VMAN54: A Day In the Life

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DELUXE DIGITAL EDITION

THE SUMMER '25 REMIX THEO JAMES

omegawatches.com

PRECISION. POWER. POISE. Set your eyes on the new Seamaster Diver 300M, with its monochromatic steel and Master Chronometer precision. A fusion of metals forged for endurance. Wear it and wear a legacy worn on some of the most daring wrists. Your next adventure won’t go unnoticed. Dive deeper, go further, and let the Seamaster lead the way.

PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHANIE GONOT

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EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief / Creative Director Stephen Gan GEN V Editor-in-Chief / Digital Director Mathias Rosenzweig Managing Editor Charlie Kolbrener Editor Kevin Ponce Savannah Sobrevilla Senior Contributing Editor Lizzy Goodman Associate Digital Editor Christian Rosa Entertainment Editor Greg Krelenstein Weibo and Chinese Editor Meng Ji Contributing Editor-at-Large Derek Blasberg Copy Editor Annie FASHION Fashion Director-at-Large Nicola Formichetti Senior Fashion Editor Anna Trevelyan Fashion Coordinator Liv Vitale Contributing Fashion Editors Davey Sutton Hunter Clem Paul Sinclaire George Cortina Patti Wilson Anastasia Barbieri Junior Art Director Clément Condat

PHOTO/ART Art Director-at-Large Tobias Holzmann Photo Director Sameet Sharma Contributing Bookings Director Goran Macura Special Projects Producer / Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief Alyson Cox

CONTRIBUTORS Alvaro Beamud Cortés Adrian Joffe Charlotte Hadden Arseny Jabiev Ian Bradley Stephanie Gonot Ryan Jenq Max Tardio Mahboubeh Absalan Penny Spiliotopoulos Stephanie Wong ADVERTISING & SPECIAL PROJECTS Eleni Gatsou Bureau (Advertising Office for France and America) Eleni Gatsou eleni@elenigatsou.com Marie-Loup Faggioli marie-loup@elenigatsou.com +33 (0)1 42 72 02 19 Mediaberna S.r.l. (Advertising Office for Italy and Switzerland) Luciano Bernardini de Pace luciano@bernardini.it Grazia Mortari mortari@bernardini.it Mariolina Siclari mariolina@bernardini.it For inquiries about foreign editions or special projects, please contact charles@vmagazine.com jared@vmagazine.com PR & EVENTS Purple PR Andrew Lister andrew.lister@purplepr.com Jocelyn Cash jocelyn.cash@purplepr.com

Remi Jiang remi.jiang@purplepr.com

Financial Office Manager Crystal McGhee

DISTRIBUTION MU Inc. David Renard david@muinc.com +1 (917) 207 6091 For inquiries about foreign editions or special projects, please contact jared@vmagazine.com charles@vmagazine.com SPECIAL THANKS Interlude Projects Elena Mereu, Elena Cimarosti The Production Factory Isabelle Kilbey, Maya Babar IMG Models Luiz Mattos, Ian Stone Home Agency Robin Pacheco, Josephine Whittaker, Christine Lavigne, Chloe Moal, Arden Napoli Viewfinders Dana Brockman, Carly Gallagher Studio Formichetti Tiffany Square Kramer + Kramer Jay Sternberg, Leslie Kramer, Marco Zarczynski Together Associates Kate Ryder, Emma Sweeny, Sia Thomas, Jon Simpson, Bertie Oakes Forward Artists Kade Russell, Jones Allison Winter Next Models Jean-Paul Quashie Heroes Jonathon Reis Soul Artist Management Andrew Castro Splashlight Taylor Hingston, Christian Breaux, Edward Wu Smashbox Studios Kennedy Shipley, Amanda Cohen, Rodney Richards Paradis Jovita Lee, Lucy Sylvester Lede Company Alex Labrie Untitled Entertainment Alex Kovacs Vision PR Leslie Sloan Mad Solutions Kareem Samy CAA Elizabeth Mitchell Premier Comms Christina Kohl DDA Global Romilly Bowlby Insight Tim Bradbeer Independent Talent Ruby Phetmanh RCPMK Anna Thackeray Muse Aidan Keogh The Wall Group Tami Fuks Werth Represents Alison Cloote Paradis Jovita Lee Interns Ha Chu, Nora Walid, Mizu Matsuura, Dylan Gue, Araceli Olaechea, Angelina Khachaturyan, Alice Almeida, AJ Grove, Amelia Murphy, Elissa Dziersk VMAN is a registered trademark of V Magazine LLC. Copyright ©2025 V Magazine LLC. All rights reserved.

Printed in the U.K. VMAN is published biannually by V Magazine LLC. All correspondence addressed to: 161 Water St (Suite 1907), New York, NY 10038 10

Prop stylist Samantha Margherita

Business Development Director Jared Sinclair Feig

ADMINISTRATION Business Manager Todd Kamelhar

Left page: Bag, chain belt, charm LOUIS VUITTON MEN’S Speedy P9 Bandoulière 25 ($9,300, available at select Louis Vuitton stores) Vuitton Chain Belt ($895, available at select Louis Vuitton stores) LV Alien Bag Charm ($960, available at select Louis Vuitton stores) Right page: Quad leather drum bag AMIRI ($2,690, available at amiri.com)

Cover 1: Theo wears knit short sleeve crochet polo, linen pinstripe trousers, braided leather belt DOLCE&GABBANA Cover 2: A$AP Nast wears nylon velvet embossed jacket, long nylon vest, polyester lace tank top, nylon shorts COMME DES GARÇONS HOMME PLUS Shoes COMME DES GARÇONS HOMME PLUS x KIDS LOVE GAITÉ T-shirt, necklaces, bracelets talent’s own Rings O’THONGTHAI, talent’s own Socks SIMONE ROCHA Cover 3: Cooper wears baby blue cotton poplin double-breasted jacket and formal short pants GUCCI Ring talent’s own Cover 4: Ahmed wears tank top, denim pants, socks DIOR MEN Santos de Cartier necklace, bracelet, watch CARTIER Cover 5: Shai wears leather Gancini trench coat, tank, trousers FERRAGAMO Earring and necklaces talent’s own Cover 6: Patrick wears Milano double breasted wool jacket and Joetsu wool pants LORO PIANA

DRUM ROLL PLEASE

14 VMAN NEWS 16 WHAT’S YOUR ROUTINE 22 DAY & NIGHT WITH A$AP NAST 24 UK’S NEW WAVE 30 THEO JAMES 38 A$AP NAST 46 COOPER KOCH 56 AHMED MALEK 64 SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER 72 PATRICK SCHWARZENEGGER 84 SPRING FORWARD 92 CATCH A WAVE 100 BOLLYWOOD’S BOY NEXT DOOR 104 WHAT VMEN WANT

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Photography STEPHANIE GONOT

Bag CELINE HOMME by Hedi Slimane Medium Voyage in multicolor textile with Triomphe embroidery ($2,950, available at Celine.com)

We can all use a bit of escapism; that’s what fashion is all about, at the end of the day. And as you know, travel is one of our favorite pastimes outside of sartorial fantasy. Anchored by the theme of “A Day in the Life,” but with a global twist, this issue takes you on a journey across the globe to capture the season’s icons. We tap into the feeling of wanderlust as we jet-set around the world to showcase the who’s who of the season.

Our cover stars A$AP Nast, Ahmed Malek, Cooper Koch, Shai GilgeousAlexander, Theo James, and Patrick Schwarzenegger are the first in the issue to give us glimpses into the exciting days of their lives in Los Angeles, Egypt, Oklahoma City, London, and New York.

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With pit stops in the U.K. to uncover a new wave of rising actors popping up on screens everywhere [such as Harry Collett to Zain Iqbal], to the Outer Banks of North Carolina as we hit the waves with pro-surfer Mason Hyce Barnes, we even managed to bring Bollywood to Manhattan as we met the ever-charming Indian actor Ishaan Khatter. Along with the recent launch of our first foreign edition VMAN Southeast Asia (which brings our editorial DNA to the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam regions), our global lens on the worlds of fashion, music, film, sports, and beyond remains unwavering with the hopes of unifying men everywhere through the power of style. MR. V

Prop stylist Samantha Margherita

E R H A IN T R B E O V O W

VMAN NEWS

2025 IS ALREADY CHOCK FULL OF NEW RELEASES, BUT WHERE SHOULD A VMAN BEGIN HIS QUEST FOR FINDING THE BEST NEW TRACKS TO REVAMP HIS PLAYLIST OR WHERE TO BOOK A RESERVATION FOR DATE NIGHT? WE BREAK DOWN SIX MUST-KNOW RELEASES TO KEEP YOU BUSY THIS SEASON TEXT PENNY SPILIOTOPOULOS

WHAT TO SEE/WATCH: TOM BLYTH & RUSSELL TOVEY’S FORBIDDEN LOVE IN PLAINCLOTHES A romantic thriller or a thrilling romance. Call it what you want, but Carmen Emmi’s directorial debut, Plainclothes, is not your boilerplate love affair. Set in 1997, the film is a frantically taut tale about identity, detailing the story of a promising undercover cop assigned to lure and arrest gay men before defying orders when he falls in love with a target. Shot in his hometown, Emmi’s directorial foray is marked by the inescapably personal experience of being a formerly closeted gay man. “I made this film so that my seven-year-old self could exhale,” Emmi says in his filmmaker’s note. “I made it for the countless people…who hold their true selves back.” Fundamentally, Plainclothes comes as a lived restoration, but also as an unflinching take on a man grappling with his sexuality at a time when being gay garnered a death sentence. It is an illustration of the ineludible complexities inherent to the emotional existence that is being human. Starring Tom Blyth as the offending officer and featuring Russell Tovey, Maria Dizzia, and Amy Forsyth, Plainclothes has made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and will be available to watch later this year.

Courtesy of Lorton Entertainment

WHAT TO EXPLORE: ENTER THE SUITE LIFE WITH NORMAN REEDUS’S PHOTO EXHIBITION AT SOHO GRAND Every New Yorker knows that within the nit and grit of downtown Manhattan lies a glut of glittering gems, you just have to look for them. Multi-hyphenate artist Norman Reedus did, and the Gallery at Soho Grand, downtown’s ritziest boutique hotel, will host an exclusive photography exhibition showcasing the doomiest and gloomiest of his finds. Titled “IN TRANSIT,” Reedus’s latest viewing operates as a sort of yearbook in the life—the life of the unconventional and the urban, each governed by a ruthlessly ephemeral beauty in continuous metamorphosis.

Using the same creative energy he brings to acting [you may recognize him as The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon], Reedus explores the intricacies of human emotion through visual art, finding grace in the unexpected and mystery in the quotidian. His distinctively dark aesthetic transforms candid moments into portraits of character and grit, demonstrating how even the overlooked and abandoned possess an inescapably raw energy. Following solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Barcelona, Paris, and Los Angeles, Reedus’s latest show is a must-see.

And, if you love New York City, in all her decadence and debauchery, you will.

“IN TRANSIT” will be showing at the Gallery at Soho Grand from January 29 to May 18.

Courtesy of Norman Reedus / Soho Grand

WHERE TO EAT: LE CAFÉ LOUIS VUITTON CALLS ALL FASHION FOODIES WITH FIRST U.S. RESTAURANT

Courtesy of Le Café Louis Vuitton 14

Forget your mother’s cooking, and let Louis Vuitton wine and dine you. The fourth floor of their new East 57th Street store is now home to Le Café Louis Vuitton, and, from what we’ve heard, caviar and Comté abound. The latest culinary endeavor of the French maison is grounded in familiar influences and French flavors with a distinctly New York twist. The menu, crafted by French chefs Arnaud Donckele and Maxime Frédéric, is rooted in lavish little bites, and the celebrated duo, who also opened a restaurant at Louis Vuitton in SaintTropez, has placed local talents Christophe Bellanca and Marie George at the helm of the café. Luxury snacking comes in the form of steamed scallop soufflé, decadently topped with caviar and champagne beurre blanc, and a dessert selection of reinterpreted French classics—hazelnut gâteaux and LV Monogram embossed pear tarts. We must remind you, however, that it’s not just about the food. Flanked with wall-to-wall books, a collection of 600 titles curated by editor Ian Luna, the café-library hybrid space encourages meaningful conversation. In the midst of dinner, designer and decadence, what better place to ponder Sontag’s On Photography or Warhol’s deluded aesthetic?

