Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4412 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-01
• Released on: 2002-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
During the past 25 years, men have spent more money on clothing for themselves than in any other period of modern history, says Alan Flusser (Style and the Man). The time has "never been more propitious for the emergence of a standing army of well-heeled swells," he believes, and in Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion, he takes readers on a tour of men's clothing that he attests will never go out of style. Flusser carefully explains how to mix patterns, what to look for when trying on clothes in the fitting room, what kind of jacket to wear with a straight-point collar, the history of the monk-strap shoe, the correct position for a bow tie and what "business casual" really means. Heavily illustrated with photographs of dapper dans from Humphrey Bogart to the Duke of Windsor and drawings depicting neckwear, suit jackets, coat sleeves and trouser creases, this is a superb reference for any man.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Alan Flusser is the President of Alan Flusser Designs, a company he founded in 1979. He received the 1985 Coty Award as Top Menswear Designer and the Cutty Sark Award in 1987 for his first two books' "unique contribution to the literature of menswear." He attracted national attention for designing Michael Douglas's wardrobe in the movie Wall Street, as well as acclaim for his work on the HBO movie Barbarians at the Gate and the film Scent of a Woman. He is the author of four books, including Style and the Man, Clothes and the Man, and Making the Man. He has two daughters and lives in New York.

Customer Reviews

Nice Book
A good book that talks about dressing and differenct color combinations, dressing based on your individual bodyd/face shape with illustrations.

The Gold Standard
Alan Flusser's DRESSING THE MAN is the one book you must have if you want to dress professionally, and if you desire to know the history of proper male adornment in the twentieth century. Interestingly written, information-rich, and chock-full of wonderful photographs of well-dressed men, this tome is a volume to which you will return again and again. Flusser pays careful attention to skin and hair color and how they affect a man's appearance in tailored garments, and he thoroughly discusses garment style and detailing. Interesting chapters on shirts, ties, shoes, and accessories round out this informative and visually appealing volume. DRESSING THE MAN is an appropriate book for both the novice dresser and the mature elegante.

For every Executive, Every Job Hunter, Every Gentleman
For a fashionably-clumsy man like myself, this book has enabled me to take a step forward and look sort of like the consultant that I am (or at least portray myself to be).

The book is elegantly photographed with men of elegant dress, including classic actors such as Gary Cooper, Fred Astaire and the poster-child for perfect dress, Cary Grant. You'll also see princes and dukes dressing to keep the proper air, and see old men (Signor Barbera and Ralph Lauren) maintaining their distinguished appearances as they grey by dressing well.

But this isn't merely a picture book, although any book on dressing well must lead with pictures. It contains a chapter on everything - shoes, ties, the suit, shirts, socks, business casual (13 in all, and each on a narrow subject). Matching color to your complexion, eyes and hair is a subject that many men struggle with, and he has a chapter dedicated to that.

This is a formal and classic book - not one for the passing trends, although business casual is covered.

Anyone who needs to be in a situation where they need to be well-dressed - businessmen for key meetings, gentlemen at weddings and perhaps most especially, job interviewers, should keep a copy of this book on their dresser.