Inhoudsopgave van May/June 2026 - Esquire UK

Funny thing, work. Unless you’re fortunate enough to have been born with pots of cash waiting in a trust fund, or you’re related to/are a broligarch, the likelihood is that you will spend nearly half your waking adult life in pursuit of a task-based activity with which to gather the funds that enable you to survive. Important, then, that the job you do is a job you love. I should caveat here that I’m aware it’s not always that simple — there’s major privilege in having the freedom to pursue a career based on passion over necessity — but where possible, I think we can all agree it’s important to find meaning in the work that we do. I should also probably caveat that I’m fortunate enough to be in…

Dressing like Woody from Toy Story sounds preposterous. And yet, the toy-box Western uniform — yellow checks, straight-leg denim and heeled boots — seems suspiciously like what’s hanging in the shops. Look closer and it makes sense. He was first conceived as a hand-me-down cowboy doll, inspired by Fifties Howdy Doody puppets and director John Lasseter’s old, pull-string Casper doll. His outfit follows the same homespun, practical logic: cowhide vest, red neckerchief, workmanlike jeans. Even the character aligns with the clothes — loyal, slightly old-fashioned, a natural leader. Follow the cues and you can almost imagine Woody tipping his Stetson and declaring: “You’re my favourite deputy.”…

Noise-cancelling headphones are one of those modern upgrades that instantly improve daily life: they reduce your commute to a background hum, make short-haul flights feel less draining and allow you to work without the whole office in your ears. The best do two jobs at once: active noise cancellation (ANC) to tackle the constant distraction of engines and traffic, and smart physical isolation to blunt the sharper sounds that ANC struggles with. Sound matters, too: you want detail, balance and a mic that keeps calls clear. In our edit, we’ve focused on comfort, battery life and noise reduction you can genuinely feel.…

For the uninitiated, summer skincare still tends to begin and end at the departure gate: a hurried grab for SPF50, applied once and relied upon for the rest of the trip. It is the grooming equivalent of buying sunglasses on the beach — a last-minute fix rather than a plan. In reality, warmer months call for a slightly broader kit and a little more intent. Heat, sweat, saltwater and air-conditioning place different pressures on skin and hair than winter ever does, and a single bottle of sun cream is rarely enough to cover them all. A good routine need not be elaborate, but it should be deliberate: a facial mist to cool and reset during the day, light hydration in the form of serums or sheet masks, dependable deodorant, targeted…

Hello Style Shrink, I hear that it’s gilet season. I work in an office, I like gilets and I’m a fan of keeping my arms aired. What gilet should I wear? Should I wear one? Are they bad? Tell me.  Balsen, Mayfair Dearest B, I’m sorry to tell you that if you’re seeking validation for your wayward sleeveless antics, you’ve come to the wrong place. Gilets (those nylon, institution-branded ones favoured by city boys in particular), to me, are the clothing equivalent of a Weight Watchers sticky toffee pudding — half-baked, unsatisfying to behold and unlikely to make the consumer look any better than they currently do. If you are determined to wear a gilet, there are certain pieces that look better than others — and there are particular ways…

You see those green shoots? It’s a new season, baby. And with that comes plenty of new reading opportunities. You can take a book outside, settle under a tree and get lost for a few hours. Or, you know, go to a café. Somewhere with a roof. But what should you actually pick up? These are the titles that Esquire’s contributing literary editor Jack Edwards (above) has chosen, from a collection of harsh and hopeful German short stories to a snack-sized edition from a Booker winner. ALL THE LIGHTS by Clemens Meyer, translated by Katy Derbyshire (2011) Often bleak and hyper-macho, these stories are a revolving door of men down on their luck who believe maybe, just maybe, one last risk could fix everything. Take a bet on this German translation…

A great tailor can work wonders when it comes to fine-tuning the fit of your jacket or trousers, but even someone who seems like a magician with a needle and thread can’t perform actual magic and make a two-sizes-too-big jacket look like it was made for you. Before you buy something that’s not quite right because, hey, they’ll be able to fix it, read this guide. It’ll let you know what can be transformed — and what’s best left on the rack. SHOULDERS Shoulders are the most difficult for a tailor to alter because they control the balance of the suit, so never buy something if the shoulders aren’t a close fit from the outset. Too large and the tailor will have to remove the sleeves to adjust them, a…