News

WHAT TO SMELL: FRAGRANCE PHENOM FRANCIS KURKDJIAN’S LATEST SCENT REMIX, DIOR HOMME PARFUM Francis Kurkdjian’s reinvention of an olfactory classic is a return to Dior’s structured aesthetic. Built around an overdose of the Iris Pallida [quite literally doubled in composition], the latest Dior Homme Parfum effectively harnesses the bold sensuality of a floral body with the fiery spirit of amber and woody accords. Fit for the devilishly handsome VMAN, the fragrance is accented by an addictive blend of the Iris’s dual facets: tender as the flower and powerful as the roots. It’s alluring, it’s magnetic, and it’s oh, so beguiling. Kurkdjian’s pills and potions have forged a perfumed paradox—a concealed femininity married to a tactile masculine allure. Powerful vetiver and coumarin with hints of freshly cut hay lend the scent a strength integral to its inherent sensuality, and the overdose of soft petals and roots ally masculine rigor with notes of gourmand amber warmth. A play on power and tenderness, the power in tenderness, the latest Dior Homme Parfum rendition is a clever lesson in seduction, so pay attention.

Courtesy of Dior Beauty

WHAT TO LISTEN TO: BELGIAN-EGYPTIAN MUSICIAN TAMINO BEARS HIS SOUL IN EVERY DAWN’S A MOUNTAIN The indie rock singer, Tamino’s, upcoming album, Every Dawn’s a Mountain, is a hypnotic 10-track testimonial to the new beginnings buried in every end. Harnessing a melodic discourse fueled by an ever-growing fire of change, each song builds on the value of impermanence infiltrating each and every one of us. Having headlined arenas in Europe and the Middle East, Tamino has retained a strong link to his Arab lineage, and the album’s musical arrangements are intensified by the strings of the Arabic oud. His newest single, “Babylon,” is a six-minute epic and cornerstone of the album, and the fifth track, “Sanctuary,” featuring Mitski, is a testament to the embers of emotional wreckage that spur the dawn of a new birth. Tamino’s voice smolders and erupts, deep and sultry tones evolving into flickering falsettos. Loss and displacement are counteracted by creation and impassioned genesis.

Through Every Dawn’s a Mountain, Tamino constructs a metaphysical altar to human brevity. He reminds us, “The faster the flame burns, the harder it is to catch.”

Every Dawn’s a Mountain will be released on March 21st.

Photography Nick Ventura

WHAT TO READ: THE ASSOULINE BOOK RELEASES YOUR COFFEE TABLE NEEDS

© Sirtravelalot/Shutterstock

Poster illustration by Renato Casaro; OCTOPUSSY © 1983 Danjaa, LLC and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A coffee table of banality is unholy. We beg of you, please don’t sin. Here are two of Assouline’s must-haves for the spring. For the stylistically proficient, James Bond Style is a fledgling charmer’s must-have. An exploration of the fashion behind all 25 Bond movies (in chronological order of principal Bond, from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig), each chapter captures the most iconic looks from the franchise. From 007’s sharpest suits—33 bespoke Tom Ford suits were made for No Time to Die in record time—to each bombshell’s glamorous gown—in Quantum of Solace, Prada fabricated 20 dresses for Olga Kurylenko from brand-new to ruined—an amalgamation of never before seen sketches, analyses and behind-the-scenes insights produce a comprehensive chronicle of the films’ sartorial codes. Onto the cosmopolitan canine—man’s best friend.

And Winston Churchill’s. And Maria Callas’s. And Coco Chanel’s. We won’t go on, but Chic Dogs will. And it does, in the sharpest way possible. Recognizing dogs as an inextricable part of our cultural fabric going back centuries, the visually compelling anthology features some of the most singularly famous relationships between iconic figures and their four-legged friends. The distinguished dog, that emblem of sophistication and style—Louis Vuitton dedicated an entire collection to one—is now placed at the forefront of an aesthetic dialogue, and who doesn’t love a little canine cultism?

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WHAT’S YOUR ROUTINE? ?

A BETTER VERSION OF YOURSELF IS ALL WITHIN REACH, AND IT STARTS WITH A PROPER INVESTMENT IN YOUR MORNING ROUTINE. WHETHER PUMPING IRON AT THE CRACK OF DAWN OR CREATING A CLEAN SLATE WITH A FRESH SHAVE, PREPARE FOR A SUCCESSFUL DAY WITH THE SEASON’S ULTIMATE ESSENTIALS

PHOTOGRAPHY ARSENY JABIEV FASHION IAN BRADLEY 16

VMAN Trends & Grooming

6:03 AM POLISH UP

Brandon wears Ecrou de Cartier bracelet and Love single stud earring CARTIER Nose ring model’s own Gabriel wears Triomphe de Lys Medal necklace CELINE HOMME by Hedi Slimane Ring model’s own Niyo wears viscose boxer shorts SAINT LAURENT by Anthony Vaccarello In mouth AGENT NATEUR Hand-Crafted Italian Toothbrush 17

VMAN Trends & Grooming

In 1953, Salvador Dalí boasted: “Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí.” Andy Warhol spent 11 years beginning every day with a lengthy phone call to friend Pat Hackett, recounting the activities of the previous day. Benjamin Franklin opined: “I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.” Today, the VMAN morning is a two-pronged approach to the day ahead: one part pragmatism, one part aesthetic. An early rise grants ample time to get started on a routine preempting a busy day.

6:12 AM GET FRESH & FINE

Gabriel wears Photochromatic Quincy sunglasses TOM FORD Pure cotton towel RALPH LAUREN HOME POLO

6:36 AM BUCKLE UP 6:35 AM KEEP IT BRIEF

Gray wears loose-fit jeans VERSACE Calfskin belt RALPH LAUREN PURPLE LABEL 18

Niyo wears gothic zip-up hoodie and jogger low lace-up sneakers CELINE HOMME by Hedi Slimane Briefs RON DORFF Socks FALKE

VMAN Trends & Grooming

6:25 AM PATCH IT UP

Gray wears sweater BOTTEGA VENETA Brandon wears cashmere, silk and linen sweater RALPH LAUREN PURPLE LABEL Nose ring and earring model’s own On eyes CHANEL BEAUTY Le Lift Firming Anti-Wrinkle Flash Eye Revitalizer 19

6:53 AM PUMP IT UP

Gray wears Flocked Damier technical tracksuit top and track pants LOUIS VUITTON MEN’S B.zero1 18kt white gold pendant necklace BVLGARI Earrings MANSAI

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Makeup Christyna Kay (Muse) Using Chanel Hair Sergio Estrada (Paradis) using Bumble & Bumble Set design Rae Godin Casting director Shawn Dezan Retouching Colorworkz Models Gray Eberly (Soul Artist MGMT), Brandon Lee (Heroes), Niyo Malik (IMG), Gabriel Robles (NEXT) 1st Photo assistant Kyle Thompson 2nd Photo assistant Colin Elliot Stylist assistant David Jolly, Bailey Militar Prop stylist Assistant Natalia Geldres

VMAN Trends & Grooming

VMAN Trends & Grooming

7:31 AM BREAK A SWEAT

7:15AM GET A GRIP

Cut watch and white cotton batiste tank HERMÈS

7:47 AM DOUBLE THE GAINS

Gray wears silk poplin Harrington jacket BURBERRY Freshen pants HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE Gabriel wears leather zipper hoodie and trousers PRADA

Brandon wears taffeta blouson, taffeta drawstring trouser, low cut sneaker FERRAGAMO

The basics of every good morning should consist of the same action items: wake up early (ideally before the crack of dawn—have to beat the sunrise).

Scrub those pearly whites and collect your belongings. It’s time to hit the gym, time to break a sweat.

And like any activity: the more the merrier. Go recruit a friend and do your pull-ups, sweat a little, kick a soccer ball, sweat some more, one final stretch, and exhale. Finished. After that, you’re staring down the last hour before you head off to work. Spend some time experimenting with outfits—maybe try on some Tom Ford shades. Take a bath (friends optional). Put your Versace jeans back on, zip up your Ferragamo hoodie. Now it’s 8:00 AM. Beauty sleep? Check.

Beauty routine? Check. Beautiful day? Pending, but likely. CHARLIE KOLBRENER 21

PHOTOGRAPHY RYAN JENQ FASHION A$AP NAST 22

From top to bottom, left to right: Taekwondo shoes ADIDAS Safety pin necklace MIKIMOTO COMME DES GARÇONS Soccer ball bag LOUIS VUITTON MEN’S Stainless steel bottle Y-3 Panthère de Cartier watch in yellow gold CARTIER

Prop stylist Louisa Fulkerson

DAY & NIGHT WITH A$AP NAST

WHAT DOES ONE OF THE MOST STYLISH MEN IN MUSIC NEED TO GET THROUGH THE DAY? A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING FROM GOLD-GILDED LIGHTERS TO EYE-CATCHING KICKS

Guest Editor

From top to bottom, left to right: Buckle nappa leather bag with belt PRADA COMME DES GARÇONS Concrete Parfum AirPods Max with USB-C charging in orange APPLE Classic 6-inch boots TIMBERLAND Double C de Cartier Logo Square Lighter in yellow gold finish CARTIER Ring O’THONGTHAI

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Harry wears sweater, pants, socks VALENTINO Necklace, belt, Ballerinas VALENTINO GARAVANI

U.K.’S NEW WAVE

PHOTOGRAPHY CHARLOTTE HADDEN FASHION DAVEY SUTTON INTERVIEWS KEVIN PONCE

THERE’S A NEW CROP OF HOMEGROWN TALENT ACROSS THE POND WHO ARE QUICKLY BECOMING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADING MEN. HERE, VMAN GETS TO KNOW FIVE ACTORS WHO ARE READY TO RISE TO SUPERSTARDOM 24

VMEN

HARRY COLLETT THE BREAKOUT STAR READY TO TAKE THE THRONE If you’ve seen the Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon, you’re familiar with Harry Collett: the eye-catching prince of the show’s leading royal family in their utopian world of Westeros. The young actor [who auditioned when he was 16] has seemingly nabbed the role of a lifetime—a dragon rider and heir to the complicated throne in the series watched by millions since its debut in 2022—but don’t blame it on luck.

“I had no idea what I was auditioning for. My character was called Jack for ‘Untitled HBO Series’, which I now find quite funny,” explains Collett.

“I was going into the audition and I saw the sheet of all the other guys.

They were all strong and tall. I thought I had no chance to play a prince, which didn’t help the nerves. There were about 100 people in a room, [and] my audition went terribly. I kept forgetting my lines because I was so nervous. I felt like I definitely wouldn’t get the role. But to my surprise, I did. And I couldn’t be happier.”

Before tapping into the show’s fantastical universe, Harry built his craft in the West End theatre scene of London. “I have been doing

theatre since I was very young, and every night I had so much fun,” he explains. “The feeling you get while doing theatre and TV/film are completely different. In theatre, you feel this rush of adrenaline and have the freedom to do it differently every night. It also feels amazing to get that cheer at the end. If anyone could bottle up that feeling, they would be a billionaire. It was never really a plan to move to television and film, it just sort of happened organically, and I’m so happy it happened that way.” Now at age 21, Collett celebrated his birthday on the set of his VMen shoot, and he’s looking ahead with confidence on his path in acting. “I have learned so much on my journey of life but being in [House of the Dragon] is teaching me so much. This year, I want to try out a whole range of new roles. I want to do so many different personalities and even different genres of film/TV. I am also not ruling out a play either.”

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW

Harry wears lurex leopard Dyllan jacket, fluid lurex bow collar shirt, soft smooth leather Ovoid belt with eyelets, lurex basket weave Dyllan trouser TOM FORD 25

VMEN

Francis wears wool knit and gabardine tweed trousers PRADA

FRANCIS LOVEHALL THE NEWCOMER SOON TO BE A HEAVY HITTER The world of acting is one that calls out to many at a young age. Yet for Francis Lovehall, the acting bug didn’t catch him until he became a newfound adult, destined to find a different path that spoke to him.

“I didn’t see myself as an actor or filmmaker. I was a footballer in my mind, and that’s what I wholeheartedly pursued until the age of 18 when, I finally went pro and realized it wasn’t my dream at all. It’s funny how far we go to pursue the dreams of the people we look up to,” he explains on his decision to make the change. “I remember thinking ‘Everyone’s going to think I failed, I gave up.’ I just didn’t want to do that for my life anymore.”

With a shift in gear, Lovehall went on to study at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and even made his professional debut in Nicholas Hytner’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridge theater. “My training was so intense and varied that I honestly felt very equipped to deal with anything thrown at me,” he notes. “Maybe too equipped–it made me hungry! Looking back, it was my time to learn and observe. I had to rightfully know how to follow before I could lead, 26

and that was my lesson learned.” With his studies in acting preparing him for what’s to come, Lovehall quickly nabbed the role of Reggie in Steve McQueen’s film Lover’s Rock for his on-screen debut. “Being from Jamaica, I just didn’t think I’d get the opportunity so soon to play a role like that; it was important for me. Not just as a piece of work that will now forever be a part of an incredible cannon of Black stories, but as a means to start how I intend to go on,” he explains. “Telling stories about real people, real experiences, without compromising the narrative.”

With this notion guiding him, Lovehall’s latest role in Steven Knight’s new series A Thousand Blows for Disney+ promises to evolve his approach to authentic storytelling. “I was mostly inspired reading a story centered around two Black men who weren’t going through some version of physical or psychological abuse. These were men simply trying to pursue their dreams like every human being is. I’m drawn to brave storytelling.”

