Inhaltsverzeichnis für March 2017 in Esquire

In this issue, we continue our long-standing tradition of celebrating Hollywood mavericks—those courageous, unorthodox, and truly independent-minded spirits of the industry such as Dennis Hopper, whose wellearned maverick status spanned his career, from Rebel Without a Cause to Easy Rider to Blue Velvet. “I don’t want to read about experiences,” Hopper told Esquire (below) in 1970 while filming his cult classic The Last Movie. “I want to have them; you know, go out in the street, man, get it on.” For more great moments from our archives, go to classic.esquire.com.…

Few days go by that I don’t steal a few minutes away at my desk—along with millions of other people around the globe—to watch the latest installment of Carpool Karaoke. My wife got me hooked more than a year ago, when I walked into the house one night like a man who needed a swig of something strong to stay standing. “This is even better,” she said. “You’ve got to see it!” She quickly pulled out her iPhone to cue a video of Rod Stewart and James Corden tooling around L.A. in a Range Rover with suitably flash white leather interior. Stewart, wearing a louchely knotted kerchief around his neck, appeared to be as yet unaware that this was worth his time. Then Corden flipped on the radio and “The…

• • • So you’ve been wanting to give your digs a more unbuttoned vibe, and you’ve already added bits of roughhewn wood, played up patinated metals, used earthy textiles. But something feels off. What gives? Our guess is the problem isn’t your decor—it’s your lighting. Here’s a universal truth of design: No matter how beautiful the objects in your space may be, only light and shadow can pull it all together. Which is why Flos’s Serena, available stateside this month, is so transformative. Sure, this energy-efficient table lamp is sculpturesque. (Designer Patricia Urquiola intended to evoke a pistil—so, yeah, the female sexual organ of flora.) But its true cribenhancing power lies in how it spreads and focuses light. The reflector has two positions: upright for a broad mellow wash…

1. South and West By Joan Didion You’ll learn more about America’s future from Didion’s 40-year-old field notes from two reporting trips—one to the trial of Patty Hearst, the other through the Deep South—than you will from tomorrow’s newspaper. Alfred A. Knopf, $21 2. Lincoln in the Bardo By George Saunders Abraham Lincoln’s son is stuck in Buddhist purgatory— Andersonville this isn’t. Saunders’s wildly imaginative and deeply moving first novel is worth the wait. Random House, $28 3. The One Inside By Sam Shepard Shepard’s poetic story of a man trying to shake his demons on a cross-country drive will haunt you. Not the book to inspire your next road trip. Alfred A. Knopf, $26 4. The Art of Invisibility By Kevin Mitnick Who better than Mitnick— internationally wanted hacker…

More Fascinating Than Fiction Two new documentary offerings break the mold In PBS’s five-part Nature miniseries Spy in the Wild, camera-equipped robot creatures are sent into various habitats to interact with their living-andbreathing kin. The result is a level of up-close-andpersonal access that even Planet Earth can’t promise— and endlessly entertaining third-party footage of animals sniffing and engaging with their Jim Hensonesque doppelgängers. Stoner nature enthusiasts, set your DVRs! Too often, documentaries that take on the darkest topics are demoralizing at best and exploitative at worst. Without skirting the issue, the Jessica Chastain– narrated I Am Jane Doe (now playing in select cities) upends the familiar narrative surrounding child sex trafficking to become a gripping legal thriller. The film follows a scrappy coalition of families, politicians, and small-time lawyers as…

Los Angeles celebrates László Moholy-Nagy Long before a thousand gallery poseurs rendered the term meaningless, László Moholy-Nagy was an interdisciplinary artist. “Designing,” he once wrote, “is not a profession but an attitude.” But he created so much work across so many different mediums that his reputation can sometimes seem muddled, as though he’s some kind of Bauhaus B-lister compared with peers like Kandinsky and Klee. “Future Present,” Moholy- Nagy’s first major American retrospective in 50 years, shatters this misconception. The show, which opens on February 12 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, assembles almost 300 works across the pathbreaking artist’s career. Its highpoint is “Room of the Present”—a dazzling walk-in installation designed in 1930 but never built in Moholy- Nagy’s lifetime. —Steven Heyman Knives out: How do you…

Michael Bastian’s namesake collection landed like a bomb ten years ago. Here were the clothes we’d always wanted: rakishness and all-American classicism combined for a Holden Caulfield–meets–Don Draper effect. You could wear them right away without leaving your comfort zone. That is, if you had the means. A luxury label like Michael Bastian came with a luxury price tag, which shut out a lot of prospective customers. So Bastian cracked the door a little wider, collaborating with more affordable brands such as Uniqlo and Gant. Guys ate it up and Bastian noticed. “It’s so much fun to make stuff you actually see people wearing on the street,” he says. “That was new for me.” It’s about to get a lot more familiar. His new collection, Gray Label, offers the Bastian…

