Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2016 i Esquire

AS THE 1990s dawned, David Bowie was at an artistic crossroads. He’d scored massive hits in the 1980s and major tours had made him very rich, but his albums with the band Tin Machine had left fans cold and he was looking for inspiration. He found it in a seemingly unlikely place. “David was always a collector at heart,” Bowie’s friend and art dealer Bernard Jacobson says, “but it wasn’t until the early ’90s that collecting became central in his life. We would talk for hours and debate what it all meant. He was full of ideas and questions.” According to Jacobson, Bowie reveled in his dual role as board member of and contributor to the magazine Modern Painters, something that even his most diehard fans likely knew nothing about.…

I HAVE FRIENDS in Los Angeles who never leave their neighborhoods. It’s too maddening to get across town. The traffic that I remember from my southern-California childhood in the ’80s has ballooned into something so insane that any given afternoon can feel like one of those movie scenes in which an entire immobilized metropolis is trying to flee an alien invasion. But being stranded isn’t such a bad thing in L.A., because no matter where you live, you’ve got an opportunity to eat some of the most delicious and distinctive food in America—much of it part of a quiet revolution in Asian-American cooking. If you’re confined to the downtown district, maybe you just keep circling back for that tender, spice suffused “heavenly beef” at Simbal (120 South San Pedro Street),…

SAY YOU WANTED A cold one while watching a baseball game at Nationals Park, in Washington D.C. In 2015, one counter had 12 taps representing 11 different owners. One year later, that same counter has 14 taps, which seems like a good thing. Some of them are even craft beers— amazing. But there’s a catch: They all belong to AB In Bev, the Belgian/Brazilian-owned conglomerate that produces nearly half the beer consumed in this country. Yes, the company that created Bud Light Limea-Rita is also behind more respectable offerings like Goose Island IPA and Blue Point Toasted Lager. And this phenomenon is happening across the industry. Businesses selling macro products in addition to nichier ones in the same category is nothing new—car companies (think Toyota: Lexus and Scion are corporate…

NAME: Michael B. Jordan AGE: 29 WHAT HE DOES: Actor HOW HE FOUND HIS STYLE: I feel like my style is still evolving. The more I travel and the more I see, the more I feel like I’m picking up new stuff. I always thought I wasn’t really big on hats, but now I’ll try to pull off a fedora, or I’ll wear a snapback if I’m feeling casual. I’m growing into it. STYLE ICON: Pharrell can pull off whatever he wants. I think it’s his confidence and comfort in his own skin. Remember when he was getting so much flack for that Vivienne Westwood hat at the Grammys? And now we know he started a trend. PERSONAL BUSINESS: That black XXIV jacket I wore in Creed was actually my…

TIME WAS WHEN the foundation of an outfit was the structured blazer, when we mulled over such things as lapels and shoulder pads and button stance. But these days, your outfit’s finishing piece doesn’t need to borrow from the suiting world—it can be anything from a cardigan to a denim jacket. And this season, nothing beats the bomber that we’ve spotted on practically every runway, celebrity, and retail site. A descendant of the MA-1 flight jacket first worn in the mid-1950s by American squadrons, today’s seen-everywhere bomber is cut both short, to be worn right at the waistband, and, compared with the original, very slim. It’s a flattering silhouette that works on basically any guy (if the height differential between Bradley Cooper, left, and Justin Theroux proves nothing else), whether…

FOR THE PERFECTIONISTS among us, even some of our favorite purchases can be improved. Who among us hasn’t taken a Sharpie to black out a contrasting stripe or used scissors on an unwanted logo? Ferragamo understands, which is why the company’s introduced its made-to-order Tramezza service through both the brand’s stores and a dedicated online portal. Choose from three styles—a monk-strap boot, a classic oxford, and a double-monk-strap— and tinker away with your choice of buckles, leather, even getting your initials stamped on the sole. If you want something done right, right?…

IN AN AGE IN WHICH you can beckon a ride with a few taps on your smartphone and pilot your teched-out automobile just by setting it to cruise control, the fact that you still love cars—if you are here, you must, right?—and that you enjoy real, honest driving counts as a bold statement. And we’re all for it. Here are some of the most exciting ways to express yourself on the road right now, including a four-cylinder Porsche, one of Cadillac’s best ever, and a minivan that will make you rethink minivans. Best FAST CAR for Around $ 50 K 2017 BMW M2 “HOW MUCH do you love this car, man?” A cyclist pulls up next to me at a red light. He’s practically hugging the BMW. I tell him…