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW

VMEN

Lewis wears embroidered B crest cotton canvas jacket and polo BURBERRY

LEWIS GRIBBEN THE SCOTTISH HORROR STAR WHO ISN’T SLOWING DOWN For any kid growing up, playing pretend fuels unbounded imagination— especially for those who are destined to become actors. “My passion [for acting] came from being a very imaginative child. I used to play pretend soldiers and cowboys and talk with imaginary friends in funny accents,” explains Lewis Gribben. “I guess my mum saw something in me because she took me to youth theatre acting classes, and that’s where it really grew.” Nabbing his first-ever role in the Ewan McGregor-lead T2 Trainspotting film, Gribben went on to secure a bounty of projects from the Deadwater Fell mini-series to leading the black-comedy film Get Duked!, but it wasn’t until the release of the drama series Somewhere Boy that things really picked up for him. “Winning the BAFTA was a huge honor and highlight of my acting journey so far. I was passionate about the project as it, rather unintentionally, kind of paralleled my life and my experiences,” he explains. “For Somewhere Boy, I brought a lot of my own feelings, emotions, and vulnerabilities to the role, which I would like to visit again soon.”

Since then, Gribben has been notably spotted in horror and crimedriven projects such as The Damned or Generation Z, and the upcoming

film, The Severed Sun, which have brought the Scottish star to new levels.

“It’s always fun to be a part of a fictionalized version of the world–and not with actual crimes,” notes Gribben. “With thriller and horrors, I like the fantasy, creepy and suspenseful aspects, and in particular the subgenres. I like being a part of things that feel sort of uniquely unhinged, and where you don’t feel quite right watching them but can’t immediately figure out why.” This season, fans can expect to see more unhinged moments from Lewis with his upcoming part in the iconic anthology Netflix series Black Mirror, ahead of his leading role in the highlyanticipated Blade Runner 2099 series, playing opposite Hunter Schafer and Michelle Yeoh. “I thought Black Mirror would be the pinnacle of what I would get to do, so when the opportunity for Blade Runner 2099 came through, I was blown away. It’s been a giant, whirlwind experience. It’s definitely the biggest scale thing I have been on.”

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW

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VMEN

JOSH FINAN THE THEATER KID ENTERING THE WORLD OF SCI-FI For many actors, the journey of going from performing on a theater stage to performing on a television series set can be quite the shift, but for Josh Finan, it’s been welcomed with wide open arms. ”I think a nice mix of theatre, film, and TV keeps me ticking creatively,” explains Finan.

“Admittedly, I felt more comfortable on stage when I first left drama school, but parts in TV shows like The Responder and Say Nothing were too good to say no to!” The latter of the two has generated quite some buzz, due to its depiction of the four generations of The Troubles [a Northern Ireland conflict regarding ethnonationalism] and for his portrayal as Irish republican politician, Gerry Adams. “Whilst I was prepping my audition, I didn’t feel any pressure at all really. It was a welcome challenge and I enjoyed channeling my energies into a fulfilling character in a well-written script.”

“After getting the offer was a different story!” he notes, elaborating on the complexities of portraying an actual person. “Faced with actually having to do the job, I did feel a pressure to do it ‘right’. However, I learned that if you ask five different people their opinion of Gerry Adams, you’ll 28

get five different answers. This was incredibly liberating, as it meant I had license to really play on set and not feel boxed into a specific interpretation or outcome. Feeling like I passed the test alongside my excellent fellow actors was a real boost too.”

Building off of the momentum that the Hulu limited series has brought, the actor is now gearing up for the release of his appearance in the beloved sci-fi series, Black Mirror. “I love Black Mirror! I’ve watched it from the start. They’re very understandably protective around potential spoilers so I didn’t know much about it when I taped, but it more than surpassed my expectations.” And even though the show’s material is technically a new challenge for his built-up craft, Finan assures that his episode in the anthology show isn’t too far off of where he hopes to take his acting. “Funnily enough, I was actually brought back into my comfort zone on Black Mirror. I won’t give too much away though.”

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW

Grooming Olivia Cochrane (Werth Represents) using Dior Forever Foundation Videographer Matthew Labudda Production The Production Factory Retouching Hempstead May 1st Photo assistant Michael Hani Fashion assistant Vini Chenoweth-Bell Grooming assistant Berivan Er Casting Kevin Ponce

Josh wears crystal Aran knit sweater, oversized paper bag trousers, belt, brogue Chelsea boots MCQUEEN

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Zain wears denim cape, cotton shirt, silk bow tie, woven wool trousers JUNYA WATANABE MAN

ZAIN IQBAL THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK IS JUST GETTING STARTED In any new show, there’s always a breakout star that catches your attention due to their good looks and good performance. Luckily for YA audiences around the world, Zain Iqbal delivered both with his leading role in the hit Netflix series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. In the thriller mystery series, a student named Pippa investigates the killing of a schoolgirl whose boyfriend was the lead suspect in her murder, with Zain playing the role of Ravi: the brother of the suspect who is determined to prove his sibling’s innocence. “Ravi is quite cool-headed and relaxed. At the same time, he’s switched on when it comes to helping Pip with the investigation,” he explains. “What surprised me was his willingness to support Pip, no matter how crazy her plans get. He’s always got her back and has his full trust in her. I guess that shows the great dynamic they have in their relationship.”

With his character, Zain’s acting skills come into full focus, as the hit series is technically his first official acting role—an accomplishment done with much precaution and elation on Zain’s end. “[On the first day of filming] I was both nervous and excited. There was so much going on

that I was sort of lost in it and didn’t really think about it too much,” he reveals. “I just got on with it and absorbed everything around me.” With one leading role under his belt, those closest to him know that his segue into acting was kismet, given his fascination with films such as The Godfather growing up. “Through film I became really interested in performance, making characters, and stepping into someone else’s shoes. The more I started doing it, the more I enjoyed it,” he explains.

“I’ve realized that I’ve been acting all my life, code-switching depending on who I’m speaking to and my environment. I get satisfaction from acting, it’s therapeutic for me.” With season two heading into production this season, the actor is excited to get back into the “PipRavi” universe and explore what else is out there. “I love their relationship and the scenes are so fun to shoot. I’d [also] like to work on projects that I would go and see myself, [and] see what’s out there in the U.S. too.”

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW 29

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PHOTOGRAPHY ALVARO BEAMUD CORTÉS FASHION DAVEY SUTTON INTERVIEW MATHIAS ROSENZWEIG

JAMES

OVER THE YEARS, HE’S BECOME A DOWNRIGHT MOVIE STAR. NOW, THE ACTOR MUST BALANCE HOLLYWOOD’S GRANDIOSITY WITH THE QUIET MINUTIAE OF FAMILY LIFE 30

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“I remember doing plays at university and thinking, this is incredibly satisfying. If there’s any way for someone to do this as a job, they’d be pretty lucky.” —Theo James

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In his upcoming feature FUZE, Theo James filmed 30-minute takes attempting to break through concrete.

“David Mackenzie, the director, had us learn to use the equipment— sledgehammers, concrete cutters, metal cutters—and then filmed us doing it,” he says over the phone from his home in North London. He, his wife (Irish actress Ruth Kearney), and their two children arrived a few days earlier after leaving Los Angeles, California due to the wildfires.

“The process felt real because we were sweating and just covered in dirt and dust.”

For an actor, breaking through a metal wall in a bank’s basement to reach the riches inside serves as a concrete metaphor—pun intended.

To “make it big” is a nearly impossible task. Yet if you do, you live the life of a TV and movie star, as James—now 40 years old—does. He famously starred in season 2 of HBO’s The White Lotus, a role for which he received a Primetime Emmy Nomination, as well as Netflix’s The Gentlemen, in which James plays an aristocrat who inherits his family’s estate, only to learn that it’s tied to an enormous and dangerous weed empire. That said, his foray into acting wasn’t launched by such lofty ambitions.

“In all honesty, as a teenager, the acting world was the best place to chat with girls,” he says of his humble beginnings doing plays at summer camp. But he developed a passion for performing that went beyond flirting with the ladies, eventually realizing that it just might be his calling. “I remember doing plays at university and thinking, ‘This is incredibly satisfying,’” he says. “If there’s any way for someone to do this as a job, they’d be pretty lucky.”

There was, however, a time during which James focused on music more heavily than he did acting, testing out an alternative reality in which we’d know him through the sound of his voice (which is deep, gentle, and British) rather than his face.

“My fantasy was, naively, to be in a band,” he says—and he was in several. Although, of course, the music world is just as difficult to break into as the aforementioned cement wall. “In all honesty, I think I tried to the point where, perhaps, if it was going to happen, it would have happened,” he says. “But what I loved about it—and this is also what I like about theater—is that once you’re in front of people, once you’re live, you have complete control of the medium. With a play, of course, you do rehearsals and you’re reading someone else’s words. But with music, it’s your own words. Once you’re on stage, the choices are yours.”

Having attended the Bristol Old Vic Theater School in England, there was indeed a time when theater was more prominent in James’ life. “It was great for Shakespeare and Jacobean plays, but it wasn’t good for screenwork. You didn’t really get any experience in that world,” he says.

The shift, then, to TV and movies was a pragmatic one—he realized it was the fastest path toward paying off five years of student debt. Of course, the pivot was easier said than done.

“My brother is a huge cinephile, so we were always watching films and making bad ones ourselves as kids,” he recalls, having relied on some of these early memories to find his footing on screen. “I got an agent and started auditioning, but I remember my first television audition. It was a steep learning curve. I was shouting in the face of the casting directors as if it were a stage performance. They were…perturbed, shall we say.”

And it didn’t necessarily get easier right away. “You have the ups and downs of a career,” James says. “As young actors, when we first start out, it’s a bit feast-or-famine, and sometimes you take that personally.”

During this early audition process in particular, struggling actors learn to eat rejection for breakfast. It is, for most, far more of the famine than the feast. “I remember an old interview with Bryan Cranston, where he essentially said, look, you’re selling a product,” he says. “If they don’t want to buy it, that’s okay. I thought it was interesting advice because young actors take these wins and losses very personally, but it’s not personal. Producing taught me that even more—it’s almost never personal. It’s about finding the right piece for the puzzle.”

He’s referring, amongst other projects, to his role producing Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?, a documentary about a college student’s battle against Pepsi after they refused to honor their ad’s promise of a Harrier jet in

exchange for promotional points. It was James’ first foray into producing, but it won’t be his last.

“Producing has been one of the most important and helpful things I’ve done for my work as an actor,” he says. “You understand the process behind the scenes. It’s invaluable because it gives you experience navigating tricky situations—complex shoots, complex personalities. And going back to auditions and failure, you realize it’s not personal.”

Once this issue hits newsstands, James will be back on the big screen starring in Stephen King’s The Monkey, which the actor describes as, “a super dark, super violent comedy.” He’ll play the role of two twin brothers, Bill and Hal, who discover their father’s toy monkey in an attic, eliciting the start of a series of deaths. “It’s an allegory for trauma and pain, in a way,” he explains. “The monkey on your back—the idea of this trauma following you through life.”

James’ day-to-day life, however, is much quieter, with shockingly little evidence of haunted animal toys or gruesome, blood-curdling deaths.

Typically, he wakes up at 6:45 AM, takes his children to school, enjoys a coffee with his wife at their favorite local spot, Jolene, heads to the London Fight Factory for some boxing, and then hunkers down for a series of Zoom meetings before picking the kids up, arranging dinner, putting the kids to bed, and perhaps opening a bottle of wine.

“So…not too sexy,” he jokes.

Perhaps not, but it is real—a quality James still holds onto. He is, after all, just a man, even if he occasionally robs banks, fights cannabis drug lords, or fights against demonic toy monkeys, and all in time to pick the kiddos up from school.

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“My fantasy was, naively, to be in a band [...] What I loved about it—and this is also what I like about theater—is that once you’re in front of people, once you’re live, you have complete control of the medium. With a play, of course, you do rehearsals and you’re reading someone else’s words. But with music, it’s your own words. Once you’re on stage, the choices are yours.” —Theo James

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Production The Production Factory Retouching Camillo Bernardi Studio

1st Photo assistant Simone Triacca

2nd Photo assistant Oran Eggerton

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PHOTOGRAPHY ALVARO BEAMUD CORTÉS FASHION ANNA TREVELYAN INTERVIEW ADRIAN JOFFE

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THE MUSICIAN JOINS FORCES WITH FASHION RETAIL LEGEND ADRIAN JOFFE FOR AN HONEST CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW HE’S MAKING HIS DREAMS COME TRUE—ONE COMME DES GARÇONS PIECE AND ALBUM AT A TIME 38

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On any given night in Paris—situated between the Arc de Triomphe and Place Vendôme—pop culture’s MVPs clink glasses at Le Bristol. The hotel has been a meeting point for everyone from Charlie Chaplin to US Presidents, but on this particular evening, the venue hosts one of fashion’s elite curators and one of music’s most enigmatic names. Over dinner at the mutually favored spot in the city of lights, a conversation about design, community, and just about everything in-between unfurls between Adrian Joffe—president of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market—and A$AP Nast on the evening of the Harlem-born rapper’s album cover shoot. Few names in hip-hop are as inextricably linked to high fashion as Nast and the iconic members of New York’s A$AP Mob—who arguably elevated rap style to its throne within contemporary menswear. Although nearly four decades separate the two men, it’s their mutual passion for style [and a much-adored copy of the Visionaire 20: Comme des Garçons issue] that proves how an unwavering spirit for bringing art to the masses can bond just about anyone in the name of fashion. KEVIN PONCE ADRIAN JOFFE: Tell us about your day today.

