British GQ January 2017

This year has been the most transformative in the magazine’s history, and as we’ve recently merged all our various editorial departments into one, the office has a new vitality that is as infectious as it is palpable. This is a systematic process that has taken place over the past 18 months, a period of intense integration that has produced an editorial team that is now larger and more effective than ever, regardless of whether we’re producing work for the magazine, the website, our social feeds or the social feeds of third parties. That work could involve print, photography, video, or indeed any combination thereof. It could be a Facebook Live political session with Alastair Campbell, a style masterclass with Jim Chapman, a tech demonstration, or even an interview with an…

What to buy him and her Head to gq.uk/christmas for dozens of Christmas present ideas for the special woman (or women) in your life, whether she’s into fashion, fitness or sex (or all three, obviously). We’ve also created long lists for you to forward on to whoever is moaning that someone is “just so hard to buy for” this year. All your black-tie style quibbles answered Still can’t tie a bow tie? Watch our video demo by Tim Ardron, head of tailoring at Savile Row’s Gieves & Hawkes (gq.uk/bow-tie). And be sure to double-check the new rules of black tie ahead of this month’s run of festive events (gq.uk/black-tie). The hottest women on the web Our new “How To Date…” series will both make you chuckle and quickly follow some of Instagram’s best new models,…

Kurt ISWARIENKO For this month’s cover, portrait photographer Kurt Iswarienko shot one of his favourite actors, Chris Pratt. Hooked on Pratt’s talent after seeing him in Moneyball and Zero Dark Thirty, Iswarienko captured the serious side to Pratt’s easy swagger. “Like all great actors he understands restraint,” says Iswarienko. “If you can draw someone in with a quiet glance, why yell across the room at them?” Grace GILFEATHER You might find the thought of hitting the gym kitted out in Merino wool baffling, but The Woolmark Company has proved it’s perfectly suited for it. And it looks great too, as the sportsmen modelling Merino products In dieser Ausgabe attest. “Its versatility makes it ideal for sport and fashion,” says GQ Fashion Editor Grace Gilfeather. Joanna DELLA-RAGIONE How “woke” are you? Our guest columnist this month,…

I knew something was wrong when Len Goodman got booed on Strictly Come Dancing. The grumpy chief judge was offering “constructive criticism” but the audience were having none of it. Only unfettered praise would do. And then it dawned on me: that’s us. That’s our politics, our culture. No one wants to listen to anyone else any more. With Labour and the Conservatives both now dogs being wagged by their tails, where can I turn? Who can I vote for? Witness a witless hard left so paranoid and insecure it wastes the valuable time of Her Majesty’s opposition shunning most of the population, or the feral Brexiteer wing of the Tories, egged on by a new strain of mad intransigence in the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express. Britain is simmering…

BONUS QUESTION! WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST LUXURY? “MY PIT BULL,” SAYS DEUTCH. A PIT BULL? “MAYBELLE IS THE SWEETEST, MOST GENTLE DOG I’VE EVER HAD. SHE IS SO LOYAL.” YES, she’s starred opposite Robert De Niro’s Dick Kelly in Dirty Grandpa and – showing quite the range – Nicholas Hoult’s JD Salinger in Rebel In The Rye as Oona O’Neill, playwright Eugene’s daughter. Yes, her mother, Lea Thompson, appeared in the most Oedipal cinema scene this side of Psycho when she chatted up her son Marty McFly in Back To The Future. And yes, Bryan Cranston pranked her constantly on the set of the forthcoming Why Him? “He put popcorn in my Uggs,” recalls the 22-year-old. “And he told me the stunt co-ordinator wore an eye patch ’cos his wife shot him. Actually,…

ANYONE who’s heard of “Wookieepedia” will tell you that Star Wars in the post-internet age is less a film series, more a sprawling discourse – and one of its richest areas is fan fiction. Once a fringe pursuit, fans writing stories about characters in their favourite films or TV shows has exploded of late and become a major force driving popular culture. The dedicated directory Archive Of Our Own reveals that Star Wars stories have mushroomed from 532 riffing on 2005’s Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith to a staggering 17,244 related to 2015’s The Force Awakens. And in a sense, of course, Disney’s upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is itself a kind of fan fiction, albeit one with a budget of galactic proportions. So while Hollywood has…