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There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to address the issue of Y-fronts and, for David Gandy, that time is now. ‘I’ve never been a Y-front guy, although when I was working with Marks & Spencer I knew men bought them a lot.’
What pants does he prefer? He shows me his new Ultimate Trunk, a stretch-fit short. I notice they’ve got his name on them. Yes, gentlemen (and the small number of women who will be reading this article purely in the interests of research), the man whose tighty-whitey budgie smugglers made him the ‘face’ of Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue aftershave is launching his own underwear range.
Trousers, Paul Smith
It’s early morning in the Pavilion private members’ club in Fulham, London, and Gandy, dressed in navy trousers and a soft-shouldered blue jacket with a scoop-neck grey T-shirt, is talking both literal and metaphorical b*****ks.
Trousers, Zara x Studio Nicholson. Belt, Anderson’s
‘It’s all about comfort for men,’ he says. He accuses designer market leaders, such as Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein, of trading on their brand names. Their smalls ‘can sag or lose their shape. Our fabric doesn’t.’ He adds that research among customers of his David Gandy Wellwear clothing brand, founded four years ago, shows many men don’t like the large waistband logos that most of the big brands use, so his logo is tiny and sits just below the waistband on one side. His pants cost £45 for a pack of three, and he has no plans for any other styles, since most men prefer trunks. ‘My briefs days are over,’ he says. Fans of that 2007 Dolce & Gabbana ad will be disappointed but, as the exclusive photoshoot here shows, Gandy, now 45, still looks how most men can only dream of looking.
Jumper, Peregrine. Trousers, Daniel Simmons
He works out for 45-60 minutes five days a week (he has Technogym equipment in his £8 million home near Richmond Park), usually in the evenings after he and his partner Stephanie Mendoros, a barrister, have put their two young children, Matilda, six, and Tabitha, three, to bed. He recommends lifting weights for anyone who wants to tone up and get fit. ‘Do weights, not just cardio. I vary my routine. Muscles are clever. They get used to doing any exercise, so you have to change everything all the time, to shock them into working.’
Jumper, Peregrine. Trousers, Daniel Simmons
He watches what he eats and drinks – no processed foods, no fizzy sodas and no beer but ‘enjoys everything else in moderation, including carbs, which you need for muscles, and wine’. He aims for a massive 4,000 calories a day and lists his diet: ‘Pasta, chillis, baked potatoes, fish, fresh vegetable curries, pad Thai, Thai fish wraps and two protein shakes a day, both with 5g of creatine. But since I don’t like breakfast, I don’t eat until midday, so I have a 12-hour fast.’ Before a photoshoot he drinks only water and coffee and the odd snack for two days beforehand. ‘Every time I do it I say, “Never again!”’
Jumper, Peregrine. Trousers, Daniel Simmons
Female models always get asked whether they worry that they present a body image that is unattainable to most women, so, as he prances around in his pants showing off his 6ft 3in, 14½st frame, it seems only fair to ask Gandy if he feels the same way about men. ‘I was a bit chubby until I was 18 or 19 and then shot up, so I was very skinny. Gangly. I wanted to get fitter and bigger. Anyone can but it does require discipline and routine. It’s OK to train for a goal, like running a 10k, but it’s better to make exercise part of your daily routine. And don’t go out and get pissed every night.’
Trousers, Edward Sexton. Trunks, David Gandy Wellwear
He may be the highest-earning male model over the past 20 years, but he came to the profession relatively late, and it wasn’t even his idea.
After leaving the family home in Billericay, Essex, to study marketing at the University of Gloucestershire, his flatmate entered him in a modelling competition on ITV’s This Morning without him knowing. He won a contract with Select Model Management aged 21 and never looked back. He has one million followers on Instagram and his fan accounts on TikTok have more than 25 million views. As his career progressed, he became London’s leading man about town, dating minor celebrities Samantha Barks, Mollie King, and Laura Whitmore.
Gandy speaks freely and confidently on a range of issues, not least to counter the prejudice he suffered early in his career that male models may have a great body but nothing up top. Take the issue of the new appetite-suppressant weight-loss drugs. Rather than resorting ‘to the pen’, he asserts most men and women should be less ‘nutritionally inept. We are eating ourselves unhealthy. Even kids are obese.’
T-shirt, David Gandy Wellwear. Trousers, Zara x Studio Nicholson. Belt, Anderson’s
He supported Jamie Oliver’s successful campaign to ban TV ads for fast food before 9pm. ‘Jamie seems to get a backlash on everything he does to try to improve our children’s food. Why would anyone want to criticise that? We all need to do more. Parents, schools, government.’ He has turned down millions of pounds to advertise fast food. What does he think of stars, notably Gary Lineker, who flog crisps or fizzy drinks? ‘I’m not criticising anyone who does those things.’ And then goes on to do just that: ‘We all have to choose a lane. We all have to do what is best for our children.’
