Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2016 i Esquire

Key Questions in Pursuit of the Ideal Life Overheard “You always wonder if you could’ve done more [as a father]. You could’ve spent a little more time with him, a little more attention.” — Clint Eastwood PAGE 116 DEPT. OF RANDOM STATISTICS HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND WITH YOUR KIDS? Source: Pew Research Center Recently, The New York Times ran a profile of Ernie Els, the Hall of Fame golfer. It caught the attention of a lot of people around here, especially a quote from Els, whose game fell apart when he turned his attention away from the links to focus on his autistic son. “At 24, I was way ahead of my time as a golfer,” Els said, “but as a man I was nowhere.” This seems to…

THE FEMALE FORM, like the health benefits of coffee, is a subject that always seems to demand further study. But it’s important to consider it, now and then, from a fresh perspective—say, a woman’s. Which brings us to Pamela Hanson’s new book, Private Room, an album of intimate portraits taken inside a small New York hotel. “Some of them are more sexual, others more melancholy,” Hanson says. “They’re less seductive, more playful.” (September 27, $40)…

DOWNRIGHT SEEDIEST Better Call Saul (AMC, Netflix) Like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul follows a man living in Albuquerque who’s engaged in a morally questionable line of work. The difference is that Walter White was really good at making meth, whereas Saul Goodman, lawyerwise, makes Lionel Hutz look like Atticus Finch. Bob Odenkirk, as Saul, elevates haplessness to a high art. FUNNIEST SHOW ABOUT A SERIOUS SUBJECT Black-ish (ABC, Hulu) In comic sensibility, Black-ish owes something to Modern Family. But Modern Family is about a group of obviously diverse people who are in fact a lot alike. Blackish is about a group of apparently similar people who can’t agree on anything, least of all on what it means to be black. MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY Bloodline (Netflix) By all appearances, the…

THE FRONT ROW OF A MEN’S FASHION show in Paris, where the tastemakers gather, often reveals more about the next big move in men’s wear than what comes down the runway. Lately amongst this crowd, I’ve noticed you don’t see a lot of traditional suits or loud “look at me” clothes. Instead, it’s all about dressing in a way that is deceptively simple and ingeniously beautiful: jeans, T-shirts, leather jackets, and sneakers in muted palettes of khaki, indigo, and black. Think of it as the new business uniform for the global creative class—one that is all about stripped-down style. It’s a minimalism that allows for maximum possibilities. “The clothes speak very quietly about the person wearing them,” says Nick Ashley, creative director of the British-based line Private White V.C. “They’re…

NAME: ALIREZA NIROOMAND WHAT HE DOES: He’s the man to know at Sant Ambroeus restaurant in SoHo, which has become one of New York’s newest watering holes for people in fashion, publishing, music, and art. WHAT HE KNOWS: I was born in Tehran and my father was very elegant; he wore a suit to work every day. Very proper. That stuck with me—this sense of looking good every day. After the shah was deposed, we moved to Paris. That’s the best place to learn about style, just standing on the street. I saw that a man can dress to stand out—in a good way; that a guy does not have to dress to disappear but instead should want to be an individual. When I was in high school, one of…

IN THE EVERYDAY DRAMA OF GETTING dressed, some clothes are meant to play only a supporting role. A gray flannel pant does not create wonder wherever it goes. Traffic does not stop, heads do not turn. Even your most enthusiastic friends are unlikely to say, “My word, look at your spectacularly gray trousers.” No. Gray flannel pants are the background detail—the rolling uplands and distant forestry—in the landscape of your style. But because of them, the elements in the foreground— the cut of your navy blazer, your crunchy tweed jacket, your Santoni deerskin sneakers— are thrown into even greater relief. This, I reckon, was always the purpose of flannel pants. Years ago, flannels were a basic part of the well-dressed man’s winter wardrobe. They were the original sportswear, like gentleman’s…

