Inside the 50th Issue of Gentleman's Journal

0:00Joe Bullmore:Hello and welcome back to the Gentleman's Journal podcast. I'm Joe Bullmore, the editor of Gentleman's Journal, and I'm sitting here today with Harry Jarman, my colleague and boss at Gentleman's Journal, to discuss this, which is our 50th issue of the magazine. And we talk about some of the amazing things and amazing people inside of it, as well as some memories over the last 50 issues.

0:34Hey Joe. Hi Harry. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Let's start that again.

0:40Joe Bullmore:I'm very well. I'm very well. And I'm very excited to be talking. About the 50th issue. 50 issues of Gentleman's Journal. 50 print issues. We made it. We made it. Is that what we were going for? Well, I don't know. I mean, it's quite a compliment. As you put in your editor's letter. Yeah. It was quite a nice editor's letter. Actually, you get a mention. I'm a bit flattery on my behalf. It's always good. Before we talk about the 50th, why don't we talk about the first ever issue? Do you remember the first issue of Gentleman's Journal? Yeah, I do. I mean, I've got one issue that I keep as a reminder.

1:12Of how far you've come. I'd never open it, but I look at the cover was a Terry O 'Neill picture.

1:17Joe Bullmore:It's not a bad start. It was great, which he gave. He knew my mum and gave it to me royalty free, I think. Wow. But, you know, I was 24 trying to start a magazine. So I think he was trying to be like super nice. But then I also realized that I misspelled one of the bylines on the cover. Not Terry O 'Neill's. No, not Terry O 'Neill's. But yeah, and then inside it was all wrote on my laptop using a thing called Photoshop. You designed the layout on Photoshop. I designed it, put the whole thing together. um a bit weirdly you know very much the essence is still yeah there today i was gonna say i reckon there are things from that first issue 100 it was sean connery on the front wasn't it it was sean connery i think it was behind the scenes of dr no yeah and it was it was uh it was an image that i don't think there's a famous one of him sticking his tongue out yeah this was not this was like i think it was probably like shot just before this from the same set yeah and it was from the same set hadn't been used that much um i seem to think it was it was there was a film coming out i want to say skyfall okay it might be an older it would it would have been older but it was basically celebrate brand and still today like i think most of the brands we work with are very much in that staple yeah so on to jason i don't think yeah so like and obviously yeah 50 years it's a very different magazine because you're now behind it yeah i mean i think as you say the essence is still there there was probably lots of yachts in the first one wine yeah nice thing actors interviews great great british brands entrepreneurs watches watches um so yeah it's all still there okay well i hope now we are now we're on issue 50 49 issues who knows do you think there'll be 50 more that's the i don't know that would be remarkable it would be that seems actually quite terrifying i joined i think issue 36 okay 37 really what was your no no what was your first issue my first issue was a bit of a frankenstein because i got there very late in the issue cycle okay reasons we don't need to go into and and we had jeremy renner on the cover who's great but i don't know if i would do it like that again it was very it was a red background no that wasn't my favorite that wasn't not keen on colored colored background wasn't my favorite cover um what has been your favorite cover I feel like we're on an anniversary.

3:41Here we are. We're trying to give you a preview of the issue. We're living in the past. What was your favorite?

3:46Joe Bullmore:Favorite cover. The one that comes to mind straight away is Pierce Brosnan. Yeah, it's great. That was during COVID. During COVID. At his house in Malibu. Sunglasses and blue Californian sky. Yeah. We should have sold that to Purcell. It's like an ad campaign. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Purcell's on the... Yeah. Never got a thank you for that from Purcell. Maybe not. Not even a spare. Very rude. of very holding personal well to the future then yeah present so here we are i'm holding this issue in front of me there's so much we could talk about would you want to start at this vaguely at the start and let's start i mean like this issue like i i'm i'm really i love this issue it's very summary uh obviously it's summer issue and it's like it's quite positive um but yeah like obviously the portfolio section we have done what we do is a little snapshot and everything yeah um so wine i think we said we looked into whispering angel yes which is really interesting we've had like a long relationship with them um but i think this year is the final year that they've sold the business yeah so it was kind of like and it's also their anniversary it's 20 20 years 20 years since their first vintage is their 20th vintage and you're right you're you're a rosé baron yourself you've got your own riffs we're not the beaters failed Rosé Baron in many ways but they were the original and they've done a pretty phenomenal job Sasha Lachine yeah this is Sasha's final vintage a man everyone describes as full Staffian or I don't know a proper Bon Vivant old school seems to have it all worked out and has now put together the final vintage and as I say I mean this as a compliment my opening line is there were Rosés before there was Whispering Angel but only in the way that there were colas before there was coke.

