GQ (originally Gentlemen's Quarterly) is a monthly men's magazine focusing upon fashion, style, and culture for men, through articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, sports, technology, and books. It is generally perceived as upscale and more sophisticated than lad mags, such as Maxim or FHM.
"Gentlemen's Quarterly" was launched in 1957 in the United States as Apparel Arts, a fashion quarterly for men which was published for many years in association with Esquire. Apparel was dropped from the logo in 1958 with the spring issue after nine issues.
In 1983 Conde Nast Publications took over the publication and editor Art Cooper changed the course of the magazine, introducing articles beyond fashion and establishing GQ as a general men's magazine in competition with Esquire. Subsequently, international editions were launched as regional adaptations of the U.S. editorial formula. Jim Nelson was named editor-in-chief of GQ in February 2003; during his tenure he worked as both a writer and an editor of several National Magazine Award-nominated pieces.. During Nelson's tenure, GQ has become more oriented towards younger readers and those who prefer a more casual style.
GQ has been closely associated with metrosexuality. The writer Mark Simpson coined the term in an article for British newspaper the Independent about his visit to a GQ exhibition in London: "The promotion of metrosexuality was left to the men's style press, magazines such as The Face, GQ, Esquire, Arena and FHM, the new media which took off in the Eighties and is still growing.... They filled their magazines with images of narcissistic young men sporting fashionable clothes and accessories. And they persuaded other young men to study them with a mixture of envy and desire."
