Spring 2023 DANIEL ARSHAM FASHION'S FAVORITE ARTIST IDO YOSHIMOTO NORCAL'S AWESOME SAW MAN JAM ES DARRAH OPERA'S NEW PRODIGY
Cover
Ready for His Close-Up Theo James Enters the Spotlight
Saint Laurent
Saint Laurent
Prada
Prada
Harry Winston JEWELS THAT TELL TIME
BEVERLY HILLS 310 271 8554 SOUTH COAST PLAZA 714 371 1910 HARRYWINSTON.COM
Harry Winston
© 2019 Harry Winston SA. HARRY WINSTON EMERALD
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Christian Dior
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Christian Dior
2/23/23 1:19 PM
Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels
LADP
YOUR HOME FOR DANCE IN LOS ANGELES
L.A. Dance Project @LADANCEPROJECT NOW.LADANCEPROJECT.ORG WWW.LADANCEPROJECT.ORG
PHOTOGRAPH JOSH S. RSOE 2019
LADP
Tag Heuer
Tag Heuer
ME N'S CONTENTS/Spring 2023 24.
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With the Bands Humdingers for your FINGERS
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Maor Saturn Solstice ring with pavé diamonds, $7,930, maorofficial.com.
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TOC
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David Yurman Torqued band ring, $2,500, davidyurman.com.
Louis Vuitton Empreinte ring, $4,400, louisvuitton.com.
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Harry Winston HW logo diamond wedding band, price upon request, harrywinston.com.
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NEWS
FEATU R E S
20. WeHo’s got a sophisticated new drinking den
28. Daniel Arsham on his modern fossil sculptures and move into fashion
20. Supreme goes deluxe with a store on Sunset
34. What does life after The White Lotus hold for Theo James?
20. A new tome documents skateboarding’s place in pop culture
42. How Ido Yoshimoto transforms tree trunks into trophies
21. Mellow yellow is the trend of the summer
22. Ami brings Parisian flair to Melrose Avenue
CALI FOR N IA CLASS IC
26. Sorry, streaming: Movies on the big screen are back with a vengeance
46. The Shelby Cobra was an all-American sports car built to rival Ferrari
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Bulgari Serpenti ring, $2,270, bulgari.com.
First Republic Bank
Watch These Faces
Founder’s Letter
Five timely CHRONOGRAPHS Founder, Editorial Director & CEO JENNIFER SMITH Editor & President JENNY MURRAY
Pasha de Cartier watch, $9,750, cartier.com.
A
JENNIFER SMITH FOUNDER, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR AND CEO
Bulgari
Jaeger-LeCoultre Polaris perpetual calendar, $33,000, jaeger-lecoultre.com. 18
Graphic Designer DEAN ALARI Senior Editors KELSEY MCKINNON GINA TOLLESON DANIELLE TORRES ELIZABETH VARNELL
Publisher RENEE MARCELLO
Sales Development Manager ANNE MARIE PROVENZA Controller LEILA ALLEN
Contributors MAX BERLINGER , LAURA BURSTEIN, JORDAN GEIGER , BRYSON MALONE, DAVID NASH, FRANK OCKENFELS, S. IRENE VIRBILA , BEN WELLER
Vacheron Constantin
Octo Roma automatic chronograph, price upon request, bulgari.com.
Photo Editor LAUREN WHITE
Information Technology Executive Director SANDY HUBBARD
C People Masthead
Overseas chronograph, $32,400, vacheron-constantin.com.
Managing Editor SARAH RUTLEDGE
Director Digital, Sales & Marketing AMY LIPSON
IWC Pilot’s watch chronograph 41, $8,500, iwc.com.
Chief Creative Officer JAMES TIMMINS
Ben Weller
James Sleaford
Frank Ockenfels
Gemma Price
Ben Weller’s photography is distinctive for its strong sense of narrative. Whether he is working with fashion or documentary he produces images that are at once strong, beautiful, and cinematic. Weller’s ability to tell a story through his imagery is exemplified in the body of his work. His work regularly features in international titles like Vogue, WSJ, Twin, and GQ Style. For this issue, he focused his lens on our cover star, actor Theo James.
James Sleaford is a London-based menswear editor who spent nine years as fashion director of GQ France. Having spent twenty years in the fashion industry working with top industry photographers and art directors, he looks to not only style seductive imagery but also advise men on what to wear in different situations. Sleaford was behind the fashion direction for this issue’s cover feature—“Rooting for the Anti-Hero,” p.34— starring Theo James.
Frank W Ockenfels 3 is a Los Angeles– based director and photographer who has spent nearly 30 years photographing musicians, celebrities, corporate heads, and everyday people. His editorial work has included covers for Rolling Stone, Esquire, The Hollywood Reporter, GQ, Men’s Health, Newsweek, Wired, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, People, and Premiere. For this issue, Ockenfels shot Daniel Arsham, who has a solo exhibition at OCMA, for “Breaking the Mold,” p.28.
Gemma Price left her native England in 2005 to live in Japan, Australia, and Vietnam before settling in San Francisco, in large part because of the Bay Area’s vibrant culinary scene. She continues to cover luxury travel and lifestyle stories for titles such as WSJ Magazine, T Magazine, Condé Nast Traveller, Travel + Leisure, Food & Travel, Business Traveller, DestinAsian, and Centurion. For this issue, Price penned our story on Marin County artist Ido Yoshimto, “Saws Out,” p.42.
C PUBLISHING 2064 ALAMEDA PADRE SERRA , SUITE 120, SANTA BARBARA , CA 93103 T: 310-393-3800 SUBSCRIBE@MAGAZINEC.COM MAGAZINEC.COM
Cover
Photography by BEN WELLER. Styling by JAMES SLEAFORD. Grooming by NADIA ALTINBAS at The Wall Group using TOM FORD BEAUTY and ORIBE. Production by NENE GRANVILLE at Industry Menu. THEO JAMES wears a FENDI shirt and a vintage hat.
I LLUSTRATION: DAVI D DOWNTON.
Cartier
rt can push us to see ordinary, mundane things in a new light and open our eyes to infinite possibilities. Some of the artists we profile in this Spring Men’s edition are working in different media with their craft but producing equally impactful results. Take Ido Yoshimoto, an arborist turned artisan who lives in a rustic cabin and uses fallen trees from his native NorCal surroundings in his work. Renowned artist Daniel Arsham comes to our shores this spring with a seminal show at the Orange County Museum of Art. Known to shift our perceptions of shape, time, and form with his works, he is pushing us into a conversation about perception and reality with this exhibition. A television series that captured audiences and asked questions about morality, marriage, life, and death—with a cheeky twist—is The White Lotus, which has a “killer” ensemble cast. One of the second-season standouts was actor Theo James. Handsome, likable, but able to push boundaries past the point of comfort, James was the perfect embodiment of his character. With a new Guy Ritchie series about to debut, his career is on the ascent—proving that no matter the medium, artists are going to create magic when they go beyond the status quo. And in this Men’s issue, the editors go out of their way to curate only the most extraordinary, unique, and compelling stories emerging from our California coast—never predictable, and never status quo.
