English Version | Editor's Letter: May-June 2026

When doing something for the first time, we know, or want to believe, that the second time will be easier and the result will inevitably be better. I thought about this several times while we were putting together the first issue of Esquire Portugal.

Now, while we were "cooking up" the second issue, another feeling lingered in my mind: "what if it's not as good as the first?". Ironically, after what I had experienced, perhaps receiving so many messages from friends and readers praising the debut magazine, made that feeling stronger. Despite my many years in the publishing world, my experience and confidence prevented me from letting that thought linger in my mind.

Leo Woodall
Élio Nogueira

Someone who buys a first issue does so out of curiosity; when they buy the second, they already have expectations. "What if this issue isn't up to par?" But thoughts, even bad ones, don't stop a newsroom. The texts start arriving, the photo sessions take place, the images are delivered. The pages slowly begin to grow: photographs, chosen after an exhaustive, almost obsessive process, are added to the texts.

In the rush between computers, exams, and page layouts, I find time to read. Among the texts in this issue is a conversation between Alexandra Prado Coelho and Pedro Mexia about faith. While reading it, I felt exactly what I want the reader to feel when reading Esquire: the pleasure of reading a text that is neither expected nor sought.

Vasco Pereira Coutinho
Branislav Simoncik

Texts so different from one another, like the conversation with Jorge Mota about his career and the film where he plays Salazar. It is with this thought still fresh in my mind that I return to the archive of covers and revisit the images from the shoots by Leo Woodall and Vasco Pereira Coutinho. Despite having been present at both, there is always something new when we see the photographs resting on the silence of the screen. And I feel a satisfaction that is difficult to explain: realizing that we have images that will last forever. Photographs that, even without interviews or captions, would survive because of their aesthetic power. Vasco and Leo give a face to this issue, two very different lives united by the same art, that of embodying characters. Here, they received another role: to be models for the gaze of our lenses.

Little by little I'm feeling the richness of this issue and I think of everyone who so generously contributed to making it so rich. Names like Carlão, Paulo Pires, Rafael Morais, Ruben Rua, who got a complete look for 78 euros at the Vandoma fair in Porto. Or Philippe Starck who, after answering our questions, left a question for the next guest, a question that made me happy because I didn't have to be the one answering it. 

Leo Woodall
Élio Nogueira

I also see the work that the artist Binau delivers for the movie poster, worthy of being framed, and the layout is changed to allow the reader to do so. I'm also proud of the illustrations that Nuno da Costa is developing for Esquire Portugal.

But, as with any magazine, whether it's issue number 2 or 222, there are deadlines. There's always a moment when the pages need to go to print. The constant feeling that it can still be better needs to be tamed. And that makes me think of the text "I Can Still Do More," by Esteban G. Villanueva, in this issue. A text about the body and the permanent feeling of inadequacy. In the end, he writes, and forgive me for the spoiler: "You're trying. Keep trying. Just make sure you're really enjoying it, because what's the point of improving yourself if it never seems enough?"

Vasco Pereira Coutinho
Branislav Simoncik

And it was at that moment that I finally felt that it was enough.

And here it is, dear reader: the second issue of Esquire Portugal. I hope it provides you with good moments of reading, discovery, and contemplation. And we, on this side, will continue making the effort.

But that's for the next issue.

Translated from the original in Issue 2 of Esquire Portugal. For full stories and credits, see the print issue.