Table of contents for OCT 16 in Esquire UK

Tim Lewis “The Hart brothers — Sam, Eddie and now James — are so nice and affable that it’s easy to forget what shrewd, killer businessmen they are,” says the contributing editor, who profiles the restaurateurs on page 138. “If they think a restaurant is a good idea then it almost certainly is.” Lewis is a features writer at The Observer. His book, Land of Second Chances, is out now. William Gilchrist Having worked with Jude Law for 20 years, the stylist was well-equipped to dress the actor for Esquire’s cover. “Like cooking, photo shoots are as much about preparation as the act of,” he says, “and this one flowed excellently, like a glass of chilled Brouilly on a summer’s day.” Consulting for countless labels and magazines, Gilchrist has also…

It’s a delicate matter, a sore point and a sensitive subject — of all major body parts, this is the one which, while remaining fully accessible, nonetheless determinedly shuns the limelight (or indeed any light at all). It lurks in a narrow and hidden defile, like some malevolent troll — and we know it mostly by its importunate behaviour. It embarrasses us in public with childish noises and mephitic odours; then forcing us, in lock-step, towards often pained and peevish privacy. Yes, gentle readers, this month it’s time for us to cast all prudery aside and confront the organ which put the “fundament” into fundamental: our arseholes. (Or, as Derek and Clive, the puerile comic alter-egos of Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, significantly styled them: our souls…) We must look…

Writing a restaurant menu requires a particular skill. I’m not talking about dreaming up the recipe, experimenting, testing, tasting and presenting, although that demands talent, too. No, I mean choosing the right words, punctuation and turnsof-phrase to make the dish sound appetising and ultimately sell. Some menus are exercises in economy and restraint, with dishes being described simply using commaseparated ingredients. Fergus Henderson does this to great effect at St John in Clerkenwell where a recent menu included a dish written as: “Rabbit, mustard, bacon”. Not much room for fat there. Skewered vision: rejuvenate your banal barbecue with Italian hunters’ kebabs But there are menus that go the other way, over-describing and chronically mansplaining. One restaurant recently handed its staff a list of preferred words for describing its daily specials.…

Pay-as-you-go classes Core Collective, west London The resistance class combines strength and stamina in the form of TRX (suspension) training, featuring hundreds of circuit-style exercises. £28 per class, core-collective.co.uk Blok Gym, east London Try the hour-long group circuit class, which provides muscular and aerobic conditioning, while also improving balance, agility and coordination. £15 per class, bloklondon.com Stretch, east London A calisthenics class (lasting 75mins) that includes dips, pull-ups, push-ups, L-sits and planks — where you’ll use only bars and Olympic rings. £14 per 75min class, stretch-london.com Specialist strength Motus Strength, west London One-on-one PT sessions and classes aimed at focussing on bodyweight training and the acquisition of technical proficiency. PT rates start at £85 per hour, motusstrength.com SB Fitness, Bristol A sports and performance gym that offers calisthenics and frame…

Off-White is one of the super-cool brands currently setting an “anti-luxury” trend — selling stylised versions of basic clothes at high fashion prices. Called Moncler O, the zeitgeist label’s new collaboration with the outerwear megalith strikes a chord between sumptuous luxury and fashion-forward edginess. Inspired by North Sea fishermen, Off-White designer Virgil Abloh’s mainly monochrome capsule collection features puffa jackets, track pants and sweaters punctuated with orange flashes. Waxed sailing jackets are winter-ready and wearable, while a shearling hooded jacket would look just as intimidating on a North Sea rig as it will on the slopes. 1. Grey cotton trousers, £435 2. Black polyestershearling coat, £435 3. Grey cotton jumper, £350 4. Black patent leather boots, £500 5. White hooded shearling jacket, £785 The new faces of avant-garde fashion 1.…

Some pairings just work: comté cheese and champagne, for instance, or a suntan with a white T-shirt. Take the new partnership between American designer Michael Kors and British Formula One racing team McLaren-Honda. Launched at the European Grand Prix in June, the fledgling relationship will see Michael Kors take its place as McLaren- Honda's official lifestyle partner. In all forthcoming F1 races, the label's branding will be emblazoned across the McLaren-Honda team's overalls and the McLaren-Honda MP4-31 car. A heady mix of Michael Kors’ slick stateside styling and the masculine sportiness of McLaren-Honda — which, founded as McLaren, has competed in Formula One since 1966 — the partnership has opened up a new audience to the American label by presenting an exciting opportunity for the brand to reach a new…

“Empty your bag, sir.” It is 6:15 on the morning Britain has woken to the stark, numbing reality that it has voted to leave the European Union. I am standing on a disused runway bordering a famous golf resort on the west coast of Scotland, being faced down by a burly, unsmiling member of the United States Secret Service. Behind me, scores of journalists, photographers and cameramen — from the UK, the US and all points in between, it seems — are being corralled into lines before being put through the same ordeal. The global media has not assembled on this picturesque stretch of the Ayrshire coastline to witness the official reopening of a golf course. No, we are here because the owner of the recently renamed Trump Turnberry has…