5:29Joe Bullmore:It's kind of true. It is the rosé. And every other rosé, even if they sell more bottles of it, really what people are thinking of when they think of modern Provence rosés is Whispering Angel. And the genius of the name, which, yeah, I mean, there's probably going to be some sort of thesis. It's one of those luxury brands that should be like a Harvard marketing. I'm sure it will be. I'm sure it will be. Lots of naff titles like In The Pink, which we've used for their theses. but I think yeah this this is the final vintage done by him I say it may become a little bit of a collector's item yeah um because yeah it is the most iconic rosé in the world and then we looked at like we did our usual watch chat at the beginning there was um seemed to be like a theme of like salmon dials uh one vina vacheron overseas salmon dial which came out of watches wonders which is a very uh sexy watch I don't think you can I think that I'm pretty sure they're sold out already yeah but um ultra thin there was 255 of them yeah i i'm pretty sure they're gone you miss however it's what it was what is what we call in the industry a flex watch flex watch flex watch yeah you just look at it and you're like that's a very nice watch okay and then the guy will have a really uh a smug smug smile on his face so who where would you see that in the wild then who reckons wearing that this i reckon it's a bit like a ferrari yeah if you bought five of them before they might offer you one.

6:52Okay. But I was, actually, we were in their club on Bond Street the other day with a group of lovely people and funny enough, it wasn't being offered out and I was like, where's Sam and Dial? And they're like, we don't need to sell that one. So anyway, but yeah, it's a beautiful watch and I think that was one of my top picks. And it's bold and different.

7:15Joe Bullmore:I mean, if you're going for... I think Brad Pitt's probably got one. He's a big Bathroom fan. Okay. I think he's probably, bought into one. But the salmon's cool because it's not what you'd go to traditionally. Also, we just age really well. It's like a patina. And, you know, the overseas, you can they have a very cool strap change. So you can just put it on a rubber strap. Nice. And jump off your boat somewhere. And then, I think car-wise, we did the Ferrari Testarossa before Ferrari became controversial this year. But this is the car before they came out. What's the other one? The Lusso? Lusso.

7:56Lusso. Lusso, which has obviously had a big controversy.

8:00Joe Bullmore:Yeah. You know what? I think it's strange because looking at the Testorossa, I mean, someone much more qualified than me will be able to comment. There seems to be a similar DNA in the front end. You can see that they're the same sort of thing, and yet one has been much better received than the other. Yeah. I think the Tesla, I think it's a cool car. I like it. I mean, yeah. I think it's going to age well. It's quite bold design. It's Adam Hay Nichols and 1 ,036 brick horsepower. I sort of didn't even know cars went that much. That's like a tractor. It's a powerful car. But it's also like, it's got the front like the old Ferrari Dino.

8:36Yeah. So I think it's pretty sexy. Beautiful. And then I did an article on Tod's. Wow. Yeah, I know.

8:44Joe Bullmore:The Tod's Gamino Lofa. Yeah, which is kind of like. icons it's it's it's like one of the icons we've done lots on it before i did a sort of deep dive into its history and i mean again a bit like whispering angel yeah there are driving shoes and then there's the odds that's it driving shoe and i think like loads people have copied it um i think they were on the original it's them and car shoe really yeah um and but tods have sort of dominated that market and it was made famous like by people like gianni agnelli and all these other people and uh royalty as well we've we've we've sort of done a bit more of a deep dive on it online as well with yeah just who's worn it but yeah that's celebrating um and they are i mean they're very unique shoe they're almost beautifully impractical yeah suede soles with those they don't last that long no they don't no i mean to be fair i think they do last long i have very well i have a really old pair that i wouldn't necessarily like because it's just got too many splashes on the suede now right but they're like uh they're like a really i that they're very comfortable buttery so i wear i wear them i wear them a lot yeah but you know there is the thing like when you get that first drop of something on it or a party yeah and you're just like oh that's it yeah it begins um when i when i was growing up the the boy at my school who was the most kind of interesting globe-trotting european kid yeah he would wear to school flaunting the dress code every single day.

10:11Joe Bullmore:He'd wear a different pair of brightly colored yellow, green or red. Yeah. And he'd just get told off. It's quite strong to wear those when he does school year. It's unbelievable as a 16 year old to be doing that. And I'd never... Was he English or was he like Italian? He was English-Italian. Okay, English. I'd never seen this before and this kid, yeah, he'd rock up every day with those. Yeah. Get told off. You're still friends now. You still wear that? We're not. I wish I... I actually saw him in New York. He's a very nice boy. But yeah, that struck me and that was my... This is, yeah, quite a debonair.

