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THE MAN IN THE MIRROR ISSUE Singapore 11 2018 ISSN 2301-3397 SGD8.00 The Favourite nicholas hoult Afable and generous, the British actor discusses his iconic roles, being raised by women and the creative surge of fatherhood Contents November 2018 | Volume | No 72 | The Man in the Mirror Issue Photography Michael Schwartz Outfit Trench coat, by Salvatore Ferragamo STYLE WAT C H E S 24 75 26 28 30 T H I S WAY I N 34 16 40 20 Neil before God Depression shouldn’t be a dirty word This page is lit Arbiter by Ivan Lim 46 58 61 62 Essentials of style Take a hike Essentials of style What’s the deal with Hedi Slimane? Essentials of style YSL accessories Essentials of style Whatever happened to Marc Jacobs? Special project LV cruise bag Essentials of style Kiton Fashion spread Copy of a copy Essentials of style London calling Essentials of style Sole searching Fashion spread Menacing Mayfair 78 80 84 Style of Cartier King of jewellers Omega Seamaster Ocean’s heaven Vacheron Constantin Abbey Road The bare essentials Skeletonised watches Photo illustration by Rebecca Chew ON THE COVER Nicholas Hoult Contents November 2018 | Volume | No 72 | The Man in the Mirror Issue PORTFOLIO 92 104 111 118 124 148 Cover story Nicholas Hoult Feature Vitaly Malkin Photo essay Finding Naoko Feature Momentum generation Feature Man in the mirror Feature Secret societies WISDOM 145 Photo illustration by Rebecca Chew 146 What it feels like… …to be a nude model What I’ve learned Alessandro Sartori Contents November 2018 | Volume | No 72 | The Man in the Mirror Issue MaHB 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 166 170 171 172 176 180 184 186 Food Dom Pérignon Plénitude Suite at Stellar 1-Altitude Food il Cielo Drinks Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 10 Drinks Mount Gay XO The Peat Smoke Expression Tech Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro Tech iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max Tech Jabra Elite Active 65t Culture Shelf promotion Culture The man who wrote his own death sentence Music Should devices be banned from concerts? Grooming Fix your claws Design Nick Hornby Design David Hicks Cars BMW Books Who are you? Swipe up ESQUIRE.SG ON THE SPINE Illustration Derek Desierto Combine issues No 66 to No 73 and be rewarded with the complete illustration 10 Photo illustration by Rebecca Chew 156 MaHB Design E S Q : But you’ve the work so high that people won’t be able to look at it straight on to see the face of David.  N I C K H O R N B Y: That’s not the plan though The face of David is just the starting point It’s not about the reveal It’s not about like “ta-da, now you see it” E S Q : So it’s not important for you to reveal the origin story to the viewer? N I C K H O R N B Y: They’ll have their own origin stories The meaning of the work isn’t derived from the artist It’s not the artist that tells the meaning of the work If I go look at Rothko, I don’t care why he painted it I care about how it makes me feel that day And what it means to me.  E S Q : Really? N I C K H O R N B Y: Absolutely E S Q : Because I always want to know the origin story I feel it adds another layer to what the artist is trying to say Which is always ambiguous N I C K H O R N B Y: I think there is always an in-between A piece of art, a piece of music, a piece of writing, it can definitely be enriched with narrative and context But I think it is important that every time you add more, or every time you contextualise, or interpret, it isn’t reductive, and it’s not didactic So if you look at a painting and there’s text next to it that says, “This painting is done at this moment by this artist and he did it for this reason”, it really wipes out the sensory opportunities for the viewer E S Q : As opposed to facilitating connection with a piece? N I C K H O R N B Y: I think it is possible to just to put out little satellites of thought that are suficiently far apart for the viewer to then create their rhizomatic network of ideas E S Q : Is that how you would define good art? What is your definition of good art? N I C K H O R N B Y: Open Not overly determined Definitely, that’s very important Good museums the same thing When you go to the Tate, it won’t say this is what this means It will have a quote from someone famous like Ian McKellen saying, “I was inspired when I saw this, and I thought about chicken” or whatever And that, I think, is more evocative.  