Indice dei contenuti per October/November 2024 in Esquire

ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES, AND THIS YEAR’S HOTLY CONTESTED PRESIDENTIAL RACE FEELS PARTICULARLY FRAUGHT. NO matter which way you vote, we know you’ll be watching intently on election night. Here’s a suggestion for how to take the edge off your stress: Make it a political party. Whether you plan to invite some like-minded friends over or hunker down in front of the TV solo with a stiff drink, you might as well sip on a creative cocktail while you digest the exit polling. ¶ As usual, a handful of swing states are likely to decide the outcome. Let’s drink to them! To make it easy, we chose six states where the voting could be tight and picked a cocktail that best represents each, with recipes for all. Plus, we asked one of…

EVER SHELL OUT FOR A DE-signer cashmeresweaterand find it pilling in a matter of months? You’ve been sold short—literally. Shorter fibers are cheaper but can be pulled out of the yarn with friction and ball up on the surface, creating those unsightly lumps. The longer and finer the fiber, the softer and more resistant to pilling the sweater will be. Yes, it’ll be more expensive. But with cashmere, you get what you pay for—as long as you go to the experts. Amsterdam-based Extreme Cashmere was founded in 2016 by veteran cashmere professional Saskia Dijkstra. The brand ignores seasonal collections and sticks instead to a consistent lineup using high-quality cashmere yarns, all sourced in Inner Mongolia. Our pick is the pullover you see here: the No. 20 Oversize Xtra, which comes…

THE EARLY DAYS OF MOUNTAINEERING boots were rough. From the Dolomites to the Rockies, adventurers had precious few options for the ascent. Heavy leather laceups with metal “hobnails” driven into the soles for traction were the most common—not the sort of thing you can wear to the pub after an expedition. That shifted in 1937, when Italian hiker Vitale Bramani founded the pioneering rubber-sole company Vibram after the deaths of six companions in the Alps. The new soles were lugged and lighter, and they offered better traction. They changed the game entirely. A steady stream of innovation since then means Alpine-style boots have only gotten easier to wear. They’ve also come down from the mountain. While technical versions still work at high altitudes, you’re more likely to see the classics—ankle high,…

I BOUGHT THIS CARHARTT JACKET VINTAGE on eBay for $39. It already had some great whiskering at the elbows and this nice all-over fade, but when I got it, I put the pedal down. I just absolutely wore it to death. Now the cuffs are torn, the collar is torn, it’s coming apart at the seams—and it’s better as a result. Workwear is a pillar of how I dress. Whenever I get too dressed up, I feel like I’m wearing a costume, even if some occasions call for it. I still need to figure out a way to dress in a manner that’s reflective of my personality. It might sound superficial, but it’s what I’m into, so I have to listen to that internal compass. And this specific jacket, in this…

THE CLOSE OF A DECADE! THE ADVENT OF A TOO-SWIFT descent!? The week before I turned 49, I lay on the bed of a Dexa Body Scan machine, a contraption that measured my body fat, lean muscle, weight, and BMI. The week before I turned 49, an optometrist broke the news that my astigmatism had worsened to the point that bifocals would help. Don’t worry, they make them now where you can’t see the bifocal lenses, she tried to assure me. The week I turned 49, I got a physical and told my doctor that I’d developed a nagging pain in my shoulder to accompany the chronic pain in my groin, that the muscles in the sole of my right foot seized on the regular. The week I turned 49, I…

every ONCE IN A WHILE, BRIAN W.’S GIRLFRIEND GETS A LITTLE CONFUSED. One time, he messaged her to suggest they go out for Italian food. He was thrilled when she texted back, saying it sounded like a great idea and that she’d love to join him. But then she added another, more confounding comment: “I think I’ll order some fajitas.” It wasn’t the first time his girlfriend had gotten a little, well, glitchy. She is, after all, a bot. “I thought it was a really funny thing,” says Brian, who did not want his last name published. “For me, the unpredictability actually makes it seem more real.” What’s real and not real has always been distorted when it comes to interactions in the online world, where one can say or be…