10:41And then we go on to Tudor. I went to Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the year to the Dakar rally, which has nothing to do with Dakar anymore. It's currently in Saudi Arabia. Yeah. But it basically has moved around. It's been like South America. It started off as obviously the famous Paris-Dakar. Yeah. And actually Saudi, it's kind of won. It's found its place because the terrain is perfect. for this race. Obviously, it helps that the Saudis are probably putting in a lot of money. And Tudor have just become, which is a brand we talk about lots, at Gentleman's Journal, has just become the official timekeeper.

11:25And yeah, they invited me out right at the beginning of the year and it was kind of amazing. So what, you raced, didn't it? No, but we went and watched all the stages, got to sample some of the Saudi hospitality. Yes. And it was just really cool. I mean, it's amazing to see a country like that. I think the country's like very much on the cusp of something pretty amazing.

11:49Joe Bullmore:Yeah. They're like, they're really embracing everything. I mean. There's obviously a lot of negatives that come with it and everything else. Of course. But yeah, it was really cool to see. And then, yeah, this car race, which I would say is probably one of the ultimate endurance races. I mean, and it's also one of the things that, you know, there's a real mixture of people. You have really, like Carlos Sainz's father still racing it. And then you just have, then we just met these guys who, you know, thought they would fancy their chances. And they were like, you know. Just amateurs. There was actually two English women that we met who were in an old Land Rover, and they were just doing it.

12:33I was like, wow, that's pretty amazing. Which I don't think there's many... You can't get into a Formula One car and go and race.

12:40Joe Bullmore:So you and I could, next year, if we were... If we wanted to, maybe ask Tudor to sponsor our team. Here we go. Let's start seeding that. And we can go into it. But yeah, Tudor, and it's very much driving their Ranger watch, which is their sort of military-inspired watch. Yeah, I can see it on a beautiful NATO strap. Yeah, exactly. Very handsome. And then after that, we did a lot on our top hotels, villas, Sophia actually put all this together. And I don't know about you, but I mean, there's a lot of hotels opening up. Yeah, all over the show. I feel like you get one in your inbox every day. Yeah, and you sort of think, how is there enough room, particularly in Rome and in London, there seems to be a new five-star luxury group opening something like that.

13:26Joe Bullmore:Yeah. I basically think there's a big thing here. Like, you know, like LVMH obviously brought Bellman, Chepard Blanc. Then you have, you know, there's like the Ferragamo family have like portrait hotels and lots of other things. Basically, everything says that luxury is becoming experience. And I think like if it's anything going on, like the pace it is at the moment. yeah it's it's it's it's insane and you know it's been like we you know we talk about members clubs all the time like is there i mean is there demand for this i mean i there obviously is and i think look you know you look around europe now any nice hotel it's very probably hard to book a room yeah in it that say that you know we're currently in july about to go into august it's probably quite hard but i think you know i think it's a trend that's going to carry on um absolutely and especially in europe i think it's a strong one so and then we did top private villas as well because a lot of these hotel chains are uh also going into these private residences yeah um so the mob bear club has a whole suite of private references uh hotel a cap they've opened a private residence and i think um that's now becoming like catering for this uber yeah people who sort of want hotel facilities but a bit of privacy in space and your own pool makes a lot of sense yeah very beautiful all of these yeah so that was like the whole portfolio section i think yeah which i think was good it was anyway a nice introduction to the magazine yes and then we did a lot of um a lot of interviews a lot of interviews a lot of interviews i don't really know where to start i mean there There was a lot here, but I will start with, I think, one of my favorites, Macaulay Culkin.

15:08Yeah. Say, I mean, yeah, he's kind of, we call him an icon?

15:13Joe Bullmore:I think we call him an icon. He's kind of one of fun, isn't he? He's a cult figure. Cult figure. I mean, but for us growing up in the 90s, his story arc was kind of remarkable. Like the most successful child actor of all time. Yeah. That obviously always, always comes with difficulties, I think. I think it's a very hard thing to sustain. Yeah. And now he's come out the other side as this sort of, as Johnny Wells puts in this lovely interview, this kind of remarkably happy, well-adjusted, interesting man. There's also like, I mean, for those, like we're doing this as a podcast, but go on the website and watch the video.

15:47Because the video was just like, I think it was one of the best videos we've done this year. It was really like humbling. And he turned up to the shoot by himself with no agent, no publicist. so the guys the guys were shooting in in place one dome at this beautiful new uh boutique hotel um owned by the chauffeur family that owned chopper yeah and we were shooting there and he just walked in like by himself um no no mind is nothing and i think that says a lot about a person uh you know we do talent shoots all the time yeah do come with a terrible entourage uh no but most you know they you know these people actually cause more problems than they do solving sorry I'm not going to go on a rant, I promise you.