A$AP NAST: My day today was just legendary, one for the books for me and my career in general, considering I’ve been in the industry for so long now. I think that people have yet to really be able to get to know me and what this album is. I feel like people got a little glimpse of it, but now this is the full package. You get everything: the music, the styling, the taste, everything that comes into that. I shot my album cover with Paolo Roversi, which is iconic for me, considering I come from the Comme umbrella. Seeing the work that you guys have done together has always been super inspiring for me. And I always view myself in front of the camera by the people who helped you bring your visions to the forefront, into the light. Today was extremely special and emotional because I would never in a million years think that this would happen. People dream big all the time, but that doesn’t mean dreams come true for everyone.

Today, my dream came true, and that’s wonderful.

AJ: Why is the album suddenly coming out now? Because you’ve been making music for a long time.

AN: I don’t know. One day I just woke up and I felt like something was missing in my life. I’m doing all these great things and working in fashion, and I kind of feel that I made my mark in the fashion world around me, and I’m like, ‘Okay, what else? What am I missing that I’m not doing? Oh, the music.’ I forgot I was a musician for a second, just living life and doing things my way. I woke up one day and I was just like, ‘I need to put an album out.’ I need to make a solid body of work and give it to the fans and for myself, most importantly. Because I love music; I love rap. It’s a major aspect of my life that isn’t that right now. So many people love me for it. And I feel like I’m depriving not only myself; I’m depriving the fans of what they want and what they need. Every day I’m in the street; I’m in Dover Street, and people are like, ‘Yo, what’s up? We’re happy to have you here, but where’s the album?’ And I’m like, ‘Ah, yeah, you’re right. Cat got my tongue there.’

AJ: So can you say how high fashion and style inform the music? Is it two separate things completely or no?

AN: No, absolutely not. I think the music and fashion always kind of went hand in hand. Now more than ever, because to be an artist these days you’ve got to be the full package. The kids are like, ‘Oh great, you sound great. But what do you look like?’ They love that vibe, that story that’s like, ‘I’m a musician, but I have this great fashion story that goes along with the music.’

AJ: From Junya Watanabe and Comme, I’ve seen you wearing all the other brands. I’ve seen you wearing Play, I’ve seen you wearing BLACK. Do you think it’s a good idea to have all of those brands?

AN: Yeah, absolutely. Because there’s something for everyone within Comme. People always ask me why I like Comme. Because there’s literally something for everyone. There’s pieces that’re—all right—that’s a bit too wild. But that one wild piece, that might be the piece that someone’s been looking for their entire life, and you guys have it there.

And then you have the piece for me, and you have the piece for everyone else. Having multiple brands within the brand is genius. There’s no

designer like Rei [Kawakubo]. You can’t meet another designer that has made so many other successful designers under her umbrella. If you’re not a Junya guy, do you like Sacai, what do you like? We have everyone here. That’s what makes Comme my all time favorite. If all of the other brands got erased from the face of the planet and [yet] Comme and Rei and you guys exist, I’ll be perfectly fine. I’m good.

AJ: How did a guy from West Harlem get into it? Where did you first see it?

AN: I think just seeing it around, that’s just kind of how we were. We were really young. But our eyes were really open. We would do a lot of research on the brands that we love, and we knew the stories behind them, where they came from, what the heritage of Comme [was] and all of the brands that we were into.

AJ: What about the music? Were you doing it at the same time?

AN: Of course, it was all hand in hand for us. It was just like, ‘Yo, if we’re going to make this music, we got to look good. We got to look the part, or we got to look a certain way.’ And it was only us as a collective, the whole A$AP [mob]. We were competitive amongst each other. We would battle amongst each other. When I see Rocky, I’m like, ‘Oh, okay. So is that what you did today?’ And now when I come out, I gotta make sure my outfit’s better than yours. We just kept that kind of competitiveness sealed off from the outside world. That’s how we became A$AP, and that’s how we ended up on top of fashion and shit. You know, bigging up guys like Raf [Simons] and Rick [Owens] and all these guys. Like we totally feel responsible for a lot of this. And we are. You can literally go back in time, and the proof is always in the pudding, if you really want to know the truth, for anyone who has doubts on that. But we took a lot of bullets for what’s happening in the music industry and the fashion world and the mix as it is today. We feel very proud. Everywhere you look, A$AP is there somewhere. We’ve done so much for this industry.

AJ: Do you think what you do is for everybody? Or like Comme des Garçons, just the people who know and understand it? Do you want to appeal to the whole world?

AN: I personally don’t care to appeal, I’m not trying to appeal. I’m into what I’m into, and I like what I like. Most people don’t understand Comme.

Maybe this is supposed to be this world for these kinds of people.

Whatever world is cool for you over there, that’s fine. But I’m not into that world. This is my world. And then VMAN is just extremely iconic to me because these are magazines that I grew up flicking through pages of. The idea of being on the cover of VMAN was just surreal to me. I’m extremely grateful, what can I say? I’m just excited for everything that we’re working on right now. The album being done and working with Comme and all the great things that we’re doing right now, that’s what I’m excited for in the near future. And I hope everyone else is excited as we are, and I hope they understand it. And if they don’t, fuck ‘em.

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW.

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“I woke up one day and I was just like, ‘I need to put an album out.’

I need to make a solid body of work and give it to the fans and for myself, most importantly.” —A$AP Nast

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2nd Photo assistant Oran Eggerton

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KOCH

THE NAME THAT HAS EVERYONE IN HOLLYWOOD BUZZING, THANKS IN PART TO HIS ROLE IN RYAN MURPHY’S LATEST BINGE-WORTHY SEASON OF MONSTERS, DETAILS HIS TRAJECTORY FROM ICE CREAM SCOOPER TO LEADING MAN 46

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“Being at home helps to balance [my] energy out. I can be normal and that feels nice. I’m not that person that needs to go to the premieres of the movies that are coming out to be seen. I’d rather be at home with my partner watching Legend of Korra.”

—Cooper Koch

“The Hurt Man,” the fifth episode of Ryan Murphy’s latest tour de force, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, has been widely received as one of the most striking in recent television history. In it, Erik Menendez, played by Cooper Koch, tells his lawyer Leslie Abramson [Ari Graynor] the harrowing, heartbreaking, and disturbingly riveting story of the extreme sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. The episode was shot in one take, and the camera is on Koch for all 35 minutes; we never see Graynor’s face. The actors involved have called it—appropriately—a mini-play, the kind of thing you dream about tackling at some point in a long and varied career. For 28-year-old Koch, who was teaching yoga and scooping ice cream in his native Los Angeles when he was cast in Monsters, carrying this episode—and stepping into this co-leading role in a massive flagship series—was a huge moment, but it was also one he was ready for. VMAN sat down with Koch over a video call and—as he had his hair and makeup done—discussed how he’s handling his success, his plans for the future, and how his homebody tendencies are helping him build the kind of career that really lasts.

LIZZY GOODMAN: Almost exactly a year ago you started shooting Monsters. Quite a lot has changed since then.

COOPER KOCH: Yeah, my whole life has changed. I was living in a small apartment in Silverlake. I was teaching yoga, scooping ice cream, doing e-commerce modeling jobs, and auditioning.

LG: I’m assuming you’ve stopped scooping ice cream?

CK: I have! But I did love working at Salt & Straw—it filled me with such joy. I feel like that job, in a way, is what attracted Monsters because it made me so happy and busy and productive. It made my vibration so high that the job that I actually wanted came.

LG: What is your daily life like these days? Most people who hit it big with a new show are like, I’m going to buy a house, but that wasn’t your move.

CK: At first I was thinking I would move into another apartment with more space, somewhere that actually has a dishwasher and a washing machine and where I didn’t have to walk up two flights of stairs. Or I was going to buy a place, maybe. But for a while my parents had been like, ‘Why don’t you just move home and save your money?’They just built this pool house in our backyard. I was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m not doing that, I’m an adult.’ But then I thought about how I’m going to be traveling and moving around a bunch. I’m going to be all over the place. It’s a big life change. I’ve met a bunch of really amazing people in the past few months, but it’s a lot of energy. Being at home helps to balance that energy out. I can be normal, and that feels nice. I’m not that person that needs to go to the premieres of the movies that are coming out to, like, be seen. I’d rather be at home with my partner watching Legend of Korra.

LG: What do your parents do?

CK: My dad co-founded a company that buys and sells race horses. And my mom used to be a celebrity fitness trainer. She wrote books, and she did workout videos.

LG: You guys are a very fit family, I’m guessing!

CK: You know what, I need to go to the gym. I have not been getting enough exercise because I’ve been so busy.

LG: The routine is off.

CK: The routine is off and the routine needs to be back on!

LG: You’ve given yourself the space and time to really think about what you want to do next, creatively. I understand that you have a fantasy list of literary works you’d like to be a part of adapting.

CK: Yes: Giovanni’s Room, All Fours, and A Little Life. Those are the top three. I don’t want it to sound like I’m conceited, like I can do whatever I want. It’s more like, I just want to do things that I feel have meaning and purpose that I’m passionate about.

LG: When you were filming, you made your trailer match Erik’s room. Can you talk about that process of merging your sense of self with Erik’s?

CK: Well, it started with these Post-its that were on the inside of my medicine cabinet. There was a baby picture of me and my twin brother and all these Post-its that say, like, ‘You can do this,’ ‘You’re an amazing actor,’ ‘Keep going,’ ‘I believe in you.’ It’s a little kitschy at first, but if you read them all while you brush your teeth twice a day, they start organically seeping into your mind, and you start believing them. I did a

similar thing with my trailer, where I had all pictures of Erik and of me on my trailer mirror and some of my lines. I would read them every day.

LG: You’ve talked before about how much you’ve learned about yourself from playing Erik. And you’ve said that you hope 2025 is the year that the Menendez brothers are released from prison.

CK: The main lesson is that wisdom begins when you accept things as they are. Erik teaches speech classes, yoga, and meditation, and they help people who have been through sexual abuse. They’ve gotten college degrees. They’ve found a life in prison because they’ve accepted what happened to them, and they accepted what they did. That takes such courage and bravery and strength and time. I think for that reason they deserve to come home.

LG: You got your start as a theater kid. Do you ever think about returning to that world?

CK: I would love to! I did musicals all throughout my childhood and then in high school. When I was growing up doing theater, I was always imitating the YouTube videos of the people on Broadway. I learned in school that acting actually comes from within yourself. And you have to—again, bringing it back to the acceptance thing—you have to accept and understand who you are in order to play other people. You have to tap into your own shit in order to get into somebody else’s shit. That became very addicting. That feeling of when you’re in a scene and you lose time. You’re walking this line between what is real and what’s not.

It’s this magical, euphoric feeling that is experienced by all the people in the room, and it’s different every night, and you don’t have to stop; you just live through it. I want to do that for the rest of my life.

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PHOTOGRAPHY ALVARO BEAMUD CORTÉS FASHION ANNA TREVELYAN INTERVIEW MATHIAS ROSENZWEIG

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MALEK

THE EGYPTIAN ACTOR FOUND INTERNATIONAL FAME. NOW, HE’S ITCHING TO TELL HIS OWN STORIES, BUT WITHOUT THE WESTERN PERSPECTIVE 56

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“I always say that acting chose me; I didn’t choose it,” Ahmed Malek explains over a video call. In the distance, the sound of a train underscores the vibrant urban backdrop of Cairo, Egypt, from which he hails and where he currently resides. It was there, during his childhood, that the actor began impromptu performances for friends and family, putting on puppet shows during intimate gatherings. “My uncle saw one and said, ‘Oh, I see potential there.’ He took me to a casting director, and I started getting roles.”

After being a “child actor” and, as he points out, not a “child star,” Malek’s small parts blossomed into a full-fledged career when he landed a major role in a popular Egyptian TV show, El-Gamaah [The Brotherhood], during his teenage years. At least in his own country, Malek had become a household name. He was a fixture of the recent Egyptian cinematic wave, eventually taking him to an international level when he starred in The Furnace, an Australian historical drama about the 1890s gold rush, as well as The Swimmers, which tells the story of two Syrian refugees crossing the Aegean Sea, and a standout performance in BBC’s Boiling Point—a fictionalized look inside the high-pressure dynamics of the modern culinary world.