When The Rest is History co-host Dominic Sandbrook and the show’s producer Tabitha Syrett decided to launch their new podcast, The Book Club, they weren’t trying to be worthy. They weren’t trying to “fix” reading. And they definitely weren’t trying to create homework. They were hoping to recapture one of life’s simplest pleasures: reading — and the even greater pleasure of arguing about it. From disagreeing on Wuthering Heights to coming around to Sally Rooney’s Normal People, they want you to know a great book club isn’t about intellectual grandstanding. It’s about chemistry, curiosity and, ideally, rubbish booze. 1 Reading is personal — but talking about books brings us together Dominic Sandbrook: Reading is a solitary and intimate thing, but at the same time, we are social creatures and we…

There is a company based in the US called Berkeley Rand, which provides “off-grid superyacht experiences” to its discerning clientele. Its specialisms include re-enacting scale versions of the Battle of Midway for its customers to take part in — complete with “the smell of cordite and cannon fire onboard” — and 3D-printing a free-standing, fully operational restaurant onto a sand shelf in the Maldives that will disappear into the ocean eight hours later. The company’s sole target market? The “bored billionaires”, according to founder Andrew Grant Super in an interview with Evan Osnos of The New Yorker. Well, could it be anything else? If there is a single winning image to encapsulate the sheer, unlikely, incomprehensible, faintly magical, thoroughly unnatural, sometimes beguiling, often infuriating wealth and worldview of the super-rich…

THE MALDIVES If you’re on the hunt for extreme luxury, you won’t struggle to find it in the Maldives. The tiny island nation, nestled at the inky heart of the Indian Ocean, is dotted with expensive resorts designed to help you relax in ultimate comfort. Yet few are as extremely luxurious as Six Senses Laamu. A Maldivian institution beloved by those in the know since its opening a decade and a half ago, the resort is built around an ultralaid-back barefoot concept, which belies its perfectly polished heart. From the island-grown ingredients served up in the resort’s seven restaurants to the extraordinary beach and over-water villas, the abundance of local sea life (take a dolphin safari, you won’t regret it) and the sea, the sea! Bluer than an Yves Klein…

JULIAN GANIO The stylist for our fashion story “Work hard, play harder” (page 126) has worked for publications such as Fantastic Man and clients including Cartier. Dream job: “Publican.” FERANMI ESO As a stylist and image maker, Eso has designed costumes for Roskilde Festival and Art Basel. In this issue, he styled Skepta (cover and page 108). Dream job: “Working in fashion is pretty great.” ALESSANDRA CODINHA Previously the style director for Departures magazine and an editor at American Vogue, the LA-based writer interviews LaKeith Stanfield. Dream job: “Egyptologist.” CHARLIE DENIS The LA-based photographer, whose clients include Levi’s and Skims, shot our fashion story on page 126. Dream job: “I quite liked my very first job cleaning a Methodist church.” JOSEPH BULLMORE The writer-at-large for Air Mail and co-founder of…

Dressing is about so much more than looking good. It’s about how it makes you feel. The right outfit can be the secret to a day’s success; the wrong one can throw everything off. It’s strange, then, that more of us don’t commit to a tried-and-tested look that, without fail, works for us. If nothing else, think of all the time you could save in the morning. Thankfully, there are some brave sartorial souls out there who have road-tested the idea of a daily uniform to the point of near obsession: men whose personal style has become part of their personality, the two inextricably fused. Men like Nick Cave. Cave treats his calling — wrestling words and songs out of the great void — as a nine-to-five job. For such…

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At the end of last year, a dear friend presented me with a brown-paper bag stamped with a bespoke font. It was exquisitely proportioned, with the top folded and taped. Without much investigation, the shape suggested that it contained a pen and a book. On opening, I discovered a silver bullet pen so sleek and shiny I found myself wanting to lick it; the ringed, detachable letter clipper at the base of the pen was nothing short of perfection. The notebook, stuffed with dense, lined sheets, had a perforated “C” for “Charlene” on the cover. Never has a gift given me so much joy. There are an increasing number of stores whose proprietors share my obsession with well-crafted stationery. Present & Correct, established by the graphic designer Neal Whittington, is…

Jesse Jenkins, also known by his social-media handle Another Day in Paradise (ADIP), has over 800,000 followers on Instagram. But what has made him popular, I suspect, is his ability to make it feel like he’s cooking specifically for you. Chilli oil grilled cheese? Pressed scallop carpaccio? Spicy watermelon salad? Whatever the mouthwatering, just-unusual-enough dish, Jenkins will plate it up on the stainless-steel island in his London kitchen and make it feel bespoke. Jenkins, originally from Los Angeles, was a skateboarder and photographer before he took to the kitchen, which accounts for both the high-quality footage and also his laidback attitude towards cooking. His food is representative of his Southern Californian background: tastes of Mexico and Korea and classic Americana. If you are the type chef who prefers to follow…

