In 2007, I met a largely pre-problematic Kanye West at London’s Landmark Hotel.
I was there to interview him about his upcoming third album, Graduation.
West was busy, as befitted the overachieving multi-hyphenate.
(Graduation brilliantly combined elements of euro-disco, rock, rap, krautrock, dancehall and about a million other genres, featured guest spots from everyone from T-Pain to Chris Martin, and came with a cover drawn by the Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami.)
West had, he told me by way of an introduction, been up all night mixing a video, planning his live shows and I forget what else—possibly designing trainers.
Not a problem, he explained.
“I don’t need sleep.”
It was 10am. As the interview got underway, West put his feet up on the sofa in the five-star foyer—and promptly nodded off.
It sticks in the memory because an almost identical thing happened to me in another hotel room a couple of weeks later, with Nas.
This time, as the Illmatic hitmaker slumped forward, his PR was on-hand.
“He’s just thinking,” she said.
But them the snoring started, and the game was up.
You can blame jet lag (American superstars flying into London to do last-minute promotion). You can blame my boring questions (to lose one rapper may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness).
Either way, the musicians’ blushes (as if they cared!) were saved to some extent by the fact they were both wearing sunglasses.
The precise point at which I switched up my Paxman-like interrogation technique to expertly put them at their ease to such a degree they were comfortable grabbing forty winks may never be known—their eyes were obscured by dark glasses.
The issue of wearing sunglasses indoors came up again this weekend, following an appearance by another overachieving American multi-hyphenate.
Pharrell was a guest on The Graham Norton Show.
As we’ve come to expect from the show’s charmingly random guestlist, he was sandwiched between Billy Crystal, promoting something called Before on Apple TV, and Emily Mortimer and Hugh Bonneville, doing the rounds for Paddington in Peru.
While Bonneville and Crystal were wearing traditional dark suits, Pharrell came dressed as Pharrell.
That’s to say he was wearing a navy zip-through top, mirrored Human Made cap, Louis Vuitton flared washed denim jeans, and a £1.8m Richard Mille x Ferrari watch.
The Daily Mail didn’t mind any of that.
But they did object to the fact he was wearing sunglasses.
“Pharrell is SLAMMED,” it thundered. His outfit choice apparently being both “rude” and “disrespectful”.
“Many viewers were less than impressed with Pharrell’s decision to wear sunglasses throughout the duration of the show,” it noted.
And it had the evidence from Twitter/X to back it up.
“Why is Pharrell wearing sunglasses? I know he’s cool but please!”
“Why is he wearing sunglasses indoors?... I love Pharrell, but take your sunglasses off #GrahamNortonShow”
“Why is Pharrell Williams wearing sunglasses on Graham Norton... you're embarrassing me in front of Billy Crystal”
Obviously, no one wants to be embarrassed in front of Billy Crystal—even if it’s through their TV set.
But it did raise an issue of etiquette: can you wear sunglasses indoors? Should you? And is it really rude and disrespectful to do so, in 2024?
Leaving aside that some people require dark glasses for medical reasons, aka The Bono Excuse—ironically, Pharrell used the Graham Norton interview to discuss his sound-colour synesthesia, meaning he sees specific colours when he hears certain sounds—Esquire is of a mind to suggest that, actually, indoor-shades are perfectly fine.
In fact, they’re literally a good look.
Sunglasses have long been a staple of the red carpet, both inside and out, of course.
And celebrities have always used them to “become” themselves.
“With my sunglasses on, I’m Jack Nicholson,” said Jack Nicholson. "Without them, I’m fat and 60.”
(This was a while ago. He's 87 now. Still in shades.)
But ever since fashion brands had the genius idea of marketing winter sunglasses at non-snowboarding city-dwelling civilians, hence making the accessory a credible year-round option, their take-up has grown exponentially.
Sure, you need UV protection in London right now in the same way you need shark repellent but that’s hardly the point.
Charli XCX has made perma-shades part of her zeitgeist-conquering look—and she’s from Essex.
Other fans include The Dare, Snoop Dogg, Julian Casablancas, Robert Downey Jr, Timothée Chalamet—possibly in prep for his role playing the don of dark shades, Bob Dylan—and, of course, Anna Wintour.
Gucci, Dior, Loewe and Saint Laurent all sent sunglasses down the catwalk for the traditionally unsunny season of Autumn/Winter 2024-5.
In the current Balenciaga lookbook every single model is wearing shades.
“Wearing sunglasses all year round, summer and winter, sunshine and rain, inside and outside, on your face or even on top of your head, is not quite the gauche, self-regarding faux pas it used to be,” says Esquire contributing editor and style authority Simon Mills.
“Without our sunglasses we are ordinary Joes—but buy a pair of knock-off aviators and a Mr Benn-like transformation occurs. We become stars in our own private Heat magazine drama.”
Plus, Mills points out, in the case of Pharrell and his Kenzo sunnies—it’s his thing.
“It would have been a lot weirder if Billy Crystal had worn shades.”
