Esquire UK March/April 2020

ANA CUBA Born in Barcelona, educated in Switzerland, resident in London, photographer Cuba shoots for The New York Times and AnOther magazine, among others. This issue, for the Bulletin section, she captures the extraordinary energy and elegance of the new star of The Royal Ballet, Marcelino Sambé. DAN MCALISTER Keyrings. Biscuits. Pencils. Beanies. Cardholders. Loafers. Bomber jackets. Knives. Binoculars. Mustards. Cookbooks. Digestifs. Ski goggles. Face creams. Crockery. Suits. Swimming shorts. Diving watches. Tote bags. And next issue… the kitchen sink. London-based still life photographer McAlister is the talented man behind our shopping section, Market. He also shoots for our Big Watch Book. RICHARD BENSON The award-winning author of a bestselling family memoir that is also a social history (The Farm) and a bestselling social history that is also a family memoir (The Valley), contributing editor…

“BAD GUY” — THE RATHER GENERIC HEADLINE on Miranda Collinge’s interview with our cover star, the Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek — was no more than a working title (I was going to think of something better, honest I was) until a few days after Miranda filed her piece, when it was announced that the song for the new James Bond film, No Time to Die, in which Malek plays the bad guy, was to be written and performed by 2019’s goth-pop sensation, Billie Eilish. Suddenly the headline seemed more pertinent: Eilish’s most irresistible earworm to date, as tweenage readers and their parents will know, is “Bad Guy”, a song so pouty and muffled it sounds like it was recorded under a duvet in the bedroom of a 16-year-old with chipped…

Marcelino Sambé sits on a podium and extends his right arm to the sky, his hand crunched into a fist, in emulation of a cello’s scroll. Fellow Royal Ballet dancer Lauren Cuthbertson nuzzles her neck around this arm before plucking imaginary strings running the length of Sambé’s spine. Draping himself back over the plinth, he then, while lying down, lifts and rotates the ballerina above his head to pass her on to another dancer. Elgar’s Cello Concerto soars in the background. This is a rehearsal for Cathy Marston’s The Cellist, about Jacqueline du Pré, which debuts at The Royal Opera House in February. Sambé personifies the music; Cuthbertson is du Pré, who we follow through her career, loves and illness. There is something mesmerising about the contortion, the muscle, the acrobatics, highlighting…

Lucian Randolph Ercolani was born in May 1888 in the province of Le Marche near Urbino, close to the Tuscan border. His father joined the Salvation Army, became a lay preacher and would cycle around the district attempting to persuade others to join the Protestant faith. This went badly. After locals broke into his cabinetmaking and picture frame workshop and threw his equipment into the River Arno, the Ercolani family moved to London. It was 1894. Growing up in England, the young Ercolani established himself as something of a chip off the old block, attending a Shoreditch trade school for furniture-makers, spending hours in the library studying books on Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton, and, by 1907, having sketches for a music cabinet published in Cabinet Maker magazine. Before long…

Given their boss’s propensity for hare-brained announcements, Elon Musk’s staff are presumably used to nosy questions from the outside world by now. Even so, this one might have caught them by surprise. When SpaceX staff came to work on 13 December last year, they drove past a billboard that had appeared opposite their HQ on Rocket Road in Hawthorne, California. In sharp, white text out of a bold, red background, the 48ft hoarding read: “Our jacket is ready. How is your rocket going?” It had been paid for by Vollebak, the experimental British clothing company. The start-up had just launched its Deep Sleep Cocoon, a rigorously engineered jacket with a visor that drops over the head like a helmet, restricting light and turning it into a wearable isolation tank. It was…

Designer doggy gear is not new: Ralph Lauren, Moschino, Moncler, Barbour and Marc Jacobs (with it’s unofficial tribute Bark Jacobs) have dabbled in four-legged fashions for years. But none has done it with the panache of Temellini, which makes seasonal collections of cashmere and merino wool dog coats and romper suits, cut around breed-specific mannequins, costing up to €550. Pooches can come in for personal fittings. Their owners may select an outfit to match. Perhaps a Big Sherlock Coat (€375) in dove grey for Fido, and some matching track pants (€210) for sir? Temellini is based, naturally, in Milan. Founded by Giovanna Temellini, formerly of Armani and Bottega Veneta, the project started when Temellini’s daughter, Nadia, telephoned concerning her half-Labrador, half-Akita. “Mummy,” she said, “the rain keeps getting in Willy’s ears.”…