GQ Style Holiday 2017

It’s a joyous day. I just got word from senior editor Noah Johnson that the GQ Style family has expanded: Noah’s wife, Jayne, gave birth to baby Bea Drost Johnson. I met her a minute ago via video: She’s beautiful and she has the hiccups. Baby Bea’s arrival got me wondering: Will print magazines like the one her father makes still exist when she’s all grown up? Every move we make here at GQ Style, whether analog or digital, is in some way an answer to that question. And I think the print component of what we do is special because magazines are documents of semi-permanence. The stories we choose for each issue aren’t just meant for the moment, like the ones we create for GQStyle.com. Nor are they everlasting,…

1. Ties for the Tieless Era We’ll be honest: The reason we’re feeling ties right now is because no one else is wearing them. In keeping with that spirit, we found nine unlike any we’ve ever seen before. Keeping your style interesting isn’t rocket science— when everyone zigs, zag. - tie Etro $225 + shirt Burberry 2. Shearling Car Coats The hierarchy of jackets starts at the bottom with the windbreaker, then rises steadily through truckers and M65s until it reaches the pinnacle: the shearling, woolly as a lamb and tough as an ox. Bomber-style shearlings are never a bad idea, but we especially like the ones here, which hit halfway down your thigh. 3. Candles & Lighters Third-wave candles have taken over, so this holiday season, now that every…

When it comes to luxury shopping, there’s what you see on the runways and in the stores. Then there’s what you don’t see—the ultra-premium, no-limits bespoke programs designed to satisfy the insatiable. From custom couture suits and embroidered denim jackets to bridle leather interiors for exotic cars and yachts, gucci, hermès, and dolce & gabbana are taking exclusive, one-of-one shopping to decadent new heights.…

DIY usually means offthe- clock dads building backyard decks and grandmas decoupaging picture frames. At Gucci, it means a shearling-lined embroidered stonewashed denim jacket handmade for you. The white-hot Italian brand calls its expansive offering of customizable goods—from tiger jacquard silk bomber jackets to hibiscus red crocodile double monkstraps—Do It Yourself, and it’s the kind of subversive twist on luxury we’ve come to expect from Alessandro Michele, the mastermind behind Gucci. “This collection is dedicated to those women and men who are in love with their wardrobes and who like to wear unique things,” Michele says of the DIY buffet of tailoring, knitwear, shirting, outerwear, and shoe choices. “I tried to give them something slightly different, to allow them to have some little acts of freedom while wearing Gucci.” That…

A man walks into an Hermès store. Let’s say it’s in Monte Carlo, but he could be anywhere in the world. He looks around but can’t find exactly what he needs: a bag to hold his daily apple. So he sits down with one of the store’s sales staff and drafts up a proposal. That proposal is sent along to the Hermès Sur- Mesure team, and so begins one of the most innovative and sophisticated made-to-order processes in the world. The proposal will be reviewed by a design team, sketches drawn up, prototypes developed, and finally, with the client’s approval, in the careful hands of Hermès’s highly skilled craftsmen, the apple bag will become a reality “I like to give an artistic and sometimes twisted answer to an object’s functionality,”…

When most guys need to visit their tailor, they hop in the car or on the subway. But every July a couple of hundred savvy dressers in need of new threads instead hop on their jets and yachts to visit the men who make their clothes. Because their tailors are Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, and they are Alta Sartoria clients. Alta Sartoria is Dolce & Gabbana’s hyper-exclusive, überopulent line. Since 2015, the designers have invited their most committed clients to an exotic Italian location for a weekend of shows and parties— palazzi in Portofino, Naples, and Palermo have played host—and to an annual January show in Milan. Suiting is the highlight of the collection, but for Alta Sartoria the duo tailor an entire maximalist fantasyland. “Alta Sartoria is a…