ÿþWhat makes a man handsome  adidas boost or beautiful? In past decades, the most famous icons of Western male beauty have been a rather narrow cohort  blue-eyed stars of the screen like Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio come to mind. But the idea of what the "perfect" male looks like is evolving as the film and fashion worlds embrace greater diversity, and the importance of representation is understood by global brands.

"It's the best-known moment of my career," O'Pry tells BBC Culture. "My career took a different road after that. It opened more doors for me. I'm very thankful, as I was able to be a part of that." Having adorned numerous magazine covers over the years, he has maintained a high profile. How has he achieved that? "You have to maintain humility in the industry. I'm going up against people that are all in a casting  dark hair, blue eyes. I'm going up against guys that look exactly like me and you have adidas sale to be able to separate yourself. That s a part of who you are on set and how you act and present yourself. I didn't try and make my face to look a certain way. This job kind of fell in my lap."

And the conventional notion of the Mediterranean "tall, dark and handsome" type is adidas continental still in demand, despite growing diversity. The phrase came to use in Europe in the early 1900s, and then was commonly used in Hollywood during the 1920s to describe Italian star Rudolph Valentino. It has remained a frequently used idiom, although the exact meaning and inference of "tall, dark and handsome" is now more closely scrutinised and debated. Anthropologist Shafee Hassan tells BBC Culture: "Mediterranean men have a huge advantage in having dark eyebrows and dark facial hair. You can grow a full beard& dark hair is associated with virility". Beautiful by these standards is Italian actor Michele Morrone. From Puglia, Southern Italy, he was working until last year as a adidas cloudfoam gardener in Rome and auditioning for acting roles. His life changed overnight when he was cast as the lead in Netflix film 365 Days, which became one of the most-watched films on the platform of 2020. He plays the smouldering Mafia boss Massimo, a figure of fantasy for his many fans.

The male model Orlando Hobechi recently told the Guardian: "About four years ago I noticed an increase in the use of older models. Suddenly there was interest in older people's stories." Longer lifespans have made the difference, according to Hobechi. "Age isn't the turn-off it used to be. Over the last 30 years, we've seen cool young people age  you can be older now and still cool and relevant& People want to see people who look like themselves represented."

All of these agonising sensations and half-revelations are ones experienced in quick succession by Aroon St Charles, the deceptively naïve narrator of Molly Keane's novel Good Behaviour. First published in 1981, and re-released last month by New York Review Books, Keane's Booker-shortlisted comedy of manners is bleak, brilliant, and often vicious in its humour. Set in the crumbling world of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy in the early 20th Century, it features a cast of characters who are obsessed by  and frequently fail  the demands of taste, restraint, and good behaviour.

At just that moment she overhears a young couple nearby. They are giggling about adidas running shoes her. "Stupid old thing," the boy mutters. "Why does she come here at all  who wants her?" The girl responds by laughing about her fur. "It's exactly like fried whiting." When Miss Brill gets home, denying herself her usual Sunday treat of a slice of honey-cake from the bakery, she sits in silence. The final three lines of the story are brief: "The box that the fur came out of was on the bed. She unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying."