The Best New Men’s Fashion Books to Buy in 2021 – Robb Report

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Style is more practice than theory for most people, but that doesn’t make fashion writing any less enjoyable. Quite the opposite: A slew of new books offers a broad range of stylistic inspiration and history in handsome coffee table form. They’re rich in detail, perfect for a sartorial obsessive’s library, but designed with clarity and restraint, equally suited for the casual browser or gift recipient. Refreshingly, this season’s crop is also ambitious in topic and scope, offering fresh and inclusive approaches without compromising on a beautiful product.

The Men’s Fashion Book

A spread from The Men's Fashion Book.


Phaidon

The widest-ranging of these is The Men’s Fashion Book from Phaidon, packing in 500 color illustrations as well as an extensive foreword by Jacob Gallagher of the Wall Street Journal. As you’d expect from a publisher known for ambitious, glossy volumes on fine art, architecture and cooking, the photography is first-rate. The usual stories are well represented: English and Italian heritage brands, Americana, French cool, the Belgian and Japanese avant-garde. But there’s also Harlem legend Dapper Dan and Viennese provocateur Rudi Gernreich (inventor of the thong), more attention to African and Asian fashion and space for younger designers such as Grace Wales Bonner and Luke Sabbat. Beyond industry names and storied brands there’s a wide cast of sports stars, actors, musicians, politicians, and public figures.

The sprawling book is arranged alphabetically, which makes for some odd combinations (Malcolm X meets Marcelo Mastroianni; John Lobb right after Steve Jobs). Readers are encouraged to flick through by cross-references on every page, taking you from Sulka to Hermès and from Miles Davis to Brooks Brothers. Gallagher heroically attempts to tie everything together but can only do so much. For all its ambition, the book inevitably lacks focus, but it’s a pleasure to browse.

Buy Now: $79.95
$71.95

Tom Ford: 002

The cover of and an image from Tom Ford: 002.


Rizzoli, Tom Ford

If there’s one name in men’s fashion that stands for singular focus and poise, it’s Tom Ford. The designer’s first book charted his time at the helm of Gucci; Tom Ford: 002 is all his own. It catalogs his eponymous label’s clothes, accessories, eyewear and fragrances, along with the models and celebrities who wear them. The foreword sees the return of Anna Wintour, who recalls introducing Ford’s previous book back in 2004, and reflects on his humor, drive, and aesthetic consistency. Contributions from Graydon Carter and Bridget Foley border on hagiographic, but Foley’s interview with Ford is illuminating: clear-eyed about the excesses as well as the glories of the Gucci years, and reflective about the challenges of parenting and the meaning of social change. We learn about Ford’s journey into perfume and how he gave strong-framed English tailoring a heavy dose of American glamour. The photography is superb and perfectly on brand: acres of velvet and tanned skin, sweeping tuxes and tight trunks. Alongside the suits and shades, there’s womenswear and watches. Above all, there’s swagger and provocation. It may be a more circumspect portrait, but it’s still Tom Ford.

Buy Now: $135.00
$106.30

Portraits of the Modern Gentleman

The cover of Portraits of a Modern Gentleman


Victionary

Portraits of the Modern Gentleman couldn’t be more different. The illustrator Fei Wang, who goes by the nom de plume Mr. Slowboy, presents a book cataloging his work for heritage brands such as Dunhill, Barbour and Drake’s, as well as illustrations for magazines, and portraits of friends and industry luminaries. His characters are cheerful, good-natured and occasionally hapless: an arty type in a Barbour carries enough brushes to teach an art class in his pockets and has a splash of paint on his coat; a man in a beautiful chocolate suit with a tray of honey gets pursued by bees. Slowboy’s background as a Beijing advertising creative comes through in an extraordinary combination of simplicity and detail: his drawings are never chaotic or busy, yet capture the stitching on a lapel or the fringed edge of a scarf.

The book features contributions from friends such as Jeremy Hackett, Mark Cho and W. David Marx. Instagram favorites including Scott Schuman, Jake Grantham and Ethan Newton feature among the portraits. As Yasuto Kamoshita says in his foreword, “You can always tell who they are at a glance,” yet “their facial expressions are kinder and a little more hesitant, reflecting Mr. Slowboy’s own personality.” The book is a trove of outfits and characters. In a world of glossy brand catalogs, these illustrations are a breath of fresh air, gentility and wit.

Buy Now: $45

Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style

A spread from Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style


Reel Art Press

“Every new fashion is a form of rebellion,” Sidney Poitier says in the pages of Jason Jules and Graham Marsh’s Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style. The book tells the story of the vital part that Black artists, musicians, politicians and communities played in Ivy style, a flourishing of button-down collars, brushed sweaters and soft-shouldered jackets that traveled far beyond the preppy New England establishment. And it speaks to Ivy style’s role in a bigger story of Black artistic achievement, social change and the battle for equal rights. The looks here are sharp but far from monotonous: artist Charles White in tweeds, musician Eric Dolphy in a shawl collar cardigan, MLK with pristine suits and slim ties and, of course, Miles Davis, the world’s best argument for the mint green button-down, pictured in everything from seersucker to blazers.

Beyond the famous names, there’s street style, sit-in style and college scenes at Morehouse and Howard reminiscent of Teruyoshi Hayashida’s legendary Take Ivy photographs. Jules and Marsh sweep across literature, music, film, sport, politics and advertising. This is a book of arresting and tender portraits, at once a celebration of style and a commemoration of real lives. It’s a much-needed companion to books like Tanisha Ford’s Liberated Threads, showing how men’s style was just as relevant as women’s in the era. And it’s a fitting tribute to continuity and to change. As Jules says, Black Ivy was “challenging the status quo while at the same time honoring it.”

Buy Now: $49.45


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