My Top 10 Men’s Style Books

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If you are a follower of the Gentleman’s Gazette, you may very well know my fascination for all things classic menswear.

In today’s article, I will share with you my top 10 men’s style books, I explain why I chose them over others, I tell you which ones didn’t make the list and why they didn’t make it, and I mention other books that may make your top 10 list.

Book TitleAuthor
Dressing The ManAlan Flusser
GentlemanBernhard Roetzel
Bespoke Menswear Tailoring For GentlemenBernhard Roetzel
Esquire Encyclopedia Of 20th-Century Men's FashionOscar E. Schoeffler
Reclams Mode - Und KostümlexiconIngrid Loschek
The Elegant ManRiccardo Villarosa & Guiliano Angeli
Alles über HerrenschuheHelge Sternke
History Of Men's FashionFarid Chenoune
Sharp SuitsEric Musgrave
Mercury Dictionary Of Textile Terms

1. Dressing The Man – Alan Flusser

It was written in 2002 and contains everything you want to know about classic men’s style. It has beautiful photographs, illustration, very good text, it has hands-on graphics that allow you to pick the right patterns, it explains what to do and what not to do and overall, Alan Flusser probably sold more books on classic men’s style than any other author in the world.

Flusser also penned a bunch of other books including Clothes and the man and Style and the man. I believe dressing the man is the best one of all of them because the photography is superior, the layout is nice and it’s also one of the most comprehensive books he wrote. Dressing the man was the second book I had in my menswear library and I cherish it to this day. Even though it was written in 2002, it’s not outdated at this point which is probably one of the reasons it hasn’t been republished.

Der Gentleman - Bernhard Roetzel
Der Gentleman – Bernhard Roetzel

2. Gentleman – Bernhard Roetzel

It is a German book and it was the first book I ever had that started it all for me. At the time it was written, it was the first and only book of its kind and probably because of that, it was really popular. The author, although German, is an Anglophile and because of that, you can see the British style in that book as well. If you look at the table of contents, it covers a wide array of classic men’s things including suits, shoes, shirts and so forth.

This book has been translated into 19 languages, has been published many times and is updated regularly. That latest edition, for example, is from 2016. The great thing is neither Dressing the man nor the Gentleman are breaking the bank and you can find new or used copies for not very much money. If I just had to buy two books those would be the two.

Bespoke menswear
Bespoke menswear [Image Credit: Amazon]

3. Bespoke Menswear Tailoring For Gentlemen – Bernard Roetzel

It’s likewise written by Bernhard Roetzel and it walks you through the entire process of choosing a fabric, cutting the pattern, having your fitting and getting your final garment. It also highlights a bunch of different tailors from across Europe so you get a better understanding of the different styles and what works for you. Last but not least, it also talks about other bespoke things such as bespoke shirts or bespoke ties and overall, if you’re considering to get a made to measure garment or a bespoke custom garment, I think this is money well spent because you learn a lot about the process, the pitfalls, and the mistakes you can make, and even if you’re not in the market for a custom garment yet, you just learn a lot about how garments are made traditionally and because of that, it’s my number 3 pick.

4. Esquire Encyclopedia Of 20th-Century Men’s Fashion – O. E. Schoeffler

That’s quite a mouthful and even though it’s so old, it’s such a good book because it’s very comprehensive and it’s over 600 pages. Just look at the table of contents, it doesn’t just talk about formal evening wear but also formal day wear and there is a chapter on waistcoats, cummerbunds, and other clothing. It’s a fantastic book that has lots of illustrations as well as a glossary and a dictionary that really help you to find things quickly if you don’t know what certain terminology means.

That aside, it’s usually something you leave in your coffee table and read on a cold day in front of the fire. Sadly, this book is out of print and you can sometimes find it at libraries but more often than not, they sold it years ago. Because it’s out of print, it often goes north of $1,000 per copy sometimes you’re lucky and you may end up getting it for 100 or $200 so be patient and when the opportunity arises, definitely get a copy.

