In our CARLOS ALCARAZ interview, one of our 10 current cover stories, the Spanish tennis player muses about his two goals for 2025: beating JANNIK SINNER at the Australian Open and taking back the number one spot from SINNER on the official PIF ATP Rankings. ■ Neither has happened as of yet, but of course ALCARAZ winning that super heroic Roland Garros final, last Sunday, was even better and more exciting. Huge congratulations to CARLOS! (Photo by BRUNO STAUB.) ■ Not to beat our own drum, but so far our current covers have done pretty well in predicting success: ALCARAZ’s siege, ADRIEN BRODY winning an Oscar for ‘The Brutalist’, HAIDER ACKERMANN’s show for TOM FORD was many’s favourite of the season, and JEREMY O. HARRIS continues to amaze on stage and screen.

Fantastic Man celebrates it’s 20 years this season, but we shunned the idea of making our current issue a total flashback. We’re just more interested in the here, now and next. ■ However, within the issue is a cute little 40 page supplement in which we fantasise about some of the covers we could have made in the past – all those amazing shots that somehow didn’t land on a front page, yet would have been amazing. ■ SHANE OLIVER sporting his massive padlock neck chain, LUCA GUADAGNINO romantic, THOM BROWNE in underwear, the fantastic chef FERGUS HENDERSON, ANOHNI with lace tears… ■ We compiled twenty of them, with anecdotes. Sometimes it’s fun when grandpa remembers!

Our eternal quest for a pair of super short shorts, so short in fact that the inside pockets can easily peep out from underneath, could well end today, with the release of HAIDER ACKERMANN’s new SNOW GOOSE collection for CANADA GOOSE. ■ Even the press release that precedes the launch is a treat, with one pair of shorts described as “a barely-there base for free-flowing movement”. Who doesn’t want that!? What about “body-conscious silhouettes and second skin fits” and colours as melodic as “Violet Eclipse purple”. It reads like fashion poetry, with great photos by WILLY VANDERPERRE.

Meanwhile enjoying this 20-year compilation double album ‘Alegre Persona Triste’ by EVRIPIDIS AND HIS TRAGEDIES, a nice milestone that the Greek/Spanish singer (featured in our magazine six years ago, see above, by MARK PECKMEZIAN) describes as “a joyous and sometimes bittersweet celebration of the vicissitudes of life and pop music itself – from love affairs, to heartbreak, to fleeting, queer encounters – with a healthy dose of self-deprecation.” Nothing to add…

We’re in the run up to men’s fashion weeks in Milan and Paris, 20-29 June, and Fantastic Man is hosting a cocktail party together with BALLY, in the early evening of Saturday 21 in Milan. If you happen to be in town, please check your inbox for an invite, or send me a text!