On books regarding classic men’s clothing, much of the field can be broken up accordingly. There are books on how to dress well, which serve no other function than to give men a practical guide on how to improve their state of dress. Some of the better titles in this category includeDressing the Man, A Guy’s Guide to Style, and Esquire’s Handbook of Style. Then there’s an assortment of books for people who take a particular interest in menswear, beyond learning how they can dress well. These include history books such asEsquire’s Encyclopedia and History of Men’s Fashion, and various “academic” titles, suchReady-Made Democracy and The Men’s Fashion Reader.
The biggest category can only be described as titles that are little more than dressed-up picture books, though obviously that’s not what these books bill themselves as. Of the recent releases, I likeA Style is Born and Bespoke, and Vintage Menswear was surprisingly fun. I also really enjoy Francois Baudot’s somewhat awkwardly titled The Allure of Men. Whereas most books focus on just Anglo traditions in the 19th and 20th centuries, The Allure of Men goes all the way back to the 17th century and includes more of Continental Europe. There are also bits of Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East thrown in, but this is still largely about Western modes of dress.
The Allure of Men has a long essay on the history of menswear, which is good, but can be a bit too basic for someone who has already read a few of these sorts of essays. The real value is in the images, which showcase different forms of masculine style since the Romantic period. Like all good picture books, it captures something many of the aforementioned categories don’t: that style is a lot more than being able to select well-made clothes and discern how something should fit. There’s a certain intangible quality that makes something distinctive and attractive. I wish I could say this is just a result of good photography, but I’ve met men who share the same tailor, and some simply carry their clothes better than others.
To that end, I’ve always thought it’s good to have a few of these picture books around, so that we’re reminded to not be too narrowly focused when it comes to menswear. There’s so much written about pattern combination and color coordination, yet so little about the manner in which we wear what we do. As Bruce Boyer suggested Eminently Suitable (another great book, by the way), perhaps this is because wearing clothes well is still something of an art, not a science. Men who wear clothes well “wear them well apart from being properly coordinated, or having pleasing physical attributes, or buying expensive clothes, or following the rules of the trends or even the conventions.” Some men simply know how to look good in their duds.