Chief Content Officer ANDREW BARKER
Gucci ©2023 South Coast Plaza
South Coast Plaza
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S ULTIMATE SHOPPING DESTINATION A. Lange & Söhne · Alexander McQueen · Alexander Wang · Audemars Piguet · Balenciaga · Berluti · Bottega Veneta · Breitling · Brunello Cucinelli Burberry · Cartier · Celine · Chopard · Christian Louboutin · Dior Men · Dolce&Gabbana · Fendi · Ferragamo · Gentle Monster · Giorgio Armani Givenchy · Golden Goose · Gucci · Hermès · Hublot · Hugo Boss · IWC · Jaeger-LeCoultre · John Varvatos · Loewe · Loro Piana · Louis Vuitton Men’s Mikimoto · Moncler · Omega · Panerai · Patek Philippe · Porsche Design · Prada · Ralph Lauren · Roger Dubuis · Rolex · Saint Laurent · Tag Heuer The Webster · Thom Browne · Tiffany & Co. · Tourneau · Tudor · Vacheron Constantin · Valentino · Van Cleef & Arpels · Versace · Zegna partial listing
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COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA
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STYLE/NEWS
An otherworldly stillness runs throughout KEHINDE WILEY’s work, including the 26 paintings and sculptures in An Archaeology of Silence (at San Francisco’s de Young Museum through October 15), created as the pandemic raged, George Floyd was murdered, and Black Lives Matter gained momentum. “We are used to seeing the figures in Wiley’s paintings triumphantly occupying cultural spaces traditionally reserved for white royalty, clergy, or nobility, thereby calling into question their exclusion from such historical representations,” says curatorin-charge Claudia Schmuckli. Enveloped in backgrounds of decaying and flowering fauna, the effects of systemic violence are clear, as are the symbols of transformation and renewal. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr., S.F., 415-750-3600; famsf.org. E.V.
Nice Porsche!
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Family Affair Fashion designer turned restaurateur Humberto Leon is following up on the success of Chifa, his Peruvian-Chinese hotspot, with a new culinary concept: MONARCH. Located in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley, the restaurant is a family affair with his mother, Wendy; his sister Rica; and Rica’s husband, John Liu. Leon designed the space alongside architect Michael Loverich as a grand Hong Kong–style banquet hall. John Liu heads the kitchen, whipping up familiar Cantonese dishes such as sweet-andsour pork belly, as well as new items like a fried rice collaboration with Solange Knowles. 1212 S. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, 626-596-2818; monarch-sgv.com. K.M.
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Skate It Till You Make It News
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t’s no secret that Southern California is ground zero for skate culture, and this book is an homage to skateboarding—not just as a sport but also a vehicle for artistic expression. Written by esteemed skater and editor Mackenzie Eisenhour, 1000 SKATEBOARDS (Rizzoli New York, $29.95) tracks the history of the sport through the decks themselves, exploring the way they helped evolve and define the prevailing visual trends of the times, be it graffiti, illustration, or screen printing. In addition to showing the different styles of boards, the book also presents the various companies that have made a lasting impact on the sport and culture. Throughout it all, you meet the characters who helped shape a global industry that has influenced everything from fashion to athletics to art and beyond. M.B.
Sunrise on Sunset SUPREME’s new supersize boutique on the Sunset strip—a move teased by a white-and-red branded helicopter buzzing the Hollywood sign—gives new meaning to catching air with 8,500 square feet devoted to art, decks, streetwear, and a free-floating skate bowl. The West Hollywood outpost, former home of Tower Records’ first SoCal location, is nearly double the size of the former site on Fairfax and stocked with creative director Tremaine Emory’s latest drops alongside art installations by collaborators Mark Gonzales, Nate Lowman, Josh Smith, Fuck This Life, and Neckface. Not to be missed are highlighter yellow T-shirts and crew socks from the brand’s ongoing collaboration with Hanes, plus studded belts, wallets, and keychains from Hollywood Trading Company and decks with artwork by Gio Estevez. 8801 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 323-655-6205; supreme.com. E.V.
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TAG HEUER is heralding one of its strongest partnerships at its new Century City boutique. On shelf is the Swiss watchmaker’s newest Porsche collaboration—a sixth with the German automaker—highlighting a shared passion for speed inspired by the color of heat sparks on asphalt. The TAG Heuer Carrera X Porsche Orange Racing is an automatic chronograph steeped in the bright hue generated by shooting sparks from cornering race cars. The black dial is designed with a texture recalling racetrack marks, and its black steel case, ceramic bezel, and calfskin leather strap contrast with bright orange details. The watch’s Calibre Heuer 02 movement includes 168 parts, and the custom-designed oscillating weight pays homage to Porsche’s steering wheel. 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City, 310-867-6087; tagheuer.com. E.V. 04.
Bar None A sophisticated bar is a welcome addition to the West Hollywood scene, which has a dearth of grown-up drinking dens unpolluted by the clamor of their parent restaurant. Built around a central bar with an eye-catching chandelier and plush banquettes, OR BAR’s allevening appeal ranges from pre-meal dates to after-dinner assignations (with a 2 a.m. closing time Thursday through Saturday). Formerly Gold Coast the Or Bar’s (or is gold in French), its drinks are a list of updated classics such as the Or 54—a take on the French 75—and the New Fashioned, which is based around rye whiskey and blood oranges. 8228 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 3 23-3 80 - 6060; theorbar.com. A.B.
01. The Virgin Martyr St. Cecilia (Ndey Buri). 02. The last word on the art and history of skateboarding. 3. TAG Heuer Carrera X Porsche Orange Racing, $7,050. 4. WeHo’s Or Bar offers fresh takes on adult drinks. 5. Humberto Leon and family serve up Cantonese food at Monarch. 6. The new Supreme store on Sunset Boulevard.
WOR DS BY: AN DR EW BAR KE R, MAX B E R LI NG E R, KE LSEY MCKI N NON, E LI ZAB ETH VAR N E LL. PHOTO: WI LEY: © 2022 KE H I N DE WI LEY. COU RTESY OF TH E ARTIST AN D TE M PLON, PAR IS – B R USSE LS – N EW YOR K. PHOTO: UGO CAR M E N I; 1000 SKATE BOAR DS: J. G RANT B R ITTAI N; OR BAR: CH E LSEA LAU R E N; MONARCH: SAM MCG U I R E.
Nick Fouquet California Lorem ipsum
Shock and Awe
STYLE/TREND
Shades of Summer Make like the sun and shine your brightest this spring in mellow yellow accessories and head-to-toe citrus tones
Finney
Cartier
Boyfriend shirt in silk twill, $585, finney-co.com.
Tank Française watch, $24,300, cartier.com.
Trend Prada
Hermès Spring/ Summer 2023
Nappa leather bermudas, $2,900, prada.com.
Hermès Neoprene sandal, $880, hermes.com.
Loro Piana
Fendi
Thorsun
Baseball S cap, $495, loropiana.com.
Beach towel, $590, fendi.com.
Cotton serape, $285, thorsun.com.
Ralph Lauren
Prada
Loewe
C2C cashmere sweater, $995, ralphlauren.com.
Linea Rossa Impavid sunglasses, $410, prada.com.
Satin calfskin crossbody bag, $1,150, loewe.com.
E D IT E D BY A N D R EW BA R K E R
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STYLE/NEWS 02.
Risky Business The Parisian brand AMI has landed in West Hollywood, bringing with it a bit of the Marais to Melrose. With street-facing windows welcoming in that Cali golden light, glass-and-marble display cases, and black-and-brown checkerboard floors, the store is a sleek vessel for the brand’s insouciant designs: oversize coats, easy trousers, lovely button-downs—perfect for that ineffable French look of being stylish without looking like you’re trying. And to take advantage of the city’s notoriously lovely weather, an outdoor patio will soon be open to passing fashion flâneurs. 8583 Melrose Ave., L.A., 323-693-2630; amiparis.com/us. M.B.
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f you’ve watched an action movie made over the past three decades, chances are you’ve seen the hair-raising handiwork of helicopter stuntman FRED NORTH. The prolific Malibu-based pilot and aerial cinematographer has more than 200 credits to his name, including Transformers, James Bond: Spectre, Mission Impossible, and The Fast and the Furious, and also holds the world record for altitude in a chopper. This summer, he releases Flying Sideways
($29.95), a fascinating memoir he co-wrote with his wife, Peggy, chronicling his life from his boyhood days in Tunisia and war-torn Addis Ababa to his tumultuous time in the French Army to flight school and his break into the film industry. From pulling off some of Hollywood’s most epic action sequences (and narrowly escaping death more than once) to recounting how he fell in love, North’s tale has all the makings of its own blockbuster. fred-north.com. K.M.
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News
Poetry Hour VAN CLEEF & ARPELS’ immersive forest is popping up at the South Coast Plaza April 1–16. The ephemeral exhibition showcases watchmaking inspired by nature and astronomy and centered on many of the house’s most soughtafter tickers, including Poetic Astronomy models and the Midnight Pont des Amoureux collection. The space, created in collaboration with the Aubusson tapestry workshops in central France along with Glassworks artisans, highlights the brand’s Swiss craftspeople and also includes its Alhambra designs, Perlée collection, and other cosmosinspired watches. 3333 Bristol St., South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-545-9500; vancleefarpels.com. E.V.
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A Dior Adventure A love of nature has always been a foundational principle for the French luxury house DIOR. The brand is taking that ethos into its latest partnership with the Montana-based outfitter Mystery Ranch, which is known for its tactical bags created with adventure in mind. Creative director Kim Jones reworked the saddle, one of Dior’s iconic shapes—as well as a backpack, a wallet, and a small pouch—with a sense of rugged exploration to form a collection of tough-wearing recycled nylon, packed with functionally minded details including Y-zip closures, extra double-zipped pockets, and straps that allow for easy access to various attachments. The great outdoors has never looked more chic. dior.com. M.B. 06.
Culture Club
Kith Steps Up If there is one thing Rodeo Drive was missing, it’s an ice cream cereal bar. Enter KITH, the lifestyle brand founded by Ronnie Fieg in 2011 that recently landed on the historic stretch of Beverly Hills. From street to chic, the brand’s second L.A. location (and 10th worldwide) has menswear, womenswear, accessories, childrenswear, a dedicated shoe room, and Kith Treats, where shoppers can stop for a vanilla soft-serve topped with Cocoa Puffs. To mark the opening, Fieg and Asics have reprised their long-standing partnership with a new retro-inspired GEL-LYTE III Remastered sneaker in “Super Orange”—Fieg’s 99th collaboration with the footwear brand. 262 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills; kith.com. K.M.
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Radical experimentational sounds that shape the collective writhing, building arc inside a club and the inevitable melancholic drift toward the after-party propel the immersive new sonic exhibition, CARL CRAIG: PARTY/AFTERPARTY (through July 23), at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Dia Art Foundation commissioned the pioneering Detroit-based DJ and producer to create the visceral sound and somatic experience based on his 30-year international career creating continuous techno sets in clubs. Beats evolve, building and breaking in 30-minute iterations (no two are the same) and guiding viewers from the evening’s beginning, with a nod to black electronic music originators, to its pulsing apex and the inevitable approach of dawn signaled by natural light pouring in from overhead skylights. 152 N. Central Ave., L.A., 213-625-4390; moca.org. E.V.
01. The new AMI on Melrose features its signature styles. 02. Fred North flying on set. 3. Midnight Pont des Amoureux watch, $125,000. 4. Dior by Mystery Ranch Gallagator Backpack, $4,000. 5. Carl Craig: Party/After-Party replicates the aural clubbing experience. 6. Kith on Rodeo Drive stocks sneakers for everyone.
WOR DS BY: MAX B E R LI NG E R, KE LSEY MCKI N NON, E LI ZAB ETH VAR N E LL. PHOTO: FLYI NG H IG H: ©DAN I E L SM ITH/U N IVE RSAL STU DIOS; SOU N DSCAPE: DIA B EACON, B EACON, N EW YOR K.
The Paris Look
PROFILE
has made beforehand. So why do we treat opera differently?” Born in Texas, Darrah, a “theater kid” who played the clarinet and read Shakespeare, moved to Southern California with his family as a teenager. It wasn’t until he studied at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television in his twenties and was mentored by Peter Kazaras that he became interested in opera.
» A lot of people think amplification has no place in opera. I want it all amplified « JAM E S DAR RAH
The Boldest Darrah Showman Drawing on pop culture and technology, JAMES DARRAH is transforming the face of opera as we know it WOR D S BY MA R TH A H AY E S P ORT RAIT BY J OR DA N G E I G E R
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hen you get into opera, there’s a point where everyone is like, ‘I guess you’re going to move to New York,’” sighs James Darrah, the new artistic director and chief creative officer of Long Beach Opera. “But I think I’m just enough of a contrarian. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah? Well, then, I won’t!’” Darrah has made a career of doing the opposite of what people expect. Only the third person in Long Beach Opera’s 42-year history to take the helm, the interdisciplinary director, screenwriter, and Grammy-nominated producer is arguably the most progressive. He is heralding a
radical, cinematic new era not only for Los Angeles’ oldest opera, but also for the centuries-old art form itself. When we speak, Darrah, 39, is in “full recovery mode” at the home he shares with his partner, Alex Black, in Glassell Park in northeast L.A. The world premiere of The Romance of the Rose (Kate Soper’s eclectic reimagining of the medieval poem) just kick-started his first full season at Long Beach, and the Los Angeles Times hailed it as an “operatic triumph.” “It was a perfect metaphor for the potential of Long Beach Opera,” explains Darrah, who has since wrapped dance-opera The Horse in March and will debut two further operatic experiences this summer in Southern California. “A small company authentically celebrating emerging artists as well as giving established talent the opportunity to do something they might
not otherwise get to do.” Darrah is not new to the opera scene. His career highlights include directing Missy Mazzoli’s breakout hits Breaking the Waves and Proving Up as well as Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer-winning p r i s m. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that everyone from Opera Philadelphia to the Boston Lyric Opera began tapping into his niche of embracing pop culture, video, and electronics. “A lot of people think amplification has no place in opera,” he says. “I want it all amplified. I want it loud. We live in the age of Beyoncé. Anything other than that is just historical performance. This idea that you just consume it all or not is complete bullshit.” In other words, why should opera be any different than, say, watching something on Netflix? “If you watch a new TV series, you don’t watch everything the director
Collaboration is key for Darrah, who also studied under Stephen Wadsworth at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. But it’s the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas—who spent 25 years as the director of the San Francisco Symphony—who has had the most profound influence. “I had so much respect for him as someone who had always been out,” explains Darrah. “That ownership over identity and self was refreshing for someone who has achieved the levels of fame and success he had. There’s this elitist, ostentatious side of things, but he was the one who was always like, ‘James, just make a really good show.’” As for the future, there’s no chance of Darrah abandoning L.A. for New York any time soon. California has always provided inspiration, and Darrah and Black, who is originally from Montecito, love travelling up and down the coast and taking trips to Joshua Tree and Palm Springs. These trips are usually when he starts thinking about his next show. “The vastness of the landscape always feels like a new chapter,” he says, “where you get to wipe the slate clean and start something fresh.” Staying “on the pulse of keeping yourself accountable at the edge of innovation” is something Darrah considers. “It’s a precarious place sometimes because you’re doing things that don’t have precedent. But I think that’s exciting.” longbeachopera.org • JAMES DARRAH wearing an ADAM RIGG blazer, VARON jewelry, and vintage boots. Les Enfants Terribles at Long Beach Opera.
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The latest addition to Oakland’s burgeoning restaurant scene is ACRE KITCHEN & RESTAURANT from chef and co-owner Dirk Tolsma and veteran restaurateur Pete Sittnick. Taking up residence in the lively Rockridge neighborhood’s Market Hall building, the two-story dining mecca offers an all-day downstairs café with seasonal patio dining, as well as a more formal upstairs dining room. Playful and approachable menus incorporate locally sourced ingredients with flavors of the Mediterranean, such as classic steak tartare with preserved lemon and black lime potato chips, or Monterey Bay squid skewers with harissa and kohlrabi. 5655 College Avenue, Oakland, 510-250-3790; acrekitchenandbar.com. D.N.
