GQ!

My third-year high school, all-time favorite magazine cover. Feb. 2007

Clive Owen=cool and elegant

I still remember that raspberry plus something scent of Patron or whatever drink that was that you smell from the flaps on the pages. An iPad can't do that...yet

One of my favorite 90s covers: Timothy Dalton

When he was still, well, sober and not filming that documentary

Got that VOGUE vibe going on

I had the biggest man crush on Tobey Maguire.

Cause of him Spidey's my favorite hero

Hello, I look too handsome for a cover: Colin Farrell

The Thomas Crown Affair? I think this was from the 70s

My concept of a holiday cover

Coooolllll

Green looks awfully nice

The ONLY cover I loved that came from the 80s,

when the magazine started looking a little dull and less artsy

November 1960....so beautiful and romantic

Giving GQ the Klimt effect

This is worth a frame...Don't you think?

Does this even need a caption?

Duhhh....Robert Redford. The Great Gatsby...

When models mattered. And may I add, "male" models in there too

I'm not quite sure what other kids grew up reading to, cause I remember that I've been madly in love with GQ, right after I got past my collection of grocery-bought Disney Adventures back in the 90s (when a trip to Memphis' Piggly Wiggly involved boxes of fattening cupcakes and Disney Adventures and an afternoon dedicated to playing outside my uncle's garden and choosing between Charmander or Squirtle).

My first ever issue of GQ was the one with Viggo Mortensen on the cover: April 2004 and we were waiting in Detroit going somewhere. After that, I started growing into, what I felt like, proper style and lifestyle. And this was when I was 200 pounds and probably around 14 or 15 years old. After flipping through the musky pages of GQ, I fell flat on the floor and had been baptized into a world of American masculine style and elegance and humor. Since then, GQ has acted like a big brother to me, one who sort of taught me the ropes around an American lifestyle and culture that was relateable to people down our shores. GQ taught me the things to wear for certain occassions and up to now still acts like my Blair & Robertson of men's style. VOGUE, is another story. But the best thing about GQ is not so much how it dictates you, but it guides you to finding your own niche in style. That's one huge reason why I keep it and keep buying it even when it costs so much here.

Some people might not understand the seemingly superficial relationship (not to mention way too expensive for my age and non-existent income) between a youngin' and a magazine, but to the few who completely get it, it's not an addiction but a constant study of certainly an important part of life: style. GQ has got me covered I believe cause it's funny, it's rude but witty, smart yet easy to understand, expensive but also very achievable. Like I said, it functioned like a kuya, one who was away from home cause he's enjoying the prime of his life, who plays tennis and golf and American football, owns a Prada laptop sleeve and is never snooty and goes home to teach you how to barbecue and which drinks to drink on certain days and also tells you to shut the fuck up when you're being too juvey and then after, pats you on the head to tell you he's not sorry but, like all big brothers do, tells you to grow up and be a respectable young man. I love GQ, obviously and if my mom is reading this, she'll know that a year's worth of subscription is a perfect Christmas gift. Especially now that I am 100% certain that this is the glossy I want to work with in the future.

Enjoy going through GQ's decades upon decades of covers (from the 1950s-2007, these are my favorites...and yes I've clicked through all 529 of them), see the trends of the times and like me, start falling in love with the magazine too.

P.S. If GQ gets to read this, I hope they start doing covers like the ones they published back in the 50s-70s, when it was more, well, artsy and "imaginative" (if that's the term for it).

-Gerard