THE LAWS OF JOURNALISM MATH DICTATE THAT YOUNG + beautiful + French = ingenue. Léa Seydoux, the thirty-one-year-old Parisian actress, has been called one in print at least thirty-four thousand times. However, a rainy afternoon with her in a café on the edge of the Parc de Buttes-Chaumont demonstrates that she is no innocent. Seydoux is as unsophisticated as a diplomat, as guileless as a wolf. She is the kind of person who, tiring of her fear of flying, marches herself up to the ticket counter and buys a ticket for the shortest flight leaving that day. (She ended up in Lyon.) “When I was young, I was so scared about death,” she says. “It was like I was in a kind of depression. I didn’t know if life was…

DAN PRICE REACHED INTO his skinny jeans and pulled out a wad of hundred-dollar bills. He placed it on the green felt. It was June 2 and we were in the basement of a Seattle mansion owned by a gentleman who made his fortune processing porn transactions for PayPal. Signed NFL jerseys lined the wall and the NBA playoffs blared from a flat-screen. “I think I always had too much respect for money until I started playing poker,” Price whispered in his Idaho Mountain West twang. “Money comes and goes so quick in poker, you realize it’s just money.” Both Russell Brand and Trevor Noah have said the thirty-twoyear-old Price bears a striking resemblance to Jesus, but at the poker game that night, after three days spent defending himself in…

MINE? A deepest navy cashmere dressing robe with every edge trimmed in the finest white cord: the lapels, both edges of the belt . . . even the belt loops . . . likewise the deep turned-back cuffs. . .the three pocket openings. . . the descending front edges of the robe. . .the entire bottom edge, creating a fine white circle around the body below calf level . . . and two pièces de résistance: elaborately crocheted white medallions and tassels on the belt ends. . .and a monogram, TW, four inches in diameter, embroidered in formal white Roman script on the breast pocket . . . beneath a white corona. I custom-ordered it from the couturier Beth Neville Evans (who, it so happens, is also a Christian missionary…

LAST MONTH I received an unusual email. “We’ve never met,” it began. “But you met my mother in 2005, two years before her passing.” In a position like mine, you get a lot of odd letters from total strangers; this one was from a man I didn’t know whose name was Tom Hayes. But as first sentences go, it was one of the oddest, so I read on. “You had just published the premiere issue of Men’s Vogue, and sent over a copy to her because she had given you her spare ticket to see Saving Private Ryan.” I stopped. A memory came back—a big one. It was a mystery I had been trying to solve for some eighteen years. It was actually 1998—not 2005—that it all began. There I…

Enrique Olvera is not just the world’s leading interpreter of Mexican haute cuisine (as served at Mexico City’s Pujol and New York’s Cosme); he’s also an aficionado of the country’s street food. A second, more casual New York restaurant—as yet unnamed—is set to open this fall. His advice for making tacos at home? Don’t be afraid to experiment. “A tortilla can hold almost anything,” he says. “The most beautiful thing about tacos is that you can do whatever the hell you want.” —ROB BRUNNER THE FOUNDATION Ideally, tortillas should be made fresh. But since you probably had to go with store-bought ones, warm them in a skillet and work quickly. “The problem with premade tortillas is they break,” Olvera says. Serve your tortillas separate from the filling so that the…

WHATEVER HAPPENS in November, at least one woman in America will be throwing some heat. On TV, anyway. Kylie Bunbury plays Ginny Baker, a high school star scouted by the San Diego Padres, on Fox’s Pitch (premieres September 22). How did she beat out the thousand or so others who auditioned? Maybe with her range (doe-eyed to badass). Or maybe her good genes: Her brother plays professional soccer, and she does all her own pitching onscreen. But she has no interest in being a talking fitness model. Bunbury, 27, turned down a role in the upcoming Baywatch movie after deciding that her heroes Susan Sarandon and Gena Rowlands would probably have passed on it. Starting this fall, she won’t have to put on a red swimsuit to get noticed.…

I’VE TRIED WEARING JEWELRY FROM TIME to time. Over the years, I’ve bought a bunch of things for the wrist, a couple of necklaces, and even though they sit in my drawer unworn, they still call to me. “You’ll look much better than Depp, trust us.” But the moment I put on even what I think is the simplest piece of jewelry, all I hear is the opening track to Saturday Night Fever. You know it. Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m a woman’s man: no time to talk. . . . In my mind, my silver fine-chain-link necklace turns short, thick, and gold. A coke spoon appears, also gold, and dangles right around my suprasternal notch. I swivel around to see where the…