Stephen Doig, men’s style editor at the Telegraph and deputy editor of Telegraph Luxury, is a card-carrying member of the Shades Indoors Club—and is inclined to agree.
“As a disciple of the church of dark shades, online sniping about Pharrell’s sunglasses is tediously middle England,” he says.
“Yes, there are situations in which wearing sunglasses is impolite and socially unacceptable—see Anna Wintour wearing her signature sunglasses to sit alongside the late Queen Elizabeth. Wearing them in a church wedding, or to job interview? No. There’s an aloofness and an unapproachability to shades indoors that oozes attitude, and that can get people’s backs up. But sometimes you want to be a little inaccessible.
“Shades are part of people’s uniform these days, and they’re also helpful armour in today’s indoor landscape of hideous fluorescent lighting. Plus, they’re particularly helpful when you’re feeling weary and less than fresh.”
And perhaps also, it scarcely needs adding, should you want to grab a quick zizz during an especially dull interview.
Originally published on Esquire UK
Kenzo is scheduled to show on the fourth day of Paris Fashion Week Men's this season, and it's closing the evening. The Autumn/Winter 2024 runway show will be a combined menswear and womenswear show once again.
The physical invite that was sent over came in the form of a novel simply entitled Kenzo By Nigo. The contents? About 325 pages of lines and lines of "Kenzo" over and over again. Every single page—whether it was a section of notes or even the part where other titles by the author are listed—is filled with "Kenzo" on repeat. The show will also be held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
What perhaps could be a teaser of how the collection would look like may lie in the end papers of the invitation. An interwoven motif made up of straight lines with the Kenzo script applied at some parts—could this end up on the runway as a lining or even a print for the collection?
For any confirmation, stay tuned for the show this Saturday. And for an even closer look at the collection, follow @esquiresg on Instagram as we bring you the action live from Paris Fashion Week Men's.
What: Kenzo Autumn/Winter 2024 runway show
Where: Paris, France
When: Saturday, 20 January 2024 at 3.30am Singapore time
After 18 months as the creative director of streetwear label Supreme, Tremaine Emory has announced his decision to leave the brand. In multiple statements to various press sources as well as on his personal Instagram account, Emory cited "systemic racial issues" within Supreme as the reason why he's decided to part ways. A particular event—an undiscussed "cancellation" of a Supreme collaboration with artist Arthur Jafa—exacerbated the situation and reportedly became a point of contention leading to Emory's eventual resignation. Emory is also the founder of Denim Tears, a brand that collaborated with Dior Men for the latter's fall 2023 collection.
As part of the second edition of Frieze Seoul, MCM partnered up with British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori for an exhibition housed within the brand's MCM Haus flagship in Seoul. The two-part exhibition sees a curated collection of 20 upcycled chairs representing a renewed perspective on diversity and inclusivity. The first half consists of 10 chairs decorated using surplus MCM fabrics, each differing in construction and silhouette as a way of reflecting their status as everyday totems. The second half is tied to Ilori's own memories of growing up in London as a British-Nigerian, exploring topics of culture, heritage and family, leading up to his identity as an artist today.
The MCM x Yinka Ilori showcase runs until 22 October 2023 at MCM Haus in Seoul.
Workwear is already an integral part of sacai's design aesthetic. Add to that Carhartt WIP's well-loved staples in the same space and you get a collaboration that's not only fashion-forward but also teeming with a function-first design ethos. Part of sacai's autumn/winter 2023 collection, the sacai x Carhartt WIP collection plays up the former's penchant for nylon fabrications (and a range of other disruptive elements) with Carhartt WIP's duck fabric jackets in bold and colourful iterations. They're generally cut oversized with drop shoulders aplenty, and most importantly, geared for the urban landscape.
The sacai x Carhartt WIP collection drops 8 September at sacai Voco Orchard boutique as well as online at club21.com.
Before the Singapore Grand Prix kicks off (and towards the tail end of this year’s Formula 1 World Championship season) Tommy Hilfiger, Awake NY and Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team have come together for a collection that collides both the fashion and racing worlds. The Tommy x Mercedes-AMG F1 x Awake NY collection includes seven gender-inclusive styles that range from baseball jerseys to rugby shirts—all branded with logos of the three collaborators, with some emblazoned with the racing numbers of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell as well as “85” in honour of Tommy Hilfiger’s debut.
The Tommy x Mercedes-AMG F1 x Awake NY collection is now exclusively available at the Tommy Hilfiger Raffles City store and online. A dedicated pop-up is now running at Raffles City from 4 – 17 September.
The autumn/winter 2023 collections are beginning to stream into stores and so are the accompanying campaigns. Kenzo's East-meets-West-themed autumn/winter 2023 collection defies the typical notion of the term by looking inwards at Japan, exploring the juxtaposition between its cities: Kyoto and Osaka. In a fast-paced campaign video, the dialogue of heritage versus youthful exuberance between the two cities are further explored. And of course, the campaign features the debut Kenzo's newest friend Vernon of K-pop group Seventeen, with the surprise appearance of artistic director Nigo himself.
