Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion

USA$49-95 Canada '$74-95

D

ressingtheMan is the definitive guide to what men need to know in. qrd~ tQ dress well and look stylish. without becoming fashion victims. Alan FLusser's name is synonymouswi th taste and style. With his new b ook, he combines his encyclopedic knowledge of men's clothes with his

signature wit ancl eleg~ce to address the fundamental paradox of modern men's fashion: 'Why, after men today have spen t more money on dothes than in any other period of history; -are there few~r well-dressed m en than· at any time

(aontim1ed fr(:)m front j1a.p) . Tyrone Power, and Fred Astaire are etn.ployed to

help illustrate the range and diversity of a1,1thentic men's fashion. Dr~s#tg the Man's sheer rpagnitude of options will enable the xeader to expand both d1e grammar and verfuiage o.fhis petmanentfashion vocabLuary For thosemen.hoping

to find sarto~fu1 -

fillm.ent somewhere down the road, tethering

their journey to the mind-set of permanent fashion will deiivet them there earlier rather than later in life.

ever before? According to Flusser, dressing well is not all that difficult; the real challenge lies in being ahle to acquire the fight person-al-ized Instruction. Dressing well pivots on two pillars-proportion and color. Flus,ser believes that '"Permanent Fashionibillty,J) both hi,s promise and goal for the reader, starts by being accountable to a personal set of physical trademarks ·and not to any Jcind of .random, seasonally se.rved-Llp collection of fashion .flashes. Unlike fashic;m. which is obliged to cha:q.ge each season. the face's shape, the neck's height, the shoulder~s width, the arm's length. the torso's strucwre, and the foot's size reJnain fairly conls the President of Alan F1usser

stant over time. Once a man learlis how to adapt

ALAN FLUS S'ER

the :fundamentals of permanent fashion to his

Designs, a company he founded in I979- He

physique a:nd complexion,_he's halfway home. Taking the reader through each major cloth-

received the 1985 Goty Aw~d as Top Mc~.nswear

ing das15i£cation step - by-step, tW.s user-friendly

first two books' ''ilni.q ue contribution tQ the Utera-

guide helps you apply your own specifics to a

tute of menswear." He attracmd natiohal attention

series of dressing options> fro1n business casual

for designing Michael DOL~glas"s wardrobe in the

·and fotmalwear to pattern-on-pattern coordina-

movie Wall Stret;t, as well as acclaim for hJs work on

tion, or how to choose the m0_st flattetihg doth.ingsiihouette for your body type and shirt collar for your fa~e. A man's physical traits represent his individual .roadmap, and the quickestroute toward forging an endn ring sty1e of dress is through exposure to the legendary practitioners of this rare m asculine art. Flusser has assembled the largest and most diver-se collectien of sty.lishly mantled 1nen everfound in one book Nlany nevet-before-seeh vintage photographs from the ern of Cary Grant,

the HB 0 m0yie Barbarians at th~ Gate and the ·6lm

(conti11ued on &~ckjlb;p) t002

Designer and the Cut.t y SarkAwardin1987for his

Scent of a ~ro1.rtatl; He is the author ·o f four books;

Jnduding Style and the Man, clothes and ih.e Mart, and Mak~rtg the Mq:n. l-Ie has two daughters and lives in New York. Jacket design by Joel Avirom and Jason Snyder

&ant cover photograph:Getty Archives. Back c:::over photographs: top: Illusfirated..Ne~vs, l ondon; m~dcUe: Culver PJ1otqs; bottom: courtesy of Polo Ralph lauren Author photograph by James Murray

Harper~ollinsPublishers ~

-www.harpere0.ll.in:s.com

ALSO BY ALAN fL USS I R

Style and the Man Clothes and the Man

Making the Man

•

•

PERMANENT

THE PO\¥ER

PROPORT ION:

FASH ION

OF COLOR 16

T HE fOUNDATION

THE PREROGATIVES

OF STYLE

OF PATTERN

2

34

HOSIERY 1-IARMONIES

FOOT DECORUM

ACCESSORIES:

FORMALWEAR:

THE MAJOR IMPORTANCE

BLACK- AND - WH I TE

170

186

OF 1/[INOR THINGS

ET I ~ETTE

210

232

•

THE SUIT 78

ODD JACKETS, TROUSERS. AND WAI STCOATS

THE DRESS SHIRT

NECKWEAR 144

120

100

BUSINESS CASUAL 254

GLOSSARY

BIBLIO G RAPHY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

277

J06

307

Male adornment has blo~~o med. in p r sartodal taste was abandoned. Toda)r, one man's good taste 1s another man's "pizza tie'' (a term 5·o m novelist TO'rn vVolfe). VIe have now arriv ed at that point where ·rhe

book's sub title. "lvlasterlng the Art of Permanent

Fashion."

n ~ed s

some ex planati o n. T he hnki.n.g of per-

mtmem with ji1slzio11 may wel'l strike. ma11y as an oxymoro.rt. Particula rly today. \vhen fashion is taken. to mea.n. a .CC.)lll11litment to risk and change. mating it '~· ith d1c idea of permanence i.s

bound to cause confusion. if not dmvnright controversy. This is not an oversight bltt rather an atte.n1pt to provoke the inquiring mind.

The idea of pe rmanent fashion operates on two levels. First, it syitibolizes· the current paradox of modern men's fashion. which is. that mens\'vear has enjoyed three decades