British GQ April/May 2026

I wasn’t accustomed to partying with people who had just dined with the governor, and I remember asking Hov how he moves seamlessly through so many different worlds: the rap world, the sports world, several different overlapping corporate worlds, NYC nightlife, even… dinner with the governor? Jay just kinda shrugged and said, “I walk into every room as myself.” Damn. I took those words and put them in my pocket. And I have kept them there ever since. This is my last issue as the editor in chief of GQ. By the time you read this, I will have started a new job in Paris. When I got to GQ almost 19 years ago, I walked into every room a little clueless and very eager to please. If it was…

JAY-Z DISCOVERED the work of Chicago-born artist Rashid Johnson – whose paintings, installations, and photographs often represent Black intellectual life – about a decade ago, says Johnson, when the hip-hop mogul was assembling his personal art collection. The admiration was mutual. “Jay’s music, lyricism, and sophistication are very much in line with a lot of interesting and historically important Black thinkers,” says Johnson, who places Jay-Z in a lineage alongside Harold Cruse, WEB Du Bois, and Michael Eric Dyson. In preparing to photograph Jay-Z for this issue, Johnson drew from holistic representations of Black life documented by Harlem Renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee, as well as the surreal interiority of Francis Bacon. The result is intimate portraits of Jay-Z the thinker. “Jay’s stories are about his life, his own…

Tokyo’s Auralee is a menswear Goldilocks, making clothes that are thoughtful enough for the high-fashion crowd and accessible enough for the rest of us. With these vibrant pieces, creative director Ryota Iwai leans in to the colours that helped fuel his label’s dizzying rise over the past half-decade. It’s All Gucci, Baby Nearly a year into his run as artistic director of Gucci, Demna has softened his sardonic bite to offer up a raffish twist on the house’s signature Italian glamour. His debut collection arrives jam-packed with freshly reimagined spins on classic Gucci tropes: think pristine leather jackets and pavementskimming bootcut jeans, embellished throughout with the brand’s iconic horsebit hardware. What sizzling passion unites Daniel Boulud and Rōze Traore? A deep reverence for the fundamentals. “I’ve always enjoyed classic French cooking as…

VÉRONIQUE’S LAST DANCE After nearly 40 years at the helm of Hermès menswear, Véronique Nichanian presented one last breathtaking collection, for autumn/winter 2026, before passing the torch to her successor, Grace Wales Bonner. Colour, texture, exotic leathers, artful accessories – all done with a touch of camp. It was the ultimate farewell: innovative, surprising, and, yes, even wearable. MICHAEL RIDER FOREVER Michael Rider’s first solo men’s collection for Celine, presented in a Paris showroom in January, instantly became the talk of the town. Slim suiting and bold ties are back. Knits in every colour. Leather, ready-to-wear, and accessories. It’s all exactly how every man should be dressed this autumn – full-look policy required. THE BAG OF THE SEASON Santoni might be best known for its orangesoled shoes, but don’t…

At the tail end of breakfast service one morning in January, Jeremy King is in his element. He surveys the dining room at The Park, his Bayswater restaurant, as a few late risers sit on tan leather banquettes, finishing off their eggs Benedict and buttermilk pancakes. “I look at a room, and I feel the room,” King says. He has an easy time of it, at 6ft 5in towering gently over everyone and cutting an elegant figure in his version of a uniform: a bespoke Timothy Everest suit. “I think things are going well. Not because nobody’s got their hand up, but because there is, for want of a better word, a vibe that things are good.” Over the course of five decades, King, 71, has become synonymous with that…

EVERY TIME I drop by the convivial, wood-panelled Bar Quadronno in Milan, I think, Thank God this place isn’t in New York or Paris. If Quadronno – which has served as a clubhouse for fashion designers like Miuccia Prada and Matthieu Blazy – wormholed into any other city, it would be mobbed day and night by wannabe influencers. But not in Milano, which is full of spots with primo vibes that serve as unpretentious fashion-adjacent watering holes. Some are old, some newer, but all have been protected from touristic ruin by Milan’s charming backwardness. I’m lucky to have a cheat code in Milan Fashion Week, which is basically a biannual speedrun through the city’s maze of palazzos and pizzerias.…