The Week in Style: 8.16.13

Aaron Paul having a really good time in Hollywood, California
If you're still profiling popped-collar guys as dickbags, let this photo of Aaron Paul put you in your place

Anthony Weiner in NYC
Orange pants are a bad way to draw attention to places that are not your crotch.

Zachary Quinto in Tokyo
The only thing we'd do differently is take off about five bracelets. That's it.

Liam Hemsworth in Los Angeles
If this were a text, it would just read eight thumbs up emoji and that one with the Edvard Munch face.

Josh Hutcherson in Los Angeles
Nice to see a guy in one tattoo and something besides a leather jacket while riding a motorcycle. It's the perfect example of how restrained Hutcherson is when he's giving badass vibes.

J.J. Abrams, Zachary Quinto, Alice Eve and Chris Pine in Tokyo
This reads left to right like a How-To suiting guide organized from Puritanically Traditional to Human Peacock. Take note of all the perfect fits, patterns, and confidence levels.

John Oliver in NYC
We'd comment on Oliver's always-impeccable style but he's standing in front of the most color-coordinated photobomber in Week in Style history

Penn Badgley in NYC
Is it possible that Penn is as good at nailing heel flips as he is the skater boy look? We have doubts because everything down to the dress socks and sneakers is one hundred authentic.

James Franco in NYC
Meanwhile, Franco is trolling Gotham's book-lovers in their own uniform: frumpy Goodwill cardigans worn with an air of intellectual superiority.

The Jonas Brothers in Los Angeles
Three brothers, united by excellent fall-weight jackets in the summer.

CK1: Colin Kaepernick biography

He's the backup who took his team to the Super Bowl, the football player with the 95-mph fastball, the guy who ran roughshod over defenses last season but was coached in high school to never run the ball at all. In other words, the most unpredictable and least understood elite QB in the league right now

The statistics are shameless—sixty-mile-per-hour spirals! 181 rushing yards against the Packers in the playoffs! a 38 on that esoteric and lewd-sounding metric known as Wonderlic!—but the most mind-blowing of them isn't gaudy. Just...weird.

"I want you to know," Colin Kaepernick says, "that I had negative running yardage as a high school quarterback. Yes, I was fast. Yes, my coaches knew I was fast. But we had no backup QB." And at six feet five and 170 pounds, Kaepernick seemed like such a fragile emu that his coaches were terrified he'd get injured. "So they told me not to run."

The GQ Punch List: 8 Things You Need to Watch, Hear, and Read this Week

1. Be a Trap Lord. Like A$AP Ferg. The rapper's debut studio album—titled Trap Lord, obvs—is out tomorrow, and features collaborations with the likes of A$AP Rocky, French Montana, and Waka Flocka Flame. Plus, tracks like "Hood Pope," in which we learn he's the Hood Pope. But first and foremost, he's a trap lord—A$AP Ferg stopped by GQHQ last week, where he explained to our own Ren McKnight just what the heck that is. GQ: How would you define a "trap lord"?
A$AP Ferg: A trap lord is basically the lord of the trap, and my trap is rap.

GQ: Sometimes we call Michael Hainey, GQ's deputy editor, the "trap lord." Are you okay with that?
A$AP Ferg: Is he a hustler? As long as he's jiggy, I'm cool with it.

2. Contemplate The World's End with help from Simon Pegg. We've seen the apocalypse a lot this summer—it destroyed James Franco's house, gave Matt Damon robot arms, and made Will Smith...weird. But The World's End is different: It has beer. Part of the "Three Flavours Cornetto" trilogy (the first two chapters were Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) from British comics Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright, The World's End follows a group of friends who reunite for an epic bar crawl that ends at the title pub. That is, until they realize everyone in their hometown has become alien robots hell-bent on destroying humankind. We enlisted Pegg to school us on what to expect when you're expecting the end of the world.

3. Learn three facts about comedian Kurt Braunohler. Recorded live at rock clubs in Seattle and Portland, Braunohler's debut comedy album, How Do I Land?

Alan Richman: At Estela, An Extraordinary Chef and What Could Be the Steak Dish of the Century (So Far)

If you are an admirer of Houston St., moved by its struggle to rise above a history of drugs, alcohol, and indie rock, reveling in the hilarity of tourists mispronouncing the name, grateful for the existence of Katz's pastrami, you might enjoy finding your way to Estela.

The restaurant is at 47 E. Houston, an address packed with possibilities. On the ground floor is Botanica, a dimly lit bar where to my knowledge nothing requiring sunlight grows. To the left of the bar is a baleful entranceway, the door held open during my visits with a shiny yellow cord, the kind psychos use to tie corpses to bedposts on Law & Order: SVU.

