Dressing the Man

Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion by Alan Flusser. This book is a veritable gold mine of great ideas, influences, explanations, and guidelines for timeless fashion. I got this book about 9 years ago, and it goes without saying it has been and will continue to be absolutely correct about every bit of men’s fashion. I still pull it out once in awhile, flip open to a random page and see what I find. It’s always something interesting and inspiring. Having something like this around keeps you grounded in permanent fashion, which for men is always underlying, but often forgotten in the ebb and flow of trends. While men’s clothing stays generally the same, consisting of only a few basic pieces, i.e.: slacks, button down shirts, sweaters, vests, and jackets, the constrained options often lead to wild ‘interpretation’ of the classics. Thom Brown is the obvious example here, while he sticks to the ‘traditional’ men’s look, he has totally changed the fit and style of the basic garments. It’s cool right now but there is no question that in 10 years people will look at pictures of themselves in high water pants and no socks and laugh like my parents do about their clothes from the 70s. So follow the trends and be a trendsetter, but always keep ‘classic’ in the back of your mind. Would the Humphrey Bogart wear that? If the answer is no, maybe think twice before hitting the street.