‘There’s no mysticism. I’ve stood there at sunset touching the rocks of Stonehenge. It was a lovely evening but I didn’t feel any great vibration’ Whether it’s film-makers or thimble-makers, the personalities are the same — the same dynamics, aspirations, the same emotional investment. Success doesn’t always come the way you expect it. After This is Spinal Tap [1984], we were doing interviews and this journalist looked terribly confused. He said, “Excuse me, I don’t know what’s going on. But you’re not the people in the film. They were English rock musicians.” I’ll take it. You have to trust your intuition. I can’t audition new cast members, because there’s no script to read from. So we just talk for 15 minutes and at the end I make a decision. In…

Gucci Coach Lanvin Prada Bottega Veneta Canali Oliver Spencer Fashion assistant: Emie James-Crook | Grooming: Anna Chapman using Mac Cosmetics | Model: Max Townsend @ Elite | Location: Town Hall Hotel, Bethnal Green, London E2 Topman Design…

Not that I want to come over all Captain Complacency but I’m happy to tell you that, contrary to reports pretty much everywhere, the sky is not falling in. You’ll remember the story. Chicken Little — a free-range hen, not that it does her much good — is hit on the head by a falling acorn, or nut. (Not a nut-job, a nut.) Panicked into an apocalyptic hysteria she speed-waddles about the farmyard recruiting all the other birds into her fantasy of imminent catastrophe. They flap themselves into such a feathery frenzy that they forget themselves entirely and are eaten by a fox. The reason it resonates is that throughout history there have been moments when it seemed that things had got so bad that the world was about to…

There are few watch brands held in equal esteem by both the public and watch experts. Where the former could be said to sometimes value style over substance and the latter vice versa, one brand on which both parties can agree is Patek Philippe. Take the historic marque’s brand new World Time Chronograph. Aside from the elegant blue finish on the strap and dial (which is very now — blue was everywhere at this year’s Basel watch fair), this chronograph is one of the most beautifully crafted world timers we’ve seen to date. This is the first example of Patek Philippe including its chronograph and world time complications in the same watch, and the best thing about it is it’s surprisingly easy to use (extraordinary, given that the majority of…

We love a city which has recovered its mojo, and Bordeaux has most certainly done so. The grand 18th-century boulevards and buildings — built with the proceeds of the wine industry — spent decades down at heel until a sense of urban renewal recently lured young entrepreneurs back. Now, with the imminent (and long overdue) arrival of a direct TGV high-speed train link from Paris, the capital’s Gallic hipsters may well also migrate to France’s west coast. They’ll find a city that’s hipper, and more chipper, than any in France. Put another way, it would be damn difficult to be bored in Bordeaux. Tom Barber is a founder of the award-winning originaltravel.co.uk See Brand new La Cité du Vin, an extraordinary building that resembles Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao. Its…

Eastern promise Tasty new red is a game-changer for Chinese wine Allow us to introduce you to the newest of New World wines: a beautiful, rich and lively red made in the foothills of the Himalayas, near the Chinese city of Shangri-La (really). Ao Yun translates as “flying above the clouds”, which is appropriate since the vineyards from which it’s produced sit at a vertiginous 2,600m above sea level, in four remote villages. It’s a nightmare when it comes to harvesting the grapes, but worth it for the warm days, cool nights and dry mountain air that produce the wine. “It’s probably the furthest south of any vineyards in the northern hemisphere,” says Jean-Guillaume Prats, president of Moët Hennessy’s estates and wines. “It’s a unique place in the world, with…

Black nappa leather driving shoes, £520 Black nappa leather loafers, £605 Black nappa leather trainers, £520 Few brands have mastered fabric innovation better than Ermenegildo Zegna. From its factory in Trivero, northern Italy, it spins waterproof cashmeres, silky, crease-resistant wools and stunning soft cloths imbued with stain-repelling nanotechnology. Visiting Zegna’s factory is rather like stepping into Q Branch. Appropriately, there’s more depth to the brand’s latest “La Pelle Tessuta” leather range than meets the eye. The capsule collection of trainers, loafers, backpacks, holdalls, briefcases and gloves is crafted from 2.22mm-wide strips of graphite-hued nappa leather woven into a supple fabric as soft as cashmere and equally as comfortable. Our pick is the footwear. Breathable, comfortable and slick as you like — if Q Branch developed luxury shoes, they’d probably look…

Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci Dior Homme Victorinox Dolce & Gabbana H&M Belstaff Louis Vuitton…

Dear Uncle Dysfunctional, My girlfriend is up the duff. It wasn’t planned but we’re thrilled. Thing is, we’ve just had a scan and it’s fucking triplets. Oh my God, three of them. And all boys. She’s in shock. Spends her whole time laughing and then crying. I’m trying to be practical, concentrate on the important shit like, obviously, what are we going to call them? She wants Athos, Porthos and Aramis (she did A-levels). That sounds like a fucking perfume shop. I said, “Absolutely no way.” So then she said Plácido, José and Luciano. I’m from Hull, not fucking Rimini. Apparently, they’re opera singers. The kids’ll be fat knicker-sniffers, bellowing “just one Cornetto”. No. Absolutely not. No Johnny Foreigner names. We’ve had Brexit — they’ll get deported. So she sobs…

