By Various
SPOTLIGHT / Pecs appeal
Championing the he-vage: (from left) Timothée Chalamet, Barry Keoghan, Donald Glover and Paul Mescal.
For women who grew up in the 1970s and ’80s, the male chest (typically hirsute) was never far from view. Screen heart-throbs paraded their perfectly proportioned pectorals at every turn: think John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I. and Burt Reynolds in … well, just about everything.
Then, before you could say “chunky gold medallion”, they seemed to disappear, replaced by a certain, er, buttoned-up demureness, the open-neck shirt becoming the sole domain of Gold Coast property developers.
Now, a slew of Hot Young Things – led by the likes of Austin Butler (Elvis), Paul Mescal (Normal People), and Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) – are not exactly behind when it comes to showing a bit of front. Naturally, there’s a clever portmanteau to describe the phenomenon: he-vage. And the interweb is loving it, with Google Trends data showing that searches for the term rose 86 per cent from 2022 to 2024.
During awards season recently, he-vage was everywhere. At the Golden Globes alone, Timothée Chalamet (Dune) wore a verrrry low-cut black shirt, Donald Glover (Mr. & Mrs Smith) sported a revealing satin pyjama jacket and Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) played peekaboo in an unbuttoned shirt that was also transparent.
Darling’s new novel is a stream-of-consciousness journey set over one day.
But is the look translatable away from the red carpet? According to Aussie fashion label boohooMAN, the average Joe can embrace his he-vage by “simply undoing a couple more buttons on a shirt, opting for a V-neck T-shirt … or choosing tailored pieces like waistcoats and blazers with no shirt underneath”. Waxing compulsory. Deborah Cooke
READ/ Woolf mother
They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but the Rachel Cusk-style design of Miranda Darling’s Thunderhead (Scribe; $30) gives you an early sense of the reading journey that lies ahead. Set over the course of one day and told through the stream of consciousness of Winona Dalloway (yes, prepare yourself for the Virginia Woolf Easter eggs), the darkly comic novel is a biting, hilarious and original take on motherhood, suburbia and domesticity. The choppy, distinct style might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Thunderhead will hit the mark for fans of novelists such as Melissa Broder, Miranda July and Jenny Offill plus, of course, Cusk herself. Melanie Kembrey
WATCH / A friend in need
In this Oscar-nominated animation, a robot dreams of being reunited with its owner, Dog.
Never mind electric sheep, the android in this Oscar-nominated French-Spanish animation dreams only of being reunited with his former owner, a dog named, simply, Dog. Robot Dreams’ setting is New York in the 1980s, the aesthetic is deliberately basic and the mood ranges from romantic (or is it platonic?) to melancholic. It starts with Dog alone in an apartment feeling overwhelmed with loneliness until a TV ad prompts the purchase of a flat-pack robot pal. Swiftly assembled, the robot does exactly what it says on the box, filling Dog’s days with delight. But a trip to the beach brings the jolly times to an end – unless Dog can set things right. Without dialogue, but with a terrific use of music (particularly Earth, Wind & Fire’s September), Robot Dreams is a surprisingly touching story of connections made and lost. In cinemas now. Karl Quinn
SHOP / All about that base
Yona’s cardboard bed base can bear up to 2300 kilograms.
In the ever-evolving realm of urban living – whether flying solo for the first time, welcoming back adult kids or accommodating guests – Yona’s compact, cardboard bed base offers a portable solution. Unfurling concertina-like, this sturdy piece of furniture can handle up to 2300 kilograms, which is an awful lot of human ($189 for a double). When not in use, fold it back into its box. Crafted from recycled cardboard, Yona is designed for long-term use before being recycled again, making it the perfect eco-chic option for modern nest-builders. Frances Mocnik
WEAR / T juncture
The silk T-shirt: a flexible fashion item.
Our hybrid working life (some days at home, some in the office) calls for flexible “inbetween” pieces on days when a button-down shirt feels too structured and a cotton tee too relaxed. Enter The Fable’s silk T-shirt ($149), an item that always manages to be appropriate wherever you’re getting a hard day’s work done. Available in navy, white and black, it’s also machine-washable, which means no dashing to the dry-cleaner between Zoom calls. Sold. Melissa Singer
LISTEN / True detective
In a new podcast, Sherlock Holmes’ Dr Watson is now a true-crime podcaster.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes first appeared in A Study in Scarlet in 1887 – and the game, it seems, is still very much afoot. The latest homage to the famous sleuth comes in podcast form: Goalhanger’s Sherlock & Co., a slickly produced series in which Conan Doyle’s famous stories play out over two or three cliffhanging episodes. Dr John Watson (Paul Waggott) is a retired military doctor but also a true-crime podcaster who records for his fictional listeners (and us) Holmes’ preternatural detections, but also the pair’s humorous, “off-air” exchanges. The pace is often hectic and reflective of the racing mind of the extraordinary Holmes (Harry Attwell), who confides that he has depression, ADHD, autism, dissociative identity disorder and megalomania. Meanwhile, we get to eavesdrop on the blossoming bond between two loyal friends. A worthy addition to the oeuvre. Paul Connolly
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