The Oh-Sh!t Guide to Overcoat Protection Problem No. 1: Your wool overcoat comes out of the closet dusty and dank. Use a suit brush to remove dust from the shoulders, where it collects, and get it to your dry cleaner, pronto. Next time, hang the coat in a garment bag for the off-season to help keep off lint, hair, dust. Problem No. 2: The bottom hem picks up salt stains. First, let the coat dry totally, then brush off the white salt marks lightly with an old toothbrush. If that doesn’t work, dab the marks with a cloth mixed in a solution of a tablespoon of white vinegar in a quart of water, then dab again with a dry cloth. Problem No. 3: It gets soaked. So it doesn’t lose…

The phone rang. It was July 2014, and I was in a motel room in Tucumcari, New Mexico, about to step into the shower. My wife and I were two days into a cross-country drive from our home in California, and I wanted to clean up before we went to a sports bar across the parking lot to grab something to eat. Looking at the phone, I recognized the number and felt my heart drop. The woman was a close friend. Her twenty-three-year-old son had struggled with heroin addiction for several years. I knew the young man. He was smart, talented, funny—and charming when he wasn’t high or jonesing. He was supposed to have called me that day to discuss getting back into school. I didn’t get that call. It…

“YOU ALWAYS FEEL LIKE A BIT OF A knob doing an interview in the middle of a hotel,” says Jack Huston, “with everyone around thinking, There’s that pretentious fuck over there, talking about himself.” But there will be no knob-spotting today. Huston, the thirty-three-year-old British-born star of this month’s epic Ben-Hur remake, has the lobby of Manhattan’s Greenwich Hotel all to himself. It’s Pride Sunday, and with the city parading elsewhere, the actor seizes the opportunity—and the rare availability of so much public space—to get comfortable. He needs to. “I was filming in Kentucky until two in the morning,” he explains, rubbing his eyes, stretching his arms, sinking into one of the room’s plush sofas. Huston’s only just arrived; his Rolex Cellini reads 1:00 p.m. Craning his neck, he spots…

Peter Yang PHOTOGRAPHER OF “THE PROPHET MOTIVE,” PAGE 158 Credentials: His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, and more. Best advice he’s ever received: “It’s a tie between ‘Stay in school’ and ‘Brush your teeth.’ ” Personal hero: Bruce Lee. Signature clothing item: A twenty-one-ounce denim jacket from Iron Heart. Stephen Rodrick AUTHOR OF “THE PROPHET MOTIVE,” PAGE 158 Credentials: Contributing editor at Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal; author of The Magical Stranger. Best advice he’s ever received: “Spend as little time as possible doing the things you hate.” Personal hero: Paul Weller. Signature clothing item: A blue striped Barneys dress shirt. Don Winslow AUTHOR OF “HORSE OF THE APOCALYPSE,” PAGE 144 Credentials: Author of eighteen books, including a new novel coming out in…

EVERYBODY IN L. A. seems to be from somewhere else, especially the Rams, who have now moved here. Twice. I’m hazy on the details of the first time, because I was only a year old in 1946, but as that rare bird, a native son, I was definitely on hand when they pulled into town from Cleveland that season. Like every kid on my block, by the age of eight, I’d adopted their star pass catcher, Crazylegs Hirsch, as my first football hero, though I don’t recall ever seeing him gamboling to deity status in person or even on TV. All I knew was that the nickname Crazylegs was in the air. It was a huge improvement over smog. While the rest of the world kept moving to L.A., my…

IN 1907 or thereabouts, Dean Ivan Lamb, a young American soldier of fortune, found himself on the lam in Venezuela after a brief stint as commander of the machine-gun corps of a ragtag Colombian revolutionary army. On a train from the port of La Guaira to Caracas, the conductor introduced him to a new tipple: rum and cola. “It certainly proved an excellent drink,” as he recalled. This may be its earliest appearance on record. It’s no coincidence that it came from Latin America. While the Spanish Caribbean and some parts of South America are all about Coca-Cola, Peru, in keeping with its reputation for culinary finesse, prefers ginger ale. The universally available Chilcano, which dates back at least to the 1930s, can be as simple as ginger ale and…