Nick Fouquet California Lorem ipsum
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Mountain Mindfulness
Watch It Since its founding in 2017, WATCHBOX has been a go-to destination for savvy collectors seeking classic pre-owned Rolex Datejusts, Cartier Tanks, and what the team dubs the “holy trinity”; i.e., unicorn timepieces from Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin. After the opening of its debut brick-and-mortar in Dubai, it rapidly expanded with outposts in Switzerland, Singapore, UAE, Hong Kong, New York, Miami, Dallas, and now Los Angeles. In-demand New York–based designer Andre Mellone was tapped to design the new L.A. showroom as an antidote to the conventional display-case style watch 05. shops of the past. “It’s all about warmth and excitement and appreciation for design,” he says. By appointment only. 9220 Sunset Blvd., Ste. 210, L.A., 213-7234700; thewatchbox.com. K.M.
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This month, Hollywood concept store JUST ONE EYE is adding a pop-in created in collaboration with Giorgio Armani, the designer whose sleek silhouettes single-handedly transformed both the film mecca’s red carpets and big screen productions. The new installation includes a curated selection of looks for men and women from the Italian house’s ethereal spring/ summer 2023 collection. Soft-shouldered suits and patterned sweaters for men, all in aquatic shades of blue, join long duster coats, fluid jackets, and weightless women’s skirts. Crediting Armani as an ongoing inspiration, boutique founder Paola Russo calls the designer a “pioneer in creating beauty.” 915 N. Sycamore Ave., L.A., 323-9699129; justoneeye.com. E.V.
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alifornia has a long history of immersive wellness retreats. The dynamic topography and year-round moderate climes make it ideal for outdoor experiences. But the first luxury mountain health retreat, RESET TELLURIDE, promises a more intense kind of escape. Arrive for your 4- or 6-day experience 24 hours early to acclimate (the 15 rooms feature an oxygen-enhancement system that makes it feel like you’re sleeping at 2,000 feet). Your program might consist of anything from
mountain biking or trekking through the San Juan Mountains to rock climbing and fly-fishing. Of course, there’s clean, plant-based eating (no alcohol is offered), yoga, spa treatments, and access to bodyworkers (RESET’s cofounder Dylan Bates owns more than 1,000 physical therapy locations). Skiing isn’t yet offered as part of the program, but those wanting to hit the slopes don’t have to go far. RESET is located within Auberge’s Madeline Hotel and Residences, which offers its own ski-in, ski-out experiences. resettelluride.com. S.B.
High Voltage
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Francesca Amfitheatrof is expanding her geometric Volt collection for LOUIS VUITTON, adding new diamond-laden variations on the original triangular melding of the house’s initials. The genderless pieces—including a pendant necklace and white or yellow gold earrings created by the artistic director of watches and jewelry—are bedecked with sparkling studs held with three white gold claws, an innovation that allows for maximum shine. Interchangeable Volt designs worn by multihyphenate creative Kid Cudi also include bracelets in yellow gold with the two-letter motif forming a rhythmic shape that, when stacked, also resembles a heartbeat. louisvuitton.com. E.V.
...Bake for Five Years After an accident that resulted in a compression fracture in his back, S.F. chef Mike Lanham was told he might never walk again. The news only fueled his desire to recover, and he moved forward with his concept for ANOMALY SF. He spent five years perfecting the “post-modern” menu at eight pop-up locations across the Bay Area. Earlier this year Lanham opened a permanent brickand-mortar space in Lower Pac Heights with an 11-course tasting menu featuring hits like the delicata squash royale, and sea urchin and a dish called “An Egg … sort of,” which is constructed of smoky seaweed dashi potato foam and an egg yolk jam. The menu name? “Home for the First Time.” 2600 Sutter St., S.F., 415-510-9468; anomalysf.com. K.M.
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Blue Period
Margiela Moves Unmistakably green hues of olive trees and succulents subtly refresh MAISON MARGIELA’s trademark palette inside its newly relocated Los Angeles boutique. Yet the pale, single-hued look and airy feel of the Melrose Place space still bring to mind the Parisian label’s all-white studio, and the boutique’s floating plaster screens nod to the fabrics and raw materials used in-house for each collection. Dutch architect Anne Holtrop uses abstract shapes for white or mirrored tables displaying 5AC bags and backpacks, Glam Slam messengers, and Tabi boots amid ecru chairs and sofas. Deconstructed designs from the John Galliano–helmed label’s readyto-wear collections hang throughout, and long white shelves hold Replica sneakers, loafers, brogues, Reeboks, and fragrances. 8451 Melrose Pl., West Hollywood, 747-2192525; maisonmargiela.com. E.V.
01. Dirk Tolsma creates Mediterraneaninspired dishes at Acre Kitchen & Restaurant. 02. RESET Telluride offers a more rugged retreat. 3. An all-blue collab with Giorgio Armani. 4. Go to WatchBox for timepiece collectibles. 5. Maison Margiela has a new space on Melrose. 6. Kid Cudi in the Volt collection. 7. Anomaly lands in Pac Heights.
WOR DS BY: SAMANTHA B ROOKS, KE LSEY MCKE N NON, DAVI D NASH, E LI ZAB ETH VAR N E LL. PHOTO: ACR E: JOSE PH WEAVE R; ANOMALY: AN DR E BARTLEY; LOU IS VU ITTON: J EAN BAPTISTE MON DI NO.
All Fired Up
STYLE/TREND
Blush Hour Everything’s coming up roses when your summer looks marry pastel shades of salmon with earthy browns and beiges
Saint Laurent
Closed
SL 572 sunglasses in nude, $545, ysl.com.
Logo cap, $70, closed.com.
Trend Brunello Cucinelli Micro chevron deconstructed jacket, $4,195, brunellocucinelli.com.
Saint Laurent
Zegna Spring/ Summer 2023
Saint Laurent hoodie, $1,290, ysl.com.
Gucci
Celine
Valentino
Interlocking G loafers, $980, gucci.com.
Velcro shirt in cotton linen beige, $1,100, celine.com.
Garavani Loco mini bag, $1,150, valentino.com.
Givenchy
Thom Sweeney
Van Cleef & Arpels
Hawaiian beach shirt, $990, givenchy.com.
Linen wide leg trousers, $645, thomsweeney.com.
Perlée Pearls of Gold bracelet in rose gold, $4,850, vancleefarpels.com.
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CULTURE
reopened a path to the old way of doing things: pumping money into big marketing pushes to generate long and lucrative theatrical runs. Hollywood studios appeared to have given up on that model. Driven by competition with Netflix, they dove headlong into the streaming wars, pumping out countless films that skipped the cinema and went straight to people’s homes. There is a growing consensus that the “straight-to-streaming” bonanza was a mistake. Imax chief Rich Gelfond recently told the Financial Times: “Just about every studio and every streamer has indicated that they’re going to send all of their movies to the theaters first, and then to a streaming service. The fact is that a theatrical run improves the streaming run.”
