British GQ April 2022

JEFF HAHN Photographer London-based photographer Hahn lensed Paapa Essiedu for this issue of British GQ. “Paapa was a dream to photograph,” he says. “He was kind, considered, and whenever he smiled he lit up the room.” Office Grails BEN ALLEN Associate Digital Editor “These chocolate brown Engineered Garments cords changed the game for me this season.” PIERRE ALEXANDRE M’PELÉ Head of Editorial Content, GQ France “If tailoring is the mother of menswear, Hedi Slimane is her sharpest kid.” HANNAH BLACKLOCK Audience Development and Social Media Manager “Subtle messaging is my speciality and this Sustain Sportswear tee understood the assignment.”…

THE FIRST TIME I went to Iraq – where my family had lived for generations – was 2013. It was 10 years after the invasion. Although foreign troops had long-since departed Baghdad, the communities I visited and the suburbs I moved through were still bleeding. Long after news cycles simmer down and the world moves on, victims of war are left to rebuild their lives with precious little. In Iraq, I met families that had been on refugee waitlists for eight years, wildly ambitious minds trying to land opportunities halfway across the world, parents attempting to architect anything resembling opportunity for their children. Some conflicts last weeks. Some last months or years. But the follow-on consequences to the lives of individuals can stretch into the decades – sometimes, generations. The world’s eyes are…

LAST NOVEMBER in Hollywood, Nicolas Cage and his wife, Riko Shibata, arrived early to our annual GQ Men of the Year party. I welcomed the couple heartily (if you’re throwing a party, who better to arrive first than Nick Cage?) and complimented Cage on his suit. He said that Gianni Versace had made it in the 1980s, and that he thought the night was a good occasion to bring it back out. I didn’t argue with him. He looked great. I told Cage that while I love a ton of his work, there’s one film in particular that knocks me out. Mandy, from 2018. “Ooh, yeah,” Cage said. “That one’s pretty heavy metal.” If you haven’t seen it, Mandy is very heavy metal. The film is more heavy metal than most…

SURF FIT Inspired by the lowimpact and high-vibration lifestyle of surfers, Emporio Armani’s wavy capsule collection features recycled cottons, fluorine-free prints, and compostable packaging. T-shirt, £180, and trousers, £300, by Emporio Armani Sustainable. Hoodie, £240, boots, £320, and socks, £60 for pack of three, by Ground Cover. COLLAGE-PRINTED BUTTON-DOWN Bethany Williams is a leader in social manufacturing, using her colourful upcycled collection to train unemployed communities in craftsmanship and donating 20 per cent of wholesale profits to organisations combating homelessness (£595). RECYCLABLE BELT Model and designer Avery Ginsberg (see opening page) founded Ground Cover in 2018 when he realised cool vegan work boots didn’t exist. Now the brand makes rugged boots and sturdy belts using cutting edge cactusand pineapple-based leathers (£115). GARDEN TABIS The iconic Maison Margiela cleft-toe Tabi shoe has a new and fittingly radical form: a waterproof…

HARRY TREVALDWYN’S introduction to movie stardom makes a baptism of fire sound like a nice warm bath. In early 2020, the 28-year-old was an aspiring actor with a lone teensy credit to his name (as “a glorified extra” with one line in Netflix’s The King). One year later, after a series of wild events and a global virus outbreak, he found himself on a film set stood in front of Pedro Pascal, Karen Gillan and two of the funniest people on the planet – Fred Armisen and Keegan-Michael Key – all of whom were waiting to hear him improvise something (hopefully!) hilarious. Over a speaker from a separate room, the director Judd Apatow, the pied piper of modern film comedies, fed him a prompt. As he’s telling me this story,…

THE WORLD OF MEN’S GROOMING has never been more culturally relevant. Men across the board have graduated from two-step routines (if you’re lucky) to become overnight experts in microdermabrasion, skincare acids and lunchtime tweakments. And the industry knows it: behemoth legacy brands and agile start-ups alike have cottoned on to the fact that men are willing to invest more in their appearances than ever before (the global grooming market is expected to grow to £58.6 billion by 2023, up 36 per cent from 2017). A whole host of hardworking new products have flooded the market as a consequence: from the Farrow & Ball of men’s nail polish (we’re looking at you, Faculty) to super scientific companies offering surgery-like results straight from the bottle. Few people are able to distil the…