E S Q : On a spectrum with ‘craft’ on one end, and ‘narrative’ on the other, where you lie as an artist? Is it important for your pieces to demonstrate great craft? Or is it more important for it to connect with the audience? N I C K H O R N B Y: That’s a very good Bronze sculptures by Nick Hornby in the stairwell of Carlos Place, Mayfair question I will use two diferent words So I wouldn’t use ‘craft’ and ‘narrative’ I’d probably use ‘form’ and ‘meaning’ And that is a real challenge. Let›s say, I think the starting point is always a concept It›s a theory, you›re having ideas The point of it is the conversation You are trying to have a conversation with the history, with your peers, with everything around you So we start thinking of those ideas The ideas somehow start to find their way into a form You go from the virtual to the real What happens is, as it’s going from to virtual to the real, and form turns up, 174 then the materialities start to hold Your idea might be to have a shovel floating in the air Of course we have gravity, it has to sit on something It either has a metal string or it has a metal pole holding it up So then what happens is, you’re facing these material problems and you start to develop your own formal solutions As you go on year after year, you start to develop a language in both A set of ideas you are interested in and a set of formal solutions E S Q : What are your formal solutions to your ideas? MaHB Design N I C K H O R N B Y: My formal solutions tend to be monochromatic I also like smooth surfaces And those things have become my package The dream is that the resultant object makes you question, not how did you that, but what does that mean That’s all that really matters and the level of fabrication is just a means to an end It’s just the vehicle to try to keep it as open and interesting as possible What you think? E S Q : I think it always has to be a connection; the meaning is key Because especially in the world of art, anything could really be art.  N I C K H O R N B Y: What sort of sculptures you like? E S Q : To be honest, I never really thought of what sculptures I like.  N I C K H O R N B Y: If you guys went to a contemporary museum, are you more drawn to pictures, photos, videos… from humble wood I think it’s one of the most beautiful sculptures on the planet It’s horrific to look at But incredibly beautiful because of the pathos I’m a complete atheist Can’t bear religion, but this woman who was a prostitute, and Jesus loved her and she went to the desert for 40 days And this is the moment where she has just come out of the desert We could all relate to this story of a wretched humble person, who has had this transformative experience I’ve chosen these two pieces because one of them is clearly sexy as hell, beautiful, stunning and immaterial And the second is on the other end of the spectrum But both of them have the relationship between concept and form as inextricably linked Does that slightly challenge some of your thoughts about the connection between these two things? E S Q : I am more drawn to pictures.  N I C K H O R N B Y: That makes sense As an editor, what you is more narrative-based But I’ve noticed by following you on social media that you like tech and you like materials Because there’s a lot of material in the fashion world.  E S Q : I think art is supposed to inspire Otherwise why is it there? When it comes to your medium, because it is sculpture, form must be important? As opposed to contemporary artists, which could just be a video playing in a room with scraps of paper on the floor Form, or craft, is not as important as the meaning it’s trying to convey Don’t you think?  N I C K H O R N B Y: I can’t separate them. I’ll show you two examples quickly [Whips out his iPhone] So one them is Constantin Brâncusi He’s a French dude He made a sculpture called ‘Bird in Space’ And this is about 100 years ago It’s the most phenomenal sublime object It is made in polished bronze And it is polished to perfection It’s not about imagining a bird in space It’s about the concept of what a bird means He’s trying to find the epitome of this concept What I find fascinating is when you look at it, it feels unreal It feels almost virtual, because you can’t see any scratch marks, any blemishes You just see yourself in the polished bronze Of course, the fun contradiction is, that mirror-efect came about through the bronze being worked by hands He made the form immaterial through its materiality, which I find very fascinating E S Q : And the second example? N I C K H O R N B Y: The other is Donatello’s ‘Mary Magdalene’ made A closer view of one of the sculptures E S Q : A little bit, but they are both still sculptures Again, with contemporary art, it could literally be a brick in the corner of a room And that’s art, you know what I mean? No craft really But it’s more about the story.  N I C K H O R N B Y: Rest assured, my pieces are a real fucking pain to make.  E S Q : I can see! (Laughs) And you use quotes to name your work? N I C K H O R N B Y: I just named a piece this morning with a quote from Coco Chanel: “I never want to lean more heavily on a man than a bird”, and one of the sculptures in Carlos Place is called, “Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief”, and that’s a Jane Austen quote I like to find a quote that just happens to fit perfectly with my work.  175 E S Q : It imbues new meaning into the work, I feel N I C K H O R N B Y: I think it does, yeah E S Q : Tell us more about the pieces for Carlos Place Is it a statement about fashion being all about vanity?  