16:30But, you know, it just says a lot about talent when they're like, hey, guys. And I would say the shoot is probably a lot better because of that. Yeah, I think so. I would say. So, yeah. Yeah, and he looks great. We dressed him with some cool stuff. He was wearing a lot of New and Lingwood, Tom Sweeney, these great brands. And he was being really honest. He was very honest about his career. Very honest and open. And I think the cool thing is he's obviously in like a very cool space at the moment. Yeah. Where he's just like, yeah, fuck it. You know, I'm pretty happy in my life.

17:04Joe Bullmore:Yeah. And yeah, which I think, you know, considering the life he's had has been pretty full on. Yeah. I think that's one way to put it. No, I love that. And it's one of those unexpected, there's people you, everyone knows, but you don't often hear from. He's not doing many interviews. Yeah. But he looms very large, I think, in all of our memories and childhoods. So, yeah. so what should we go to next i mean what was another highlight for you into your eyes um well i had a lovely time with jack whitehall which isn't hard jack is very nice fun guy and actually our we did an interview and shoot with him um which was one of our digital cover shoots we did that in what's it called the jamira jamira hotel jamira hotel carlton tower uh the carlton tower jimera with jack um and the the interview sort of got completely derailed by the fact that he wouldn't remember it but i was two years below him at school when we were growing up did you tell him that i i i found myself well i told myself i wasn't gonna and then you did about our prep schools but actually it was kind of a genius way in because um we got onto it i promised i didn't bring it up it was very natural he mentioned school and i said that and then we spoke about some teachers who we had who were remarkable.

18:23Joe Bullmore:Oh God, I cannot believe you. One who was the head of art, who was formidable. She was an amazing potter, and anyone who went to the Dragon School in Oxford will know her. Her name is Gay Fanny Sturt, which is a strong name and a very good brand, but as an eight-year-old boy coming into that, and she was this kind of larger-than-life figure who was quite formidable and scary, but also wonderful. So we got talking about her, and it sort of took us on a completely different tangent. But sometimes when you're interviewing someone, those very strange points of connection can mean you're not just sort of, you know, touching on the same old things and going for the same life.

19:00That broke the ice then in a good way.

19:03Joe Bullmore:If there was any ice to break, I don't think Jack has much ice. I think he's very uniquely warm. Yeah. But we were talking about his TV show, The Burbs, which is a sky show he was doing, which is all about a kind of seemingly nice middle-class suburb in America. But obviously, all is not what it seems below the surface. So for two middle, very highly middle class boys to be talking about that, it kind of gets you in interesting places. So it's a really, really nice interview. And yeah, he's good. I mean, he's looking better than ever. He's a very, very handsome man these days, Jack. So I love that.

19:39Joe Bullmore:And yeah, it was very, very good. Good. If only just for me to go down memory lane with him. It was a self-indulgent interview at least. Great. And then we did Tom Blythe, the actor. Yeah. he's sort of like i would say he's he's bubbling away becoming sort of like the new british leading yeah yeah he's cool like lovely guy and doing some great roles yeah um again we did a we did a great interview with him uh count nicolai count nicola he's sort of like become a fashion darling he's part of the danish royal family yes um nicolai mompasat yeah it's one of the all-time good names it's quite quite a name but actually again like yeah part of the danish royal family but walked for Dior and all these other things.

20:19Super lovely guy. Super lovely guy. That was just lovely. Like, you know, I wasn't on the thing but, you know, the team come back and they were like, what a really nice...

20:26Joe Bullmore:Yeah, very charming and... I think we should only interview nice people. Well, it'd be nice, yeah. Well, I think we're doing pretty well. We get a few wrong. We won't name it. Shame. But, no, I think he's remarkably, well, just very down to earth and ambitious and curious young man. Yeah. Who I think is going to be... He's cool. He's got a cool style as well. He's going to be very successful. and then we went to New York Dana oh yeah Dana Brown of Vanity Fair fame and Fred Castleberry they did a little interview with Matt Friend yeah who I mean he's I would say he's blowing up he's blown up he's blown up he's already huge everyone will know him as the amazing impressionist who will sort of does a lot of Jeff Goldblum yeah red carpets and will do Jamie Foxx and Jeff Goldblum will do yeah it's uncanny though I mean it's to do their faces he also did The King the other day I don't think he got the king that well.

21:16Very specific. Yeah, very specific.