It’s time we paid attention to the woman behind the curtain. You’ll find her in Paris, in a fitting room on the fourth floor above the famed Hermès store on Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré and Rue Boissy d’Anglas. There stands a petite brunette who’s been driving men’s fashion for the past three decades as chief designer for men’s wear at Hermès. Véronique Nichanian designs suits, jackets, shirts—anything she thinks will help a man express himself better. To her, a man’s wardrobe should be an extension of his personality. Hermès’s DNA comes from its origin as a harness and saddle workshop. It’s a low-key house with nothing to prove and nobody to impress. Within this environment, Nichanian has thrived. She doesn’t believe in la mode. “I make clothes,” she says. “It’s…

EX IN FICTION, like sex on a beach, ought to be a no-brainer. On the one hand, there’s, well, sex, a source of mystifying pleasure and profundity that for most people rarely elicits any articulation other than a contented grunt, groan, or gasp. On the other hand, there’s the novel, an artistic enterprise devoted to making verbal sense of mute experience. In theory, the setup seems the perfect illustration of the Reese’s principle: two great tastes that taste great together. But theory is not practice, and life, friends, is not a peanut-butter cup. We all recognize that the boy who develops certain notions about the compatibility of sand and skin from the swimsuit issues stacked next to his grandfather’s BarcaLounger must soon discover the rough reality of forty-grit lovemaking. A…

IT HAD BEEN SNOWING ALL NIGHT. The road down the mountain snaked through an icing of whiteness. Daniel Humm, the young chef whose cooking had brought a Michelin star to this patch of the Swiss Alps, had crawled into bed around three in the morning. Now he was up again, two or three hours later, his bones aching and his eyes bloodshot. Humm had to make it from his kitchen at Gasthaus zum Gupf in Rehetobel, Switzerland, to the market in Zurich, about ninety minutes away. He needed to buy the best lettuces and herbs from the countryside, the best lemons and oranges trucked in from Italy. His dishes relied on these ingredients, and his dishes were so good, so revelatory, that wealthy customers had started flying to the restaurant…

I used to take pride in being a crafty budget traveler— booking a seat on the overnight train instead of a hotel room, that kind of thing. But grown-up me really likes clean pillows. Now the ultimate victory is paying three-star prices for a five-star trip—like my recent stay at Sheen Falls Lodge in Ireland, a stately old place where I could do things my younger self thought only guys with G6’s did, like hawking. Really. Like getting a bird to hunt for you. Crazy. Your time off should be better than real life, right? For a taste of the rarefied, I paid about $180 a night. How? I went during what’s called shoulder season— those weeks between high and low when the weather’s still fine and there are fewer…

Some of the best listening experiences I’ve had in the past weeks and years have come from the English radio station NTS. Every morning, I go to nts .live, look at the set lists from the previous day’s archived programs, and take in the wisest and most unruly of them, podcast-style, throughout the day. (Certainly you can listen live, on your computer or Sonos or your phone. I prefer the Christmas-stocking effect.) This is not commercial AM/FM or satellite radio, nor is it a corporate loss leader like Apple’s Beats 1. It is shoestring, free-form Internet-only radio, mixed in the moment by human beings. I am partial to NTS, based in London, but I also pay attention to the Lot, in Brooklyn; Red Light Radio, in Amsterdam; and the oldest…

It’s not until the second episode of Legion, FX’s trippy new superhero series, that you can expect to get your feet—or at least a few toes—on the ground. And that’s no accident: It’s all part of creator Noah Hawley’s plan to have your experience mirror that of his bewildered protagonist as he discovers that what he thought was schizophrenia might actually be a superpower. It’s a leap of faith made much easier by the presence of Rachel Keller’s Syd Barrett, a young woman with a set of supernatural intimacy issues (let’s just say she’s got a magic touch) and an inconvenient attraction to the title character. Hawley first cast the Minnesota native on Fargo when she was just a year out of college, appreciating how “grounded and real” she is…

In the past, rain jackets always suggested camping in a downpour or standing knee-deep in mud at Glastonbury. Suddenly, though, thanks in part to a cameo in The Hunger Games and The Lobster, foul-weather gear has become the outerwear of choice for urban badasses. Just ask Miuccia Prada, who put her own spin on it this season— cyberpunk meets Outward Bound—complete with a pixelated radar print that mimics Google Earth. Yes, it looks cool, but it is also (shocker!) practical: water-resistant, lightweight, easy to pack, and dramatically capacious. Consider it your go-to utility cloak for the 21st century. —Jon Rot h CARE LESS, LOOK BETTER True style is about LOOKING ROUGH around the edges At Esquire we often use reference photos from the past as guideposts in our attempt to…

