The 27 Style Books Every Man Should Own, Read, and Learn From
There’s a tired knock against style (and those who prioritize it): that it lacks substance. To counter this line, we’ve gathered together some of the most prolific writers and photographers in the business—and a cerebral podcast host—and asked them to name the top style-related titles that sit on their own shelves. From glossy coffee table tomes to brainy academic texts, the books below are de rigueur for any library. And if any might find their way into the hands of a style-minded gift recipient this holiday season, you can thank us later.
G. Bruce Boyer, author of True Style, Gary Cooper: Enduring Style, and Riffs
The Glass of Fashion by Cecil Beaton
Originally published in 1954, this is a beautifully written homage to those people Beaton considered to have been responsible for the changes in fashion in the first half of the 20th century, those who created the style and those who inspired them. Some of these names are completely unfamiliar to us today, but he examines their influence and makes us think about their style through many illuminating anecdotes and observations that enlighten.
More from Robb Report
Human Finery by Quentin Bell
Bell, who was Virginia Woolf’s nephew and who taught for many years as professor of History and Theory of Art at Sussex University, develops his theory of fashion starting from Thorstein Veblen’s categories of conspicuous consumption. My own interpretation of Bell’s thesis is that fashion, taste, and style are all class-related modes of dress and propriety. This is a serious and worthwhile consideration of style in dress as well as in art.
The Book of the Courtier by Baldesar Castiglione
This important study takes us back to the Early Renaissance, when Europe was changing from the Medieval world to the Modern, when grazia and sprezzatura were replacing fealty and armor suits as the way to get on in life, and etiquette books for the young arriviste were becoming the rage. Funnily enough, the advice given here seems as worth considering today as it did in 1528 when it was first published.
Miles, Chet, Ralph, & Charlie by Constantine A. Valhouli
In my opinion, Charlie Davidson was one of the most influential men in the clothing business in the second half of the 20th Century. And this new book—a tribute collection of quotes and anecdotes by those who knew him best—finally gives Charlie his due. He was as responsible as anyone for the rise of Ivy League style to the point where it became “America’s style”. I don’t know anyone who didn’t adore Charlie, he had that great gift for friendships, and dressed most of the icon jazz musicians of our time, from which his own fame grew.
Rose Callahan, photographer of I Am Dandy and We Are Dandy
We’re Desperate: The Punk Rock Photography of Jim Jocoy
Snapshots from punk shows in San Francisco and LA during the late ’70s and early ’80s capture the essence of a scene where everyone—famous or not—was part of the spectacle. Each full-length portrait feels like a style playing card, but these images weren’t crafted to inspire future generations—they were simply a reflection of the raw, explosive creativity of the time.
Brassai: Secret Paris of the 1930s
Move over Peaky Blinders, this book has the best dressed underworld characters anyone could hope for.
Gentlemen of Bacongo by Daniele Tamagni
This legendary book introduced the world to the Sapeurs (Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes élégantes) and profoundly influenced my work on I Am Dandy. The dandy style, born from sheer will and boundless creativity in the heart of Brazzaville, is nothing short of mesmerizing.
Moxie: The Daring Women of Classic Hollywood by Ira M. Resnick and Raissa Bretana
A captivating deep dive into the leading ladies of Hollywood’s golden age, featuring a treasure trove of rarely seen photos of icons like Marlene Dietrich, Louise Brooks, and Katharine Hepburn. Hollywood glamour portraits profoundly shaped my photography and personal style growing up, making this lavish new book an absolute delight to escape into.
Jack Carlson, author of Rowing Blazers
A Lover’s Guide to Football Shirts by Neal Heard
A brilliant book on football (soccer) shirts in the style of the best Japanese menswear magazines by my friend Neal Heard, the Lover’s Guide looks at the jerseys from an aesthetic and design perspective. It’s perfect.
Benson & Hedges Book of Racing Colours
This is nothing but a big book of racing colors—that is to say jockey silks. I’m no proponent of horse racing, but this seemingly endless guide to jockey silk designs is pure design inspiration.