In his 29 years of life, Malek has only occasionally doubted acting as his purpose. “At one point, I was really into politics and even thought about switching to it,” he says. “I also considered studying philosophy, but ultimately acting was the constant.” That said, he has found ways to infuse his acting career with politics, finding it particularly important to use his newfound platform to tell geopolitically charged stories from an Egyptian perspective, rather than those from the West. Therein, Malek’s career has become one of the most pivotal and captivating in a polarized world where most Westerners see Middle Eastern stories told by, well, Westerners.

“I used to want to make it completely in Western cinema,” he says. To an extent, he’s already accomplished this. “I took it for granted, my career here in the Middle East, and now, with what’s going on in the world, I want to make it even bigger here…as Middle Eastern actors, and as Arab actors, we’re facing a huge amount of Islamophobia, just a huge backlash against our culture. We just want to present who we are and to say that we’re human.”

To further paint the picture, actor Mena Massoud [also of Egyptian heritage] told The Daily Beast in 2019 that he hadn’t received a single audition after starring in Disney’s incredibly successful Aladdin. “In a room of Caucasian guys, a director might be like, okay, let’s see, like, two guys who aren’t caucasian,” he told the publication. “And maybe they’ll be the wild card choice.” Massoud competed against 2,000 actors for the titular role in a film that grossed over $1 billion at the box office. That he would struggle at all in Hollywood thereafter feels impossible, and yet he did.

For Malek, one of the life-changing periods that allowed him to combat this type of pigeon-holing came from his two years at RADA [England’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts]. “The whole course was actors creating their own work,” he recalls. “I had the chance to do three plays in London, two of which I wrote and directed. That gave me this urge to generate my own work. I don’t need to sit and wait for auditions, even though, of course, I do auditions. So I came back here and developed a whole film from scratch.”

Now, Malek spends a great deal of his time telling his own stories or focusing on subjects from perspectives Western audiences are rarely privy to. For example, he is working on a film about a Deliveroo driver in London, England. “People don’t really hear about economic refugees,” he says. “You always hear about war refugees because it’s dramatic and you can gain more sympathy with war, or with a natural disaster.” He was inspired in part by his own time in London, notably while at RADA, during which deliveries were a big part of his daily life. “There are these shopping sites and everyone is just going crazy buying things because they’re so cheap, but you don’t see the other end, and no one wants to see it, where workers are like, dead tired on the floor. No one wants to see children packing shoes. You just want to wear your new hoodie and get it in two days.”

Beyond the desire to represent his heritage in cinema, Malek’s drive comes from a much more human place. “I’ll be a bit personal—I had a bit

of an inferiority issue when I was a child, and I’ve been very insecure. It benefited me as an artist because being an actor, it’s the complete opposite of that,” he says. “You get all the attention, and so it humbled me a bit. But then, at the same time, I was still insecure because I thought, ‘I’m not doing enough. I have to do more, I have to do a lot more.’ So this hunger is actually kind of a fuel for me.”

He was also inspired by other Egyptian actors paving the way toward Egyptian visibility in the West, like Rami Malek. “He’s taking the whole community with him,” Ahmed says. “I feel he is more of a movement than someone who is just looking out for himself as an individual. He’s a great example of a fellow Egyptian actor and a multi-dimensional artist.”

To borrow Massoud’s phrasing, he too is “a wild card,” forging his own path rather than following Hollywood’s lead or the expectations of the global film industry. Instead, he draws on his unique perspective, storytelling abilities, and immediate surroundings. With his proven talent and wealth of narratives that feel both refreshing to Western audiences and authentic to his roots, Malek’s career is becoming one of artistic excellence embedded in profound anthropological significance.

Suit with single-breasted single-button jacket and soft trousers with textured floral appliqués EMPORIO ARMANI Juste un Clou bracelet, Santos de Cartier bracelet and necklace CARTIER

“I took it for granted, my career here in the Middle East, and now, with what’s going on in the world, I want to make it even bigger here…as Middle Eastern actors, and as Arab actors, we’re facing a huge amount of Islamophobia, just a huge backlash against our culture. We just want to present whowe are and to say that we’re human.” —Ahmed Malek

Striped polo knit DOLCE&GABBANA Juste un Clou bracelet and Santos de Cartier watch CARTIER

Grooming Ben Talbot (The Wall Group) Prop stylist Josh Stovell Digitech Sacha Phillips Production The Production Factory 1st Photo assistant Simone Triacca 2nd Photo assistant Oran Eggerton Stylist assistants Leonie Dennett, Keisha Adams, Nkechi Managwu, Timmy Taiwo Prop stylist assistant Dan Wilson Retouching Camillo Bernardi Studio

Suede Ball jacket, cotton shirt, wool Keith pants CELINE HOMME by Hedi Slimane Trinity necklace and ring, Tank Louis watch, Juste un Clou bracelet CARTIER Socks stylist’s own Shoes MANOLO BLAHNIK

s PHOTOGRAPHY ALVARO BEAMUD CORTÉS FASHION NICOLA FORMICHETTI INTERVIEW CHARLIE KOLBRENER

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GILGEOUSALEXANDER THE NBA SUPERSTAR EXPLAINS HIS ENVIABLE APPROACH TO STYLE BOTH ON AND OFF THE COURT 64

Shai wears leather coat FERRAGAMO Earring talent’s own

On the court, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is an assassin. The Canadian basketball player boasts a unique play style, equally beloved by basketball nerds recognizing specific moves and counters and newfound fans who get lost in his balletic flurry of movement. It’s a chameleonic game in the modern era. Eschewing the current NBA’s hyperfixation with three-point shooting, Shai is the league’s most lethal midrange shooter, a crafty and dynamic finisher—a threat from every spot on the court. He’ll even float a left-handed finger roll loftily past a suspicious but helpless defender. Then, he’ll head to the post-game conference in head-to-toe Ferragamo and tinted shades.

Off the court, Shai is affable and charismatic, carrying himself with the same confidence that makes him a menace on the hardwood.

Striding into a sun-speckled studio in Oklahoma City for our cover shoot, the OKC Thunder point guard arrives in a trademark, effortlessly chic outfit. His 6’6” frame somehow proves no obstacle to finding clothes that fit his increasingly mimicked but specific stylistic silhouette. As our shoot unfolds, Shai frequently remarks about his favorite pieces—running his hands along different garments and noting different textures and materials that catch his eye.

In recent years, there has been an explosion of visibility at the intersection between basketball and fashion. Social media and the prominence of the “tunnel fit” (a player’s fanatically-photographed walk into the arena before each game) have catapulted player fashion into its own position within the men’s fashion landscape. Shai—who is partially responsible for the format’s popularity—notes, “I remember when I first got into the NBA, there weren’t many people that took a strong interest in fashion and/or putting well-thought-out outfits together every game.

Fast forward to where we are now and it’s night and day.”

On social media, the popular Instagram account @LeagueFits has become a major player in the dissemination of basketball fit pics to rabid fashion-forward hoop fans. The man behind the SLAM Magazineaffiliate account, Ian Pierno, is quick to note to me the importance of Shai in developing this relationship. “There’s been a fashion guy that defined every era of the NBA,” says Pierno. “In the 1970s, that was Clyde [Frazier]. In the 80s, that was Magic [Johnson]. 90s, that was [Dennis] Rodman. 2000s it was [Allen] Iverson. 2010s, it was [Russell] Westbrook.

Shai is the 2020s guy. He’s going to guide the next 10 years of NBA fashion and take it to new heights. He’s taken the baton from Russ, who took it from Iverson, who took it from Rodman. He is the Michael Jordan of LeagueFits right now.”

There’s an immediately identifiable symbiosis between the way Shai plays and the way he dresses. Both the product of hours of work, Shai explains: “One word I could use to describe the way I play and the way I dress is: effortless.” Watching him on TV, he makes everything look easy; he gets to his spot, pulls up, and the shot splashes through nylon.

When you see him play up close, you can see the countless hours that go into making his game look so simple. He teases defenders with countless twitchy hesitations (“hezis,” in the parlance of basketball slang), baiting the man in front of him into shifting their weight ever so slightly to grant an opening to drive to the basket.

More than just being an unstoppable isolation player, Shai has led OKC’s young group of tenacious players to their position as one of the best teams in the league. “As unique as every individual is on the team, the way that we are able to seamlessly integrate our personalities with one another and mesh and gel both on and off the court blows my mind,” Shai notes, quick to give his teammates their flowers: “There’s no ego on this team. We play for the greater good of the team as a whole.

We have our fun moments, but we know when it’s time to lock in. We are a serious group.”Shai went viral last year in a post-game interview with the line, “My whole life is consistent.” This was partially in response to his knack for scoring a whopping 30 points pretty much every game, but is actually part of a more foundational ideology he carries through his life: “I appreciate how much it resonated with a lot of people. I’m just a guy that sticks to a routine.”

For Shai, his routinized day starts with family: “The first thing I do when I wake up is check on my son and wife who have probably been awake for a few hours before I even open my eyes,” he explains. “I like to

see what they’re up to and join in on the activities before I begin my day.

My family inspires me in so many ways to get up and be great everyday.”

The way Shai discusses his commitment to routine mirrors another great. “My biggest inspiration on the court has always been Kobe Bryant. I love every aspect of what he’s contributed to the game of basketball,” Shai notes, before adding his major off-the-court inspirations: “Off the court, my wife Hailey, my son Ares, and Virgil Abloh.

I had the pleasure of knowing Abloh before he sadly passed away. His entire approach to everything fashion was so inspiring to me.”

Shai—who has a penchant for peppering his Instagram posts with lyrical self-penned captions—leaves me with thoughts on failure: “I don’t look at failing at something as a negative thing. In the moment, you might be down on yourself for not accomplishing whatever goal was in front of you, but in hindsight, you realize how much you were able to learn and take away from that failure. Experience is priceless. Failure helps you find areas of improvement. It makes you better. One of my favorite quotes is: ‘I turned my Ls into lessons and my flaws into weapons.’ I love that quote and I live by it. Funny enough, I actually wrote it myself.”

Leather coat, tank, pants FERRAGAMO Necklaces and earring talent’s own

Jacket, tank, trousers FERRAGAMO Earring and necklaces talent’s own

Digital technician Dillon Padgette 1st Photo assistant Simone Triacca Studio Allsweet Retouching Camillo Bernardi Studio

2nd Photo Assistant Easton Oliver Hair Bona Braids

Grooming Teresa Luz

Production Brandon Kobs, Ty McMahan

“Failure helps you find areas of improvement. It makes you better. One of my favorite quotes is: ‘I turned my Ls into lessons and my flaws into weapons.’ I love that quote and I live by it. Funny enough, I actually wrote it myself.” —Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Gancini monogram shirt and trousers, tank, Hug tote FERRAGAMO Earrings and necklaces talent’s own

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PHOTOGRAPHY ALVARO BEAMUD CORTÉS FASHION HUNTER CLEM INTERVIEW CHARLIE KOLBRENER

SCHWARZENEGGER

THE WHITE LOTUS’ NEWEST STAR DELVES INTO NABBING THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME AND THE “ADULT SUMMER CAMP” ON-SET ATMOSPHERE THAT BROUGHT THE SEASON TO LIFE 72

Patrick wears Milano double breasted wool jacket and Joetsu wool pants LORO PIANA

“My favorite activity growing up was my dad yanking me out of school early and getting to go to set. For a kid, it was like a dream. It just opened my eyes to the film world. This idea that my dad would go in as ‘dad’ and come out as Mr. Freeze or as Terminator, that's what drew me in at first.”

—Patrick Schwarzenegger

Moltrasio cotton crewneck sweater and Joetsu cotton Bermuda shorts LORO PIANA

Feriolo polo sweater and trousers LORO PIANA

Acting is a tightrope walk. The seasoned performer faces the sometimes arduous task of imbuing even the crudest of characters with an innate humanity and likability. Patrick Schwarzenegger, one of the stars of the third season of The White Lotus, has managed to expertly pull off this balancing act with his portrayal of the braggadocious oldest son of the wealthy Ratliff family—delivering what could easily be perceived as obnoxious behavior with the kind of goofy charm that leaves a viewer conflicted. Considered by many actors to be the best gig in Hollywood (“It’s like an adult summer camp,” says Schwarzenegger), The White Lotus’ combination of mystery, comedy, and dramatic intrigue has made the HBO series a cultural touchstone. Schwarzenegger—who describes the series as his “favorite show”—joins an elite roster of actors who have summoned millions of viewers to perform the increasingly forgotten ritual of weekly viewing, ever since the show’s debut in 2021. Ahead of the new season premiere, we chatted with Schwarzenegger over video call to hear about his career, the development of this complicated character, and the antics of beloved showrunner Mike White.

CHARLIE KOLBRENER: How and when did you start getting into acting when you were growing up?