emerging in cinema-going—and not just for the superhero franchises and star-driven vehicles like Top Gun. Everything Everywhere All at Once, winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, earned a healthy $100 million in global box office sales. Yet the cinema landscape Hollywood hopes to reinvigorate has changed dramatically—or, more to the point, has shrunk. Since the pandemic, more than 3,000 screens have shut down, a near 8 percent drop, leaving roughly 40,000, according to Comscore. Giants like AMC Theatres are testing tiered seat pricing and upgrading cinemas in hopes of luring back a public that got used to sitting on the couch. Brian Wieser of media consultancy Madison and Wall says theatrical releases, at best, are destined
» The landscape Hollywood hopes to reinvigorate has changed dramatically— or, more to the point, has shrunk «
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mid a throng of Hollywood glitterati at last month’s Oscar nominees luncheon, Steven Spielberg tracked down Tom Cruise and clapped him on the shoulders. “You saved Hollywood’s ass,” he told the Top Gun star. “And you might have saved theatrical distribution. Seriously.” Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to Cruise’s 1986 hit, grossed $1.5 billion in global box office sales last year, making it just the third film to top the $1 billion threshold since the pandemic. Avatar: Way of Water also shot the lights out with a $2.3 billion box office take. For the film industry, Cruise’s blockbuster offered a glimmer of hope after three of the worst years in its history. Hollywood, you see, has tipped into its very own recession. Studios are slashing budgets, killing films, laying off workers, and “unrenewing” series that had already gone into production or finished. A writers’ strike looms if
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The Big Screen’s Billion Dollar Comeback Have the Top Gun and Avatar sequels saved the theater? WO R D S BY ST E V E SA N D E R S I LLU ST R AT I O N BY A D O L F O C O R R E A
a new deal is not reached by May 1, when the current three-year agreement lapses. A stoppage, and a consequent drought of new films and television series, looks likely: Writers are demanding higher wages and
residuals just as studios have gone into cost-cutting mode. Amid the gloom, Cruise, who held his film for two years during the pandemic so it could be released in theaters, appears to have
Studios are set to release a deluge of films this year that will have only-in-theater runs before they are shoveled into the maw of the streaming beast. It is already happening. Cocaine Bear, the unapologetically schlocky horror-comedy about a drugged-out bear in the Georgian wilderness, brought in a healthy $65 million in the twoweek theatrical window before the studio made it available for purchase or rental at home. Horror film M3GAN grossed $175 million in 47 days in theaters before it was made available on streaming. It’s clear that Hollywood is desperate because the streaming model is far worse than what came before. The river of content required to keep carousels full and subscribers paying requires vastly more investment, and the returns are far slimmer. For most studios streaming has been, simply put, terrible business. Unfortunately for Hollywood, it is also the way most viewers, especially young people, want to watch. Disney lost $2.6 billion on its streaming operation during the last six months of 2022. Chief executive Bob Iger, who came out of retirement last year to right the ship, has fired 7,000 people and pledged to slash billions from its content budget. David Zaslav, head of Warner Bros Discovery, called the great streaming experiment “deeply flawed.” Comcast’s streaming arm, Peacock, lost $4.2 billion over the past two years—an eye-watering $180 million each month. All these losses explain why the industry is lunging at the green slots
to become a niche business, a leg to hold up the streaming stool. The average release window of 90 days, for example, has halved as studios scramble to generate buzz in theaters before quickly making films available online. Cocaine Bear’s window was just two weeks. “What did Cuba Gooding Jr. say in Jerry Maguire?” he asks. “Show me the money.” He adds, “Streaming is how people want to consume content. Yes, it is a worse business than the one which came before it, but failing to invest is an even worse decision. Would you like a bad outcome or a worse one? That’s the question you have to ask if you’re the studios. They are not going back to the 30, 40, 50 percent profit margin of the 2010s.” Before the pandemic, U.S. box office sales hit $10 billion, Wieser says, which is a fraction of the $30 billion that the streamers bring in. So even if the movie business comes roaring back and grows by, say, 50 percent, the streaming business could double or triple because even though the likes of Warner and Disney are currently slashing and burning, overall the industry is still ploughing unthinkably large sums into new shows and films for at-home consumption. Amazon and Apple together are expected to spend more than $25 billion on content this year alone, and neither has any great love or attachment to the legacy business they are undercutting. The cinema experience isn’t dead. The past year showed that. But it’s not, nor will it ever be, what it used to be. X
IN PARTNERSHIP
By Design British import The Maybourne Beverly Hills completes its transformation
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h e first American property from the owners of legendary London hotels Claridge’s, The Connaught, and The Berkeley, The Maybourne Beverly Hills is an art-filled haven with a rooftop view into the Hollywood Hills and sun-soaked grounds set amid palm trees. Spanning nine floors with sunny balconies and a cabana-filled pool, the property includes pastel-hued rooms and suites by Bryan O’Sullivan Studio. The hotel’s newest addition to its roof, Dante Beverly Hills, is a New York import with aperitivo-style cocktails, and The Maybourne Bar, just off the lobby, offers creative drinks, wines, and bar snacks. The Terrace’s al fresco setting overlooking Beverly Cañon Gardens has a dining room–spanning mural by L.A. artist Jessalyn Brooks and a Californiainspired menu. Massages grounded in breath work and using essential oils, sound bowls, and hot stones reflect The Spa’s focus on peace and rest. 225 N. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-860-7800; maybournebeverlyhills.com. •
Maybourne
With views of the Hollywood Hills, Dante Beverly Hills (above) opens on the rooftop this spring.
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Breaking the Feature - Arsham
Mold DANIEL ARSHAM’s eroding sculptures are as desirable as the design icons on which he bases them; next up, he’s launching a fashion collection that follows suit
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The artist at the Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, on the eve of the opening of his Wherever You Go, There You Are retrospective.
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aniel Arsham may be based in New York, but a distinctly Californian flavor runs through his work. There’s the obsession with cinema, as demonstrated by his life-size sculpture of the time-traveling DeLorean from the classic film Back to the Future, or his obsession with cars, particularly the Porsche 911, which is synonymous with PCH. So perhaps it’s fitting that this year the Golden State is celebrating the 42-year-old artist in not one but two concurrent museum shows. First there’s Wherever You Go, There You Are, on display at the newly opened Orange County Museum of Art, the first solo exhibition of his career at a major U.S. art institution (on view through June 4). Although it features the aforementioned DeLorean replica, it also makes the case for Arsham’s affinity for triaging commonplace objects as artifacts. Heavily featured among the 40-plus pieces are items from his Future Relic series, in which quotidian (if outdated) items—like an old Polaroid camera, a landline telephone, a boombox, and an audio cassette—are cast in serious, enduring materials like plaster alongside similar busts that recall ancient Greece or Rome. Many of these sculptures are crumbling, presented by the artist with a sense of decaying permanence or timeless gravitas, depending on how you look at them.
work is in the public collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, and the Rhode Island School of Design, to name a few. One through line in the two Southern California shows is a lifelong fixation with automobiles. “I’m often looking for objects that encapsulate a time period, the zeitgeist,” he explains. “And vehicles are particularly adept at doing so because they contain things like a particular type of radio or material used on the interiors. I have this 1970s [Porsche] 911 that has corduroy seats, which we’d never use in a car today. It sort of feels like you’re stepping into a time machine. And there aren’t many other design objects that go through that sort of zeitgeist scenario.” Arsham himself has an impressive collection of cars, and he often drives them from his home in downtown Manhattan to his large, Willy Wonka–like studio in Long Island City, Queens. “People definitely recognize the cars on the streets,” he says. Perhaps his popularity comes from the way he treats all aspects of pop culture, from cinema and fashion to music and architecture, as objects worthy of artworld status. He’s equally at home toying with video game characters, such as his cheeky Pokémon sculpture, as he is in fashion spaces. Indeed, he now designs his own clothing line, Objects IV Everyday, and recently made his Paris Fashion Week
» I’m often looking for objects that encapsulate a time period, the zeitgeist. Vehicles are particularly Feature - Arsham adept at doing so « Additionally, Arsham has four car sculptures on display at Los Angeles’ Petersen Automotive Museum in a show called Arsham Auto Motive. The vehicles are presented in muted, creamy shades—Arsham is color-blind—and are punctured by corroded, dilapidated incisions, using elements like selenite, quartz, pyrite, and volcanic ash to manifest an unearthed effect, keeping with his themes of decay and erosion. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Arsham and his family moved to Miami when he was young. Hurricane Andrew destroyed his childhood home. I ask if this event had any bearing on his fascination with ruin and architecture. “I guess it had some impact,” he says in his mellow timbre and thoughtful cadence. “It felt sort of magical, because there was no school and we were in the backyard cooking over a fire and there was no electricity.” Arsham, who studied art at The Cooper Union in New York, explores varied media in fine art, architecture, performance, design, and film. He has done paintings and sculpture, and more recently has been known for his prodigious collaborations with fashion brands including Dior, Rimowa, and Tiffany & Co. His work, which marries classical forms and recognizable, often contemporary artifacts, have won him an A-list crowd of admirers, including Pharrell, Usher, and Jay-Z. His
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debut at Galerie Perrotin. It’s a neat trick, as if to say art is always around us, not hanging in the wall of a museum or a gallery, but in the items we use on a day-to-day basis. This broad-ranging and multipronged approach to art-making is one of the reasons Heidi Zuckerman, director and CEO of OCMA, chose Arsham as the first solo exhibition in the new museum. “We’re located across the street from South Coast Plaza,” she says, “and they have 24 million shoppers a year. I wondered, ‘What is their idea of art? How might we draw them across the bridge?’ I started thinking about Daniel’s practice: the magnitude of it, and all his brand collaborations. I really wanted people coming to the museum to have a much broader definition of what art is, and to include art and design and architecture and fashion. And I thought, here’s an artist we could do that with, based on the way his practice touches all these different categories in such an innovative and dynamic way.” It’s notable, Zuckerman says, that the show is seeing an influx of young men who haven’t traditionally felt connected to the art world. “I think Daniel has a high level of transparency about himself,” she says. “I think he has a willingness to share his home and his studio, his practice and his approach. And I think he allows people to know him, to feel like they know him. And I think that
I NSTALLATION: YU BO DONG, OFSTU DIO.
