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"FacebookPinterest\n\nOn Thursday, The Playboy Commission: an exhibition of kick-ass Playboy Archives content, curated by art and fashion world personalities like Simon Doonan, Andr\u00C3\u00A9 Balazs and Jeremy Scott, opens in Partners and Spade at 40 Great Jones Street in New York. The collection was put together for the launch of Playboy's comprehensive iPad app, iplayboy.com. Savile Row stalwart (Norton and Sons and E. Tautz) and all-around stately Brit, Patrick Grant, took a moment to discuss his involvement in the project, what the mag means to him and avoiding vulgarity with 'The GQ Eye.'\n\nThe GQ Eye: How did you get involved with the project? Tell us a little bit about how Playboy pitched it to you...\n\nPatrick Grant: Playboy told me that they were remaking every issue of the magazine, from 1953, advertisements and all, available as an iPad app. And that they wanted a dozen or so interesting chaps (and a couple of girls) to pick their favourite features. The list of other council members was interesting and not at all obvious, and we had total freedom on what we chose. The Playboy Archives is a pretty unique record of mens luxury style and fashion dating back nearly 70 years. As a menswear nerd this was like being a kid being handed the keys to the sweet shop.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nGQ: Tell us briefly about the features you chose and why each is special or intriguing for you, personally?\n\n Grant: Selecting was always going to be tricky so I decided upon a fairly haphazard approach to it: I remembered a story from my mid-teens with Paulina Porizkova, who I'd had a massive crush on (the pics ended up on my boarding school wall,) so that went in. Then I remembered Cindy and Herb Ritts and Elle Macpherson and stumbled upon the Ritts' retrospective. This led me to Helmut Newton, another photographic superstar, who did quite a bit for Playboy. I chose his first feaure: a take on a 70's erotic film by the guy who made Emmanuelle. I loved the gentleman in his immaculate polka dot tie and the heavy rimmed spectacles, all the details were exquisite. I also chose the last thing Newton did for the magazine, \"Here's Looking at You,\" a beautifully conceived narrative on voyeurism. And finally, I threw in a Robert L. Green fashion story. The one I chose came out a month before I was born. I love the idea that, within my own lifetime, men were dressing in crochet tank-tops and chambray bathing costumes, and sporting moustaches that Ron Burgundy would kill for.\n\n GQ: What does Playboy, as a brand, mean? At it's best: Why is it stylish?\n\nGrant: Men of my age have a much easier relationship with Playboy, perhaps, than younger guys. I grew up in a time when being a Playboy meant hanging out with Princesses in Mustique and playing blackjack in smoking jackets. It was more than just having money and buying expensive things. It meant having style: not just in dress, but in life. There's too much vulgarity today. I'd like to see a return to understated elegance, to decent codes of behaviour, to [us] being men of purpose. This was what being a Playboy always meant to me."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/the-playboy-commission-exclusive-interview-with-patrick-grant>