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.

Book Review: ABC of Men's Fashion

The English designer Hardy Amies, who passed away in 2003, was so far as I know the first important menswear designer. His book, ABC of Men's Fashion, was originally published in 1964, just as top down men's fashion was to disappear for twenty years in favor of street fashions.

Re-issued this month, ABC should be of interest to any man that appreciates classic dressing. Organized as a series of alphabetized definitions, it's a combination of forecasts that didn't happen - Amies believed that the next step for men would be high closing four button jackets and that boots would replace shoes - and useful thoughts on color, contrast, late day dress and other things you may not have thought about before.

For example, Amies points out that a 13 ounce mohair makes a great travel suit for all but the hottest destinations as it doesn't wrinkle and holds a crease as if it was made of metal. To that he adds that being relaxed on holiday should not mean that we walk around other people's cities dressed as if we were at a sea side resort. "Correct dressing is only another form of good manners, and good manners are only another form of mental comfort."

Amen.

Pushing the Limits: Suit Detailing

I want turnback cuffs on my next suit, like the ones Ian Fleming is wearing in the mid-fifties photo to the left. We've seen just about every kind of 1930's suit detail resurrected by fashion designers these past several years, but not turnback cuffs. So there's no time to waste.

The most common form for the suit today is of course the two, three or, more rarely, one button single breasted version with notch lapels and side pockets, but that's hardly the only way to make them. There are also four and six button double breasteds, as well as a rarer form of DB cut so that it can only be buttoned on the lowest button (many DB jackets can be buttoned either at the bottom, at the middle, or both, but only a select few are cut to button only at the bottom). Unfortunately for the man looking for a little edge, the bottom buttoning DB is a feature that looks better on blazers than it does on suits. There's a photo floating around of Ralph Lauren wearing a bottom buttoning dinner jacket that pretty much proves it.

Which leads us back to the varieties of single breasted jackets. The most commonly seen deviation from the common form are side pockets without flaps, a personal preference of mine. Flaps came about when men decided that the the sight of gaping jacket pockets was too much to bear, so tailors added flaps to cover them up. Jetted pockets without flaps are a bit cleaner looking, and so also a bit more formal. Some men emulate the look by tucking their pocket flaps into the pockets.

I can think of another single breasted silhouette, one that was used by the late Duke of Windsor, but it will most likely only be available bespoke. The Duke wore a two button jacket with one button spaced above and one spaced below the natural waist. His coats were cut so that both buttons closed, and his country clothes often paired this arrangement with crescent-shaped pockets without flaps (if you're wondering, the points of the crescents faced towards the rear). It's an effective look for a shorter man.

Still unusual if a bit more common is the single breasted jacket with peak lapels, something the late designer Hardy Amies considered anathema. With one or two buttons, it's a lounge suit version of the dinner jacket. Some more fashion forward tailors have gone a step further and paired the lapels with slanted hacking pockets which, I say reluctantly as it's a mutt of a look from a historical perspective, are a nice complement.

Ignoring vents, and I intend to, that's about all the deviations that are within the pale (or just beyond it) for a suit to be worn to an office these days. Yes, a man could commission a Norfolk suit, a four button ghillie collared suit or some other variation with an action back but he shouldn't wear those in town. Men who want to show that they don't have to work, or who expect to be fired and need to keep a stiff upper lip, can wear a peaked lapel lounge suit with a double breasted vest in a country fabric like a Cheviot or patterned flannel. Country fabrics in City styling have plenty of precedent among men who don't need to earn a living (sadly, these men are more likely to wear jeans and a hoodie than a suit in many parts of today's world).

Men who need a safer way to add individuality to their clothes should consider jackets lined in brilliant colors that are only seen by those nearest and dearest. I, on the other hand, will be the guy wearing turnback cuffs on my navy double breasted.