Your Guide To Men's Fashion

The Men's Fashion Reader

Amazon Price: $35.06 (as of 01/05/2010)

This book brings together key writings in the history, culture and identity of men's fashion. The readings provide a balanced range of important methodological approaches, primary research and significant case studies. The book is organized into thematic sections covering topics such as history, theory, subculture, iconic items of clothing, consumption and the media. Each section is introduced and concludes with an annotated guide to further reading. With exciting illustrations of men's dress from a range of historical periods, and including readings from key scholars and new writers across a wide range of fields, The Men's Fashion Reader is the essential introduction to the field of men's fashion.

Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style

by: Richard Torregrossa

Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 01/05/2010)

One of the most charismatic movie stars of all time, Cary Grant left an indelible mark on the film industry and on the culture at large. His sense of style--so integral to who he was both onscreen and off--has been admired, copied, emulated, and lauded, but never fully examined, until now. With rare and never-before-published photographs and exclusive interviews with film and fashion luminaries, this groundbreaking book reveals the style secrets that helped make Grant a fashion icon and a perennial inspiration to fans and fashion designers alike. On the 20th anniversary of Grant's death, fashion and style writer Richard Torregrossa makes a powerful case for why Cary Grant matters today more than ever.

Style and the Man: How and Where to Buy Fine Mens' Clothes

by: Alan Flusser

Amazon Price: $20.90 (as of 01/05/2010)

Alan Flusser, one of America's foremost menswear designers, knows fine clothes and where to buy them. He shares all this in his insightful and elegantly written treatise for the man interested in savvy attire. Tuck this volume into a corner of your suitcase and you'll be armed with a connoisseur's knowledge of the dos and don'ts of buying and wearing quality clothes and how much they should cost, from dinnerwear to casual sportswear. Open Style and the Man and learn about:

-What to wear when you shop and why.
-The difference between a $395 and a $1,000 suit (and how to make sure you're getting your money's worth).
-What two words to look for on a costly dress shirt's label.
-Why the folds in a cummerbund should always be worn facing upward.
-How to recognize sports clothes capable of providing stylish longevity.

Turn to the author's 200 favorite men's stores spanning seventeen cities in eight countries' both celebrated designer flagships and tiny shops known only to a privileged few and discover:

-The little-known New York store that sells shoes that offer instant "cachet"
-Where the fashion set goes for the best T-shirt.

In Style and the Man, Alan Flusser has created the perfect traveling companion for those men wishing to expand their sartorial knowledge as well as their wardrobe.

Esquire The Handbook of Style: A Man's Guide to Looking Good

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 01/05/2010)

Each year, the editors of Esquire produce a special issue of the magazine devoted to men's style called The Big Black Book, which has been wildly successful. Using the same pragmatic, highly illustrated approach, and laced with Esquire's trademark humor, Esquire The Handbook of Style brings readers vital information on every aspect of a man's wardrobe, from suits and shirts, to shoes and neckties, to watches and other accessories. The style-minded reader will find useful advice on suit fabrics and cuts, the right kind of trousers for his build, the essential outerwear to own, how to dress properly for an occasion, how to tie a tie, how to pack for a trip, grooming strategies, and much, much more. A compact and sophisticated accessory in its own right, Esquire The Handbook of Style will be the style bible for the well-dressed man for years to come.

The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style

by: Nicholas Antongiavanni

Amazon Price: $14.78 (as of 01/05/2010)

"Clothes make the man."

Mark Twain never worked in today's fast-paced workplace, but his observation has never been keener: clothes do make the man. With The Suit, Nicholas Antongiavanni provides a masterly manual on what it takes to succeed: advice on how to dress with style, flair, and an eye toward gaining power. That's because "business casual" has proved itself a one-way ticket to a lifetime in the corporate dungeon. But if you apply the sartorial advice proffered in The Suit to your clothes, you will project elegance, bravado, and success.

Drawing inspiration from Machiavelli's The Prince, Antongiavanni has crafted an essential handbook for the ambitious man who recognizes that smart and stylish appearance is a lever to power. From neckties to footwear, belts to suspenders, lapels to handkerchiefs, The Suit leaves no garment or accessory untouched and will inject a dose of good taste into your closet. The debates over double-breasted vs. single, two-buttons vs. three, English vs. Italian, and many others are settled with wit by Antongiavanni's wealth of knowledge in the art of dress.

The Suit is much more than a simple how-to manual -- Antongiavanni packs these pages with insightful and sometimes stinging commentary on celebrities and the clothes they wear. Leading public figures from David Letterman to Donald Rumsfeld are picked apart at the seams. Antongiavanni uses powerful men in the public eye as entertaining examples of how to dress properly and what garish mistakes to avoid. Whether you are already a corporate Prince -- or if you are a Joe Cubicle aspiring to be something greater -- The Suit will teach you how to make your clothes work for you. No matter what your physical build or your status in the workplace, let Nicholas Antongiavanni be your fashion consultant.