5. Reclams Mode – Und Kostümlexicon – Ingrid Loschek

It was originally written by Ingrid Loschek who sadly died because of cancer but it’s now continued by Gundula Wolter. The focus of this encyclopedia is not just men but also women and fashion and fashion history, in general. I found it extremely valuable and if you speak German, it’s a no-brainer, get this book! If you don’t speak German, you have two alternatives.

One is Fairchild encyclopedia of menswear which, as the name implies, just focuses on menswear but I don’t find it nearly as good. Another good book is the fashion dictionary by Guido Vergani which is more fashion-forward nevertheless, you find lots of useful information. Not a book you would read in front of the fireplace but something to look up terminologies and things when you need them. Obviously, if you are in the classic menswear business, you produce a lot of content and because of that, encyclopedias and in-depth research literature is very important for us. For you as a style enthusiast, it may not be something you must have in your library.

6. The Elegant Man – Riccardo Villarosa & Guiliano Angeli

I put it on the list because it has a really comprehensive section about fabrics. You don’t just learn about worsteds and flannels but also about things like the weaves and everything you need to know as a style enthusiast. On top of that, it covers all the basics of a classic man’s wardrobe even though the style sections are a little dated because it was published in the 90s, it is overall a very solid performer with good basic knowledge and it’s a book that should not be missing from your library.

7. Alles über Herrenschuhe – Helge Sternke

Another German one, Alles Uber Herrenschuhe by Helge Sternke. This monumental book title has everything about men’s shoes, isn’t perfect but it’s definitely the most comprehensive attempt about anything there is to men’s shoes. Learn about construction, different models, their history and if you speak German and like shoes, it should not miss from your bookshelf. It’s also not cheap and retails for around 200 euros. Now if you speak English, I suggest you check out a book from Daszlo Vass about Goodyear welted shoes for men which is very educational about how shoes are made and it’s something you can read and understand.

8. History Of Men’s Fashion – Farid Chenoune

Even though the author’s French and he wrote it in French, there’s also an English version of it. It has about 300 pages and talks about men’s fashion history which is very interesting for someone like me who always likes to dig deeper and understand why certain elements in classic menswear evolved, why they remain and how did they come to be.

9. Sharp Suits – Eric Musgrave

I met Eric once at his club in London and he has been into men’s clothing for the most part of his life. He is very knowledgeable and he put together a book just about the suit, its history, the different silhouettes, the patterns, and since the suit is so central to classic elegance and style, I put it on my list.

Mercury Dictionary Of Textile Terms
Mercury Dictionary Of Textile Terms

10. Mercury Dictionary Of Textile Terms

Now the 10th book on my list may surprise you, it’s the Mercury dictionary of textile terms and it was published in the 1950s. So it’s quite old but I love it because it’s more than 500 pages of detailed information about anything related to cloth, fabric, textiles, yarns, they talk about the weaving patterns, the history, and anything else you wanted to know. That’s particularly important for me as a menswear designer and creator because I want to understand how patterns and certain fabrics and styles came to be and what makes them different from others. For you, as a consumer, it’s really not as useful.

Other Books That Might Interest YOU…

You guessed it! most of them evolved around cufflinks such as this one. It’s from Susan Jonas and Marilyn Nissenson and I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

2. Jewelry For Gentlemen – James Sherwood

Another great recent book edition from James Sherwood, it covers rings, cufflinks, brooches, chains, necklaces, lapel pins and brooches and anything else you could imagine a gentleman to wear.

3. Gentleman Of The Golden Age eBook – Sven Raphael Schneider

If you like 1930 style and the way we are inspired by it today, please check out my ebook, Gentlemen of the Golden AgeLearn from the men who wore classic fashion best. Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant — they all looked their best in the 1930’s. Now you can use their source of sartorial inspiration, too.

Esquire's Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men's Fashions
Esquire’s Encyclopedia of 20th Century Men’s Fashions

4. Bruce Boyer Books (True Style / Elegance)

True Style
True Style

First, let me say I’m a great admirer of Bruce, and of all the authors I mentioned here, I think he has the best writing style. On top of that, he has a wonderful personal style. So why didn’t it make my list?

