillations of the past seven generations. The eighth was picked by Renaud Fillioux de…

In The American Gentleman’s Guide to Politeness and Fashion from 1860, Henry Lunettes writes, “No rude familiarity should outrage the delicacy that veils femininity, no outward indifference or neglect betoken disregard of the sacred claims of the woman, whom, next to his mother, every man is bound in honor, to distinguish beyond all others, by courteous observance.” Which is all to say, there is a right and a wrong way to treat a woman. Of course, the world has evolved since then, but there’s something to be said about the universal principles of chivalry when it comes to dating, which are presently facing extinction. These days, a date is little more than a right-swipe into a wasteland of casual drinks at sticky-floored dive bars with paramours as memorable as the…

Spend a few hours with glamazon Ashley Graham and you’ll notice a few things. The first is her face: nothing short of arresting, with serious cheekbones, flawless olive skin, and impossibly full lips. It’s as though Eva Mendes, Cindy Crawford, and Brooke Shields had melded into one woman, and then someone turned up the volume. Everything from her charcoal-rimmed eyes and extra-long eyelashes to her tousled brown hair seems to have been amplified. The second thing is her voice: husky and smooth; like an Oprah or Tyra, she’s a fan of affirmations. “You are bold, you are brilliant, you are beautiful” is a personal mantra. The lingerie model and entrepreneur is prone to deep laughter and public displays of self-assurance. Her Instagram (1.4 million followers) is one barely clad shot…

Photographer Steven Lyon is probably best known for his cinematic, black-and-white portraits of some of the world’s most exquisite women, who more often than not pose for him wearing nothing more than a provocative pout. As a lensman for top magazines and fashion campaigns, he’s seen enough exotic locations to fill several lifetimes. He also happens to be ridiculously good-looking, in the ruggedly handsome, tattooed kind of way that makes it easier to swallow that he was also once a top male model. First discovered on the streets of Los Angeles by Andy Warhol in the ’80s, he went on to become the face of Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Trussardi. He posed with Iman, nude, and partied endlessly. Life was good. But it wasn’t until he picked up a…