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What’s This About

These 43 books on men’s style, each checked against a publisher page or library catalogue, cover style guides, tailoring, Ivy style, garment history, the luxury business and grooming.

This reading list is sorted by subject so you can choose books for the side of menswear that interests you, such as:

Practical guides to classic dress by Alan Flusser and G. Bruce Boyer

Savile Row histories and a head cutter’s memoir

Ivy League and preppy photo books

Histories of classic garments and accessories

Museum catalogues on the history of menswear

and many more!

Start with one practical guide, then follow the subject you enjoy most.

Key Points

01Dressing the Man by Alan Flusser is a practical first book on classic dress.

02Bespoke by James Sherwood and Bespoke by Richard Anderson cover Savile Row from two angles.

03Take Ivy and Black Ivy show how Ivy style was worn in the 1950s and 1960s.

04Older books are useful for history and proportion, but check their dress-code advice against today’s practice.

A good menswear library teaches you how clothes are made, where classic garments come from and how other men have worn them.

This list gathers 43 books on men’s style, sorted by subject, from practical style guides to Savile Row memoirs, Ivy League photo books and fashion history.

Each title, author and year below was checked against the publisher’s page or a library catalogue in October 2026, and the year given is the edition we checked.

Many of these books have been reprinted, so you may find later editions, and some are easiest to find second-hand or in a library.

Where to Start

If you want one practical guide to classic dress, start with Dressing the Man by Alan Flusser.

If you prefer short essays, try True Style by G. Bruce Boyer or Men and Style by David Coggins.

If you are interested in tailoring, read Bespoke: The Men’s Style of Savile Row by James Sherwood, then Richard Anderson’s memoir Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped and Smoothed.

If you want history, 100 Years of Menswear by Cally Blackman covers the 20th century in one illustrated volume.

1. Style Guides and Essays

These books explain how classic menswear works: proportion, colour, fit and how to put an outfit together.

#	Title	Author	Year	Publisher	What it covers
1	Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion	Alan Flusser	2002	HarperCollins	A guide to proportion, colour and pattern in classic tailoring and shirts and ties.
2	Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion	Bernhard Roetzel	2000	Könemann	An illustrated reference to classic men’s clothing, from suits and shirts to shoes and accessories.
3	Elegance: A Guide to Quality in Menswear	G. Bruce Boyer	1985	W. W. Norton	Essays on what makes classic clothing well made and how to choose it.
4	True Style	G. Bruce Boyer	2015	Basic Books	Essays on the history and principles of classic menswear.
5	Men and Style: Essays, Interviews and Considerations	David Coggins	2016	Abrams	Essays and interviews with designers, writers and other men about how they dress.
6	An ABC of Men’s Fashion	Hardy Amies	1964	Newnes	An A to Z of men’s clothing terms and advice from the London couturier, later reissued.
7	The Parisian Gentleman	Hugo Jacomet	2015	Thames & Hudson	Profiles of tailors, shirtmakers and shoemakers, mainly in Europe.
8	How to Be a Man	Glenn O’Brien	2011	Rizzoli	Humorous essays on style and manners, illustrated by Jean-Philippe Delhomme.
9	Details Men’s Style Manual	Daniel Peres and the editors of Details	2007	Gotham	A practical manual on choosing, wearing and caring for a wardrobe.
10	Menswear Dog Presents the New Classics	David Fung and Yena Kim	2015	Artisan	A light-hearted wardrobe guide modelled by the Shiba Inu from the Menswear Dog blog.

2. Tailoring and Savile Row

These books cover how suits are cut and made, and the history of Savile Row tailoring.

#	Title	Author	Year	Publisher	What it covers
11	The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men’s Style	Nicholas Antongiavanni	2006	Collins	Advice on suits and tailoring written in the manner of Machiavelli’s The Prince.
12	Sharp Suits	Eric Musgrave	2009	Pavilion	An illustrated history of the men’s suit.
13	Bespoke: The Men’s Style of Savile Row	James Sherwood	2010	Rizzoli	The tailoring houses of Savile Row, past and present; published in the UK by Thames & Hudson as Savile Row: The Master Tailors of British Bespoke.
14	The London Cut: Savile Row Bespoke Tailoring	James Sherwood	2007	Marsilio and Fondazione Pitti Discovery	Published with an exhibition of Savile Row tailoring, with photographs of garments from many houses.
15	Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped and Smoothed	Richard Anderson	2009	Simon & Schuster	The memoir of a cutter who trained at Huntsman and later opened his own Savile Row shop.
16	One Savile Row: The Invention of the English Gentleman	Gieves & Hawkes, with contributors including Marcus Binney and Harold Koda	2014	Flammarion	The history of Gieves & Hawkes and its military, naval and civilian tailoring.
17	Tailoring: Obsessions	Simon Crompton	2016	Hardie Grant	A short guide to tailoring by the writer of the Permanent Style blog.
18	The Gentleman’s Wardrobe	Vanessa Mooncie	2017	GMC Publications	Patterns and instructions for sewing classic menswear at home.

3. Icons, Ivy Style and Subcultures

These books look at the men, campuses and groups that shaped particular styles, from Ivy League dress (and Ivy League haircuts) to dandies and denim collectors.

For a related look at classic American East Coast dress, see our WASP style guide for men.