My earliest memory of style is from when I was nine or 10. My mother came home from the market bringing gifts, as if it were Christmas. She presented me with these green corduroy trousers. Back then, we would only be given one pair of trousers a year. I was a simple farmer, but still I didn’t like them. Wearing green didn’t suit me. So when no one was looking, I went to the back of the house, dug a hole and buried them. Sixty years later, I knew the exact spot where I had buried them. I went and dug up the buttons, which was all that remained of those corduroy trousers. I lived in the countryside until I was 15 years old, without running water or electricity. In…

Another working day, another tub of cold, congealed penne arrabbiata to shove in the office microwave. Yes, you’re saving money, but at what cost? You deserve a lunch to look forward to, and it shouldn’t drain your wallet or take up a whole evening in prep time. To help, we asked some chefs to provide their favourite low-effort, high-reward work scran. DINNER-TO-LUNCH HAND PIES Oliver Costello, co-founder of Toad Bakery “The idea of these savoury treats is to fill them with what you’re cooking for dinner the night before. Whatever it is — bolognese, Bombay potatoes, fish — make a bit extra to set aside and cool. Prepare your flaky pie pastry and assemble, making as many as you can at once. Bake them off the night before or morning…

“We have a thing called kinaesthetic intelligence: a sense of ourselves in space. Some people are very fearful in their movements; their gestures are small and their whole kinesphere [aka personal space] is collapsed. When you walk into an environment like that, it’s like having a massive question mark over your head. People don’t trust what you’re saying and don’t believe that you’re competent. It’s important that you inflate that sphere of movement and take up space in the world. It opens everything up. When someone is really easy in their skin they get much further in their life. But these are things you can practise. “At the start of the day, instead of making a coffee or scrolling on your phone, you should get a sense of how you’re…

In 1967, a landmark study began, aiming to answer one deceptively simple question: just what impact do our jobs have on our health? Its subject, around 18,000 British civil servants surveyed over a decade, was dull by design. Everyone had a desk job and good job security. The top brass earned more, but no one travelled by private jet and even the lowest rungs were hardly at the poverty line. Named the Whitehall Study, it was the perfect petri dish. From a distance, the results didn’t seem to be too unexpected. Those at the bottom of the office hierarchy were found to have a lower life expectancy than those above them. External risk factors were assumed to be the cause; those same people were more likely to smoke, be overweight…

“The first person who comes to mind is Will Poulter, one of my best friends,” says Archie Madekwe when we speak at February’s Esquire Sessions, our new event franchise that brings together members of the Esquire community for panel discussions, fireside chats, supper clubs and more. Madekwe, who was nominated for a Bafta Rising Star award this year, discussed his recent horror flick Lurker, working with Emerald Fennell on Saltburn and leading the blockbuster racing drama Gran Turismo. And, of course, his co-star turned friend. “Will is very conscious. Everything’s so intentional. He’s always thinking about the way he interacts with the world around him. He’s a really brilliant person. We met on the set of Midsommar,” Madekwe says. “Every now and then, you do a film that you take…

Default shorthand for office life, the tie has spent the past decade in retreat – loosened, pocketed or abandoned altogether, as dress codes vanished and WFH took over. This season, though, its return is hard to miss. At Dior, Jonathan Anderson styled striped ties with tweed and worker jackets; Saint Laurent tucked tonal versions neatly between shirt buttons; while Louis Vuitton went bolder, pairing suits with glossy diagonals. The preppy club tie, with its collegiate stripes and old-school confidence, feels apt for Esquire’s Work Issue: now less office uniform and more personal signature, worn simply with an Oxford button-down or navy blazer – a small knot of intent in an otherwise relaxed wardrobe.…

For decades, the black work shoe meant one thing: safe, sensible and firmly traditional. These are not those shoes. This new generation of designer derbies and polished lace-ups keeps the discipline of office footwear — smooth leather, clean lines, sober colour — but loses the stiffness in favour of slimmer soles, sharper silhouettes and the occasional high-gloss finish. The shift has been helped along by Pharrell Williams, men’s creative director for Louis Vuitton, who clearly knows a thing or two about shoes: his personal archive is so extensive that last year he was able to auction off dozens of pairs, spanning everything from rare BAPEs to Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force 1s. When the man with a sneaker vault to rival a boutique unveils a collection titled New Formal,…

