British GQ April 2021

Sky’s the limit? Not any more… The concept of luxury has been much devalued in the last few years. Ever since the last pre-Covid economic downturn, the emphasis of high-net-worth spend has been leaning towards experience and comfort rather than conspicuous consumption – spa breaks, then, rather than fancy new pants – so when we went into the first lockdown last year, the custodians of every luxury goods company from Abu Dhabi to Zhengzhou went into collective meltdown. Was this the end of the world as we knew it? Were all their urbane, urban consumers suddenly going to move to the country, throw away their designer togs and start parading around in overalls, Crocs and gardening twine? Would George Clooney soon be playing Worzel Gummidge? Would the next environmental disaster be…

Law Roach For Tom Holland’s GQ cover shoot, the actor and his stylist, Law Roach, were reunited to celebrate the beginning of a year that will see Holland appear in three major films. Roach has worked closely with the young British star – who is currently filming his third appearance as Spider-Man – on photoshoots and red carpet appearances. Ben Allen GQ Online Production Coordinator Ben Allen profiled Jed Mercurio, the creator of Bodyguard and Line Of Duty, ahead of the latter’s sixth series. “Mercurio has made a career out of revealing the grimy underbellies of our public institutions,” says Allen, “first with Cardiac Arrest and more recently with Line Of Duty. So, unsurprisingly, he had quite a lot to say about the government’s handling of the pandemic.” AB+DM For this month’s cover shoot, photographic…

(and it doesn’t include business trips) At the New York Times’ Dealbook conference in November 2020, Bill Gates mused on how working life will look post-pandemic. “There will be a very high threshold for taking that business trip,” he said. “And there will be ways that you can work from home a lot of the time.” Gates’ face then contorted into a mask of quiet contempt as he contemplated an imaginary business traveller who had crossed the planet just to be in his presence. “Yes, you flew all the way here to sit in front of me!” Gates looked deeply unimpressed. He is probably right. Business travel – especially at the front of the plane – was radically dialled down after the great financial crash of 2008 and it will surely shrink…

If the stars are anything to go by, this could very well be the dawning of the age of Aquarius. There’s a fundamental shift of energy right now. It’s a time of forward-thinking innovation and offbeat originality. It’s the future. And who better to embody these revolutionary themes than Miuccia Prada? Enter, the Prada Linea Rossa Collision Cross shoes. Showcasing a “Pressure Air” cushion at the heel and a honeycomb shock absorber at the front, the design sees no technical detail spared. This is high-performance footwear, engineered from durable ripstop fabric with geometric 3-D shapes on the surface and zig-zagging elastic laces, complete with toggle closure. You can expect these trainers to take your feet to another dimension.…

Annals of The One Per Center #8 Mr One Per Cent slid off the Peloton and did an inventory of his perspiration and pain levels, but only a cursory one. He didn’t bother with a warmdown – who does? – but kept the audio from his Bose QuietComfort Earbuds playing. It was the debut Harry and Meghan podcast. Instead of heading from the home gym to the wet room to shower, he walked into the bespoke, farmhouse-style kitchen in his Lycra. Miranda was listening to Economist Radio via Sonos and reading the Times. “Miranda,” he said. She winced at his padded seat and crotch. “Have you heard these Harry’n’Meghan podcasts?” He’d seen how much Spotify’s Gimlet studio had ponied up for the Sussexes. He also knew how much Amazon had spaffed on the podcast…

Brexit means many things to many people. Food shortages. Immigration. Job losses. Sovereignty. Spitfires. Fish. If you were looking for a recent historical event to bring out your repressed misanthrope you would have to go some way to beat it. A plague on both your houses barely does the thing justice. Dinner-party metropolitans have spent the past four years accusing everyone else of being racist. Hardline Brexiteers pined over blue passports without ever making a meaningful case to leave (Iain Duncan Smith indelicately suggested Britain can “dominate the world again”). But both sides have missed a trick. Perhaps Remainers, of whom I was one, have been more insular than they’d care to admit. They forgot about the dirty subject of geopolitics. Amid all this talk of Britain’s diminished role in the…