N I C K H O R N B Y: The black sculptures in the stairwell are composites of 19thcentury marble busts found in the V&A And each one comprises three diferent heads In the V&A, there is this court that is filled with busts When I first went, I was really fascinated by the two diferent styles One style is very idealised, while the other is more realistic The landed gentry, the people who inherited lots of money and wealth, they wanted their busts to be very classical and idealised Whereas the people who had made their own money—the lawyers, there was also a surgeon—they wanted their faces to be recognisable They didn’t want it to be just their name and their house They wanted people to look at the busts and go “That is XYZ” And I found that fascinating What I did was I took each head that fitted in with that narrative and I clustered them together So I’ve made a series It’s supposed to be a portrait of an archetype, rather than a portrait of a single person E S Q : What is the best conversation you’ve ever had with someone about your work? N I C K H O R N B Y: Ah, I love when people say, “Oh my gawd, I can see an elephant.” (Laughs) People are funny You have fascinating conversations with people who are in the art world and with people who are not in the art world If anything, it’s more fascinating to talk to people who’ve been all over the world; they bring such extraordinary things You’re much more refreshing to talk to than some art person E S Q : Do you think good art should either reveal the artist or conceal the artist?  N I C K H O R N B Y: The artist is irrelevant What matters is what you get from the work E S Q : You’ve never thought, “I’ve put so much of myself in that piece”? N I C K H O R N B Y: I put nothing of me into my art But in fact, all of me is in there too, but you can’t access me You only access me through my life I’m just contributing a small component to this big project, which is visual culture And it would be really narcissistic for me to feel like I, as a person, need to be present in my contributions to the bigger project In a party, I want to have some fun But in a gallery, I want to be contributing in a serious way MaHB Design 176 MaHB Design Renowned Australian interior designer David Hicks is one of the country’s finest when it comes to high-rolling luxury homes and lavish apartments The modern maestro, who has worked on projects in Asia, the USA and the Middle East, has spent the past 18 years building a portfolio that’s the envy of his competitors From mansions in the Hollywood Hills to multimillion-dollar penthouses in Melbourne, his thirst for modern design, an understanding of vintage quality pieces and an appetite for chic minimalism has proven a winning formula for the 44-yearold perfectionist Hicks has an eye for detail, doesn’t fuss over trends and keeps his storytelling chic and eternally optimistic There’s a soft spot for marble, an appreciation for clean lines and artwork is dotted in his final vision but never dictates the storyline There’s bold antique lusting and mid-century curiosity in all he does—but just how they meet is the secret to his luxury success Born in Darwin in 1974 [the year tropical Cyclone Tracy devastated the Australian city on Christmas eve], it was mere luck that Hicks wasn’t asleep in his cot at home at the time— instead he was with his parents and older sister in Perth visiting family for the festive season His family relocated to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the following year and lived there until Hicks was nine years old His father Ray had been working with a concrete pipe manufacturer in Darwin when it was wiped out by the cyclone and helped move the business to Asia thereafter Being raised in the tropics certainly informed his design aesthetic—and while not immediately obvious—there’s a subtle line that can be drawn, explains Hicks Growing up in an expatriate community in Malaysia, Hicks tells of becoming friends with the son of a British high commissioner and spending an afternoon sitting on the porch of their old white colonial mansion eating scones and fairy bread “It was a surreal and amazing time I remember his family had a silver Rolls-Royce pick us up after school one day and whisk us back to his family home for afternoon tea We’d wait under the car port at school until the drivers turned up and called out our names,” recalls Hicks His mother Gail was an architectural draughtsperson before she married and always maintained an eye for design and detail She poured her passion into decorating their family home in Kenny Hills—where decorative screens and a wraparound verandah left an impression “Living in Malaysia definitely influenced me, but not so much directly, it was more about being influenced by how mum decorated it,” says Hicks, who heads a firm in Melbourne “We had a ’70s home, sort of like a version of a Californian bungalow It was sprawling and all on one level There were terrazzo floors and plenty of open spaces It was very clean and simple architecture and mum decorated with an eclectic mix of items from Persian rugs to Malaysian antiques and contemporary ’70s sofas with pieces of the time A lot of my interest in mixing styles came from her,” he says.