DAN I E L AR S HAM
The artist reflected in the helmet of Bronze Eroded Astronaut (2022).
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The artist stands next to Eroded DeLorean (2018). Opposite: The exhibition includes his fully customized 1975 Porsche 911; various works of sculpture from the past two decades.
I NSTALLATION: YU BO DONG, OFSTU DIO.
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sort of openness and availability really builds a community with his fans.” Among the standouts in the OCMA show are a statue of an astronaut, his glassy gold visor reflecting a funhouse mirror version of the gallery back to the viewer, a basketball painted in Tiffany blue that pairs with a dreamy cerulean painting of a crater-covered moon. There’s a jacket made in collaboration with the musician The Weeknd, and a clock that looks as though it’s melting into its drooping backdrop. Themes emerge: time, technology, our capitalistic impulses. Arsham, now 20 years into his career, allowed the show, to a certain degree, to act much like that astronaut’s visor: to reflect back to him his own work—and surprise him. “[Heidi] drew parallels between things that I hadn’t necessarily directly connected before,” he says. “Sometimes she did it with material or color or subject.” That sense of surprise extends to the reactions to the show by allowing the work to engender a variety of feelings or
» I never felt like the art world that I studied in school, that whole universe, accepted me. It’s much more inclusive now « DAN I E L AR S HAM
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associations from the audience. “The nice thing about artwork in general is that it’s like, there’s no right answer to it,” he says. “Whatever you pulled out of it may not have been something I originally intended or was thinking about, but if somebody gets it, then that’s what’s there.” Arsham has taken his interest in turning everyday items into artifacts to its logical conclusion with Objects IV Life, his tight offering of workwear-inspired apparel. “I’m trying to do something where the clothing is actually
designed to age and patina,” he explains. “It doesn’t shy away from this idea that, no matter how hard a brand tries to create a quality product that is going to last forever, it’s going to get patinated. And so if it’s designed to capture that and actually embrace it, it’s going to look better over time.” The materials are meant to slowly change color or break down as you wear them, so the wearer participates and helps reframe an article of clothing not as a static item but as a living thing that evolves over time.
On the brand’s website, his apparel is described as being made with the “ethos of radical optimism.” I ask what, exactly, that means. “When I was thinking about approaching designing—adding to the conversation around clothing—it’s a little bit daunting,” he says. “And so, by making things that I like and that I think are going to last quite a long time, there’s an optimism that these objects are going to survive.” Speaking of survival, in many ways his big California moment can be seen as a testament to surviving the whims of a fickle art world. It’s a world, in fact, he’s apart from, but that may be that’s changing (he is represented by Paris’ blue chip gallery Perrotin). “I never felt like the art world that I studied in school, that whole universe, accepted me,” he says. “But it’s much more inclusive now. And some of those people who were bitching about me collaborating with Adidas are wearing them. It feels like they are coming around now, and it’s nice.” X
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GIORGIO ARMANI suit, $3,395, shirt, $795, and shoes, $995. JAEGERLECOULTRE watch, $9,050.
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Rooting for the Anti-Hero Feature - Cover
PH OTOG R A P H Y BY B E N W E LL E R FA S H I ON D I R E CTI ON BY JA M E S S L E A F O R D WO R D S BY R I CH A R D G OD W I N
THEO JAMES’ scene-stealing performance as a philandering finance bro in The White Lotus was a dream role for the part-time Californian— now watch him superbloom
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heo James is having a moment. If you caught the second season of The White Lotus, you will recognize him as the moral trash fire that is Cameron, a finance bro on a luxury vacation in Italy, where he hits on his friend’s wife, cheats on his own wife with prostitutes, ingests all the MDMA and Aperol spritzes he can lay his hands on—and, somehow, still manages to be rather charming. You can see why every casting director in need of big masculine energy wants James’ number— and why a million fan-made montages of his pecs are posted on social media. In the here and now, however, Theo James is having a “mare,” as they say in his native England. We were due to be conversing in the back of a Netflix-issued sedan between the C Magazine cover shoot and the set of The Gentlemen, the Guy Ritchie spinoff crime series in which James, 38, recently landed the lead role. But the car broke down. So, after some logistical back and forth, we are speaking as he pilots his own vehicle through the London traffic. “Driving and thinking, not easy,” he says. But he’s being modest. The man is unflappable, capable of negotiating a seven-way intersection while dissecting the moral-ethical implications of marriage, the sins of the one percent, and exactly what makes The White Lotus so fun to watch. “It felt like a strange synthesis of things I had longed to do but hadn’t had an opportunity to do in a while,” James says. “Cameron is a big character, both literally and
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Feature - Cover metaphorically. He’s also dark and complex, and childlike in his simplicity. Those things were interesting to me, in terms of how to bring them out with some kind of empathy.” There is a bit of Cameron in him, he explains—“especially when I’ve had a few drinks”—but the character was largely a composite of people he knew from university (including one who went on to work at Goldman Sachs) and a few characters he has met in the U.S., where he spends half his time: “People who are charming, dangerous, and also total c***s ultimately,” he says. Swearing aside, James himself proves rather respectable. He grew up in smalltown southern England, the youngest of five siblings in a happy-sounding household with many pet guinea pigs. His father was a business consultant, his mother worked for the National Health Service, and the family name is actually Taptiklis. His grandfather was a Greek doctor who initially sought refuge in Damascus, Syria, after fleeing the Nazi invasion, which explains James’ slight Mount Olympus vibe as well his work with the UN Refugee Council. James met his wife, the Irish actor Ruth Kearney, when they were postgrads at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and they’ve been together ever since, although he is “aggressively private” about his personal life, forswearing all social media and declining to name his two-year-old daughter.