Handmade Shoes for Men

by: Lasz Vass, Magda Molnar, Nagda Molnar, Laszlo Vass, Georg Valerius

Amazon Price: (as of 01/05/2010)

Laszlo Vass, born in Budapest in 1946, worked in the Hungarian fashion house of Magyar Divatintezet as a clicker, closer, shoemaker, and designer from 1964 until 1969. In 1970, having gained his professional shoemaking qualification he joined a private workshop specializing in hand-made shoes and ladies' boots as assistant chief designer and shoemaker. In 1978 Vass founded his own workshop and opened a business in the centre of Budapest. Since 1988 he and his 20 staff have concentrated on traditional shoemaking. Today the exquisite quality of the shoes made by the firm of Vass has earned the workshop enormous respect throughout Europe. Magda Molnar, born in Budapest in 1943, studied English literature at Budapest University. A publisher of art books, she was initially chief executive of Helikon Verlag, and since 1991 head of Vince Books; she is active on the international publishing scene. Magda Molnar's particular interest in shoemaking is rooted in her family history: her grandfather practiced the profession of shoemaker for 50 years, specializing in handmade shoes and gentlemen's boots.

Gothic: Dark Glamour

by: Valerie Steele, Jennifer Park

Amazon Price: $29.70 (as of 01/05/2010)

From its origins in the eighteenth-century literature of terror to its contemporary manifestations in vampire fiction, cinema, and art, the gothic has embraced the powers of horror and the erotic macabre. "Gothic" is an epithet with a strange history - evoking images of death, destruction, and decay. Ironically, its negative connotations have made the gothic an ideal symbol of rebellion for a wide range of cultural outsiders.

Popularly associated with black-clad teenagers and rock musicians, gothic fashion encompasses not only subcultural styles (from old-school goth to cyber-goth and beyond) but also high fashion by such designers as Alexander McQueen, John Galliano of Christian Dior, Rick Owens, Olivier Theyskens, and Yohji Yamamoto. Fashion photographers, such as Sean Ellis and Eugenio Recuenco, have also drawn on the visual vocabulary of the gothic to convey narratives of dark glamour. As the text and lavish illustrations in this book suggest, gothic fashion has deep cultural roots that give it an enduring potency.

Men's Fashion in the Twentieth Century: From Frock Coats to Intelligent Fibres

by: Maria Costantino

Amazon Price: (as of 01/05/2010)

Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion

by: Alan Flusser

Amazon Price: $32.97 (as of 01/05/2010)

Dressing the Man is the definitive guide to what men need to know in order to dress well and look stylish without becoming fashion victims.

Alan Flusser's name is synonymous with taste and style. With his new book, he combines his encyclopedic knowledge of men's clothes with his signature wit and elegance to address the fundamental paradox of modern men's fashion: Why, after men today have spent more money on clothes than in any other period of history, are there fewer well-dressed men than at any time ever before?

According to Flusser, dressing well is not all that difficult, the real challenge lies in being able to acquire the right personalized instruction. Dressing well pivots on two pillars -- proportion and color. Flusser believes that "Permanent Fashionability," both his promise and goal for the reader, starts by being accountable to a personal set of physical trademarks and not to any kind of random, seasonally served-up collection of fashion flashes.

Unlike fashion, which is obliged to change each season, the face's shape, the neck's height, the shoulder's width, the arm's length, the torso's structure, and the foot's size remain fairly constant over time. Once a man learns how to adapt the fundamentals of permanent fashion to his physique and complexion, he's halfway home.

Taking the reader through each major clothing classification step-by-step, this user-friendly guide helps you apply your own specifics to a series of dressing options, from business casual and formalwear to pattern-on-pattern coordination, or how to choose the most flattering clothing silhouette for your body type and shirt collar for your face.

A man's physical traits represent his individual road map, and the quickest route toward forging an enduring style of dress is through exposure to the legendary practitioners of this rare masculine art. Flusser has assembled the largest andmost diverse collection of stylishly mantled men ever found in one book. Many never-before-seen vintage photographs from the era of Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, and Fred Astaire are employed to help illustrate the range and diversity of authentic men's fashion. Dressing the Man's sheer magnitude of options will enable the reader to expand both the grammar and verbiage of his permanent-fashion vocabulary.

For those men hoping to find sartorial fulfillment somewhere down the road, tethering their journey to the mind-set of permanent fashion will deliver them earlier rather than later in life.