PATRICK SCHWARZENEGGER: I was introduced to acting, to the film world by my dad. My favorite activity growing up was my dad yanking me out of school early and getting to go to set. For a kid, it was like a dream. You got to go to Universal Studios, and during my dad’s breaks, we’d take the golf cart around, go to King Kong, Jaws, ride Jurassic Park and ET. It just opened my eyes to the film world. This idea that my dad would go in as ‘dad’ and come out as Mr. Freeze or as Terminator, that’s what drew me in at first.

CK: I know you’re a big The White Lotus fan, so what was it like getting cast in this and then getting to shoot it?

PS: It was really kind of wild. It’s my favorite show—my family’s favorite show. I remember when we were watching the first seasons, my family, my sisters, my mom, my fiancée would always yap at me, saying, ‘Why aren’t you in the show? Why didn’t you audition for this?’ And then the third season, when it came up in my inbox, it was such a secretive, confidential thing. I started to learn it was White Lotus, and I was internally freaking out, but also kind of like, ‘There’s no way I get this.

Probably everyone and their mother is going out for it.’ When I auditioned, I found out right away that it was really in the tone that they were looking for for the character. When I got it, I just started crying. It was just such a crazy, surreal moment—one of those shock moments where it doesn’t feel real, you know?

CK: It seems like it’s definitely one of the more fun gigs that exists right now.

PS: I mean, it’s a dream come true. Going to work on a beach?

CK: What was the best part about being in Thailand and shooting there?

PS: Just being able to work on this show was my favorite part. To work with someone like Mike White, to work with all these other high-caliber actors. To be able to film and work at a Four Seasons hotel on the beach for seven months, it was just like a long vacation, with such a special group of people. It’s such a unique project. I don’t know how else to say it. It’s like an adult summer camp where you’re all at this hotel, and it’s this Kumbaya kind of working, but hanging out.

CK: Jennifer Coolidge in her Golden Globes acceptance speech said about Mike White, ‘He’s one of the greatest people I’ve ever met.’ What was it like working with him?

PS: He’s one of the funniest people. He’s kind of this mix of extreme introvert, extreme extrovert, which makes absolutely no sense. But he doesn’t really make sense. He’s such a unique character. He just sits behind the camera with his big Quicksilver hat. You’ll be doing a scene, and you’ll just hear him cracking up. He’s got this famous laugh—which is kind of what I based my laugh in the show off of. He has this cackle and then he’ll scream things from the director’s chair at you that are really funny, and he’ll try to make you laugh. It’s a very not serious set.

From an actor’s perspective, you have directors that are just super directors. There are ones that are really visually focused, and then there are ones like Mike that are just—they’re an actor as well. So they kind of bring a different perspective to how they direct. At the end of the day,

why I think he’s so successful and why the show works is because he’s the writer; he’s the director; he’s the showrunner; he’s the creator. He knows what he’s looking for. We built the character together.

CK: How do you prepare to play such a potentially polarizing character like this?

PS: Yeah he’s a douche, but at the same time, it was important for me to make sure you kind of want to like him. He’s annoying and you hate him, but you also find him funny and ridiculous. And that was this fine line for Mike of wanting to make him have these humanizing moments, but also moments where you’re just like, everyone knows this kind of person. There’s always that person you know that’s kind of funny but just ridiculous. And you probably don’t want to bring him around your family and your parents, but you think he’s funny at school. So it was that balance.

CK: The very first shot of you, I was cracking up.

PS: Mike loves those sunglasses.

CK: How do you get your day started? What’s a day in your life like?

PS: Abby and I wake up, and we walk to coffee first thing in the morning.

We’re lucky. We live in an area where we can walk to coffee, groceries, everything. We’re both coffee connoisseurs and addicts. Then we walk down to the beach, and I do prayers down there looking at the ocean and nature. Then I go back, usually work out, shower—or if I have time to, sauna. We will eat breakfast, and then I’ll go to the office. I’ll stay at the office until the afternoon or so, and then go back home. And usually, we’ll cook up dinner or something. Twice a week, we go to my mom’s house for dinner—on Tuesdays and Sundays.

CK: Will you have a weekly Sunday night viewing?

PS: Yeah, we did it with the first two seasons. We watched at my mom’s because we do that Sunday night dinner, and then we would watch all of us together at the house after dinner. We’ll probably expand the group to some more people and go from there. I enjoy watching it with more people because it’s fun to kind of theorize, ‘What’s gonna happen?’

When I watched it with Abby, right away, she was like, ‘Is it X, Y and Z? Does this happen? Come on, tell me! Do you die? What’s going on with your dad?’ I’m not telling her anything, but it’s fun to have those conversations when you’re with people who are trying to come up with what they think is going to happen. I told her: ‘Trust me, you don’t want to know.’

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW.

Filippo wool and silk shirt and Ruben stretch cotton pants LORO PIANA

Grooming Christine Nelli (Forward Artists) using Bumble & Bumble Set designer Daniel Horowitz Producer Suze Lee Retouching Camillo Bernardi Studio 1st Photo assistant Simone Triacca Lighting technician Paul Gilmore Digital technician Dillon Padgette Stylist assistant George Villalpando Set design assistants Sara Taylor, Jordan Odom Production assistant Apu Gomes

Baby cashmere crewneck sweater and Como cotton fleece pants LORO PIANA Tank stylist’s own

SPRING FORWARD IT’S TIME TO DITCH THE HAWAIIAN PRINTED TOPS AND CARGO SHORTS—THE MEN’S COLLECTIONS THIS SEASON ARE HERE TO WELCOME YOU TO THE ULTIMATE TRENDS TO EMBODY WITH STRIDE

THROW SOME SHADE PHOTOGRAPHY & FASHION DAVEY SUTTON 80

Stanley wears corset collar trench and 360 mask BALENCIAGA

CLEAN SLATE Tulle jacket, woven trousers, shoes COMME DES GARÇONS HOMME PLUS

IN ALL TRANSPARENCY Jacket, green knitwear polo, shorts, black elastic web belt with double snap hook buckle (worn as necklace), fluo orange patent leather crossbody bag GUCCI Hoop earrings model’s own

RISE ABOVE Jacket, tank top, shorts, bucket hat, brooch DIOR MEN Hoop earrings model’s own

NOTICING A PATTERN Suede jacket and pants, Medusa leather vest VERSACE Hoop earrings model’s own

DAPPER DAYS AHEAD Cotton shirt, cashmere knit tank top, cashmere trousers, satin tie, silk square scarf SAINT LAURENT by Anthony Vaccarello

BACK IN BLOOM Top SIMONE ROCHA Hoop earring model’s own

POP OF COLLAR 360 mask, corset collar trench, fitted cropped t-shirt, fitted low waist pants, mule BALENCIAGA

Grooming Brady Lea (A-Frame) using 111skin and Horace haircare Model Stanley Barna (Viva Model Management) Photography assistants Bruno Mcguffie, Kadi Jatta Grooming assistant Alyssa Kraus Special thanks Jordan Hemingway, Sophia French

Styling assistants Emilia Zentner, Polly Parker

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2001 Shield glasses JACQUES MARIE MAGE On skin LA MER The Broad Spectrum SPF 50 UV Protecting Fluid 88

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WAVE

FRESH FROM RIDING SOME OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST WAVES IN NAZARÉ, PORTUGAL, PRO SURFER MASON HYCE BARNES HEADS BACK HOME TO THE OUTER BANKS TO SLIP INTO HIS SUMMER BEST

Clockwise: Striped crewneck and double pleated trousers DOLCE&GABBANA Ghiso boots MARANT Necklace talent’s own Swim trunks GUESS Striped poplin shirt, linen blend sweater, sateen pants POLO RALPH LAUREN Declan 53 sunglasses JACQUES MARIE MAGE

Growing up on the shores of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, Mason Hyce Barnes took his first waves perched on the nose of his father’s longboard at just two years old, laying the groundwork for a lifelong bond with the ocean. Now rooted in Los Angeles, California, Barnes has turned a childhood passion into a full-throttle career, carving his place among the elite surfers of today. But his story is more than just a love letter to surfing. It’s a journey about personal transformation, discipline, conquering fears, and finding fulfillment. Surfing isn’t just something he does—it’s part of his DNA. Or, in the words of Mason Barnes himself, “Surfing is my obsession, my life, and my purpose. It will direct my life until the day I die.” Now, with a toe dipped in fashion and a style as effortless as his cutbacks, he’s carving out his own lane—on and off the board. CHRISTIAN ROSA

Jacket, knitwear, trousers PRADA

Double breasted jacket, bermuda short, cotton socks, lambskin soft loafers LORO PIANA Declan 53 sunglasses JACQUES MARIE MAGE

Smiley sweater and striped boxer shorts MOSCHINO

“Surfing has shaped who I am as a person and is responsible for every sense of accomplishment I have ever felt. I want to break all the records and then break them again.” —Mason Hyce Barnes

Silk knitwear and pants MIU MIU

Viscose shorts LOEWE

VMAN: Having been a surfer for many years, could you walk us through what a typical day in your life looks like?

MASON HYCE BARNES: Surfing is all I have ever done, and I am more in love with it than I have ever been. A thousand percent of my time revolves around surfing and the ocean. I start every day by looking at the ocean, even if I’m not surfing, I just have to lay eyes on it to feel the energy of what it has given me. If the waves are good, I will stay in the water from sunup to sundown, and if there are no waves, I’ll find ways to better myself as an athlete outside the water. I train in the gym five days a week, sauna, recover, eat healthy, and enjoy several coffees in between. Whether it’s a full day of training or surfing, I’m usually extremely exhausted and find myself in bed before ten o’clock every night. I’m at a point in my life where I want to be the best surfer I can be, and to do that I have to stay disciplined and take every day very seriously.

VMAN: Do you remember the first time you ever picked up a board?

MHB: Before I could walk I would lay on my dad’s boards in the living room and act as if I was surfing. This was way before I could remember anything, they have always been in and around my life and they always will be.

VMAN: What were some of your thoughts/emotions about the first few times you nailed your first big waves? Do you carry the mindset of trying to top yourself and always strive for your biggest wave?

MHB: Surfing has shaped who I am as a person and is responsible for every sense of accomplishment I have ever felt. My first career-

changing wave was in Nazaré, Portugal and that was the first time I had ever broken down into tears of joy. Minutes later, I was on the jet ski by myself outside of the waves and felt a sense of emotion that I had never felt before. I uncontrollably broke down in tears and couldn’t stop for over 20 minutes. That moment changed who I was as a person, and it made me realize that these crazy dreams were my purpose. It opened a door for confidence that led to where I am today. I constantly want to better myself and it is hard to picture myself feeling that sense of contentment and throwing in the towel. I want to break all the records and then break them again.

VMAN: How does the energy these surf towns and the communities they inform motivate you to keep going as an athlete and keep the love of surfing alive?

MHB: The love and support we have as surfers in places all over the planet is special, but it will never be the reason behind why I do what I do. Surfing has become a part of my DNA. It doesn’t matter where I am, who I’m with, or how the waves are, I simply love it because of the connection I have with the ocean and everything it has given me.

Outside of it being my job, surfing is my obsession, my life, and my purpose. It will direct my life until the day I die.

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW.

Raised stripe blazer and pleated short, crystal stripe dress shirt, sweater AMIRI

Creative consultant Finlay Mangan Photo assistant Taj Carver

BOLLYWOOD’S BOY NEXT DOOR MEET ISHAAN KHATTER: THE INDIAN ACTOR NAVIGATING HIS CROSSOVER INTO THE AMERICAN FILM SCENE PHOTOGRAPHY ALVARO BEAMUD CORTÉS FASHION NICOLA FORMICHETTI INTERVIEW KEVIN PONCE

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Collared blouson with buttons closure and trousers with two pleats and drawstring GIORGIO ARMANI Bracelet talent’s own

Barnet calfskin leather jacket and cotton Lewys pants MARANT Bracelet and earring talent’s own

“Why do this job if you’re not passionate?

Go do literally anything else in the world.

Passion is what drives this machine.”

—Ishaan Khatter

Tailored motorcycle jacket and trousers sheer rib tank top LOUIS VUITTON MEN’S Bracelet and earring talent’s own

Cotton jumpsuit PRADA Bracelet and earring talent’s own

De Ville Prestige watch OMEGA

When I called Ishaan Khatter a few months after his shoot for VMAN, I found myself staring out to the hills of Los Angeles where the Hollywood Sign instantly caught my eye. Naturally, one starts to think about all the great actors that have hit the pavement hard in the city of angels, hoping to have a shot at the big screen that will propel them to superstardom. Though most of the world recognizes Hollywood as premier destination where cinema magic is made, Mumbai’s bustling Hindi cinema scene recently has been questioning that idea, offering a unique option to films than what Western audiences are used to. And at the forefront of the next generation of leading men in the region is

Ishaan. At just 29 years old, the Indian actor and dancer has been captivating audiences slowly but surely since he was just 10 years old, going on to land his breakthrough role in director Majid Majidi’s Beyond the Clouds years later in 2017. Since then, he’s seen a steady incline in projects that allow him to push his craft further, recently introducing himself to Western audiences with his role as Shooter Dival in Netflix’s murder thriller The Perfect Couple–starring opposite icon Nicole Kidman, of course. Now, set to star in the upcoming rom-com series The Royals, it seems both the West and East will have to keep up with the always-moving [and always-evolving] thespian.