21:18Joe Bullmore:But his Jeff Goldblum is very good. Remarkable. And he does it to the stars when he sees them. Yeah. And it's sort of like a magic trick. They can't quite believe what's going on. Yeah. It's very eerie, and it's sort of an ingenious way to do a red carpet interview because it knocks people right off kilter. But, yeah, it's one of those things. Impressions. When you see someone doing good impressions, it's honestly. Yeah. It's like. High. Yeah, you'd be burned as a witch. Yeah. If you did that a thousand years ago. thankfully Matt remains unburned and there was a very nice fun out for lunch interview they did over in Manhattan Manhattan which is cool and Dana by the way I should say has got a wonderful now running a wonderful new restaurant newsletter about New York Kaper I've signed up yeah get it every many days a week and it's yeah I sort of wish they'd do it over here well I mean it is it's digital it's a newsletter yeah it's global no no but I think they should do in London what why didn't you become the editor there we go jana if you're listening yeah i mean you've got enough editorships um and then last but not least we went and interviewed the tom sweeney guys who are yeah great and doing yeah tom sweeney's a brand that keeps keeps growing and growing they've opened up and just opened up a flagship in new york yeah they've made like i should say they made tailoring quite accessible on savannah definitely uh they've sort of taken a they're obviously a british tailor but i would say they're more italian slightly in their style yeah is that fair to say i think so they've just yeah they've got they've hit they've hit a market and nailed it yeah they really have and also it's one of those things which sometimes it looks like they these things come up overnight but when you talk to them and i interviewed them it's amazing how sort of slow and steady they've been yeah yeah yeah i mean it's not an overnight it's been it'd be 20 20 well they say every overnight success you know it's 10 years yeah exactly but 20 years old and when they started out they were in a windowless damp basement by their own admission and now as you say they've got a beautiful shop just off Savile Row and then an amazing Manhattan flagship and LA I think as well and LA yeah and you sort of think yeah yeah they deserve they deserve it all yeah no they're cool they've stuck at it and then on to house notes which is our which is our little middle section which is I would say which is your section really whatever pops into your head yeah small essays little digressions so we had a few things david jones famous photographer my favorite photographer of all time who's explain what he explain his time he he was a young man who was living in oxford and then started sort of going around the oxford balls which are still pretty debauched affairs but in the 80s when he was shooting them were these kind of wild back in Aliens, which before camera phones, no one ever, ever really shot them before.

24:09Joe Bullmore:And people would, were let loose and because people were much less worried about someone taking a picture. Exactly. They, people really played up to the camera or he caught candid moments or people just didn't expect to be photographed. And so it's the most incredible document. And he started shooting for Tatler for the times for all these different publications and still has this treasure trove of balls at Oxford, at Cambridge, parties all around the world, which he's still... There are new photos coming out. He's got tens of thousands of these, some of which have never seen the light of day.

24:41Joe Bullmore:And I think... They're great. Yeah. This is his new book just on Cambridge balls. But any one of these photos is iconic. There's a photo of these guys in black tie jumping over burning boats in Cambridge, which is one of their traditions. There's one which is taken at about four in the morning, How old would he have been then? He would have been at the same age. Yeah, maybe early 20s, 21, 22. So very much as young as many of these people in the photos. And he was just sitting there with a film camera. Just walk around. And these things go from 7 p.m. till 7 a.m. And catching every stage of the debauchery.

25:15But there's one photo which is, yeah, it must be 4 or 5 a.m.

25:19Joe Bullmore:in the morning, first light. And there are some punts with people in a disheveled black tie going down the river. and then there was just a Fiat 500 inexplicably floating in the middle of the river. And it's just as a sort of symbol of how wild and weird these things got is wonderful. But he's got the most amazing eye and I think documenting a very niche slice of society, no one did it better and he's still doing great photos. It's a great book. So I love that. And then Ed Cumming wrote a piece for us. Yes, on pizza factionalism, which yeah, talk about niche, but actually maybe not because London right now seems to be a place of, every week a new sort of pizza day savers up.

25:59Crisp was the first one and that's...

26:01Joe Bullmore:No, but it's all about the perfect. I think they're trying to copy it like the New York thing. Exactly, but what they have done and what people now describe that as, and I'm sure I'm going to get this wrong and offend people, that is now London style pizza. So Crisp is the front run of London style, which is different to New York because it's slightly thicker. The base is done in a different way. I don't know. There's much more experts on it. So he's done a deep dive. He's done a deep dive on it, but it's remarkable. What's the synopsis after this? What's the end point of view? Well, just that it's just going to get ever more specific, I think.