Dressing the Man : Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion

About the book

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.

Reviews

"A Hoyle's, a Fowler's, a Webster's, a Baedeker's, a Machiavelli's, a von Clausewitz's guide to men's dress." Tom Wolfe

Quotes

"A Hoyle's, a Fowler's, a Webster's, a Baedeker's, a Machiavelli's, a von Clausewitz's guide to men's dress." -- Tom Wolfe "If it's male elegance and sophistication you aspire to, DRESSING THE MAN will suit you perfectly." -- Art Cooper, Editor in Chief, GQ

Alan Flusser Biography

Alan J. Flusser (born 16 May 1945) is an American author and designer of men's clothing. He owns and operates Alan Flusser Custom in New York City.

Early life and education

Flusser was born in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1979 he founded Alan Flusser Designs. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Career

In 1985 he launched Alan Flusser Custom which focuses on custom and made-to-measure suits. Flusser designed the wardrobe for Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) in Wall Street and designed clothing for the films Barbarians at the Gate, Scent of a Woman, and American Psycho (film) starring Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman.

Influence

Flusser had huge influence on popular culture through movies that today have cult following, most notably Wall Street and American Psycho. He played a major role in promotion of style inspired by 1930s, which is today accepted as a golden age of men’s fashion. In his own words: "For the first time American men realized that clothing should not be worn to hide the natural lines of the body, but, rather, to conform to them, thereby enhancing the male physique. At the same time, clothes should not be too obvious. Instead, they had to become part of the man who was wearing them. The idea of clothing was not to set the man apart (as had been the case for centuries, when kings and noblemen dressed primarily to accomplish just that) but to allow him to be an individual among individuals…. Americans had finally learned that the goal of good clothing was to flatter rather than be conspicuous."

Bibliography

Flusser, Alan (1981). Making the Man: The Insider's Guide to Buying Men's Clothes. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-79147-8. Flusser, Alan (1985). Clothes and the Man: The Principles of Fine Men's Dress. Villard. ISBN 0-394-54623-7. Flusser, Alan (1996). Style and the Man: How and Where to Buy Fine Men's Clothes. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-270155-X. Flusser, Alan (2002). Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019144-9. Flusser, Alan (2010). Style and the Man. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061976155. Flusser, Alan (2019). Ralph Lauren: In His Own Fashion. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1419741463.

Awards and honors

Flusser won the 1983 Coty Award as Top Menswear Designer, and received the Cutty Sark Award in 1987.

References

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