US GQ December 2025 : The ‘Men of the Year’ Issue

[Kimy Jo]

I genuinely want to know who buy this? Cause i dont think most men know/care about these subjects

 

[NYLA22]

I listened to a podcast interview yesterday with Will Welch. He said that his formula with GQ is to be incredibly niche, and *admitted* that they basically make the magazine for themselves (on staff) and their own interests, as I always suspected. Is it a winning formula? I mean, their issues are always so thin that I can't imagine it is. (The podcast is called 'Mixed Signals,' and it's their latest episode, if anyone cares to listen).

 

[jeremydante]

Okay, enough already- as handsome as Oscar Isaac is - that's the cover they shoot and choose?

Hailey doesn't look good, the pose is not pretty and the contrast is too intense.
Then Seth carrying a HAC Birkin 50?! Huh? Get real! Whoever styled, shot and approved this- termination, immediately.
SZA in a bathroom or kitchen? Clipse in ivy league/golf prep? Why, to it all!!

 

[callmejaeden]

He said that his formula with GQ is to be incredibly niche, and *admitted* that they basically make the magazine for themselves (on staff) and their own interests, as I always suspected. Is it a winning formula?

It can be if they have a good eye and pov, but Will Welch and the GQ team simply are not interesting enough for it to work.

 

[AFWQ]

How many covers does this issue have?

 

[Phuel]

I listened to a podcast interview yesterday with Will Welch. He said that his formula with GQ is to be incredibly niche, and *admitted* that they basically make the magazine for themselves (on staff) and their own interests, as I always suspected. Is it a winning formula? I mean, their issues are always so thin that I can't imagine it is. (The podcast is called 'Mixed Signals,' and it's their latest episode, if anyone cares to listen).

American GQ— and all the Western GQs, always give the impression that they’ve become just subsidized pressbooks by their publisher’s advertising income to keep their branding out there for likes/follows. None of these followers are paying for this publication. They’re all the equivalent of trust funds babies from Connecticut, taking up the trendiest social/political activism for popularity while driving their Lamborghinis to a protest and photo ops. So edgy.

Whatever trespasses she’s committed that’s got the mob faux-raging against her, I never got the appeal of Sydney Sweeney. I suppose the dudebros like her ample chest and that’s her claim to fame. That she mumbles through her acting; and truth be told, is dead ringer for a young Kathy Bates surely can’t be the draw. If she gains 20 pounds and cuts her hair into a librarian’s bob, she’s Kathy Bates in Misery. But hating her just because she’s a Republican seems to be the norm amongst extremely narrow-minded liberals. So much for tolerance.

And Steven Colbert’s straight banker dad who’s down with his Liberal Arts daughter persona has never been funny. (Although back in the late-2000s in school, a girl was in love with him so I guess he does appeals to someone.)

And the deliberately ugliest art direction to boot.

 

[NYLA22]

And the deliberately ugliest art direction to boot.

There has been this trend of deliberate ugliness in NYC (and LA) for the past few years, and I'm trying to figure out where it comes from, how it started. It's really fascinating to me. For the Will Welch crew, Sam Hine is their ideal man -- which is both hilarious and mastubatory in its self-obsession. I also wonder if sexuality plays a part, because GQ at its height (in my opinion) of masculine sexiness was when it was led by a gay man (Jim Nelson) for 15 years...and now it's a totally effete/anemic/limp-dicked shadow of itself, with a crew of straights! The irony is too much.

 

[tigerrouge]

Whatever trespasses she’s committed that’s got the mob faux-raging against her, I never got the appeal of Sydney Sweeney. I suppose the dudebros like her ample chest and that’s her claim to fame. That she mumbles through her acting; and truth be told, is dead ringer for a young Kathy Bates surely can’t be the draw. If she gains 20 pounds and cuts her hair into a librarian’s bob, she’s Kathy Bates in Misery. But hating her just because she’s a Republican seems to be the norm amongst extremely narrow-minded liberals. So much for tolerance.

It's not uncommon that we get a woman - usually a blonde - in popular culture who becomes this figure who gets hyped to the heavens beyond their apparent capabilities, while also attracting all the abuse of the day - with both sides of the coin being blown out of proportion.

Those people should make as much money as they can from the situation, before the spotlight shifts to the next set of t*ts, when someone younger comes along.

If they're lucky, they could be as seemingly unscathed as Kate Upton is, but they could also end up like Anna Nicole Smith.

 

[Kanzai]

Things would have been a lot better if Sydney was a singer or something (that means less attention from the fashion industry but also less political baggage), her acting is just so mediocre, her best perfomance was probably in The White Lotus SS1.

 

[grimesisnotmymother]

It just gets worse and worse

 

[Phuel]

There has been this trend of deliberate ugliness in NYC (and LA) for the past few years, and I'm trying to figure out where it comes from, how it started. It's really fascinating to me. For the Will Welch crew, Sam Hine is their ideal man -- which is both hilarious and mastubatory in its self-obsession. I also wonder if sexuality plays a part, because GQ at its height (in my opinion) of masculine sexiness was when it was led by a gay man (Jim Nelson) for 15 years...and now it's a totally effete/anemic/limp-dicked shadow of itself, with a crew of straights! The irony is too much.

Oh it started long long g long before.

I traced the deliberate, intentional, uglifying of high fashion— not just in art direction for fashion publications, but in designs/styling/photography/casting, going back to the late-2010s, at around the time of Emanuel’s Vogue. I suspect it may have been spurned on my the normcore trend’s attitude of wearing what are essentially prison/gang/utilitarian uniforms, but with exuberant pricepoints because— irony, and fashion’s fickleness of rejecting of what came before it: that period that is the golden era of high fashion of the 2000s. And along with the “ugly” aesthetic of people like Alessandro and Demna on an “ugly” cast, and the rise of influencers, it makes sense that the ugliest Windows 95 production in fashion publications were to follow. Italian Vogue, the once king of kings of all Vogues— and under Emanuel’s new direction, presented as a failed art school project. Then the plague of Western First World activism followed (while none of these people gave a damn— or just ignorant, to the real world atrocities still rampant throughout the Third World and the ME. Does anyone care that Christians are being massacred in Africa while the Queers for Palestine performative protest comes off as a fun field trip?) and fashion witlessly joined in with their “diversity and inclusivity” that lowered the standards and the gatekeeping of what is accepted as high fashion standards. And that included the horrendously amateur desktop presentations of these publications., That, and pushing out the talents for lesser ones, and probably, conveniently with a much lower salary that the experienced talents demanded, to boot. But as long as the PR optics of being inclusive and representative of diversity, people just bayed along.

Now when I want to look at a beautifully, skillfully, and thoughtfully curated presentation, I look towards Zara. ...The irony...

 

[jeremydante]

It's not uncommon that we get a woman - usually a blonde - in popular culture who becomes this figure who gets hyped to the heavens beyond their apparent capabilities.

Kate Upton comes to mind. They hyped her, then nothing.