Book Review: History of Men's Fashion

Nicholas Storey's History of Men's Fashion: What the Well Dressed Man is Wearing is now available in the United States (though at a considerably higher price than Amazon UK is currently asking for it). Well researched, it's a slim, idiosyncratic but, in the end, very worth while work that displays what I imagine to be Storey's biases as a former British barrister. For example, he devotes considerably more pages to formal and semi-formal dress than he does to general day wear, by which he means the suit that, in America at least, has generally replaced morning dress and evening clothes as the most formal dress in the relatively few closets that contain them. Suits, that is.

And so, for all its importance near the top of the contemporary dress pyramid, I do not think that the pages on the lounge suit do it justice. On the other hand, I enjoyed Storey's discussion of leisure, casual and sporting dress, despite some surprising assertions. For example, and for no stated reason, he warns against gray flannel trousers with blazers, and states that the tan cavalry twill trousers that, in combination with the blazer, constitute the English uniform are equally inappropriate.

Throughout the book, Storey does a thorough job of mentioning contemporary sources for each item of clothing as he discusses it, though his world view means that the sources for the items he mentions are, with few exceptions, located in London. That attention to detail extends to coverage of some remarkable items, like the Sola topee, or pith helmet, and a wonderful extract from a 1914 lecture by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch titled 'On Style.'

The section on Necessary Accessories is typical. In one long paragraph Mr. Storey provides very useful advice on miscellaneous jewelry (after beginning by stating that he will not), not only on cufflinks but also pins for formal day wear and collar studs for shirts with detachable collars.

Eccentric, perhaps, by contemporary standards but to my knowledge there has been nothing like History of Men's Fashion published in the past fifty years.