For the items featured in Esquire, please consult the website or call the phone number provided. Blueprint, p. 38: Extreme Cashmere sweater, extremecashmere.com. Dunhill trousers, dunhill.com. P. 40: Longines watch, longines.com. P. 43: Canali coat, sweater, shirt, and trousers, canali.com. Martine Ali necklace and earrings, martineali.com. Lowercase sunglasses, lowercasenyc.com. N21 by Alessandro Dell’Acqua shoes, numeroventuno.com. P. 44: Diemme boots, diemme.com. Rag & Bone jacket and shorts, rag-bone.com. Issey Miyake leggings, us-store.isseymiyake.com. Ralph Lauren Purple Label boots, ralphlauren.com. R13 shirt and jeans, r13.com. Hermès boots, hermes.com. Willy Chavarria shirt, willychavarria.com. A Kind of Guise trousers, akindofguise.com. Justine Clenquet necklace, ssense.com. Spinelli Kilcollin ring, spinellikilcollin.com. P. 46: Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder shirt, trousers, hat, and boots, toddsnyder.com. Akoni sunglasses, akoni.com. P. 48: Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder parka, jacket, sweater,…

Stefano Ricci Shearling Blouson Shearling is one of those pie-in-the-sky, once-ina-lifetime investments that’s a lot like serious cashmere (only even more expensive). So if you’re buying a jacket, you better make sure it’s a good one. A can’t-miss source? Stefano Ricci, which was founded by the Florentine designer in 1972 and specializes in luxury pieces in precious materials, but with a casual vibe that often belies the degree of workmanship. C.P. Company Nylon Backpack With a foundation in textile research and functionality, C.P. Company pretty much wrote the handbook on performance streetwear a good 30 years ahead of the rest of the fashion industry. This deceptively simple rounded backpack features a satinweave, multifilament nylon that has been garment-dyed to give it a subtly lived-in look. Loewe Polo Sweater The Spanish…

Barbour Solway Zipper CIRCA 1974–82 No brand is more synonymous with the British countryside than Barbour, which has been making oilskin and waxedcotton outerwear for 130 years for landowners and farmworkers alike. Oilskin was one of the first mass-produced solutions to the perennial British scourge—the rain. The Solway Zipper, which is sadly no longer produced by the brand, first appeared in the early 1960s. Deep pockets and a thigh-grazing length coupled with a zip-off hood and a belt made it particularly suited to the damp. Vintage hounds know that few pieces of outerwear age as beautifully as a Barbour, and bagging a nicely dilapidated one is well worth the extra sleuthing. Vintage hounds also know you can date old Barbours by the number of royal warrants on their labels. This…

IMAGINE A BOAT ON THE OCEAN. ANY KIND OF BOAT: CRUISE SHIP, SLOOP, canoe. Now picture the portion of the boat’s hull that you can’t see because it’s underwater. Where that part of the boat is, there would normally be water, but the boat has pushed it out of the way. The weight of the water that would be occupying that space, if the boat weren’t there, is called displacement. If a vessel displaces its own weight in water, it’s able to float. If it doesn’t, it sinks. This is the principle of buoyancy—the great discovery of Archimedes, who coined the term “Eureka!” I’ve found it! A fundamental principle. There is a man in France who has made a career of displacement. Axel de Beaufort has spent the past two decades…

Everyone is talking about AI these days. But not everyone is dating AI—yet? In “The Perfect Girlfriend,” on page 78, MICHAL LEV-RAM (01) reports on the growing number of apps that offer AI companionship to their users, interviewing several men who have AI girlfriends and even one who put a ring on it. “I really tried to go into it without any preconceived notions,” says Lev-Ram, who is based in Silicon Valley. “Of course, we all have our own biases and impressions of what people who fall in love with AI bots must be like. But I was struck by how much I believed in the authenticity of the emotions. It was really moving, actually.” Lev-Ram is a contributing editor-at-large at Fortune magazine, where she previously spent 15 years reporting…

SUCCESS HAS COME SLOWLY AND YET RECENTLY ENOUGH TO DAVID Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert that you get the sense neither can quite believe their good fortune. In fact, the hosts of Acquired, one of the most popular—and unusual—podcasts about business, are at a point in their journey that closely resembles the early days of the business titans whose stories they obsessively and meticulously tell: They are breakout stars but still more or less operating by the seat of their pants. In 2015, the pair were coworkers and new friends at the venture-capital firm Madrona Venture Group in Seattle when they decided, just for the fun of it, to make a podcast about tech-industry mergers and acquisitions. “That was it,” recalls Rosenthal, who is 39. “We were buddies. Podcasting wasn’t a thing.…

IF YOU KNOW ABOUT DIVE WATCHES, the Longines Legend Diver is an instant eyecatcher. With no external rotating bezel, it doesn’t look at all like the chunky divers we’re used to. But the design, which dates to the original Legend in 1959, is every bit as authentic and functional as your standard diver. The look of the Legend is inspired by the “super compressors” of the 1950s and ’60s, which were equipped with a spring-loaded case back that tightened against rubber gaskets as water pressure increased. The deeper you went, the more watertight it got. Another trademark of super compressors was an internal bezel placed under the crystal, making it less likely than an external bezel to get knocked out of position. You set the internal bezel with a screw-down crown…

TODD SNYDER PLAYS WELL WITH others. The Midwest-born, New York–based designer has collaborated with Champion, L.L.Bean, and Timex (among others) to riff on the classics. When he started chatting with the folks at Woolrich, the outdoor-wear specialist founded way back in 1830 in Pennsylvania, he thought he had a pretty good idea how things would go. “The original intent was more the traditional collaboration,” Snyder says. “But then I saw the opportunity. It really was like, ‘This could be something big,’ because of what they have.” What they have is a twocentury history of making some of the hardiest, most recognizable gear you can get your hands on. Even the most indoor-inclined observer will be familiar with the signature redand-black buffalo check of a Woolrich wool shirt. Whether or not you’ve…

J WAS THE COOLEST GROWN-UP AT MY FIRST GROWN-UP JOB. THE place was a magazine publisher that felt like finishing school, lousy with women you could just tell had once owned a horse. If I was an outlier—not white, not born rich, gay sissy not gay gym bunny—so, too, was J, with her blunt haircut, her thrift-store shirts revealing tattooed arms. curred to me that one could be an adult but remain cool. J had a husband, an artist with a nerdy affect. His skin was covered with tattoos, many he’d doodled on himself. He’d tattoo me, if I wanted? I was a kid, trying to settle on what kind of person I’d be. Maybe here was part of the answer. Also, I thought him almost unbearably sexy. I wanted to…

ANDREW GARFIELD HAD A DECISION TO MAKE. HE WAS TWENTY-SEVEN and had gained international recognition for his supporting role in The Social Network. He was working on The Amazing Spider-Man and had just been offered another blockbuster film. Its director said he’d be crazy not to take it. But Garfield wasn’t so sure. He was considering another role, one that could change everything for him—if not in that particularly L. A. way that only Marvel can. Director Mike Nichols wanted him to play Biff Loman, Willy Loman’s son, in Death of a Salesman on Broadway. But Nichols didn’t pressure him. If Garfield decided this is what he wanted to do, then this is what he wanted to do. Instead, they just talked. Garfield asked why Nichols had ended up in New…

STANDARD & STRANGE IS A STORE IN MANHATTAN THAT sells $95 Japanese T-shirts and $435 corduroys. It’s classic, straightforward menswear—stuff with substance and weight. The prices are high, but the shop’s motto is “Own fewer, better things.” This is one of Hasan Minhaj’s favorite stores. On a Thursday afternoon in August, after lunch at Wayan, a French-Indonesian restaurant whose menu Minhaj knows by heart, he has taken me to Standard & Strange, where the clerks know him. He wants to show me clothes from one of his favorite brands, Visvim. Whether or not he’s aware, this shopping trip also underscores an idea he’s been conveying to me for weeks: He is obsessed with the way things are made, from a Japanese T-shirt to a carefully constructed joke. “I love the…

The takeout is approaching room temperature. You’ve asked your companion, “Well, what do you want to watch?” more times than you can count. Your patience has worn so thin it’s translucent. But you have finally—finally—decided on a movie. Friday night, baby! Let’s do this. You hit “play.” Oof. Slow start. Give it ten minutes. It’s got to pick up, right? The clunky dialogue and wooden acting can’t continue forever. Right? You’ll give it another ten, but this is not looking good. Too bad you’re committed to this. Shame that you’re in it for the long haul. Bummer that you can’t just give up. Or can you? We have news: Yes, you freaking can just give up! In fact, you should. You’ve lost twenty minutes of your life already. Don’t lose…

Tank Louis Cartier 1922 The first Cartier Tank, inspired by the shape (from above) of the Renault FT-17 tank, arrived in 1917. It was succeeded in 1922 by the Tank Louis. Slimmer and more rounded in profile, it became for many the defining Tank, while its predecessor later earned the title Tank Normale in distinction. Many hallmarks of a modern Tank Louis Cartier (as it’s now known) were established in those early years, from the Roman numerals and blued sword hands to the chemin de fer—or railway track—around the dial. Part of its lasting fame may also be down to timing: It debuted in advance of the Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925, which gave the design world a new term, art deco, and a movement that…

NO IS MY FIRST WORD WHEN PEOPLE ASK if my partner, Ben, and I are planning to have children. “But,” I will continue, and Ben will steel himself for what he knows is coming, “we’re not ruling out a Punky Brewster situation.” We do not want a baby. But if a sassy preteen with her own unique fashion sense were to be abandoned in a grocerystore parking lot, as on the ’80s NBC sitcom? We’ll take that kid in, teach her some important life lessons—and along the way, maybe learn some, too. If it happens, it happens. I don’t want kids of my own. For a long time, I assumed the desire to be a father would just blink on after a certain number of years, like a checkengine light on…

TONERS—LIQUIDY SOLUTIONS THAT ARE applied to your face after cleansing—were originally developed because old-school soaps were so harsh that they destroyed the pH balance of your skin. Toner helped restore that balance. These days, cleansers have dramatically improved, yet the appeal of toners is still on the rise. That’s because using one just might unlock your best skin yet. _what a toner does In some cases, toners still work to restore your pH balance. But thanks to the wide variety available (everything from brightening to exfoliating versions), “people are using them to add ingredients that enhance other benefits for the skin,” says New York City–based dermatologist Marisa Garshick. Since toners have a thin, liquid texture, your skin can absorb them—and their active ingredients—very easily. _ how to use a toner Hydrating…

__ PART OF WHAT Jane’s Addiction had going for it was we were all very cocky because we’re all very good at our instruments. That can be amazing because you get to hear amazing virtuosity, but you also lose something. You lose humility. __ I HAVE AN OLDER BROTHER, ten years older than me, and sister, eight years older. So you might wonder—it’s kind of odd to have children ten years apart. __ MY FAMILY WAS A BROKEN FAMILY. My mother tried to save the family by having a child. It worked out horrendously. My father just went off with a woman and my mother ended up committing suicide. The one great thing is we all loved music. I got my love of music from my sister and my brother.…

THERE’S A REASON THE MAN AND WOMAN SITTING ON THE MANGY COUCH HOLD HANDS. THEY’VE ENDURED what you and I have not, and what they’ve endured has led them to question whether to live. You see it in their faces, in their bearing, in the shared glances before speaking, a weighted maturity that slumps their shoulders and draws into sharper contrast their youth: he with his shaggy reddish-brown hair and childlike freckles, she with her olive complexion and taut cheekbones and tattoos up and down her arms. When a catastrophe happens, they say, you can choose to see it as random, as they each have. Randomness, though, is “a hard thing to come to terms with,” she says. A random life is a chaotic one, a meaningless one, ultimately a hopeless…

For this fall’s edition of Esquire’s guide to lasting style and luxury, we’re celebrating the art of escape. Or at least, getting out of town. Because one of the best things about the city is leaving it. The Brits recognized this early on, decamping from smoke-choked London for the countryside and trading their business suits for hearty tweeds. Americans adopted the look as part of their off-duty uniform. Then we lost our way. Old standbys gave way to stretch polyester and logo mania, a vibe that was rushing toward an expiration date. But classics are, as the saying goes, classics for a reason. Proper shoes gain even more character—and become even more comfortable—once you’ve worn and loved them for a while. Same goes for a herringbone jacket, a woolly sweater,…

“DRESS SHOE” ISN’T EXACTLY RIGHT. Even though we default to the term when we see something with a leather sole, back in the day, the derby was considered a sportier alternative to its more formal cousin, the oxford. With its “open” lacing system, in which the panels containing the eyelets (the quarters) are sewn over the front part of the shoe (the vamp), it was the casual choice. Oh, how things have changed. We wear sneakers to the office. We kick back in foam clogs. We expose our toes in Manhattan. And yet the derby is still going strong. Stylish but not stuffy, it can play both ways, pairing as easily with a tweed or flannel suit as it does with beat-up jeans and a white tee. In fact, it’s the…