Knitwear polo and pants GUCCI Bracelet and earring talent’s own

Makeup Charlotte Willer (Home Agency) using Chanel Beauty Hair Shin Arima (Home Agency) using Davines Production viewfinders Digital tech Christopher Glover Lighting director Simone Triacca Photo assistant Héctor Adalid Styling assistants Alice Almeida, Angelina Khachaturyan Production assistant Ha Chu Retouching Camillo Bernardi Studio Fashion coordinator Liv Vitale Location Untitled NYC Studios

ISHAAN KHATTER: So you’ve got me in the middle of one of those days.

If my brain cells are functioning at half the level, just go with it.

KEVIN PONCE: [*laughs*] It sounds like I got you at the perfect moment to do this. It’s like in the frenzy of everything going on in your life now, and of what’s to come. Has the response for The Perfect Couple felt overwhelming, or are you sort of just taking it all in and just enjoying the moment?

IK: I am enjoying it. I think I had the good fortune of jumping back into work immediately after, so I didn’t revel in it all too much or let it get the better of me, in that sense. In general, I kind of have a radar for when I’m indulging myself too much in success, or failure for that matter. I think it was a great and really fun journey that came to fruition for all of us, because there were so many wonderful artists that were part of this, including the folks over at Netflix and the producers, and of course, Nicole [Kidman]. So I’m happy for everyone, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter with my next cast.

KP: Something you said is actually quite striking; you don’t revel in your successes or failures too much. How did you come to that perspective?

That takes a lot of willpower to be in control of your emotions when it comes to your work and your art.

IK: I think it’s perspective that you gain, having done it for a little bit.

In my case, I’m the second generation of a line of artists in my family, so I’ve kind of seen it from the wings. If I can directly quote Rudyard Kipling: ‘If you can meet with triumph and disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same.’ Neither of them mean any more than the other, and it’s a part of the journey. I think for me, the priority is to take the success and be able to convert it into something better. Fuel the fire to do better work, keep going and be able to empower people and films, projects, and stories that I believe in.

KP: When it comes to the roles that you take on, what do you look for in the characters that come your way? Are there specific qualities that you sort of keep an eye out for?

IK: I’m just six, seven years young into my career, but I think the more I go forward, it’s beginning to become more important for me to choose the people that I work with, sometimes even above the material, because you’ve got to be able to live a significant period of your life and journey through it with them. It’s from creative chemistry that good storytelling is born. I am selective in the sense that I need to be able to believe in what I’m doing, at least in that moment. If I don’t believe in it, it’s bound to be a disaster so there’s got to be something that is exciting and inspiring me. I’m open to trying things as an actor, I don’t want to put myself in a box.

KP: I think spirit is going to be the denominator for a new generation of actors like yourself, where there has to be intentionality behind everything that you do, or else it’s ingenuine.

IK: That’s a beautiful way to put it, because it really affects the work that you do. I have to also acknowledge that it is a privilege that I get, the benefit of choice. I was very fortunate that when I began my career as an actor, I had two very diverse opportunities. One that really allowed me to find my footing as an artist and as a performer was Majid Majidi’s Beyond the Clouds, which was my first film. From then I was able to jump into something so different with a mainstream Hollywood intense romantic drama [Dhadak], and that found a lot of mainstream success, and that film was a huge hit. So that kind of gave me the benefit of choice afterwards, to some degree. I’ve seen highs and lows, and I think that’s what gives me the perspective to be able to go for it if I feel passionate about it. Because why do this job if you’re not passionate? Go do literally anything else in the world. Passion is what drives this machine.

KP: Are music and dance-focused films, like the big Bollywood musicals that the world has come to know, something you like more or [do you] prefer the drama-focused roles like the ones in Hollywood?

IK: I think playing Shooter in The Perfect Couple was a very interesting opportunity for someone who’s based out of India, as it kind of bridged the gap in a very interesting way. All the attention that came my way from the West also prodded my peers here [in India] to ask me this question. The same kind of curiosity that comes to me from the States, for example, is all about what the big difference is between Hollywood

and the Indian film industry. And to me, there isn’t much that’s different in the craft of filmmaking. It’s simply that, culturally, we are very diverse.

And one of the things that I am proud of is our culture finds its way into our films in a very natural and organic way. We’re able to communicate some things deeper, sometimes more profoundly, or frivolously, and have emotions through music [be communicated] very efficiently, and we’ve been doing that for decades. I’m a dancer. My mom was a classical Indian dancer and maestro; if I may say so, we kind of inherited a percent of our talent and were able to run with it. [*laughs*] I’m not a singer, but I am a dancer.

KP: Did your mom teach you how to dance?

IK: She did. I kind of grew up under the influence, even as a toddler, going to classical Indian concerts. My brother and I are both trained dancers, and we put in the hours for formal training. I think in a big way, it also informed my craft as an actor, having rhythm and musicality and having control over my own “instrument”, physically. Just being uninhibited and being able to get out of my head, it’s a big part of my craft as an actor, so I love dancing. The film that I mentioned, called Dhadak, is inherently a romantic drama, but it’s kind of a tragic romantic drama that did have some song and dance.

KP: All romance is dramatic and tragic, so that sounds normal to me.

IK: [*laughs*] Yeah it’s tragic. but I enjoyed [the singing and dancing] very much. I do look for that as well, but not just for the sake of it. I feel like it needs to be organic and push the boundaries a bit, and go all out.

Since I am a dancer, I want to make the most of it. I like to go for it. Break a leg.

KP: I’m trying to think of good dancers in Hollywood that everyone’s obsessed with…

IK: Ooo, like Gene Kelly, John Travolta, Fred Astaire, so many.

KP: Yes exactly! Fred Astaire. Now that’s an actor who could dance.

Blood and rhythm were all in one when it came to him. It just flowed out.

He’s someone who actually went for it and sort of became a god in Hollywood because of his expression and movement. That’s something I think you can sort of relate to in a way, having the need to really go for it when it comes to performing.

IK: I would not even claim to be like the dirt on his foot. [*laughs*] He was just such a master. These are the people that I idolize and have inspired me. It’s also just such a beautiful art form. Don’t you miss those kinds of musicals? Like Summer Stock with Gene Kelly. The kind of stuff that they were able to do, they would literally float. It was so cool to watch. I know a lot of people enjoyed La La Land when it came out recently and it would be so cool to see more of those done well.

KP: Musicals are now a rare form. It’s beautiful that the art still exists in other countries. You know, America gets so boring sometimes with their film releases. There hasn’t been another film like La La Land in a while.

Maybe we need to bring that back. We need to bring you back and bring a little Bollywood to Hollywood.

IK: Shout out to VMAN, let’s do it.

HEAD TO VMAN.COM TO READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW.

SAM NIVOLA THE BREAKOUT STAR OF ‘THE WHITE LOTUS’ TALKS NEW PROJECTS, FASHION AND WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON

PHOTOGRAPHY ISAAC ANTHONY FASHION NICOLA FORMICHETTI 1

(Throughout) Sam wears all clothing, shoes, and accessories BURBERRY

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For all of the complex and diverse mechanisms that can go into producing a good performance, acting is always ultimately distilled into a final product: something to watch. To love acting, it follows that you first have to love watching. And when I speak with Sam Nivola— breakout star of The White Lotus—in the few days following the show’s finale, he talks a lot about simply loving movies. Raised by two exceptional actors, Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola, the young actor’s path to our screens for the past eight Sunday nights was informed by his love of sitting down and watching a good movie.

Many of us just got to know Nivola as Lochlan, the confused youngest brother of the Ratliff family, paralyzed by his excessive desire to be recognized by his siblings. While Lochlan is reserved and anxious, Nivola is exuberant; he carries himself with a humble confidence far beyond his 21 years. In a lot of ways, Nivola is an old soul. His foray into film stems from a precocious Criterion Collection subscription. He loves classic rock and the blues—with exceptions (“I don’t listen to a lot of new music, but I love, love Olivia Rodrigo”). His favorite director is Leos Carax. When asked about his music preference during our VMAN shoot, he consistently insists that he is “fine with anything,” but then very transparently perks up whenever a song written before 1980 comes on. In a particularly endearing moment, someone abruptly changes the song to “You Make Loving Fun” by Fleetwood Mac and Nivola grins, shouting, “Hell yeah!” as he simultaneously flails his arm out to point at the person responsible. Today, fresh off a season of White Lotus in which his character spurred quite a bit of conversation, Nivola is looking forward to spending time working on the production company he runs with his friends, thinking about what’s next, and spending some time at home.

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VMAN sat down with the young actor to talk about shooting a memorable season of White Lotus, working on the upcoming comedy film Driver’s Ed, stepping behind the camera, his burgeoning relationship with fashion, and more.

VMAN: Let’s start at the beginning. You grew up with actor parents, but how did you first start getting into it professionally?

Sam Nivola: I did a lot of school plays and stuff when I was a kid—but the main thing that sort of got me into the whole world was just being into movies. I got a Criterion Channel subscription at a young age, and I got initially obsessed with whatever the sort of pretentious, Letterboxd obsessions of the day were, and that started to refine my tastes a little bit. My parents really didn’t want me to be an actor, which I understand, because it’s a difficult life. But basically I got an audition for a movie through my drama teacher at high school, because they were doing a big open casting call for a Noah Baumbach movie (White Noise). And I was a huge fan of him as a director, you know? And so I was like, I have to do this audition. I know my parents don’t want me to be an actor, but I just want to at least get to the number of callbacks where I get to meet this guy, because I’m a big fan. It was a long audition process. It lasted months and months, and I auditioned, auditioned, and then eventually did get to meet him, and met Greta Gerwig, his lovely wife, and then I got lucky enough to get the part. And at that point, my parents were like, ‘We don’t want you to be an actor, but you can’t really turn down a part in a Noah Baumbach movie.’ So I went and did it, and then one thing led to another, and here I am. I’ve always loved acting, it’s my big passion. But my first love was movies.

VMAN: Is there anything that happened in this season of White Lotus that you feel like you haven’t gotten to talk about enough?

SN: I talked about it on Fallon, and I’m surprised more people haven’t asked me about this. But I think the craziest thing that happened over the course of the shoot was us shooting at the Full Moon Party. That’s such a once-in-a-lifetime thing, they had to time it so perfectly. You know, the Full Moon Party happens once a month, on the full moon, we literally took a boat out to this island, an island that you can’t really stay on. You go there on the boat, and you don’t come home until the boat leaves.

And we had to turn back twice because there was such a crazy storm that the boat almost capsized. It was literally just a skeleton crew of the actors, sound guy, the cameraman, DP, the director. We just went out into this crowd full of drunk crazies, and shot all this amazing footage.

So it was terrifying because it was like, ‘Fuck, we have this one night to nail this and make it real, and if not, we’re fucked.’ But it was really cool to be on a project that has so many millions of dollars behind it, but the director still chooses to sort of go guerilla for realism, when they could recreate that on a sound stage and spend millions getting all the extras and whatever, but it was so much cooler to do it that way.

VMAN: Working with Mike White, do you feel his love of reality TV? Is it something he’s vocal about?

SN: He’s vocal about it! *Laughs* I had never watched Survivor. I’m not a big reality TV person, but I remember a month into the shoot when he and I were closer and had known each other and could sort of fuck around with each other, he was like, ‘Sam, have you seen my Survivor season?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, no, I’m sorry. I haven’t.’ And he was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me? You have to watch it. I’m gonna send you a link tonight, and you have to watch it.’ He sent me a link a few hours later, and it was fucking hilarious. Yeah, he’s amazing in it. It’s such enjoyable television. He’s so proud of it. There are lots of people from his Survivor season and The Amazing Race who make cameos in the show. It’s cool.

It’s just so unpretentious that he does all that stuff and is super proud of it. It’s amazing and bad ass. He’s one of the least pretentious, most genuine creatives that I’ve ever met. .

VMAN: You have your own production company, can you tell us a little bit about Cold Worm Production and what you’re working on?

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SN: It’s my production company that I started with two of my best friends, Teddy Ryan, who I’ve known since I was about two years old, and Anthony Ertle, who I met actually when I was shooting White Noise, the Bambacuh movie, because he was my “on-set guardian,” even though he was only a few years older—I was 17 at the time. He is from Cleveland, Ohio, which is where we shot it, and he went to film school, and he’s a total genius. We all just love movies, and wanted to make them. So we started this little company, and we made a few short films, one of which I just premiered on YouTube (Why Not, Pat?). We decided not to go the festival route because it’s just our sort of first work, but I think it’s really good. And that was a sort of proof of concept. And now we’ve made two features that are in post-production. We have a third one coming along.

I just had a pitch for it this morning that went really well. We’re working a lot more than we thought we would at this early stage, but it’s really fun. We have a website that we realized we were paying for nothing. So we started a film criticism blog that we put up on there once a month, depending on how hard we want to work on it. We’re doing a lot of fun things, they’re some of the best people I know, and they all just really care about movies. We’re all spending a lot of our own money to get these things made, because we just really care about it.

VMAN: That’s amazing. Are you writing, directing, producing—a little bit of everything?

SN: Yeah, so the short was written and directed by me and starring me as well—and funded by me and all that. We have produced these two features, one of which is made by a friend of Anthony from film school out in Nebraska. It’s a sort of psychedelic study on queer romance in Nebraska that’s very different from our other one, which is about two broke kids kidnapping someone for ransom in Wales. They’re both by people who we somehow found their scripts, and we really believed in them. And they’re great.

VMAN: Have you felt your approach to acting shifting at all as you’ve been focusing on directing?

SN: Absolutely. The first thing I always say to directors when I work with them is just, you don’t have to protect me and my sort of actor-y brain.

Because I think about things with more of a director’s brain. And if you want to just tell me what you’re trying to get out of this scene, what you want out of this shot, it will allow me to find my place in that more. You can tell me, this shot will look better if you’re doing this. Not everything has to be like, ‘This is how you’re feeling.’ Sometimes, to me, understanding what the director is trying to evoke is sort of a quicker avenue for me to understand what my character’s feeling.

VMAN: Are there any actors that you especially loved growing up or have informed you as an actor?

SN: I always say my favorite actor is Juliette Binoche, the French actor.

She’s just amazing. I have a signed picture of her. She’s just the coolest, and I’ve had such a crush on her since I was little. I love Marcello Mastroianni. I obviously love [Robert] De Niro and [Al] Pacino. John Cazale, all his movies, him in The Deer Hunter, so heartbreaking. I love all those guys. And I think [in] modern days, I fucking love [Timothee] Chalamet. I think he’s amazing and doing great work. He’s one of those people who you can’t really poke holes in any of his performances. He’s just so good.

NEW KIDS ON THE TOK HANDSTAND PUSH-UPS, EMPHATIC DUNKS ON RICKETY BASKETBALL HOOPS AROUND NYC, ROCK CLIMBING AND SCI-FI INSPIRED BEAUTYPRODUCTS.ALLTHE COMPONENTS OF THE VARIOUS ROUTINES THAT MAKE THESE BACH, DAV AND DAVID THE HARBINGERS OF A NEW KIND OF TEEN IDOL. 1

PHOTOGRAPHY ISAAC ANTHONY FASHION NICOLA FORMICHETTI INTERVIEWS CHARLIE KOLBRENER

Bach wears blazer, shirt, trousers LOEWE

The most lionized of today’s social media fixtures can transcend their bite-sized format to invoke the stardom of a boy band, pop singer or explosive actor. The reaction they elicit from their avid followers is not just fanaticism, but a full-on, Beatle Mania-type craze. Bach Buquen, the 19-year-old TikTok phenom, represents this dynamic more than anyone. Initially an emerging teen icon for his calisthenics clips and boyish good looks, his practice of unabashedly wearing makeup has since positioned him as a harbinger of a new kind of masculinity. For VMAN’s pre-fall digital cover, we sat down with Buquen to hear about how he started making content, his laissez-faire approach to makeup and what’s to come.

BACH IN ACTION In person, Buquen is exuberant. When we conducted our photo shoot, his magnetism lit up the room as he eagerly introduced himself to every member of the crew. He wanted to chat about New York City (where he moved only five months ago), dogs, his gratitude for doing the shoot and anything else that popped up. When I told him I had a dog, he grinned when giddily telling me he has two golden retrievers, sighing to reveal that they’re back in France.

Buquen grew up in the Sixth in Paris, “my favorite neighborhood,” he tells me. His mother was formerly an actress, and so he grew up around fashion, but was originally into sports—almost every one. “I started making content almost two years ago now, mainly for fun, centered around sports.

Like my favorite calisthenics,” he tells me, before listing a litany of other athletic exploits: “I played rugby. I did ballet for seven years, so for a long part of my life. I did wrestling, swimming, a little bit of everything.”

When I ask Buquen about makeup, he doesn’t view it as a move to challenge masculinity; he simply liked using it, which is perhaps a representation of how masculinity has evolved for the younger generation.

“I started using makeup in middle school, because I had pimples, and so I took my mother’s concealer in the morning to hide them very quickly before I went to school,” he explains matter-of-factly. Today, as fans of his TikTok will know, he still maintains a regular makeup routine. “I start with a foundation after breakfast. It’s very light, but there are different steps. A bit of foundation, eyeliner, also a bit of eyebrow gel, and blush.”

Around six months into producing his calisthenics content, he 3

introduced makeup videos while simply revealing a glimpse of his day-today. Implementing makeup content wasn’t as much a “content direction” decision as it was just showcasing something that is part of his life.

When we turn to the future, Buquen is overflowing with excitement.

He recently moved to New York City and has been loving it: “The most exciting thing at the moment is my new life here in the US, because I truly like it. I can’t wait to discover more of the city. I’m 19 years old, I’m very young. To explore a new city like this, and to move in the city alone is huge.

It’s already one of my favorites.” Amid an overflowing work and travel schedule, he’s eager to embark on a new part of his career. “I have so many projects, but I’m really excited because I’m going to start streaming soon,” he grins to me via a video call from Paris. “It will be sports, chatting, some gameplay, going to work everywhere in the cities or in different countries.

A bit of everything.”

Skincare is more than just part of Buqeun’s commitment to looking good, but part of an overall ethos about feeling his best. “Working out is one of my favorite things, because it helps me to breathe a bit, charge my mind. I love to take care of me,” he says.

Despite amassing more than 10 million followers across his platforms, Buquen tells me that he feels his audience still doesn’t know everything about his personality. “I love to visit art galleries in my spare time,” he says before expanding more broadly with youthful excitement— something that courses through almost every word he utters: “I just love to discover and create new things.”

Lamborghini biker jacket and cut up cargo pants BALENCIAGA

In a world inundated with short-form video, David Kim is making a name for himself with his content showcasing photography, an accessible approach to beauty and the life of a burgeoning model. Born in South Korea, Kim immigrated to Virginia in 2011 with his family of five. “During our first few years in the U.S., we lived with my cousins and all shared a single bedroom,” he tells VMAN. Despite the urban setting of so much of his content found on his TikTok channel, where he currently entertains over 2 million followers, Kim loves the outdoors. “I actually grew up in the mountains of Korea, and that gave me a strong connection to nature that’s still a big part of who I am.” This upbringing perhaps fostered his current exercise regimen, which is strongly centered around rock climbing, which he deems “the perfect way for me to stay lean without putting on too much muscle.”

DAVID FACES OFF Although the 22-year old started pursuing modeling in July of 2023, it was his long time infatuation with photography that eventually encouraged him to get in front of the camera. “Fashion has always been a passion of mine since a young age, but my genuine interest in modeling developed as I advanced in my photography career,” he says, adding: “While directing and posing models during my shoots, I naturally picked up techniques and knowledge from behind the lens. Eventually, I felt inspired to step in front of the camera and explore modeling for myself.”

With this, Kim’s content incorporates all the starry facets of what it takes to be a male model, posting a range of videos that showcases aspects of his beauty routine, modeling go-sees, and his photography practice. “I started creating content during COVID in 2020. Like many people, I began just for fun—mainly posting dance videos and lighthearted, humorous content. Soon enough, a few videos started to take off, and I’ve been riding that momentum ever since,” he says.

Through this momentum, there’s been much fanfare surrounding Kim’s most recognizable features is his skin, which rightfully spurs a lot of curiosity from an audience eager to recreate whatever routine has spurred such miraculous results. “I stick to a pretty standard Korean routine,” he says, explaining: “I use a cleanser, toner, serum, essence, moisturizer, and always finish with sunscreen. Sunscreen is essential for me because I want to protect my skin and stay looking young for as long as possible.”

Having recently moved to NYC, Kim is excited to see what will happen in a new city. “I’m looking forward to seeing how I adapt to life in New York, especially since I just recently moved here,” he says. “This move is an exciting new chapter for both my career as a model and photographer, and for my personal growth as a young adult navigating my social life, passions, and long-term goals.”

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David wears Speedmaster Moonwatch OMEGA

Sweater and keychain VALENTINO 7

Colorblock logo varsity jacket TOMMY HILFIGER

Many roads can lead to becoming a model. For Dav Brunson, a nascent love of sneakers—fostered in part by playing basketball—would eventually snowball into running a burgeoning clothing brand, walking down the runway, and producing a myriad of content to his nearly one million followers on TikTok. In particular, fans have come to love Brunson for his approachable style on the platform. In one video, he might candidly divulge aspects of his personal life, then showcase his kickboxing process, and later post a series of increasingly aggressive dunks on an outdoor basketball court. In a spacial pre-fall digital edition of VMAN—showcasing the season’s most exciting collections—Brunson talks about how he got into fashion, his approach to staying fit and what the future holds for him and his brand.

DAV TAKES FLIGHT Growing up in Greenville, South Carolina, Dav’s early fascination with sneakers fostered his initial foray into fashion. “At a young age, my brother would wear all white Air Force Ones. And I thought it was just the coolest shoe ever. So I started trying to get a cooler shoe than him. And then eventually I got a decent sized sneaker collection, but my outfits sucked. So it was like, I guess I got to step it up,” he chuckles to me, adding: “I’m still more of a sneaker guy. The clothes kind of complement the sneakers.”

The clothing limitations for Brunson’s tall, lanky frame eventually led him to start his own fashion brand in high school, aptly named Creationz by Dav. “The clothes I wanted to wear just didn’t exist,” he tells me on why he started his own brand. “I’m tall and skinny, so it was hard to find clothes that fit me growing up. I started to make clothes that I wanted, or the certain fit that I want. I still got my sewing machine in the office.”

Throughout high school, Brunson was playing basketball. But he eventually had to decide between the sport and pursuing modeling— something perhaps more conducive to running a fashion brand. “Initially, I didn’t really consider modeling as an option or an outlet or anything. I was gonna play college basketball at Catawba University. I got my offer in the same week I got an offer from DNA. And I asked the basketball coach, ‘Is it possible to do modeling and basketball?’ He said no. And the only reason I really wanted to go to school was to play basketball. So I was like, I might as well go ahead and get started in the fashion industry, because I already had my brand, so this would be a good outlet.”

When I ask Brunson what led him to TikTok, it was initially a marketing tool for his brand. “I used to do Vine and stuff back in the day with my older brother,” he says. When he got started in 2020, “People were kind of calling it corny, but I looked at it like you didn’t have to do the little TikTok dances. I felt like you could just do what you wanted on there. So I started posting fashion content and talking about the brand, and eventually TikTok kind of took off as a company, and as a result of 9

that, more eyes got on my brand and my content, which helped me out a lot.”

His explosion on TikTok has certainly made life simpler as a brand owner. It also made the creative process more liberating. “[The brand has] become easier. It’s less of a worry about making money, now it’s more of a creative outlet. You can only be so creative if you’re limited to the funds you have. You can’t make every piece that you want or be so specific about the color or the texture or the buttons. Now I can really elevate it. So now it feels like I can make a final product. I’m not there yet, nor is the brand where I want to be, but it feels like I’m progressing to where it’s a real brand and not just a home project.”

When it comes to his personal wellness routines, Dav lives a lifestyle centered around staying active. Forgoing a more meticulous routine, Dav tells me that the way he stays in his best form for modeling is simple: “Exercise every day as much as possible. As a model or a brand owner, I have a lot of free time. So with that time, I’m not necessarily trying to exercise, I just have fun doing physical activity. Skateboarding, basketball, Muay Thai, kickboxing, anything like that. Just going on a run.

Let the endorphins do something for me.” On his skincare routine, he laughs: “I’m very bad at that. I just feel like fruit, that’s the main thing you gotta eat. Bunch of fruit, mangoes.”

For the future, Brunson is most excited about what’s coming up for Creations by Dav. “The brand is gonna be dropping a lot of higher-end pieces. I’m coming out with more elevated products. So it’ll be cool to see how that stuff turns out.” Brunson first hesitates when I ask him if there’s anything his audience might not know about him, joking, “What do I want to let them know?” After a moment, he shares an answer far more thoughtful than most 22-year-olds would give: “I don’t have kids yet, but I’m really focused on my kids that I will have. That’s my main goal, making sure my kids have everything.”

Dav wears striped top GUCCI

Blazer MCQUEEN 11

Check hooded jacket and Prince of Wales check wool jacket BURBERRY

ILLUSTRATION MAHBOUBEH ABSALAN TEXT STEPHANIE WONG

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