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“There has been a blurring of lines between being a celebrity and being an actor,” he says. “I just always wanted it to be my job.” For the past six years, his family has divided their time between North London and Venice Beach, where they have a second home. (Kearney’s father lives up the coast in Santa Barbara.) James proves a passionate Californian, raving about Malibu Pier, Surfrider Beach, Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas, and Felix Trattoria on Abbot Kinney. The English town he grew up in, Aylesbury,
» There has been a blurring of lines between being a celebrity and being an actor. I just always wanted it to be my job « THEO JAMES
is as geographically distant from the coastline as it is possible to be in the British Isles, he explains, so he finds proximity to the ocean particularly alluring. “When you first go to Los Angeles as an actor, you often stay in a sanitized hotel and you go to a restaurant that you’ve heard you should go to, and you wonder what the appeal is,” he says. “But when you soften into it, there’s such great history and romance, and there’s something very special about the state of California, the wilderness and climate, the juxtaposition of mountains and the ocean and all those things that were so different from the places I’d grown up in.” As a lifestyle, it all sounds rather dreamy, but it is fair to say Theo James has learned to take the highs and lows as they come in his career. “As much as you think you have control,” he says, “you have to ride certain whims and waves of the industry.” Early on, he was involved in two successful British exports. In 2010 he played a Turkish diplomat who seduces Lady Mary before dying mid-coitus in the first season of Downton Abbey, and the following year he portrayed the obnoxious antagonist in the coming-of-age comedy The Inbetweeners Movie. You can already see the type being cast: handsome assholes. Meanwhile, the breaks didn’t all go to plan. James had a lead role in the 2018 adaptation of Martin Amis’ classic novel
London Fields (as did Amber Heard, with a cameo from Johnny Depp), but the project ended up mired in legal acrimony. His most commercially successful movies have had their downsides, too. Yes, he starred in the popular vampire movie Underworld: Awakening (2012) and won zillions of Teen Choice Awards for the dystopian sci-fi film Divergent (2014), but he was also contractually obligated to ride out the ever-diminishing sequels. “These are movies that are not particularly satisfying in multiple ways,” he says. “Unless studio films are made with exactitude, or with a great storyline, they end up dissolving anything interesting about the material or the theme. I kind of lost sight of what I enjoyed about it and what I was good at.” It’s notable that he bowed out of the Jane Austen drama Sanditon after a single season—much to the dismay of his fans. This role did give him the rare chance to work alongside his wife. “There was a moment [in Sanditon] I was standing next to her, preparing to shoot, and she turned to me and was like: ‘Theo, what the fuck are you doing? Why are you mumbling and muttering to yourself? You’re putting me off!’” Until then, he’d had no idea that he mumbled to himself before the call to action. These days James is philosophical about suddenly being so in demand. “When you’re young and hungry, it’s never enough,” he
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DIOR jacket, $2,800, and pants, $950. JAEGERLECOULTRE watch, $11,000. Opposite: CONNOLLY cardigan, $1,407. OLIVER SPENCER T-shirt, $120. BRUNELLO CUCINELLI pants, $1,395. OLIVER PEOPLES glasses, $424. CHURCH’S shoes, $1,350. IWC watch, $7,900.
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BOTTEGA VENETA coat, $11,000, tank top, $500, pants, $1,100, and boots, $1,900. Opposite: LOUIS VUITTON shirt, $660. Vintage cowboy hat. TAG HEUER watch, $3,100.
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Feature - Cover says. “You’re always chasing what’s around the corner. Now I just want to be part of things where I enjoy the process and being part of them. What I realize, getting a bit older, is that as long as you can enjoy what you do enough and you can provide for your family then, you know, it’s enough.” Still, The White Lotus was clearly a special thing to be involved in. The shoot at San Domenico Palace, a Four Seasons hotel in Taormina, Sicily, certainly sounds like a riot. Place a bunch of fussy actors in a luxury hotel for months on end and soon you end up with “White Lotus: Twilight Zone Edition,” he says. James also remained in character as much as he could. “Cameron is a fucking psychopath, but to play that part, I had to be him a bit. I can’t be chatting about the parking restrictions in Islington and then suddenly be telling someone to go fuck themselves as Cameron two minutes later.” He describes the character as a fun person to be. “He imbibes everything around him, whether that’s food or sex, women, everything. Culturally Americans are constantly weighted on the ball of their front foot, and the English like to just sit on our heels and observe a little bit more.” A friend recently asked James whether he thinks Cameron and his on-screen wife, Daphne (played by Meghann Fahy), have a future. Both cheat on the other, but when they are together they genuinely seem to delight in each other’s company. “I think the reality of a couple like that—and they do exist, obviously—is that they find a way,”
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» You’re always chasing what’s around the corner. Now I just want to be part of things where I enjoy the process « THEO JAMES he says. “Do we judge them if they find happiness within their relationship? Are we too beholden to social and psychosexual norms that we’ve grown up with? Should they be applauded in some way? Your initial reaction is to think: ‘Oh, this is completely fucked. They’re going to be fucked and their children, too.’ But perhaps the point of the story is to say it doesn’t matter how people construct themselves within a relationship as long as they’re happy.” The Gentlemen sounds like it’s shaping up to be similarly enjoyable. It expands on the world of Ritchie’s all-star action comedy
of 2019 (with Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, Jeremy Strong, and Hugh Grant) with all-new characters. James plays Eddie, the second son of an English aristocrat who inherits his father’s estate only to find a massive drug empire is operating there. “It’s the underworld meets British upper-class hyper wealth,” James explains. “It’s comedic, violent, and chaotic. It’s that very vintage Guy Ritchie à la Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.” As we’re talking another thought occurs to me: A certain iconic role in a long-running British spy franchise has just come vacant. “They’d never give it to me,” he shoots back. “Can you imagine? I think James Bond needs reinvention and I’m not sure it would be a reinvention with me. Already, by the end of Daniel Craig’s tenure, there were elements that were becoming a bit dated. It needs to become something completely different, and I don’t really know what that is but I don’t think it’s me.” I’m not so sure. If the producers were inclined to stop trying to reconcile James Bond with progressive values and dare to have an unlikable 007, closer to the repugnant character in the books, they could do a lot worse than to cast James. “I’d definitely want to watch that Bond. I think that’s exactly where it needs to go,” he laughs. While we’re playing fantasy casting, he says there is “zero truth” that he has been lined up to play the British singer George Michael in a forthcoming biopic. But again,
I can totally see it. For one, James sung in a band before his acting career took off. He is of Greek heritage, like George Michael. And he too changed his name to mollify Anglo-centric audiences. Early in James’ career, an agent told him Taptiklis sounded “a bit Greek.” “I didn’t know what to say at the time,” he says. “I’m kind of Greek but then I’m very British at the same time.” So he chose James, his middle name. “I kind of regret it,” he says. “At the time I quite enjoyed it because there was a delineation between the real world and the non-real world. But now, having a daughter as well, I kind of miss that connection. But people were nervous about heritage. They wanted to make it as smooth and Anglicized as possible. Whereas now people are encouraged to embrace every part of their ethnicity.” He has tried to claim more control of this history, forming his own production company, with the recent docuseries Pepsi, Where’s My Jet? among his credits. But when he finishes The Gentlemen, he wants to spend time with his family. There are decisions to be made: He and Ruth haven’t settled on whether to school their daughter in England or California. “The lifestyle would be great in California,” he says. “But I do worry about gun control in America when you have kids in schools. But then the Tory party in Britain also concerns me. I also like the idea of perhaps being in Ireland for a bit because it’s a great country and it has excellent schooling, too. So we’ll see.” X
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BRUNELLO CUCINELLI sweatshirt, $750, T-shirt, $430, and pants, $1,350. OLIVER PEOPLES glasses, $424. TAG HEUER watch, $3,100. Opposite: GUCCI jacket, $4,100, and shirt, $750. CONNOLLY pants, $365.OLIVER PEOPLES glasses, $424. TAG HEUER watch, $3,100. LAIRD HATTERS cap, $110. Grooming by NADIA ALTINBAS at The Wall Group using TOM FORD BEAUTY and ORIBE. Prop styling by JOSH STOVELL at Saint Luke Artists. Produced by NENE GRANVILLE at Industry Menu.