#	Title	Author	Year	Publisher	What it covers
19	Rebel Style	G. Bruce Boyer	2006	Assouline	Film actors of the 1950s and their influence on casual menswear.
20	I Am Dandy: The Return of the Elegant Gentleman	Nathaniel Adams (text) and Rose Callahan (photographs)	2013	Gestalten	Portraits of 57 present-day dandies, their clothes and their homes.
21	Take Ivy	Teruyoshi Hayashida (photographs), Shosuke Ishizu and others	2010	powerHouse Books	The English edition of a Japanese photo book of 1960s American college style.
22	Ivy Style: Radical Conformists	Patricia Mears	2012	Yale University Press	A history of Ivy League clothing and its influence on menswear.
23	Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style	Jason Jules and Graham Marsh	2021	Reel Art Press	How Black American men wore and reshaped Ivy style in the 1950s and 1960s.
24	The Official Preppy Handbook	Lisa Birnbach (editor)	1980	Workman	A humorous guide to American preppy dress and customs.
25	True Prep: It’s a Whole New Old World	Lisa Birnbach with Chip Kidd	2010	Alfred A. Knopf	The follow-up to The Official Preppy Handbook.
26	Rowing Blazers	Jack Carlson	2014	Vendome Press	Photographs and histories of rowing club blazers from clubs around the world.
27	Denim Dudes	Amy Leverton	2015	Laurence King	Portraits of denim enthusiasts from several countries.
28	Mr Classic	Jeremy Hackett	2007	Thames & Hudson	The Hackett founder’s personal take on British menswear.

4. Garments, Accessories and Vintage

These books explain where individual garments and accessories come from, which helps when you buy new or second-hand.

#	Title	Author	Year	Publisher	What it covers
29	Icons of Men’s Style	Josh Sims	2011	Laurence King	Histories of classic garments such as the trench coat, peacoat and Oxford shirt.
30	The Details: Iconic Men’s Accessories	Josh Sims	2015	Laurence King	Histories of men’s accessories.
31	Vintage Menswear	Douglas Gunn, Roy Luckett and Josh Sims	2012	Laurence King	Workwear, military and sports clothing from The Vintage Showroom archive in London.

5. Fashion History and Reference

These books take a longer, more academic view of how men’s clothing has changed.

#	Title	Author	Year	Publisher	What it covers
32	100 Years of Menswear	Cally Blackman	2009	Laurence King	An illustrated history of 20th-century menswear and its subcultures.
33	Sex and Suits	Anne Hollander	1994	Alfred A. Knopf	An essay on how the tailored suit developed and why it has lasted.
34	Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015	Sharon Sadako Takeda, Kaye Durland Spilker and Clarissa M. Esguerra	2016	Prestel	Published with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition of the same name.
35	Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear	Claire Wilcox and Rosalind McKever	2022	V&A Publishing	Published with the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition of the same name.
36	Menswear Revolution	Jay McCauley Bowstead	2018	Bloomsbury	An academic study of how menswear and ideas of masculinity have changed in recent decades.
37	Contemporary Menswear	Steven Vogel, Nicholas Schonberger and Calum Gordon	2014	Thames & Hudson	Profiles of present-day menswear designers and labels.
38	Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion	Valerie Steele (editor)	2005	Charles Scribner’s Sons	A three-volume reference on dress history and fashion around the world.

6. Business and the Luxury Industry

These books explain how fashion and luxury companies are built and run, which helps when you judge what a brand’s price pays for.

#	Title	Author	Year	Publisher	What it covers
39	Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike	Phil Knight	2016	Scribner	Nike’s founder on building the company from a small importer of running shoes.
40	House of Versace	Deborah Ball	2010	Crown	The story of the Versace family and its fashion house.
41	Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster	Dana Thomas	2007	Penguin Press	An investigation of how luxury brands became global businesses.

7. Grooming and Lifestyle

These books go beyond clothes to grooming and social life.

#	Title	Author	Year	Publisher	What it covers
42	Gentleman’s Guide to Grooming and Style	Bernhard Roetzel	2000	Barnes & Noble	Grooming, shaving and dressing advice from the author of Gentleman.
43	The Gentlemen’s Clubs of London	Anthony Lejeune	1979	Macdonald and Jane’s	The history and customs of London’s private members’ clubs.

How to Use These Books

Read one practical guide first, so you have a framework for fit, proportion and colour.

Then choose books on the style or garment that interests you most, such as tailoring, Ivy style or vintage clothing.

Treat advice in older books as convention rather than rule, because dress codes and fabrics have changed since many of them were written.

If a book’s description of a brand or maker interests you, check current information from the brand itself, because ownership and production often change.

For a guide to judging a luxury brand on its merits, see our explainer on why Loro Piana is expensive.

Common Questions

Q. What is the best first book on men’s style?

Dressing the Man by Alan Flusser is a widely recommended starting point for classic dress, and True Style by G. Bruce Boyer suits readers who prefer essays.

Q. Are older menswear books still useful?

Yes, for history, construction and proportion, but check their advice on dress codes against how people dress today.

Q. Which books cover Savile Row?

James Sherwood’s Bespoke and The London Cut, Richard Anderson’s memoir Bespoke and the Gieves & Hawkes history One Savile Row all cover Savile Row tailoring.

Sources

Open Library catalogue records (Internet Archive), openlibrary.org, searched 7 October 2026, for most titles, authors, publishers and years.

WorldCat, One Savile Row record, read 7 October 2026.

Auckland University of Technology library catalogue, The London Cut record, read 7 October 2026.

Publisher pages: Abrams (Men and Style), Gestalten (I Am Dandy), Simon & Schuster (Bespoke) and Simon & Schuster (Shoe Dog), read 7 October 2026.

Library catalogue record for Tailoring: Obsessions, read 7 October 2026.

43 Men’s Style Books Worth Reading, Sorted by Subject