Everybody loves an underdog. We see it in sports, culture, politics – hell, even at the Academy Awards. We just can’t help but root for the Davids fighting Goliaths. Psychologists will tell you it’s because we get more pleasure out of unexpected successes. But maybe it’s also that we respect adaptability, innovation and admire grit. Either way, there is a reason why the humble Mini has survived all these years as an icon. Because, at its very core, it has always been the little car that could.
Scratched onto a tablecloth in 1956 by Morris engineer Sir Alec Issigonis and put into production in 1959, the Mini was a solution to European fuel shortages caused by the Suez Oil Crisis. At the time,the British Motor Company needed a car that was small, fuel-efficient, familyfriendly and of-the-moment. While the rest of Europe was making squashy “bubble cars”, Issigonis’ bold design was based on a highly simplistic, boxy frame that could be easily manufactured, fitted four adults comfortably and was engineered to be a well-balanced, thrilling thing to drive. His secret? A 90-degree rotation of the engine and shift of the mechanical guts and frontwheel-drive system. Sir Alec’s Mini not only served as an economical solution and single-handedly inspired the transverse engine to become what it is today, it also had emotion, style, comfort and practicality in spades, going on to become an enduring, trophy-winning cultural icon. In a few months, almost 61 years after the bug-eyed
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How to Dress for a Concert in Your Thirties
GQ World Humour
MARNI'S FRANCESCO Risso WILL NEVER GROW UP
The eccentric Italian designer is proving that the very serious business of fashion doesn't have to be very serious at all.
WELCOME TO LAUREN HALSEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD
The red-hot 36-year-old artist has achieved global success with a very local approach: applying imaginative, laser-like focus to a few square blocks of her hometown. In doing so, she renders and reflects what it's actually like to live and work in-and never, ever leave-South Central Los Angeles.
MEET THE WILDEST CHARACTER IN THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSIC SCENE
Right now, to be the most important new voice in Afrobeats means you might just be the most important new voice in global music, period. That title currently belongs to Asake, a Nigerian singer with bonkers style and a penchant for making speaker-melting hits.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Goa's buzziest restaurants Praça Prazeres and Larder + Folk traverse the European continent for inspiration.
LEWIS HAMILTON IS CHANGING LANES
The seven-time F1 champ says he still has a world title in him-maybe this year, his final one at Mercedes; maybe next year when he joins Ferrari, a shocking move he tells us he manifested. But it's his passionate work outside of racing-in fashion, in film, in music-that's setting him up to keep making moves after the chequered flag drops on his racing career.
Summer of Sobhita
From Vizag to LA, Sobhita Dhulipala is having a golden run.
THE GQ35 MOST INFLUENTIAL YOUNG INDIANS
It's been 10 heady years since this list was first launched. And this year's edition celebrates India's youth power like never before. These individuals are leaders of powerful tribes, and personalities bearing influence over millions across the globe. They are pioneering business models, defining culture, and disrupting the status quo. They are driving innovation, pushing boundaries, and effecting change. Welcome to the future, today.
The Life-Changing Magic of Asking Kind Strangers to Rate Your Looks Online
On Reddit, a community dedicated to advice on one's appearance has given some men some unexpected confidence-and its moderators are trying to maintain one of the internet's few troll-free places.
Syncretic Jewels
An exhibition by Cartier at the Louvre, Abu Dhabi, highlighted the influence of Islamic art and Indian gems on the French maison's haute joaillerie over the years through more than 400 works from the museum's collection as well as those of partner museums, the Cartier archives, and private collectors.
