The Rake December 2018 - Issue 61

By the time you read this, The Rake will have celebrated its 10th anniversary and I will have moved past my 49th-year mile marker, compelled inexorably towards my mid century. Looking back on a magazine that was created to champion the idea that men get better as they get older, how does The Rake and the guy who created it hold up to scrutiny a decade later? Well, let’s discuss the magazine first. When the first issue of The Rake was unveiled, I was quite proud of it, despite the fact it was something of a flop in trend-driven Singapore. We championed long-form journalism at a time when communication had been pared back to acronyms and emojis. Inspired by books such as Alan Flusser’s Dressing the Man, we held discourse on…

I love Christmas. I am writing this letter from Los Angeles, smiling at the Santa-and-his-reindeer decoration that arches across Wilshire Boulevard in 30-degree heat. The global deification of Father Christmas seems more consistent than the celebration of the actual birthday boy, and I wonder why. ‘Father Christianity’ must inspire more in our imaginations than the other, more sacred, story humans have told for millennia, and atheists can’t argue it’s because one is more real than the other. At least Jesus existed. Ultimately, it is because there is so much to be learned and reflected upon amid the assorted cultural alcoves that make up the most wonderful time of the year. To some it is chestnuts on open fires and other whimsy; to others, a more symbolic reminder that man was made…

MICHAEL SCHWARTZ Michael is a Floridian turned New Yorker, and a photographer. He began his career in the fashion industry as an agent for models. While developing and maintaining the careers of some leading models, he had a desire to get back to his lifelong goal of capturing still and moving images. Since changing careers he has not looked back, having shot for several iconic brands, including Hugo Boss, Victoria’s Secret, Vogue and GQ. Michael lives in New York with his girlfriend and his badass Pomeranian called Biggie. In this issue Michael returned to The Rake to photograph Willem Dafoe for our cover and accompanying story (page 86). ARNALDO ANAYA-LUCCA Arnaldo, who was born in Puerto Rico to a cardiologist father and Episcopal-minister mother, moved to the U.S. in 1974 aged 13. His…

Should you visit the Museo Enzo Ferrari in Modena, you’ll find as many examples of the sporty dream machines the legendary car magnate lavished on the world as you could wish for, from 1948 Touring Superleggeras and GT 2+2s from 1968 to the 2002 model that bears his name, fittingly resplendent in scarlet livery and complete with DeLorean-style batwing doors. There’s even a unique Ferrari Hydroplane, the Arno XI, from 1954. The exhibits are spotlit like rarefied jewels, and it’s not hard to see why the name Ferrari has transcended the world of AutoBuzz fanboys and Mille Miglia grand tourers and come to stand for something recherché and revered, whether it’s being dropped by French literary luminaries (Whisky, gambling and Ferraris are better than housework: Françoise Sagan) or U.S. rap…

He never feared failure, and this is the only way you can be successful in life. I learned that from Dino.” So said Arnold Schwarzenegger at the funeral of the Italian film producer Agostino ‘Dino’ De Laurentiis. Dino’s C.V. reads like a surrealist notebook, timeless masterpieces like La Strada, Serpico and Blue Velvet cheek-by-jowl with flamboyant catastrophes. An ingenious financier and talent spotter, as well as an adventurous anti-snob, he was instrumental in the careers of neorealist icon Silvana Mangano (whom he later married), Al Pacino, David Lynch and Schwarzenegger, as enlightened and audacious an operator in post-war Italy as in eighties Hollywood. He was also a master of failure, not because he failed but because he knew how to harness it. De Laurentiis was born in the Neapolitan seaside region of…

Garments purchasable at TheRake.com Turn on the television and the actors you’re likely to see in major roles will fit a very specific demographic: white, male, and of a fairly well-to-do background, even if the characters they’re playing are not. Instead of accepting this issue as fact, the actor David Mumeni is trying to change it. Mumeni had what might be called humble beginnings: born and raised in north-west London, he’s the son of a mechanic and a homemaker, and attended what he says was a “pretty rough” local school. Among his classmates, it was unusual to aspire to be an actor, and the explanation for Mumeni’s career path was his flair for drama mixed with luck. He managed to get into various youth theatre programmes during his teenage years, including the…