Our feet must sometimes wonder what the hell is going on. One minute we’re keeping them carefully encased in a heavy pair of heritage brogues, derbys or oxfords; the next we’re setting them loose in a carefree pair of Flyknit sneakers or a sockless sandal. The rules for shoes seem to have gone out of the window. Brands are positively relishing testing our toes to the extreme. I’ve recently returned from a hike in the mountains of Bhutan as the guest of a Philippine brand owned by some friends. They invited me and a few others on the trip, providing we trudge up the 3,000ft-high terrain to visit the clifftop monasteries, wearing nothing but their new range of canvas caminos on our feet. The other hikers, all dressed sensibly in…

Great gym kit should start from the bottom up, beginning with apt footwear. Trainers must be tailored to how you specifically train — you wouldn’t wear flip flops to trek up a mountain, so you shouldn’t work out in the wrong shoes. However, London’s College of Podiatry have found that 65 per cent of Brits select the wrong footwear for their chosen sport. So, to put your feet first, I’ve selected the top five trainers out there right now — and the type of training they’re best suited to. The all-rounder Nike LunarEpic Low Flyknit With an outsole that disperses the impact of movement across the foot, Nike’s LunarEpic has been designed for optimal comfort. £130, nike.com Long-distance running New Balance Fresh Foam 1080v6 The 1080v6 offers the most cushioning…

Grooming Toothpaste: Tom’s of Maine. Moisturiser: Whatever’s free. Shower gel: Old Spice. I don’t know why... Face wash: Basic soap. Hair product: Whatever I can steal from the set. Fragrance: The Scent by Hugo Boss. Food and drink Wine: A good Rioja. Spirit: Grey Goose Vodka. Beer: Blue Moon, but I should probably say something more British. Dish: Oysters. Snack: Peanuts. Restaurant: L & E Oyster Bar, Los Angeles. Bar: Broome Street Tavern, New York. You can always sit at the bar. Style Shoes: Tom Ford. Jeans: Levi’s. Hat: A nondescript, unbranded cap. Suit: Hugo Boss. Socks: Marks & Spencer. Scarf: My dad’s. Tuxedo: Whatever I borrow! Technology Phone: iPhone. Tablet: iPad. Laptop: Mac. I’m an actor: which means I’m the least technologyliterate person ever. Camera: Nikon. Soundsystem: My grandfather’s…

ESQUIRE RECOMMENDS Black leather backpack, £895; duffel bag, £1,305; pen pouch, £190; card holder, £140, all by Montblanc montblanc.com 01 Montblanc Urban Spirit collection Dressing you to climb every mountain / “You have to understand who you are designing for. Always.” It’s a simple mantra and one that has served creative director Zaim Kamal well since joining Montblanc three years ago. The world has changed, he acknowledges, and the brand’s customer is changing with it. No longer do our lives run like clockwork. “We work, we play, we eat, we drink, we go to the gym or out for dinner with friends and if we’re lucky we’re home by 11:30pm,” Kamal says. Using Kamal’s philosophy, the maison’s new Urban Spirit collection fully delivers in its attempts to match the lifestyle…

Robert Harris, photographed for Esquire at home in Berkshire, July 2016 A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BESTSELLERS With 10 top-sellers from 10 books since 1992, it’s looking so far so good for Robert Harris. Ahead of his latest novel, Conclave (due to be published on 22 September), these are the stories so far... 1992 FATHERLAND 1995 ENIGMA 1998 ARCHANGEL 2003 POMPEI I 2006 IMPERIUM 2007 THE GHOST 2009 LUSTRUM 2011 THE FEAR I NDEX 2013 AN OFFICER AND A SPY 2015 DICTATOR 2016 CONCLAVE “‘Inspiration’ is just a posh word for ideas,” Robert Harris tells me, with the easy authority that is his trademark. “You just need a couple of ideas each day to carry you through…” I am sitting with the man whom The Telegraph calls “Britain’s leading thriller writer” amid…

Look 1 Charcoal/grey speckled wool suit jacket, £695, by Gieves & Hawkes Navy padded cotton quilted-down gilet, £155, by Hackett White cotton shirt, £100, by Tiger of Sweden Navy/cream striped knitted silk tie, £95, by Alfred Dunhill Charcoal/grey speckled wool suit trousers, £250, by Gieves & Hawkes Black leather lace-up derby shoes, £350, by Tod’s Black canvas-box calf leather document holder, £925, by JM Weston Steel Aquaracer 300m Calibre 5 ceramic bezel watch, £1,950, by Tag Heuer Look 2 Green polyester quilted coat, £275, by Gant Charcoal/ash wool-cotton doublefaced jersey polo shirt, £235, by Richard James Off-white cotton roll-neck jumper, £25, by Topman Off-white cotton roll-neck jumper, £25, by Topman Brown waxed leather boots, £195, by Russell & Bromley Grey/black canvas-cotton backpack, £110, by Timberland Stainless steel 4810 TwinFly 110…