“I loved the house I grew up in It was very rigid and an organised space In Asian design, everything is aligned and you have plenty of clear pathways I think it’s fair to say I channel that regiment in my own and the decorative component from mum.” When his family returned to Australia in 1983, his mother opened an art gallery in Fitzroy He was also reunited with his sister who had been in a boarding school in Melbourne Being surrounded by his mother’s passion for art and conversations around design, Hicks knew from a young age he wanted to be an architect “It was never a case of wanting to be anything else,” he says “Ever since I was a kid I would construct my own elaborate cubby houses And then when I did work experience in Year at an interiors firm, I started to look at what happens inside as something that appealed to me more.” David Hicks’ new luxury design tricks One of Australia’s most celebrated interior designers is taking on the world one luxury apartment Words by Jane Rocca and boutique resort at a time David Hicks established his eponymous design studio in 2001, taking on projects such as the Port Melbourne penthouse (facing page) 177 MaHB Design Hicks graduated from RMIT with a bachelor of arts in interior design [honours] in the early 1990s, spent a few years working for others until he decided to open his own firm in 2000 “My business has slowly evolved over time,” says Hicks diplomatically “When you’re younger you take more risks and are more daring in your approach You also don’t care much about the money side of things It’s the naivety that makes you succeed I felt things started to turn around when I wasn’t perceived as the young newcomer anymore I was happy to move into being seen as a mature and more established business and the work just kept coming in.” His aesthetic leans toward Italian classicism as much as it borrows from Nordic minimalism—it’s the converging of both that wins clients When an LA client [an actress we can’t name] asked Hicks to refurbish her new purchase [and where Hollywood actress Ginger Rogers once lived], he didn’t think twice The two-level 1920s home in the Hollywood Hills would get the Hicks makeover—where a nod to old-world glamour while remaining mindful of the home’s era all informed his final bigger picture “They’re really into vintage in LA so you find lots of amazing antiques you don’t find anywhere else,” explains Hicks “Working on that home was great because it was a lot looser and I could really have fun with the furniture The palette was simple and warm and I managed to get a little old Hollywood and modern LA with it.” The home was decorated with artwork by German artist Thomas Wachholz, while pieces from Gucci and Christian Louboutin combined with authentic 1920s vintage furnishings gave it the ultimate starlike sheen “Like most homes in the Hollywood Hills, there are a lot of stories about famous people who have lived in them before While it’s a nice story, it’s not the crux of my storytelling You could definitely tell someone creative had lived there prior, but I was about capturing a new vision for it too.” Gili Resort in Lombok, Indonesia is Hicks next pit stop He is working on a luxury boutique resort where modernism takes a cue from local artisans too The project, which is due to be completed next year, was delayed due to the earthquake that struck the tiny island in August Luckily, none of the concrete build of the resort was afected, but many homes were devastated and the locals were impacted by the tragedy “There aren’t many luxury places to stay on this island, so the resort is a nice segue into a remote way of life with all the beautiful trimmings,” says Hicks “The resort is all about delivering upmarket villas with marble floors but is respectful to its environment We have alung alung woven ceilings and woven wallpaper and handmade terrazzo flooring that we’re getting from the locals It’s a place for people who don’t want to rough it, but want to go somewhere only accessible by boat There are no cars on the island and you get around by donkey and cart It’s a unique experience people are waiting for.” Meanwhile, back in Melbourne, Hicks is working on Albert Place with Gurner, where 120 luxury apartments will be built on the banks of Albert Park Lake [home of the Australian Grand Prix] But instead of designing all the apartments, Hicks has been called in to work on 20 of the prestigious penthouse suites which start at AUD5 million, while the most expensive sits at AUD20 million and comes with a pool “People are buying into a lifestyle, it’s not just a home they want anymore and they’re willing to spend a lot