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Saws
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Like his spiritual guide, the late J.B. Blunk, IDO YOSHIMOTO creates furniture and art from the hulking redwoods that surround his cabin in the wilds of Inverness
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do Yoshimoto’s rustic Inverness Ridge cabin, where he lives year-round, is perhaps his greatest achievement to date. Deeply informed by the surrounding landscape and inspired by the people who shaped him from childhood, he has built a home that allows him to live in harmony with the forest that surrounds him. The artist shares the cabin with his partner and 1-year-old child. Theirs is a life intertwined with nature: In the summer months they will hike to wildflower
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meadows, swim in Tomales Bay where oyster beds are framed by organic orchards and honor-system farmstands, and fish salmon to stock the freezer. As the season shifts to fall, they will forage mushrooms. “We can lie in bed at night and pick out every species of animal we can hear. The quality of life in West Marin is rustic and simple, yet very rich,” says Yoshimoto. Yoshimoto has lived among the redwoods in Marin County’s wilds most of his life, immersed in a community of creatives and hippies striving to live artfully in sync with one another and their surroundings. After a couple of years in Philadelphia skating and taking art classes, he returned
before he turned 20, picking up work in one of the few jobs that appealed: arborist. “It was a dream to be paid to climb trees,” he recalls, noting how his intimate relationship with living trees led to working with wood. “I feel that tree work is inseparable from tree health and understanding the growth and qualities of different species.” At first Yoshimoto experimented with carving replacement handles from small pieces picked up on tree jobs. Then he began taking on larger projects, such as a rustic patchwork wood wall and karaoke room at Ramen Shop in Oakland, founded by Chez Panisse alumni.
The cabin is located across a dirt track from the former studio of iconic sculptor J.B. Blunk, who specialized in wood and clay. Yoshimoto’s father, Rick, assisted the late craftsman for decades before Blunk died in 2002. Blunk was Ido’s godfather and had a daughter the same age; the families vacationed together in Mexico and Hawaii. Years later, Yoshimoto also worked within Blunk’s studio. Like Blunk, Yoshimoto built his home by hand, weaving his art practice and way of life. In 2017, when he spotted a dilapidated cabin 100 feet from Blunk’s studio, he signed a lease. After ejecting a family of raccoons from the 500-square-foot
TH IS PAG E: I DO YOSH I MOTO. OPPOSITE: B RYSON MALON E.
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Ido Yoshimoto’s intimacy with the forest organically led to woodwork. Provenance is important: Many pieces of wood are salvaged through Marin County’s tight-knit community and wider arborist networks.
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Woodworker, sculptor, and artist Yoshimoto grew up among the redwoods in the wilds of California.
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TH IS PAG E: B RYSON MALON E. OPPOSITE: I DO YOSH I MOTO.
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Feature - Yoshimoto
» I like how everything is connected— there’s a real visual and tactile connection throughout the art and practice of living « I D O YO S H I M O T O
structure and adjoining studio, he fixed the leaks and broken windows, replaced the doors and counters, and shopped out walls and ceilings, chainsawing through timbers and peeling away decades of ad hoc additions. “It was sort of a funny moment of going straight from cutting a log to cutting my ceiling to reveal more space and light,” he recalls. Using local resources, he erected an outbuilding to use as a bedroom, along with an outdoor shower, a kitchen, and a dining area. When his longtime friends and neighbors replaced their leaky redwood water tank with polycarbonate, Yoshimoto rolled the cylindrical structure into his yard and converted it into a sauna. Cutoffs from the trunks and burls that sit as furniture pieces and artworks in his clients’ homes have found new life as shelving supports. Any scraps he can’t repurpose are burned on a woodstove (found on Craigslist) to keep the family warm through the winter. “I like how everything’s connected— there’s a real visual and tactile connection
throughout the art practice and living,” he says, adding that this time-honored approach to making a home has largely disappeared as land and labor grow more expensive and planning regulations become more restrictive. “It takes away a lot of the magic that happens when you can watch the sun track at different heights during the seasons and know where you want to put a window or sitting space. It’s hard to find opportunities to let things naturally unfold and to work intuitively.” Currently Yoshimoto’s practice is evenly divided between private commissions and sculptural art. After commissioning a 3,500-lb kitchen island, one client had to install load-bearing struts to the structure of his home to support it. Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco displays a huge piece resembling an open hand with spread root fingers, a work that juxtaposes nature and human interference, organic and geometric form.
Yoshimoto sourced the tree root from Arborica where it was brought in from the Russian River Valley, and the gallery gave him only one parameter: the piece had to fit through the door. “It’s such a beautiful, wild piece of wood that I couldn’t bear to manipulate it too much,” he says. “It was already a sculpture as it is, but adding the hand of the maker is important.” Yoshimoto’s needs are well known in Marin County. He works with the local authorities and parks to salvage the woods that are available after fire, forestry maintenance, or a force majeure. People he’s known since childhood who work at local mills will notify him if an interesting piece comes in. He occasionally gets a call from a member of the community after a tree falls on a neighbor’s property. “That’s the magic of wood,” he says. “It always shows its qualities and its nature. Eventually, no matter what you do to it, it has the power to come through at the end and have the last say.”
Although he feels intimately connected to his current home, Yoshimoto is looking to build a larger home in Inverness on a different piece of land—a tough proposition in a beautiful part of California where many landlords prioritize lucrative short-term rentals. When he does, the cabin will revert to the Nature Conservancy on which it is situated. (Much of Marin’s land is protected from development; Yoshimoto’s current studio is on Black Mountain Ranch, which spans 1,000 acres of Marin Agricultural Land Trust.) Yoshimoto says that even though the area is expensive, the way he wants to live is not: A perfect day is one spent with family and his community of friends with children, hitting the beach with some great wine and oysters. “We share the same priority of enjoying life by eating great meals, drinking wine, and getting in a beautiful thought,” he says. “If we can nail down a place to live, I’d love to live out here forever.” X
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CALIFORNIA CLASSIC
COBRA
VINTAGE
STATS
● The modified two-seater
sports car chassis was built by British automotive manufacturer AC Cars at Carroll Shelby’s request in 1961 and based on the UK maker’s existing AC Ace design. Because production on its BMW-designed Bristol 6-cylinder engine had ceased, the new body needed to fit a small-block V8—a 2.553-litre inline 6 Ford Zephyr engine.
● When the first chassis
arrived in Los Angeles from the UK, it took Shelby’s team less than eight hours to marry it with the Ford engine and transmission.
● Original modifications
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included reworking the AC Ace’s front end to accommodate rack and pinion steering, as well as a stronger rear differential that could handle a more powerful engine. Later body changes came in 1965 with the newly designated Cobra 427 Mark III, which included wider fenders and a larger opening for the radiator.
● The AC Cobra MK-III models
were produced between 1965 and 1967, with Shelby offering three packages: the Dragon Snake for drag racing, the Slalom Snake for autocross events, and the Super Snake, which added a muffler, a bumper, and a windshield to the original racing model. In 2007, a 1966 Super Snake was auctioned for $5.5 million, setting a record at the time for an American-made car.
The Shelby Cobra WO R D S BY DAV I D N A S H
modified chassis from AC Cars factory in England and a Ford V8 engine and four-speed transmission—was marketed as the Shelby Cobra when production began in 1962. Winning several GT class awards in 1964 and the International Championship for GT Manufacturers the following year, his labor of love was a success that led to the design and production of another series of four-wheeled Ford legends. In 2014, a subsidiary company introduced a limited-edition version for the car’s 50th anniversary. But for collectors, nothing beats the original. X
Shown here is the CSX2000, the first Cobra assembled in 1962. Previously owned and driven by Shelby—and widely considered the most valuable American-made car—it is now on display at the Shelby American Museum in Boulder, Colorado.
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DAR I N SCH NAB E L
I
f what you want doesn’t exist, create it. That’s what American race car driver and automobile designer Carroll Shelby did after retiring from the sport in 1960. Three years after winning the 1959 24 Hour Le Mans in France, he opened Shelby American, a high-performance vehicle manufacturer and customization company in Venice, California. The veteran driver knew the U.S. was lacking an “all-American” sports or touring car to rival the Aston Martin or Ferrari, so he endeavored to make one. The result—with its
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