Aug. 06--Lad magazine Maxim mans up for its September cover, putting actor Idris Elba on its cover, the first male to ever command that position alone.
Convention with men's periodicals of Maxim's ilk is to grace the cover with a barely dressed beautiful woman or, barring that, a barely dressed guy with six-pack abs.
In choosing a photo of Elba, wearing a charcoal leopard-print coat, editor-in-chief Kate Lanphear delivers on predictions that she would depart from formula, at least occasionally. A former style director at Elle and T magazine, Lanphear took the helm of Maxim late last year. The first issue under her direction hit newsstands last February.
The 43-year-old Elba, Lanphear told Racked, had the gravitas to carry the cover. He won praise for his run as "The Wire's" drug dealer Stringer Bell, played Nelson Mandela in "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" and will turn villain in the next "Star Trek" movie. He depicts an African warlord who teaches a child to kill in Netflix's first theatrical feature, "Beasts of No Nation," based on the novel by Nigerian author Uzodinma Iweala. The film is slated to hit select Landmark theaters in October.
Elba also dabbles as a DJ and is launching a clothing line.
In an interview last winter with New York magazine, Lanphear credited men with interests that include, but aren't limited to, sex.
"They're more interested in and open to fashion and style and grooming than I think they have been in recent history," she said.
Lanphear, whose own menswear-inspired style is often described as edgy, said she wants Maxim to draw women's eyes too.
From the reception to the September cover on social media, she succeeded. Self-described "black feminist cyborg" and writer Hannah Giorgis' appraisal on Twitter: "Idris Elba looks the way new leather smells and cashmere sweaters feel."