IN A LEAFY ENCLAVE NEAR BEVERLY HILLS, behind an aging Tudor mansion, Snctm is hosting a pool party. The sun is radiant overhead, the sky is cloudless and blue; the therapeutic aroma from the eucalyptus trees mixes in the air with the scents of expensive perfume and hydroponic weed. Couples lie here and there on chaise longues or large blankets on the grass. A trio of topless young women, members of Snctm’s erotic-theater troupe, known as Devotees, float languorously on giant blow-up swans, sipping drinks through bent straws. Two more Devotees bounce on a trampoline. In a little while, the brunette will be tied up, the blond will employ a suede flogger and other toys, dispensing a mix of pain and pleasure. A waitress circulates, delivering food prepared by the…

NATURALEFFECTS “I don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good.” — MIES VAN DER ROHE FACE FORWARD “I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster and leaves less room for lies.” — LE CORBUSIER STEEL GRIP “Sometimes, the eureka moment is actually when you give up a stance and say, ‘Okay, we have to try something else.’ ”—BJARKE INGELS NIGHT RIDER “If you close yourself in your little gold cage, you end up becoming repetitive.” — RENZO PIANO TOP FLIGHT “Art should be created for life—not for the museum.” —JEAN NOUVEL For store information see page 139. Set design by Charlie Welch.…

FILTHY RICH By James Patterson Patter son is the author of some 3,500 bestselling detective novels and, now, one true-crime book. If he was waiting for the right subject, he found it in his Palm Beach neighbor, billionaire hedge funder Jeffrey Epstein: friend of Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump—and a registered sex offender whose private jet was nicknamed the “Lolita Express.” Little, Brown; $28 SWING TIME By Zadie Smith Smith’s latest novel, her fifth, opens on the familiar turf of North West London. But this one jumps from the West Village to West Africa, international pop stardom to public housing politics. It’s a sweeping meditation on art, race, and identity that may be her most ambitious work yet. Penguin Press; $27 THE SPY WHO COULDN’T SPELL By Yudhijit…

ONLY ONE WORD COMES TO MIND when you first glimpse Montblanc’s Urban Spirit collection—sleek. All 22 pieces, which include wallets, luggage, even perforated leather motorcycle helmets, are fashioned in a waxy, not-matte-but-almost-black leather that’s arresting in and of itself, but it’s when you open them that things get interesting. The interior workings of the accessories and baggage are actually designed for real-world use—the backpack, for instance, ingeniously halves into separate compartments, so you can keep your laptop free of gym-clothes stench. It’s multipurpose thinking for the way we live today.…

THE LAST TIME I TOOK A COLD shower for any extended period of time was in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy slammed into New York and my wife and I lost power for five days. She found the prospect of an icy shower a nightmare, so to make it seem a bit of a fun adventure, I tried to draw an analogy. “It’s just like camping,” I said. To which she replied, “I hate camping.” Eventually, the power came back, and I resumed taking my usual hot showers. The hotter, the better, in fact. If there were a setting on the shower for scalding, I’d use it. I developed my own Saturday-evening routine. There was nothing I liked to do more than stand in a hot shower—it was my at home…

Emmett Till, a black teenager who was murdered in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman. The failure to punish his killers for their crimes—helped by a leak of his father’s World War II military file—made Till an agonizing symbol of how the American legal system has been used as an instrument of racial oppression. Six decades after Emmett Till’s murder, and seven decades after Louis Till was executed by the U. S. Army, John Edgar Wideman investigates whether the father, like the son, suffered a perversion of justice of the kind that remains one of the ugliest scars on America’s soul. TOWARDS THE END of the summer of 1955 I saw in Jet magazine a scary photo of a dead colored boy murdered in Money, Mississippi, whose mutilated…

John Edgar Wideman AUTHOR OF “A BLACK AND WHITE CASE,” PAGE 100, ADAPTED FROM WRITING TO SAVE A LIFE, OUT THIS MONTH FROM SCRIBNER Credentials: Award-winning author of 20 books. Best discovery of the year: “Learning I can still jog.” Holiday plans: Returning to Brittany, France, where his family spends much of the year. Daniel Menaker AUTHOR OF “MAN AT HIS BEST,” PAGE 13 Credentials: Former New Yorker fiction editor and Random House executive editor in chief. His eighth book, The African Svelte, is out now. When he’s not working, he’s: “Weed-whacking, listening to old music, watching movies, reading— you know, stuff.” Best discovery of the year: Tate’s butterscotch-pecan cookies. Holiday plans: “Saying agnostic prayers for a saner and cooler world.” Maximillian Potter AUTHOR OF “THE MALIBU MYSTIC,” PAGE 92…

