Twenty Great Clothing Books

Here is my list of the twenty great books on classic men's clothing and style of the past fifty years. Most of them are out of print but I've found copies and you can too. In no particular order:

• Scottish Estate Tweeds, E.P. Harrison. A history of tweed with photos of the great estate patterns.
• Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions, O. E. Schoeffler & William Gale. Esquire was once a style leader and the Encyclopedia covers what it thought about every category of men's clothing from the turn of the century through the 1970's. On the required reading list for every budding menswear designer and ferociously expensive.
• Men in Style, Woody Hochswender & Kim Johnson Gross. Learn how men dressed during the Golden Age from these Apparel Arts & Esquire illustrations.
• The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie, Thomas Fink & Yong Mao. Tired of your four-in hand? Here are all the options.
• The Englishman's Suit, Hardy Amies. How the western world came to dress like the English aristocracy, and how it still can. Expensive, if you can find a copy.
• Handmade Shoes for Men, Laszlo Vass. All about shoes made as they should be made.
• The Boutonniere: Style in One's Lapel, Umberto Angeloni. How to wear a flower in your lapel.
• The Elegant Man: How to Construct the Ideal Wardrobe, Ricardo Villarosa & Giuliano Angeli. Interesting overview with perhaps the best section on cloth that's been in print.
• Hatless Jack, Neil Steinberg. What you'll care to know about the hat.
• Eminently Suitable: The Elements of Style in Business Attire, G. Bruce Boyer. Well written and comprehensive look at the suit.
• Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion, Alan J. Flusser. Big and beautiful review of how to dress.
• Clothes and the Man: The Principles of Fine Men's Dress, Alan J. Flusser. The visuals aren't as good as the ones in Dressing the Man but the text is better.
• The Book of Ties, Francois Chaille. Just about all you need to know about neckwear.
• Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion, Berhard Roetzel. Well illustrated. Less on suits and more on a variety of accessories for the gentleman's lifestyle.

A Torch Was Passed

The Sun King's bedroom at Versailles has a painting of Louis XIV in full regalia that Bruce Boyer used as a metaphor for the passing of an era of dress. Almost literally, as Louis was sitting for his portrait dressed in ermine, silks and jewels, the English nobility were beginning to wear tailored wool clothing.

Today, the English tailored clothing era is fading after a long run, but the careful observer can still see signs of Louis in men's dress around Paris. Consider, for example, this rack of colored jackets on offer at Arnys.

I regret that I was very disappointed in Arnys this trip. The second floor, where they sell their wonderful coats, was closed for the season, and much of the merchandise on display on the main floor looked (there is no other word) cheap. Including the colored jackets. The hand-written mark down signs didn't help this impression at all.

Returning for a moment to Versailles, no-one will ever correctly call the Sun King cheap. It's been calculated that 6% of the national income of France went to run the palace, after an initial investment that would be in the tens of billions today (assuming the necessary craftspeople were available in the first place). And not a single visitor among the thousands that I saw was wearing a suit. Or even a colored jacket.

Pants Across the Sea

We know that HRH Edward, the Duke of Windsor, had his trousers made in New York while his jackets were cut in London. He called it pants across the sea. I don't have a figure as trim as the Duke's but my solution also crosses the Atlantic.

Trousers cut to ride on the hips, the intended location of American ready to wear models, have a disturbing tendency to accentuate a pear shaped form. Fortunately, there are other styles of trousers. Note the long fall on the high waisted trousers of the man in the illustration, or look at photos of Fred Astaire wearing trousers with high waistbands in the book Fred Astaire Style by G. Bruce Boyer.

For me, those high waistbands are just the ticket. High waisted trousers fall straight down my front, creating an illusion of slimness that I hope is successful. Their height is also a better match for waistcoats and sweaters as there is no danger of a distracting glimpse of shirt above the trousers.

It's difficult if not impossible to find high waisted trousers ready to wear any longer, and this is where the across the sea part comes in. First, I order corduroy, moleskin, linen and other odd trouser fabric from a London merchant such as Beazley's Fine Cloth or John G. Hardy/J & J Minnis.
http://www.hollandandsherry.com/beazleys/
http://www.hfw-huddersfield.co.uk/hardyminnis/index.asp

About a week after ordering, the cloth arrives in San Francisco. Four times a year I pack it up and send it to Michelle at Martin Greenfield Clothers of Brooklyn, New York, asking for so many of this and so many of that. And then three months later I get a box of unfinished made to measure trousers that go in turn to a San Francisco alterations tailor for final adjustments and cuffs.

I'm looking forward to my next pair of high waisted trousers in 12 oz. charcoal whipcord. Only four months and ten thousand miles to go.