for the experience,” says Hicks of the demand for luxury His clients include wealthy families from Singapore, Malaysia and China who send their children to Australia to study “A lot of our apartment refurbishment work on St Kilda Road, Melbourne is coming from families who send their children abroad They want a base for their children, somewhere nice with a view and a luxurious apartment that Top: the clients’ love for France inspired the interiors of this South Yarra apartment Bottom: Hicks gave this 1930s mansion on Struan St a complete makeover 178 MaHB Design Eclecticism is the order of the day, emphasising the relaxed, informal aspect of coastal living at this beach house in Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula they would be accustomed to in Singapore,” explains Hicks “Luxury is a very big market for us These apartments are bigger than houses and it’s a sign that people are willing to pay anything if it’s giving them the lifestyle they want.” In Dubai, the demand for bling is even bigger—and with a brief that covers contemporary, classic and Middle Easterninspired themes, Hicks has come up with three concepts for residential homes which will be sold via display home suites and sold to multimillionaires “Dubai is where it’s at for premium luxury,” says Hicks “This is very high end where AUD15 million homes are being built by the hundreds We don’t have to think of budgets, it’s amazing to get to work in this space and see that the demand is there and people won’t settle for anything less This is where developers come up with concepts for multi-residential apartments and homes and engage teams of architects and interior designers worldwide It’s an exciting format to work in—and proof you don’t need to be in the same city to make things happen.” 179 MaHB Cars 180 MaHB Cars Of road, but not of course A sheltered Singaporean heads of to unsheltered South Africa and inds things are rather… diferent “South Africa isn’t like Singapore, it isn’t as safe So don’t leave your phone or bag lying around You leave it there, you turn around and it’ll be gone,” intoned a man, who randomly started chatting to me at the highway rest stop, in grave tones This, along with dire portents coming from street signs warning of smash-and-grab hotspots, news stories of people being killed by local wildlife in remarkably diverse ways (up to and including death by girafe) and handy tips from the hotel to only walk in brightly lit areas at night And one local I spoke responded “absolutely” to a question on whether he’s known of anyone who’s been a victim of crime To my coddled Singaporean sensibilities, I found myself in a country where you can’t walk out at 2.30AM for a prata fix while wearing enough precious stones to rival a jewellery show and where the most lethal animal around is a flying cockroach Of course, being an oblivious Singaporean is dangerous in South Africa To be fair, so is being an oblivious Singaporean nearly anywhere else in the world Then again, it’s all too easy to get lost in the stunning beauty of South Africa It might lead to dangerous situations, like walking of a clif, or taking your eyes of the road because you’re driving past an amazing river valley On that first point, that’s a very real prospect at Three Rondavels Located around 400 or so kilometres north of Johannesburg, it’s a trio of peaks so named for their resemblance to the roofs of traditional huts The Three Rondavels themselves can be found in the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve, and getting there is an adventure in itself Of course, you could be boring and take the highway, but what you really want to is drive along South Africa’s sinuous mountains roads, as I did Along the way, you’ll discover, as I did, that South Africa’s terrain goes through a remarkable amount of elevation change Particularly because Johannesburg and Gauteng, the province it’s located in, sits on the Highveld, a plateau with an elevation of around 1,500M There are great expanses of flat grassland, but there are also great ribbons of tarmac cut into the sides of hills Now, to most minds, the country is still flat, but this is coming from a Singaporean whose idea of a tall mountain is Bukit Timah So anyway, elevation changes are good, because that means there’s plenty of great driving to be had Yes, even in an SUV weighing some 1.8 tonnes, though it helps if the SUV in question is the BMW X3 181 MaHB Cars Elephant, lion and a lonely road—BMW had it all figured out 182 MaHB Cars Don’t believe what Madagascar tells you, it’s a lie This means you could, if you have rotten luck, go all the way there and not see a single lion, rhino, cheetah or any other cool animal But while South Africa has much to ofer in the way of natural splendour, it also ofers automobiles Yes, really Eight global brands make cars in South Africa for domestic, regional and international consumption Including BMW, which produces the X3 I was just driving at its Rosslyn