GQ December 2021/January 2022

THIS SUMMER, when we were still in the planning stages of our 26th annual Men of the Year issue, I kept contemplating the idea that we are living in the era of the individual. ¶ I’m 40 years old, and for as long as I can remember, power has been in the hands of institutions, not individuals. Governments wield power. Corporations wield power. ¶ Now, however, something much different is happening in the culture. ¶ Social media is perhaps the strongest transformational force of our time, and it has emboldened a new generation of cultural figures to bypass authorities and gatekeepers. Backed by legions of followers, they can stand up to once-almighty institutions and fight for their own needs and the needs of their communities. Much of this is for the…

THE KID LAROI: HAIR, LEDORA FRANCIS USING ORIBE; SKIN, ANDREW COLVIN AT SAINT LUKE USING CHANEL; TAILORING, SAMANTHA MCELRATH AT CAROL AI STUDIO. PRADA, DRIES VAN NOTEN, GUCCI, CELINE BY HEDI SLIMANE, MOMA DESIGN STORE, AND GEORGE CORTINA FOR ANDERSON & SHEPPARD: PHOTOGRAPHS, MARTIN BROWN; PROP STYLIST, SHARON RYAN FOR HALLEY RESOURCES. ALL OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY OF BRANDS.…

ALMOST TWO YEARS ago, Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard, a rapper from Australia, knew he had made it big when he received a surprise Instagram DM from an admirer. The message was from Justin Bieber. “He said, ‘You got the sauce,’” says Howard, better known as the Kid Laroi, scrolling through his phone to show me the exchange. He pulled his stage name from the Australian Kamilaroi people: His mother is of Indigenous descent. When he was younger, Laroi would record verses on her iPhone and post them onto Sound-cloud and Facebook. At 14, he was crowned one of the country’s best high school artists on a competition show called Unearthed High. A record deal followed, which put him in a position to catch the attention of a certain Canadian megastar. The next time he…

IT’S NOT that playing Spider-Man wasn’t fun, Andrew Garfield says. No, playing Spider-Man—which he did in two films, preceded in his red-and-blue spandex by Tobey Maguire and followed by Tom Holland—was great. It was all the stuff that came along with being Spidey that he couldn’t stand. Before he even agreed to star in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, he worried about this—about the way the job seemed certain to transform him into a public figure and upend his life. But he said yes anyway, and then watched with mounting panic as the role basically consumed his life Garfield was shooting his second Spider-Man film, in 2013, when he realized he had reached a breaking point. It felt excessive—the money, the fame, the attention. They were filming in New York City, Spidey’s ancestral…

MOST WATCH enthusiasts get creative when they have to travel with their timepieces. On a recent afternoon, Henry Golding brought his growing collection to a Venice, California, coffee shop rolled inside ankle socks, which were stuffed in a Tumi toiletries case tucked inside an Arc’teryx tote bag. Not entirely surprising, considering the 34-year-old actor was once a travel-show host whose timepieces had to hold up to treks up the Mekong. In fact, the host gig fueled his nascent watch obsession—Golding spent an entire season’s paycheck buying his first luxury watch, a Cartier Pasha. “I wasn’t too proud of that at the time,” he says. And then he got his big break, a starring role in Crazy Rich Asians, and bought a Cartier Tank. You have a very Cary Grant–esque persona, and…

KANYE WEST Atlanta, August “Hey, Siri, can you dry-clean rubber Balenciaga spikes?” BERNIE SANDERS Washington, D.C., January After the planet’s most unlikely influencer wore a pair of recycled wool mittens made by one of his Vermont constituents to Joe Biden’s inauguration, demand for quirky knitwear skyrocketed. But don’t sleep on the rest of the Green Mountain State’s contributions to fashion. “We have some good coats as well,” the senator told CNN. A$AP ROCKY AND RIHANNA New York City, September America’s hottest couple were the last guests to arrive on the Met Gala red carpet, and undeniably the coziest: Rocky was draped in a repurposed quilt (originally made by a SoCal grandmother) and a custom silk taffeta tux, both by ERL, and Rihanna was cocooned in Balenciaga couture. DANIEL CRAIG London, September The bow tie, the gold Omega watch, and the bespoke…