WHEN IT COMES to digital communication these days, it’s a tween world and we’re just saying . That means “Hmm.” I know this because my new iPhone suggested it when I tried to text “Hmm.” Which made me feel . Sure, Apple’s recent overhaul of its once-straightforward Messages includes very useful adult things like the ability to send money, but its aggressive push toward a wordless language isn’t insignificant—Messages is one of the most-used apps on the world’s most ubiquitous phone, after all. Texts still feel too wordy after emoji translation? There are GIFs and stickers to choose from now. Or make your pal’s screen fill up with balloons when he checks his messages. Now, that’s what I call disruptive tech! It’s just the latest in some of the year’s…

TIP ! WHEN YOUR OUTERWEAR MAKES AS BOLD A STATEMENT AS THIS PIECE BY VAN NOTEN, KEEP THE REST OF YOUR OUTFIT SUBTLE— OPT FOR TWEEDY TROUSERS AND A MUTED CREWNECK SWEATER. WHEN YOU HEAR PEOPLE who work in fashion talk about Dries (rhymes with peace, not peas) Van Noten, it’s typically with the kind of hushed reverence reserved for artists or the clergy. The 58-year-old designer— a member of the influential Antwerp Six, who graduated from the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the early ’80s—creates clothes that verge on wearable sculpture. So much so, in fact, that the Musée des Arts Décoratifs staged an exhibition in 2014 dedicated not only to Van Noten’s work but also to his inspirations. Van Noten's muses are as far-flung as Cecil…

WHEN PICTURES OF Joshua Jackson in his workout outfit—his beard greasy and hair disheveled—started ping-ponging across the tawdrier tabloid websites earlier this year, a distinct secondhand embarrassment coursed through us. Sure, it was sad to see Jackson, a former WB star who transformed himself into a prestige-drama lead/Met Ball regular, look so forlorn and unkempt. (Was it sadder when we found out he was splitting up with Diane Kruger?) More than sadness, though, was another feeling. Was it recognition? After all, who among us hasn’t been too lazy to put goop in our hair on the way to the bodega or worn below-the-knee shorts on an errand run? (See: Ben Affleck shopping at the pet store with daughter Violet or Leonardo DiCaprio buying—what else?—vape supplies.) We’ve all been guilty of…

IN THE AGE OF CRAFTED and artisanal everything, there’s something satisfyingly back to basics about a bar of soap. It’s why both niche men’s grooming companies and the big brands have started making versions of the classic. Zirh offers a glycerin soap with chamomile and cucumber extract. Kiehl’s Ultimate Man body scrub bar exfoliates with specks of oat bran and pumice. The goat milk soap by Alcea Rose a Farm may look like the kind of thing you’re more likely to find on a Whole Foods shelf (Alcea Rosea is actually a working dairy farm), but the small batch slab will wash you squeaky clean. And that’s not even getting into Duke Cannon’s famous Big Ass Brick (modeled after the rough cuts used by GI’s during the Korean War) or…

READY TO LAUNCH Jasmine Sanders wants you to know that it wasn’t the swimsuit that led to her recent tennis defeat at the hands of Kim Kardashian. If anything, Sanders thinks the unconventional athletic wear improved her range of motion. “I could move a little more in the bathing suit,” the twenty-five-year-old model says. “I did not expect her to kick my butt, though. I was like, ‘Chill out, Serena!’ ” Like Kardashian, Sanders is building an empire on the strength of social media (1.8 million Instagram followers and counting under her @Golden_ Barbie moniker, along with a dizzying Snap chat account that never goes dark). It’s allowed her to broadcast her blink-and you’ll-miss-it lifestyle—from New York Fashion Week after parties to Jet-Ski rides in tropical locales with well-connected friends—in…

Before he even thought about cooking for a living, Daniel Rose left his Chicago home to study European culture in Paris, “because,” he says, “I thought all French girls went topless—I’d seen a movie where they were all wearing only suspenders.” That didn’t work out quite as he’d hoped, and neither did his first try at higher education abroad, so he decided on the next best thing: to join the “front line of life.” The year was 1999, and he set out for the French Foreign Legion. He had always been a wanderer, having been given that privilege by indulgent parents, so he boldly marched up to headquarters—five-eight and even skinnier than he is now, not exactly a born killer, or even, for that matter, a born cook—and was promptly…

YOU COULD BUY A BMW for the price of this thing. It used to be that you put your name on the list and then you wait for years to get one, but this was given to me by the maker, Bob Kramer, at a very reasonable price. He forges his own steel using all the different elements—there are pieces of meteorite in there! He heats it until it’s insanely hot, and then he folds it and folds it and folds it and pounds it and folds it and pounds it—I don’t know how many hundreds of layers. It’s like a mille-feuille. I don’t trust anyone else to even touch it. There’s an old superstition that you can’t trust a new knife until you cut yourself with it—so until then,…