One, his books have no photographs. Personally, I believe that classic men’s style and clothing is best consumed in a visual way. I’ve discussed this with Bruce Boyer personally in the past and he believes that nothing dates a book as quickly as having photos in it and while I agree with him on that front, I still think photos help the consumer to better understand what he’s writing.

Elegance
Elegance

Two, a lot of what you can read in Bruce’s books are individual articles that were written for magazines or different outlets. In his books, they’re all combined and so sometimes I personally miss that coherence that you get when you write one book from start to finish. That being said, I have all of his books in my possession, I really enjoy them and I think you should invest in them too, they’re just not my personal top 10.

5. Hugo Jacomet Books

You may know him as the Parisian Gentleman. In recent years, he has published a book Parisian Gentleman as well as the Italian Gentleman. Both books are beautiful, they are large oversized coffee table books with beautiful photographs, and I think overall, it’s something you should invest in. At the same time, those books are more focused on craftsman and different houses as well as their history. Personally, I don’t care as much about the history of the people but more about the products they create. Because of that, Parisian Gentleman was not in my top ten list.

6. Simon Crompton Books

I think Simon Crompton has a great wealth of knowledge, very detailed, very in-depth, he really understands bespoke and has visited many craftsmen. At the same time, his books either focus on brands which again, I’m not so interested in, because I know all of those brands already I know their benefits and their shortcomings and so there’s not much value there for me. Simon also speaks about things that are not primarily about brands but about clothing, style, and tailoring. The problem with those is they’re not as comprehensive as the information that you can find on his website. I know that’s often the fault of the publisher not of Simon Crompton but at the end of the day, if I invest money in a book, I want more information than what I can get free online.

Of course, if you like his writings on the website, buying his book is a great way to support him. That being said, if you want to learn from real-world outfits and get information you can not find on his website, I suggest buying his book, The Style Guide because it shows you men from this day and age that wear things and he explains why it works for them in a particular situation and so you can draw conclusions from that for your own outfits.

7. Gentleman’s Lookbook – Bernhard Roetzel

Another book that goes in the same vein is called the Gentleman’s Lookbook by Bernhard Roetzel.

I am Dandy Coffee Table Book
I am Dandy Coffee Table Book

8. I Am Dandy And We Are Dandy – Rose Callahan & Nathaniel Adams

Also, I really like the books I am dandy and We are dandy by Rose Callahan and Nathaniel Adams that highlight unique personal style paired with a story of the people and how they created it.

Book TitleAuthor
Dressing The ManAlan Flusser
GentlemanBernhard Roetzel
Bespoke Menswear Tailoring For GentlemenBernhard Roetzel
Esquire Encyclopedia Of 20th-Century Men's FashionOscar E. Schoeffler
Reclams Mode - Und KostümlexiconIngrid Loschek
The Elegant ManRiccardo Villarosa & Guiliano Angeli
Alles über HerrenschuheHelge Sternke
History Of Men's FashionFarid Chenoune
Sharp SuitsEric Musgrave
Mercury Dictionary Of Textile Terms

Outfit Rundown

I’m wearing a typical outfit that I would wear when reading a book at the fireplace on a cold rainy day. It consists of green checked shirt with a barrel cuff. I’m pairing it with an ascot in a paisley pattern. My cardigan is made out of nice melange wool with yellow and grey tones. It’s from Old England in Paris and had bought it at a flea market last time I was in Paris. My pants are from Polo Ralph Lauren through black corduroys and I paired them with over-the-calf socks in shadow striped and purple and teal which picks up the colors of my ascot and ties together my green velvet slippers.

A casual at-home outfit that Raphael would wear during rainy season.
A casual at-home outfit that Raphael would wear during the rainy season.
Ascot in Brown, Bottle Green, Orange and Madder Blue Silk Large Paisley

Fort Belvedere

Ascot in Brown, Bottle Green, Orange and Madder Blue Silk Large Paisley

Teal and Purple Shadow Stripe Ribbed Socks Fil d'Ecosse Cotton

Fort Belvedere

Teal and Purple Shadow Stripe Ribbed Socks Fil d'Ecosse Cotton

What are your favorite fashion books? Share with us in the comments below!