The tech-bro era, with its flat structures and open-plan offices, did nothing for the status of the luxury limousine. If you’re trying to cultivate a nimble start-up culture for your team of 20-something coders, arriving at work in a gleaming £250,000, chauffeur-driven Bentley probably wouldn’t represent the best “optics” for a founder’s personal PR. Plus, all that hand-stitched leather would be wasted on their Under Armour trackies and Huel T-shirts. It sounds about right that Mark Zuckerberg is thought to drive a £10,000 Honda Fit. Where in the modern world, then, does Bentley’s most luxurious saloon, the Flying Spur, feel most at home? A morning meeting in Chelsea, the Spur’s spiritual heartland, must surely represent a slam-dunk opening run through rush hour. This is, unofficially, the quietest Bentley ever and…

“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety.” So says Antony’s chum Enobarbus of Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s play about the ancient world’s bestknown power couple. But he could equally easily have been thinking of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. The story of its birth — designed overnight by Gérald Genta before the Basel watch fair, initially as a limited edition for the French and Italian markets — is as much, if not more, a piece of Swiss folklore as William Tell himself. For those who were paying attention in the 1970s, the Oak could be glimpsed on chic wrists including those of the Shah of Iran and Mark Birley. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that my peripheral awareness deepened into obsession. It helped that my first one, a…

Tuxedo sunglasses — lightly tinted shades worn with black tie — have long had a place on the red carpet. Jack Nicholson made the look his signature, pairing coloured lenses with a dinner suit so often that it became part of his uniform. A newer crop of actors — Jacob Elordi, Glen Powell and Michael B Jordan among them — has since revived the idea, favouring slim metal frames and soft blue or amber tints with modern tailoring. Happily, it is a look that translates beyond premieres. At summer weddings and outdoor evening receptions, where bright light makes bare-eyed squinting inevitable, a discreet pair of shades can feel as sensible as it does stylish. They also work in the office, the morning after the night before. The trick is restraint…

Looking for a man in finance, you say? Well, they’re hardly difficult to spot. City boys — with their wardrobes full of gilets, sensible quarter-zip pullovers and business-casual sneakers — are as instantly recognisable as a Blank Street Coffee cup or neon Lost Mary vape. Strict office dress codes are largely a thing of the past, so what’s with the standard-issue uniform? If you feel like it might be time to shake things up, take a look at these workplace-friendly swaps. Gilet to cardigan The hero product in a finance bro’s wardrobe, the gilet rules in regulation grey, navy or black. If you’re growing tired of the sleeveless staple, a cardigan is a fashion-forward alternative that adds texture and, if you’re feeling brave, colour to an otherwise flat fit. It…

Is the office shirt back? Yes. Emphatically, unequivocally, yes. So hang back on the soft, knit button-downs, the T-shirts, the sweater sets. It’s time to either excavate those old-school 1980s Italian pinstripe shirts your father handed down to you (the ones with the slightly too-wide collar and the satisfying weight of proper poplin) or invest in your own from a myriad of great options around today. The cultural moment has crystallised beautifully. For his debut womenswear Chanel show, Matthieu Blazy made the inspired decision to collaborate with iconic Parisian shirtmaker Charvet, pairing its impeccably constructed shirts with fluid skirts. A genius move, and why not always work with the best? Jacob Elordi has since been papped in Chanel by Charvet on multiple occasions, wearing what is essentially the boyfriend shirt…

Skepta’s alarm went off at three o’clock this morning. During Ramadan, he eats before sunrise; by 4.30am he had already logged a 5K run — 28 minutes and 46 seconds, according to the Nike Run Club map he later posted to Instagram Stories. For someone who has spent more than two decades building one of British music’s most self-directed careers, it is a characteristically industrious start to the day. At 11.30am, he arrives at a studio in north London, five miles from where he grew up in his beloved Tottenham, to have his photo taken for Esquire. Today he is wearing a deep-purple Stone Island jacket in iridescent technical nylon, a T-shirt emblazoned with 1980s-style graffiti and a trapper hat. He moves deliberately, taking his time. While set builders, stylists…

The CEO, aged 60, had begun to feel that the face staring back at him in the mirror looked a little… tired. He didn’t feel old — he was an active professional, a leader in the music industry — but his under-eyes, he felt, were starting to look baggy; his dark circles were darker than they should be, no matter how much sleep he was getting. “I work in a very fast-paced, youth-driven environment,” he explains, over email. “Every dayI’m in meetings with senior leaders and VPs in highly visible roles, and I’m surrounded by talented colleagues who also look fantastic.” He wanted to feel confident he was presenting the best version of himself: “But when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t feel the reflection matched how I wanted…