British GQ January - February 2018

A t 7pm on a weekend in September, more than a thousand people were queuing around the corner of a side street on Brighton’s seafront. Some had been waiting for more than twoand- a-half hours to see the man who was speaking that night, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. This was a fringe event during Labour’s annual conference and yet, as the New Statesman pointed out at the time, it felt more like a gig. Inside the auditorium, as stage lights bathed the expectant crowd – some of whom were acting as though they were overexcited teenagers about to see Harry Styles perform for the first time – a compere took to the mic: “Brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, welcome to The World Transformed!” he screamed, before introducing, “The next…

How we chose Jeremy Corbyn Be a fly on the GQ wall with our short film about the process behind the Jeremy Corbyn cover shoot, including inside access to our creative process and the thoughts of GQ staff. Alastair Campbell vs Charlie Brooker Step into the room with Alastair Campbell and Charlie Brooker and watch their frank discussion about the future of the world, the threat of nuclear war and the new series of Black Mirror. Loyle Carner on getting fired and writing drunk On GQ’s YouTube channel, check out British hip hop hero (and YSL fragrance ambassador) Loyle Carner’s chat with GQ Acting Style & Grooming Editor Carlotta Constant. Subscribe to the GQ Strike! podcast GQ has launched Strike! – a new podcast covering all things football, presented by “football crazy” GQ Style Fashion Director, Elgar…

Stuart McGURK GQ’s Senior Commissioning Editor, PPA Award-winning Writer Of The Year Stuart McGurk, interviewed Jeremy Corbyn exclusively for this issue. Corbyn’s Labour has never been closer to power: if there was an election tomorrow, the polls suggest the party would win, and when the pair met, McGurk challenged Corbyn on everything from Brexit to Blair. “He was both amiable and awkward,” says McGurk, “unlike any political leader I’ve ever met.” Tom STUBBS This month in New House Rules, menswear stylist and writer Tom Stubbs comes clean about his recent midlife crisis, triggered by a divorce from his skinny jeans. At 47, Stubbs, who elsewhere this issue discusses the beret and styles Aidan Turner, says, “Skinnies are for chumps. Here’s to my middle-aged, massive denim wide-on.” Olivia COLE If you’re looking for something great to…

If we think about it, most of us would reckon that our food system functions pretty well – or even very well, depending on where you live and how much money you have in your pocket. I run the London Food Board and every day my city serves up around 33 million meals. Just think about it for a moment: all that food has to be grown, picked, harvested, packed, transported, processed, transported again, displayed in shops, bought, stuffed in the fridge, cooked, cleaned and finally eaten. Given that most of us find it quite a feat of organisation to cook a midweek dinner for eight, what happens in London every day is mind-boggling. How could anyone say that this is not a good system? But industrial food – most of…

Having a career is so 2016. These days, it’s about having careers. A main job, sure, but also a side hustle or two – a Friday night comedy gig or a Saturday evening supper club. Or, in the case of Elsa Hosk, the 29-year-old model who covered last year’s Victoria’s Secret swimsuit calendar, a fashion line. She has just designed her first capsule collection and has grander plans besides: “I’m working on my own brand right now.” You could argue that she already has quite the brand. Hosk counts more than 3.8 million followers of her Instagram feed (@hoskelsa) and also has a profile in the sports world, having played professional basketball for two years in her native Sweden. “I still play when I can,” she says. “Usually on holidays or…

How an unlikely theory in urban planning improves safety by creating danger Ask a New Yorker how long it will take to drive from A to B in Manhattan and they’ll doubtless say, “It depends on the traffic.” Hence a bold idea in urban design that’s coming to the Flatiron Plazas in Midtown from late 2018 onwards, when the stretches of Broadway and 5th Avenue between West 21st and West 25th Streets will be transformed into “naked streets”. Vehicles and pedestrians will be free to use the roads unsegregated, rather than being relegated to specific areas by lines and kerbs or subjected to instructions from traffic lights and road signs. The Flatiron Plazas are not the only areas of New York to have opted for naked streets. A chunk of Lower Manhattan…