Reader Comments

  1. Sven your articles are always excellent, but this one is superb! All who worship at the shrine of the modern Dandy should make these books the cornerstone of their gentleman’s library.

  2. How would you compare your philosophy and guidance with that of John T. Malloy’? I realize you have different goals, and I don’t believe he has written anything for.a score of years.

  3. This article is still demonstrating a misunderstanding of what a Goodyear-welted shoe is.

    Vass’s shoes are not Goodyear-welted. They are hand-welted. Hence the title of the book, “Handmade Shoes For Men”, not “Goodyear-welted Shoes For Men”.

    Vass even outlines this for you on page 122, in the section subtitled “Industrialization and it’s Consequences”.

    One of those apparent consequences is that people no longer understand the difference between a handmade (hand-welted) shoe and a machine welted (Goodyear) shoe.

    This isn’t necessarily surprising outside of the context of menswear sites like this. But, as a menswear blogger and enthusiast, I think you should be careful not to propagate this misinformation.

    1. Dear Will, of course, we understand the different but we do not use the term handwelt because it is ambiguous. There are many handmade welts, and goodyear is one of them. If you talk to different shoemakes they use different terminologies but at the end of the day, you have a goodyear that is machine welted with a gemband, and one without gemband that is completely handmade. We have talked in depth about the difference in the welt, the gemband etc. We have talked about it and explained it to people if you are unhappy with the terminology, you are welcome to write a piece about it or create a video.
      goodyear welt explained

      1. I always fear sounding argumentative, and that is not my intention. I just want to help shoe enthusiasts understand.

        If you make a welted shoe by hand (no gemming, no machine welting), you are not making a Goodyear-welt. The machine stitching the welt to the gemming IS Goodyear-welting.

        When you make the welted shoe by hand (with no gemming band), you are employing a shoemaking process that has been in use for over 400 years. Hence, it cannot be Goodyear, since his machine process wasn’t developed until the 1860’s.

        It’s not about me being unhappy with terminology. It’s about getting the history correct. There are plenty of pieces, books, and videos already. Vass’s book is one of them, so I don’t need to write another.

        People just need to read and understand what is already there.

      2. I guess you did not read what I wrote then.
        Yes, I fully understand that the hand welt you are talking about is much older than goodyear. On a handmade shoe you do not glue on a gemband but you work out a lip on the sole. Technically it looks like a goodyear welt, and not like let’s say a Norvegese welt. I get what you are saying, and I do not misunderstand the concept of what you, Vass or Carreducker say. But I simply think the terminology I use provides more clarity, since handwelt does not tell me what type of welt it is Norvegese is a handwelt but it is very different and more time consuming than the handwelt that looks like a goodyear welt. On the other hand handmade goodyear welt vs machine goodyear welt vs blake or blake rapid or norvegese does.

        1. Thanks for your reply. I definitely read what you wrote, but I think your latest comment was necessary to fully explain your use of Goodyear-welting terminology. I appreciate the complexity of the matter, and I also appreciate that most of your readers don’t care to split hairs at the academic level, so I may be barking up the wrong tree given the average readership.

          I mainly bring it up since it is a sore spot for artisans who feel that their product is being trivialized by calling it the namesake equivalent of a machine made product.

          For comparison, it could be related to calling a master calligrapher’s work “Microsoft Word by hand”, since anybody can type a beautiful document using the same font by machine. But of course, that would be nonsense, as people have been hand writing documents for many centuries prior to the advent of the word processor that made hand writing somewhat obsolete. But, we would all agree that it would be silly to attribute a master calligraphers namesake work to a machine inventor. I see calling a master shoemaker’s products “handmade Goodyear” as the exact same thing.

          This is all I’m trying to say, but I can let it lie. As you said, it’s your blog, so you have the right to call things what you prefer.

  4. “Dressing The Man” is a classic, but have you seen Flusser lately? 16 years after that book he now wears some very weird combinations. Maybe he needs to re-read and take advice from”Dressing The Man”.

  5. I can’t remember the author, but a book called Personal Style is good. Explains everything from grooming, to clothes, to packing them. I gave it away to a friend.

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