THIS IS THE BAG THAT LETS THE TSA know you mean business. And in a world where every airport has become a grim sea of crappy, anonymous black rollies or schlumpy, overstuffed book bags, the Hermès Bolide 45 Shark bag lets you stand out in all the right ways. No doubt inspired by the shark mouths that World War II fighter pilots painted on their P-40’s to give their rigs some straight-up American badass attitude, it says you’re not just another corporate drone; no, you’re an ace.…

BLACK-DIAL WATCHES WERE DEVELOPED FOR PILOTS, DIVERS, AND SOLDIERS IN THE early 20th century to enhance the legibility of faces with phospholuminescent displays in low-light conditions. Back then, keeping track of the time to the minute often meant the difference between life and death. Fortunately, the stakes for watches these days are not so life-or-death (unless your boss is a to-the-minute deadline psycho), and a black dial is now more about the pop of class it gives your watch. The result? Daytime chronographs look sleeker, and evening watches look more elegant.…

I’M NO ARBITER OF STYLE. I’m a navy-blue/banker-gray J. Press, barrel-cuff, club-tie duffer who buys a new suit when I start to see my knees between my trouser pinstripes. But like most males of a certain age who’d rather appear in public with a lamp shade on our head than in a collarless shirt, I can tell you what message a person’s clothing conveys. Mark Twain said, “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.” How wrong Twain was. Even so, we didn’t see any of the 2016 presidential hopefuls wearing their birthday suit. In a campaign full of surprises, astonishments, and shocks, we were spared that. No candidate went commando, no candidate went Goth or gangsta or—trending though it may be—transgender. No candidate even…

“I’M DEFINITELY NOT A DIPLOMAT.” —Prince Harry “I WAS NEVER MUCH OF A PARTY BOY. I DIDN’T MIND BEING SEEN THAT WAY, BUT I AM ACTUALLY A WORKER. AN ARTIST CAN APPROVE OF HEDONISM, BUT HE CAN’T BE A HEDONIST HIMSELF.” — David Hockney THERE’S THESE GUYS YOU SEE WALKING THROUGH SOHO WITH BIG MOPS OF HAIR, WEARING FLANNEL PANTS AND FLIP-FLOPS ON THEIR WAY TO MONTAUK. AND YOU THINK, ‘WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU DO?’ ” —Justin Theroux “THE MAIN GOAL IS TO BE MEMORABLE. IF THE NEXT DAY PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE SAY TO ONE ANOTHER, ‘WHAT DID WE DO LAST NIGHT?’ THAT’S UTTER FAILURE.” —Yo-Yo Ma “THE IDEA OF LYING ON A BEACH . . . IT SOUNDS HORRIBLE TO ME. I WOULD GO BONKERS. I WOULD HAVE…

Store Information For the items featured in Esquire, please consult the website or call the number provided. The Code, p. 75: Hermès bag, hermes.com. P. 76: President’s jacket, shirt, and jeans, presidents7bell.com; Timberland Boot Company boots, timberland.com. P. 78: Officine Générale jacket, bergdorfgoodman.com. Officine Générale T-shirt, ronherman.com. Officine Générale trousers, mrporter.com. Greats sneakers, greats.com. Private White V. C. jacket, shirt, and trousers, privatewhitevc.com. R.M. Williams boots, rmwilliams.com. P. 81: Deja Vu Refinery ring and necklace, 505-373-9123. Louis Vuitton ring, louisvuitton.com. Bottega Veneta necklace, bottegaveneta.com. Tateossian bracelet, tateossian.com. David Yurman necklace with amulet and necklace, davidyurman.com. Saint Laurent bracelet, 212-980-2970. John Hardy necklace, johnhardy.com. Giles & Brother necklace and bracelet, gilesandbrother.com. P. 84: Watches: Rolex, rolex.com. TAG Heuer, tagheuer.com. Piaget, piaget.com. Raymond Weil, macys.com. Tiffany & Co., 800-843-3269. P. 88: Rimowa…