Esquire UK

contributors

CASS BIRDAmong the handful of photographers at the pinnacle of fashion photography and portraiture, Cass Bird is distinguished by the freshness, spontaneity and naturalistic beauty of her work. Los Angelesborn, New York-based, a contributor to Self Service, WSJ magazine and numerous editions of Vogue, among other publications, for her first Esquire shoot she fixed her lens on our cover star, actor Mahershala Ali, the Oscar-winning star of Moonlight and Green Book.MIRANDA COLLINGEEsquire’s Features Director — a member of the team since 2005 — Collinge is also one of the best profile writers in the business. Last year, she conducted interviews with the artist Christo, the movie star Tom Hardy and an eccentric art dealer, Forrest Fenn. This year, she opens her account with “Zen and the Art of Shopkeeping”, a…

go big or go home

(Dan Burn-Forti)UNLESS THIS IS THE FIRST TIME you’ve picked up an issue of Esquire, you will, I hope, notice that we’ve made a number of significant changes to the magazine. Does it seem taller, broader, heavier, more likely to do serious damage if wielded about the head in a tight spot? That’s because it is all those things. It is taller, broader and heavier. And no, I don’t advise hurling it across the room, outraged though you may be by these unexpected changes in dimension. Nor allowing it to slip from your fingers, to fall on to your stockinged foot. Ouch.Is Esquire’s weight gain the result of the fact that there are now more pages than there were previously? Yes, it is. Because there are. Do those pages feel somehow…

started from the bottom

the rapper performs his debut headline show at Brunel Museum, south London, February 2018.Octavian photographed for Esquire in central London, December 2018 (Daniela Monteiro)In the first century BC, Octavian, great-nephew of the recently assassinated Julius Caesar, set out to avenge his great uncle and establish himself as Augustus, First Emperor of the Roman Empire. On a drizzly day last December, 22-year-old rapper Octavian from south London, born Octavian Oliver Godji and currently tipped to be one of the biggest artists on both sides of the Atlantic, displays similarly fierce intent.“There’s no point doing this unless you get to the top,” he says, reclining in the classical mode on a sofa in a central London recording studio, the crotch of his low-slung Stüssy tracksuit bottoms (“these are literally my pyjamas”) stretched…

old fruit, new fruit

Apples and oranges are passé. Lemons are for losers. And strawberries are so last century. In 2019, food snobs — and the restaurants that cater to them — expect their fruit bowls to contain considerably more exotic ingredients. You may think you know your kumquat from your lychee already, but are you au fait with yuzu, jackfruit, dragon fruit, rambutan, mangosteen and nashi pears?These fruits aren’t new, of course. But they are new to most diners outside Asia. Yuzu, which is found across East Asia — it looks like an orangeshaped lemon and tastes like a particularly piquant lime — is a staple on the sushi menus at upscale Japanese restaurants and is available in juice form.“Last year, we sold the most yuzu ever,” says Drogo Montagu, chef and founder…

the art of hospitality

There was a moment last year when it was suggested to Jeremy King that his restaurants should start making their dishes more “Instagrammable” to boost popularity on social media. This was met with a swift, albeit tactful, rebuff from the co-owner of London landmark restaurants The Wolseley, The Delaunay and Brasserie Zédel, among others.The following day, vindication came via Instagram itself, and The Sunday Times restaurant critic Marina O’Loughlin. “She did the most wonderful thing,” says King. “I had no idea she was going to do it — she posted a photograph of The Wolseley’s Omelette Arnold Bennett, which is probably one of the least photogenic dishes because it looks a bit sort of brown.” This was for no other reason than to extol its “unspeakable bliss”, as she put…

celestial objects

a coffee table from the upcoming ‘Below the Heavens’ Collection IV Part Two designed by Ini Archibong for Séthe award-winning Nigerian-American furniture designer inspects a component from his new interiors collection in the Sé workshopIni Archibong has an unusual outlook for our self-centred times: that the talents we’ve been given should be used to benefit everyone around us. The 35-year-old Nigerian-American designer has what he calls “a philosophical stance”. Archibong grew up in California, in a religious community chosen by his parents, who emigrated to the US to attend colleges on the East Coast. After earning a presidential scholarship to the University of Southern California to study business, he found he was spending more time at his local Theosophical Society library. Spirituality took precedence over business and he dropped out,…