• • • Few shoes have more counterculture cred than the Wallabee. David Bowie wore them during his Thin White Duke phase. JFK Jr. kept them in heavy rotation for years. Ditto much of Jamaica, where dancehall pioneers like Dennis Alcapone made the Wallabee a fetish item for rude boys across the country. Basically, they are the official shoe of the cool kid, having been embraced by everyone from Wu-Tang Clan to Wes Anderson, and this season they’re back, whether the classic model from Clarks—the suede upper, stitched toe box, and crepe sole have barely changed since 1967—or Vuitton’s reimagined version, a zebrapatterned creeper hybrid. No matter your style, you’ll be in good company. —J. R.…

• • • It’s the easiest thing in the world to make a crazy-expensive watch. But labor and material costs make it nearly impossible to find one—particularly a high-quality automatic, the kind that winds itself just by the movement of your wrist— from a reputable Swiss brand for less than $3,000. You can’t exactly call that cheap, but a great investment? We think so. Fortunately, many Swiss companies see “entry-level” watches like these as a vital commitment to the common customer. You may have to sacrifice a complication or two (every doohickey and function adds dollars to the end price), so start simple, with just hours, minutes, and seconds. You can always work your way up to a tourbillon when you have a spare 100K lying about. —N. S.…

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT Pedro Pascal is going through an identity crisis. “On the street, I get either ‘Are you the Red Viper?’ or ‘Are you Javier Peña?’ ” he says. He is neither, but those two characters give a nice summary of the forty-one-year-old actor’s recent trajectory: first as Oberyn Martell, the bisexual heartthrob on HBO’s Game of Thrones, and now as the real-life DEA agent hunting Pablo Escobar on Netflix’s Narcos. “If anyone knows my name, they probably Googled me first,” Pascal says. When he arrives at the coffee shop in Chelsea’s High Line Hotel, Pascal is a little harried. He’s wearing a sweater from our photo shoot the week prior, and he suspects he left his phone at home. The Chilean-born, American-raised actor is in New York…

Feel It Out The right texture is key to a dressing-down like this. The fabrics on these pages run the gamut (mohair, cotton, linen), but they’re all fine, flowing, and superlight. And look for unlined options— they add more breathing room, and they’ll keep you cooler, too. Find Your F i t This isn’t about going up a size; it’s about changing proportions. Your suit should still hang close to your shoulders and waist, but leave some extra room in the body of the jacket, the sleeves, and the thighs. (You’ll be exponentially more comfortable.) DAILY GRIND Pro skater Dan Lutheran’s career is up in the air “My style is pretty free range,” Dan Lutheran says, referring to his clothes, not his style of boarding. “I like to mix up…

Until now, monk-strap shoes were a known quantity. They came with one or two straps (sometimes three, though that feels like overcompensating—like a guy who wears a belt and suspenders) and were a smart alternative to the average lace-up: something for the man who’s already stocked up on the basics. Then we saw this, something we call the switch-strap monk. It’s a brushed-leather cap-toe with minimal broguing, but the focus is on those straps, which overlap (whoa!) and interlock in an oddly soothing, geometric way, like two pieces of a puzzle. It’s a rare shoe that gives a guy a sense of completion, but here it is. Leather Briol monk-strap shoes, $725. Presented by Bally.…

REINCE PRIEBUS Official title: Chief of staff Unofficial title: “Mr. Switzerland” (per Trump) Résumé: Chair of Wisconsin Republican party, RNC chair Personal life: Married to high school sweetheart Style icon: Alex P. Keaton Mission: Broaden the GOP base Motto: “I haven’t started pouring Baileys in my cereal yet.” STEPHEN K. BANNON Official title: Chief strategist and senior counselor Unofficial title: “The Leni Riefenstahl of the Tea Party” (per Andrew Breitbart) Résumé: Naval officer, investment banker, Breitbart executive, Trump campaign CEO Personal life: Divorced three times, contentiously Style icon: Nick Nolte Mission: “Bitch-slap the Republican party” Motto: “Honey Badger don’t give a shit.”…

Before she became the superhumanly guarded Syd Barrett on Legion (2017) . . . . . . Keller played seductive crime-family scion Simone Gerhardt on FX’s Fargo (2015) . . . . . . and a possessed Sister Mathias on The CW’s Supernatural (2015). Day-Glo-tripper: Triboro Design’s Wrong Color Subway Map—available in RGB and CMY (seen here)—may be slightly more geographically accurate than the famously distorted official one. But mainly it’s way cooler. $180; triborodesign.com/shop…

Please don’t Instagram this funky deep-fried goodness on a bun • • • They’re not going to tell you about it, so we will. Go to the Dabney in Washington, D. C., befriend the server, order a drink. Get some oysters, the quail, the porkbelly biscuit. Let them know you mean business. Once that has been established, ask— quietly, politely—about the fried pheasant sandwich. It does not appear on the menu, because if it did, people might order too many, too often, and that could send the kitchen into a tailspin and blind customers to Virginia-bred chef Jeremiah Langhorne’s full range— you should eat as much of his cooking as you can. But save room for this sandwich, which will be surreptitiously slipped in front of you, crispy nubs of…