He is similarly dismissive of health tech. ‘People who use the Oura [a sleep-tracking ring] tell me, “I got nine hours’ sleep last night but my Oura ring tells me I only got three hours.” I’m like, “What would you like me to do about it?”’
Trousers, Daniel Simmons
Sleep or no sleep, he looks great but the big five-O is looming. Does he worry about ageing? ‘Flying is bad for you, dehydration is bad for you, disrupted sleep across time zones is bad for you. I do them all. But I do enough to get by without any cosmetic treatment.’ Does he rule out tweakments? ‘People can go too far with those. I much more respect the person who clearly hasn’t done something, who is ageing well. Look at Pierce Brosnan. He could be Bond again. He’s got the best beard ever and, style-wise, he is killing everyone.’
Gandy’s big break in briefs: 2007’s Dolce & Gabbana ad
The body that Gandy has sculpted has earnt him an estimated fortune of £15 million (he won’t reveal the exact number). He is also that rarity, a model who has become a successful entrepreneur. He still models, not just for his own brand but also for the likes of Burberry and Hackett’s No14 Savile Row collection and will soon become the face and body of Jaeger. He launched the M&S David Gandy for Autograph underwear brand in 2014 and worked on the retailer’s menswear campaigns until 2019. But most of his earnings now come from business ventures off the catwalk and outside the photography studio.
With partner Stephanie Mendoros
There’s Wellwear, whose sales have grown 88 per cent year-on-year, he says. It is not profitable yet, ‘because we’re small and we plough everything back into the business’. His brand is backed by a group of investors who wanted to build on his success at M&S. He is a brand ambassador for Technogym and an investor in Larry King Hair, Savile Row Gin, and the London Sock Company. He is also flexing his fashion muscles as a judge on the second series of Dress The Nation, in which contestants compete for a job on M&S’s design team.
His diary is full and he tries to keep the most level head he can by walking Dora, the family’s mixed-breed rescue dog, each morning, and taking his daughters to school. ‘I leave my phone at home. We’re all addicted to the things.’ Do the mums get to the school gates early to ‘enjoy the view’, I ask?
No, he laughs. But he says he’s noticed some of the women who work in his local Waitrose in East Sheen get on the shop radio to spread the news when he pops in. ‘Gandy’s in. Gandy in aisle seven!’
What, I wonder, do his daughters make of all the attention he gets, not to mention having a father famous for sporting tiny white Speedos? ‘Matilda is coming up to seven. Her friends have seen the ads for Burberry and the Wellman supplements box. So I think they’re asking, “Is your dad famous?” I don’t think she knows what it means. If she did see the Dolce ad, she’d just say, “Daddy, why are you in your pants?”’
Would he be happy if his daughters wanted to be models? ‘I wouldn’t have anything against it, but I don’t think it’s going to be a strong industry, the way it’s going. AI imagery is already here, and brands want social-media influencers more than models.’ He thinks fashion houses should come together to agree to regulate the use of AI in advertisements, as they have moved to strengthen protection of models’ rights. Not just to help to save the industry – and his job – but also because the images of ‘perfection’ that AI can create could be way more harmful than those any human could sculpt.
‘Brands should use real men and real women in real circumstances, with real clothing. We need to acknowledge this is a human business and it needs to be honest. It’s dishonest if it’s a fake image with a fake background of a fake model, “wearing” fake clothes.’
Toxic masculinity is a hot-button issue across politics. As the world’s best-known male model, I wonder if he feels he’s a role model for how to be a strong, healthy, ‘good’ man?
‘As soon as you say masculinity, it’s a byword for toxic. It’s not at all,’ he says with a hint of anger. ‘It does mean many boys and young men are confused about how they should behave. Cancel culture makes it worse.’
What’s the solution? ‘I like the idea of being a gentleman. A man is not about the money he has, the clothes he wears, the cars he drives – even though I have and like all those things. It’s about being discreet, protective of your friends, a good husband, partner and father. My motto is: work hard, take care of yourself, protect your family. I’ve been taught that by my grandfather and my father. They’ve been good examples.’
Talking of gentlemen, the actor Theo James has lately taken over Gandy’s role in the new Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue ads, reprising his iconic pose.
Is it strange to see a new guy in his place? ‘It is a bit weird. My ad ran for 18 years. But I’m very happy it’s another British guy.’ Who has the bigger package? ‘Pay package?’ says Gandy, deliberately misunderstanding the question to give himself time to think of an answer. ‘Compare my new underwear ads with Theo’s ad,’ he says with a smile.
Picture director: Ester Malloy.
Styling: Gareth Scourfield.
Hair: Larry King at A-Frame Agency using Larry King Haircare.
Make-up: Rachel Singer Clark at The Only Agency.
getty images