factory, which I also visited while in South Africa The carmaker’s Rosslyn factory, while it’s a comparative outpost in the bigger scheme of the BMW Group (76,000 cars roll of the line every year, against the 376,000 cars the Dingolfing factory in Germany produces), is still every inch a modern automotive production facility And because it’s a modern car factory, the assembly line floor looks clean enough to eat a meal of of and much of the heavy lifting—literally and figuratively—is done by robots The painting process, for example, is completely automated from start to finish Which is amazing to think about when you consider how no human hands have, um, had a hand in painting the X3 I’ve been driving Even having a car factory is a far cry from Singapore The only car assembled locally was Ford, and that stopped being a thing in 1980 when the factory in Bukit Timah ceased operating And I’ll also wager Singapore doesn’t have a powerplant that turns the poop of some 30,000 cattle, plus other biowaste, into a source of renewable energy Bio2Watt’s eforts, or more accurately, the 130 tonnes of waste per day it processes, fuels a third of the Rosslyn plant’s power needs, with plans to increase this to half in the next few years Yes, Singapore also has recycling eforts in the form of NEWater, but that puts a completely diferent spin on ‘waste not, want not’ South Africa is certainly a far cry from Singapore, but then again, you’d kind of expect it to be Plus, I didn’t get mugged/ trampled/mauled/bitten, so I’m thinking that counts for something in a country’s plus column Words by Daryl Lee I’ve thrown a fair bit of shade at SUVs in general before, but the X3 is surprisingly agile It doesn’t drive so much like a truck, but more like an oversized hot hatchback It also helps that I spent a lot of my time in the xDrive30i M Sport variant, which adds, among other things, big wheels and big brakes to go with its 252hp engine—which gives this particular X3 more than enough real-world stopping and going power What it won’t do, however, is handle any serious of-roading As perfectly demonstrated by how I flatted both front tyres on a dirt road on the way out from Makalali Game Lodge, where I had spent a night Though this wasn’t any fault of the car or the tyres Lowprofile, roadgoing performance tyres aren’t the best pick for driving on hard-packed dirt, let alone for thrashing on unpaved roads Going hot into dips and generally flinging the car about is most definitely not recommended behaviour Then again, you’ll have to forgive my enthusiasm, because dirt roads are something we don’t get a lot of in Singapore—it’s common knowledge that the entire country is slathered in tarmac Another thing we don’t get a lot of here is wildlife People lose their minds every time they spot an otter, but in South Africa, you’re likely to see something far larger, and far more exotic For instance, a girafe loping with its borderline surreal ground-covering gait across the plains, or a small herd of elephants having a mid-afternoon snack by the side of the road Though it should also be said the more exotic examples of South African fauna aren’t roaming the streets of Johannesburg For that, you’ll have to either travel to a private game lodge or to Kruger National Park Unlike in a zoo, the animals there roam around free, not fenced behind enclosures This is both good and bad, because you’ll get to see them up close and personal An elephant browsing for food barely a few metres away is quite the sight to behold Or, for that matter, a hyena carrying away some freshly killed prey The only problem with free-range animals is they don’t exactly come out and perform on cue when the tourists roll by 183 MaHB Books Doubting face value All clues will lead to somebody Aristotle wasn’t fibbing when he declared that “the whole is something besides the parts” in Metaphysics The human body is made up of tissues, organs and systems, but what diferentiates us is our character and personality Everyone faces unique experiences in life that define us Looking back at these encounters, we can unravel obscure traits which have unknowingly seeped into our identity So rediscover yourself by heading down memory lane with these five books How to Write an Autobiographical Novel Alexander Chee Penning an introspective memoir may seem daunting, but celebrated novelist Alexander Chee easily bares all in his first collection of non-fiction essays Key moments in Chee’s life are explored—from college to cementing his profession as a writer Ordeals aren’t amplified in this compelling set of writings that weaves through a recollection of peace and pain Prepare to shed a tear, I did My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)popular Culture Guy Branum Labels, be gone Gay stand-up comedian Guy Branum marches to his own beat and finds strength in Greek goddess Leto The larger-than-life misfit then finds solace and inspiration from stage and screen underdogs during his journey towards