Is there anything as meta as watching Black Mirror on your phone? For the uninitiated, it’s a Netflix show about a not-so-distant dystopian future in which technology, as wondrous as it is (the title refers to life’s ever-present screens, like the one in your pocket), can subject us to subpar human experiences. Our problem is trivial compared with what the characters on Black Mirror grapple with—can artificial intelligence provide love?—but it still sucks: Binge-watching anything on a screen small enough to fit into your backpack eats away at our humanity, dammit. There are more TV shows and movies to absorb than ever, yet we’ve never been more timestrapped as a society, so we end up watching things on our phones during the commute, on our computers at the office, on…

• • • Briefcases are great for lugging your business papers, but they have one drawback: It’s hard to be hands-free, catching up on email. Which is why we love a good backpack. Spare, graphic, and a little bit Gothic, Riccardo Tisci’s latest bag for Givenchy is the perfect solution—and the best way to wear a backpack without looking like you’re late for a midterm. —J. R.…

• • • A Print with Art-History Cred: The artwork from Dior’s summer show is by Toru Kamei, a Japanese artist who riffs on the “vanitas” style. This type of painting originated in the seventeenth century, when Dutch artists created still lifes with wilted flowers or skulls as a reminder that life is short. Kris Van Assche’s lines are sharp, and his design is strict; contrasting those qualities with lush, almost spiritual artwork is truly smart. Plus, it all looks cool. —Matthew Marden • • • A Magic Japanese Pen: Around the Esquire offices, we’ve all come to appreciate the Pentel Sign Pen Brush Tip. And that’s not just because it is the only pen that our editor in chief, Jay Fielden, uses to edit copy. No, it’s really about…

Interior designer and architect, 43, France Known for a LUXE-BUT-MINIMALIST APPROACH, Dirand has designed flagship stores for RICK OWENS and BALMAIN, as well as restaurants and hotels. His latest, MIAMI’S SURF CLUB, opens this month. How he found his style: I went through some weird stages I don’t want to tell you about, but now I just wear things that are sober, comfortable, and fitted. I am always in colors like navy, gray, and black. At one point, I was wearing some Balmain, and then some Rick Owens, but you cannot identify with one brand. It has to be anonymous. Style icon: James Dean had something extremely easy about his attitude. Just jeans and a navy sweater and his hair all over. It’s great style by having no style. Keep…

J a m e s C o r d e n wa s b a r re l i n g t owa rd a n e d i t i n g room to check o u t a ro u g h c u t of t h e l a t e s t C a r p o o l K a r a o k e (t h e o n e with Bruno Mars , resplendent i n bright l y c o l o re d s i l k) when somet h i n g caught h i s eye . Two things, really: a bowl of candy and a twenty-five-foot tape measure haphazardly deposited on a credenza in an office full…

I’ve smoked for sixty-two years, so why stop now? Picasso smoked, died at ninety- one. Matisse smoked, died at eighty-four. Monet smoked, died at eighty-six. What are they going on about? In L. A., no one asks you where you’ve been, where you’ve come from. There’s all kinds of people here; everybody’s from somewhere else. It suits me. I’m just a worker, always have been. I’m happiest when I’m working. So I work every day— weekends make no difference. As an artist, I’m driven. Always have been, really. I can still stand up for seven hours a day, painting. Artists don’t retire. They go on. I have the vanity of an artist in that I want my work to be seen, but I don’t like to be seen myself. I’m…

THE MOTTO OF THE MARINE Recruit Training Depot at Parris Island is “We make Marines.” Nineteen thousand recruits pass through the place each year, including every male would-be Devil Dog from east of the Mississippi and every female recruit from anywhere. The base is a monsoon of perpetual motion. Recruits with buzz cuts and earnest tan lines are up at 0400, standing at attention in front of their racks while drill instructors in short shorts and snug T-shirts crank the Lion King soundtrack on the duty hut’s computer. The recruits bellow Good morning, sir and Aye, sir and hustle to the head before a predawn march to the mess hall. After swallowing down their morning chow, they’re off to PT, the first ordeal in a day that won’t end for…

Director I had heard that Clint Eastwood lifted weights and that was the secret to his energy and youthful demeanor. But then he talked to the chair at the RNC and I thought, If lifting weights leads to that, I’m not doing it. I used this gym three times, and then it became a storage room. Starts out as weights; turns into a clothesline. So my favorite thing is not working out. Still, the equipment could be used one day, so just keeping it there means anything’s possible. All hoarding is hope. You think, I can’t die because I have to watch that stack of DVDs!Makes you feel immortal, having too much stuff.…