The Violent Life and Sudden Death of Junior Seau

When the legendary NFL linebacker retired for good in 2010, he seemed set for life: supremely wealthy, beloved across the league, a hero in his hometown of San Diego. Two years later, he was dead. On a lonely morning in a big empty house, Seau shot himself through the chest. It's no longer a secret how much damage pro football can do to the men who play it, but never before had we witnessed it destroy a genuine superstar—not until Junior Seau. in this GQ special report, Seau's friends and former teammates try to make sense of how a life so filled with triumph could go so wrong so fast

The average NFL career lasts 3.5 years. Junior Seau, one of the greatest linebackers in the history of the NFL, played for twenty—and San Diego, where he starred most of those years for the Chargers, was his city as much as New York is Derek Jeter's. Seau invested in San Diego both as a businessman and as the head of a foundation serving at-risk kids. But after retiring as a very wealthy man in 2010—he earned more than $50 million over the course of his long career—he began to behave uncharacteristically.

GQ's Comprehensive Guide to Body Grooming

How to clip, shave, and tweeze every inch of your body, from the chest to (yup) way, way down under

For most men, body grooming involves walking a delicate line between looking like a caveman on the beach, or a member of One Direction. Then there are the more...nitty-gritty aspects of grooming, involving places where the sun don't shine, and even some you've probably never considered before. To help strike that balance, we consulted top grooming experts on how to prepare your body for the summer. That said, body hair is a matter of preference—both yours and your partner's. In other words, don't buzz without asking her how she likes it first.

Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi

North Korea is a mythically strange land, an Absurdistan, where almost nothing is known about the people or, more important, their missile-launching leaders. There is, however, one man—a humble sushi chef from Japan—who infiltrated the inner sanctum, becoming the Dear Leader's cook, confidant, and court jester. What is life like serving Kim Jong-il and his heir? A strange and dangerous gig where the food and drink never stop, the girls are all virgins, and you're never really safe. We sent Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Adam Johnson to meet the man who survived all the craziness

The sushi chef was leaving his apartment when he noticed the stranger outside. He could tell by the man's suit—black and badly made—that he was North Korean. Right away, the chef was nervous. Even in his midsixties, the chef is a formidable man: He has thick shoulders, a broad chest; the rings on his strong hands would one day have to be cut off. But he'd long since quit wearing his bulletproof vest, and the last time a North Korean made the journey to visit him in Japan, a decade ago, he was there to kill him.

10 Essentials: Rainn Wilson

No longer Dwight Schrute, The Office star talks about sexy custom vans, sad men with guitars, and Vitamix

Rainn Wilson's tastes tend toward the moody: indie singers, burnout actors, film noir. Not what you might expect from the man who for nine seasons starred as Dwight Schrute, the nitpicky, egomaniacal assistant manager on The Office. Or the funny guy whose media website, SoulPancake, hosts a talk show where he asks actors things like, "If you had a magic bus, where would you go?" and, "Draw a picture of your soul." Wilson's site is also home to the Internet's favorite child politician, Kid President—the black third grader who met Obama in the Oval Office—and a slew of other original content. So Wilson's creativity will clearly outlive Dwight…but in what form?

Wilson is reticent to say. Now is a fresh phase, and he's excited to do something new. There are indie film projects he's involved with, and he starred in a pilot for the CBS crime drama Backstrom, as an offensive criminologist whose only commonality with Dwight is that he's also a curmudgeon. He'd also like to get back to New York theater, where he got his start in acting at NYU. But in the meantime, the former Mr. Schrute told us about Orson Welles, swaggy custom vans, and his mini-guitar.

1. 1970s Custom Van
"When I came up with the idea for Metaphysical Milkshake, it was mostly an excuse for me to make a custom van. I've been in awe of them ever since I was a child in the '70s—there's such an air of mystery, like, 'Wow, anything could go on in the back of one of these things.' We're not completely done, but I love it. It's an awesome feeling to tool around town in this mysterious, sexy custom van, and we use it for the talk show."

The 3 Best Sparkling Wines for Summer

In the June heat, even the crispest Riesling can feel a little flat. So we're seeking relief in sparkling wines—they come in every color and flavor, and the best ones can cost less than a movie ticket. Behold the most unexpected, thirst-quenching booze of the season.

Wine

 Picture a summer afternoon. It was hot. I was poor. The bearded sage at my local wine shop handed me a surprising remedy—a Vinho Verde, gently fizzing with tiny bubbles, that clocked in at (wait for it!) nine bucks. Nine also happened to be the percentage of alcohol. Which meant that an hour later, on my roof with a friend, I was in the Happy Place: pleasantly buzzed (bubbly, you might say), but not blitzed.

8 Essential Shorts for the Summer

Chalky Chinos

At GQ, we're into wearing bright hues that are all washed-out and faded. It's the low-key way to rep more color.

Chalky Chinos

The Retro Hiker

Good riddance to a lot of '70s style, but we do dig the return of patch-pocket cord shorts.

The Retro Hiker

A Muted Plaid

Take madras back from the Nantucket set with dark, muted colors instead of garish plaids.

A Muted Plaid

Camp Shorts

The diagonal pockets give these their workwear appeal; roll the legs up for a personal spin.