self-acceptance Along the way, Branum stumbled onto his passion despite enrolling into law school Blooming from an ostracised zero to an entertaining hero, it does pay well to embrace the atypical Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking Susan Cain Silence is deafening, but only extroverts can hear it To introverts, a lull provides a chance to absorb and digest what the former has said Often perceived as aloof and shy, reserved individuals can surprise you with their capability to produce desirable results Favour is often prematurely awarded to efective communicators without allowing the shy ones to prove themselves So never judge a book by its cover and read someone by their individual traits The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing Merve Emre Do you identify with any of the 16 Myers-Briggs personality indicators after taking the namesake’s personality test? Merve Emre investigates the origins of the human type indicator created by a mother-daughter duo of amateur psychoanalysts How accurate is each category’s set of traits and why we identify with them? Sorry to burst your bubble but Emre highlights that the test is “not scientifically valid and has no basis in clinical psychology” These titles are available at Books Kinokuniya Nobody Cares Anne T Donahue In an era of selfies, social media and selfobsession, who genuinely notices what is happening around them? In a bid to stay afloat in a self-obsessed ignorant community, Anne T Donahue focuses her essays on confidence and surviving the pitfalls of adulting Stop pining that loneliness kills; being alone can be empowering too Go solo and take on the world without care 184 Words by Derrick Tan you might know Still life 5|5 From left: technical knit high-top ‘B21 Socks’ sneakers, by Dior Homme; nylon and leather high-top Jaw sneakers, by Givenchy 185 Swipe up Menswear in the details Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, local menswear outfit, Biro Company— founded by brothers Keng How and Kage Chong—share their brand ethos by creating an acrostic with our web address in 2013, Biro is a Singapore menswear label E stablished that’s made in Japan This year marks our ifth anniversary Since 2010, when we irst decided to a label, we travelled S tart across Asia to visit over 10 and we are taking the chance to recap and reintroduce the story and spirit behind Biro factories and fabric mills “MADE IN JAPAN, Our mum used to be a tailor We spent three years on this From young, we enjoyed following her to buy fabric research and development jo and materials, watching her create a dress from scratch Perhaps, this is how we developed a critical eye in the fash Many people ask, there are several convenient ways to produce clothing in a much cheape We use one of the world’s rarest fabrics— Tsuriami (Loopwheel)—which is produced The k in only a handful of factories on the southeastern coast of Japan The vintage machinery rotates around cylinders to create layers and layers of cotton at a rate of 24 time Q uality always takes precedence over cost and eiciency.” U rney If you not have your own insistence on quality, no matter what good tools you possess, they are useless sense We understand the importance of how small I ondetails contribute to the overall aesthetics of the apparel and nurture the value of craftsmanship in our hearts R and efective way, why choose Japan that is known for its high cost and slow manufacturing? E y is always: minute, producing only one metre of fabric per hour S per This results in a fabric that’s remarkably soft, durable and with a sturdy texture individuals who appreciate and G with understand what we bi ro comp any com We believe that our values are truly resonatin The style of Biro is never-changing: understated elegance, and a minimalist approa We hope that our products can stand the test of time, and n We aim to continue to create products that combine the skills of in design that keeps the focus of the C hbrand on quality After ive seasons, we hope O t just be trendy for the moment.that our irst collection is M aster Japanese artisans still refreshing and relevant with an international perspective to meet the desires of a new community of men who seek a deeper experience 186 Esquire Singapore At your fingertips On the go @esquiresg Save 37% When you subscribe to our digital edition 11 issues for only USD23.99 ... Rebecca Chew ON THE COVER Nicholas Hoult Contents November 2018 | Volume | No 72 | The Man in the Mirror Issue PORTFOLIO 92 104 111 118 124 148 Cover story Nicholas Hoult Feature Vitaly Malkin... by Indochine Media Pte Ltd ( 2012 14107E), MCI (P) 092/02/ 2018 , Syed Alwi Road, Song Lin Building #02-02, Singapore 207628, Tel: (65) 6225 4045 By permission of Hearst Communications, Inc., New York,... Hicks Cars BMW Books Who are you? Swipe up ESQUIRE. SG ON THE SPINE Illustration Derek Desierto Combine issues No 66 to No 73 and be rewarded with the complete illustration 10 Photo illustration