The Sloane Ranger Handbook by Ann Barr and Peter York
The British cousin of The Official Preppy Handbook, The Sloane Ranger Handbook is full of great illustrations of various Sloaney “types” and what they wear. It’s not a style book in the strictest sense, but it’s my sort of style book anyway.
Simon Crompton, founder of Permanent Style and author of The Finest Menswear in the World, Bespoke Style and The Casual Style Guide
Dressing the Man by Alan Flusser
It’s the classic, but it still bears re-reading after many years, which says a lot. The casual section has aged less well, but if you want to understand why some people love tailoring so much—its elegance, the way it flatters and projects a man—then this is the book for you.
Giorgio Armani: Images of Man by Richard Martin
The other really worthwhile thing that fashion books can do is give you a bigger, more tactile canvas on which to show influential imagery. This is what Images of Man does, capturing the few seasons from 1975 to 1990 that really made Armani the reference point for laid-back, tailored style. And of course, that look is popular all over again now.
Bespoke: The Masters of Savile Row by James Sherwood
The best book out there on the houses of Savile Row, on what makes the history so special and each house unique. Sherwood is an eloquent writer and an erudite historian, and the photography is excellent too.
Jamie Ferguson, photographer and author of This Guy: Portraits of Modern Men’s Style
Take Ivy
Pretty sure this will be in most people’s collections already and for good reason. A fantastic jumping off point for anyone looking to explore the “Ivy’ or “Trad” style.
J. Crew: Forty Years of American Style
Oh boy. What. A. Tome. This has been a much-read book of mine when it comes to both shoot and styling inspiration. Loose fits, layering, bold colors and FUN! I’d pay close attention to the ‘80s and ‘90s chapters.
Hunks and Heroes: Jim Moore: Four Decades of Fashion at GQ
Herb Ritts, Arthur Elgort, Richard Avedon and Peggy Sirota. I mean that’s worth the price of admission, alone right?! The first half of this book is particularly inspiring with the more relaxed fits of the ‘90s productions being especially relevant to the way I’m styling my wardrobe currently. Can you tell I like the ‘90s at the minute?
Alan Flusser, author of Dressing the Man, Style and the Man and Ralph Lauren: In His Own Fashion
La Regola Estrosa, One Hundred Years of Italian Male Elegance
This is a fairly rarefied book as it was published alongside a Florentine exhibition in 1993 of one hundred years of Italian men’s wear fashion with interviews with some of its most iconic arbiters. Done in a biographical and interview format, much of it comes directly from the horses’ mouths. There is no better book to give you an insider’s feel for what constitutes the sartorial intelligence underpinning Italian men’s fashion. Agnelli, Armani, Gio Ponti, Emilio Pucci are all here…… and they are talking.
The Power of Style by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins
I have given this book to many women clients over the years. It identifies the most influential women in the twentieth century when it comes to fashion, decorating, and entertaining. Collectively they represent a level of visual sophistication and taste that most women have never been exposed to. Inside are photographs of each lady hostessing, socializing, or just out and about choreographed by the kind of commentary only an expert can summon. It’s a must read for women… and men.
The Windsor Style by Suzy Menkes
By far the most influential man in the history of modern menswear is the legendary Duke of Windsor. While considered in his pre-King days as the most eligible bachelor in the world, his choice of clothes was photographed daily and sent to the far ends of the world for inspiration. Although somewhat of an intellectual lightweight looking for something to do, he liberated men from the Victorian dress of conformity, formality and stiffness, ushering in a new era of “dress-soft” fashions that essentially revolutionized how the well-dressed man of his day might throw his clothes together. This book contains more color photos of the former King doing his thing, which tended to be colorful, “pattern on pattern”, and worn in a manner famously described by Coco Chanel as “chic fatigue.”
Cheap Chic by Carl Troy
Cheap Chic is the ‘70s handbook that elevated street style and eclectic dressing to an art form. This book is so important that in 2015, it occasioned a fortieth anniversary re-issue. Want to know how to dress like a world class fashion insider with combinations of street, ethnic, designer, and classic influences, this is the bible. Dated, somewhat, however its principles of dressing in a high-low manner have never been equaled. Richard Merkin is first profiled here.
Jason Jules, author of Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style
The Rebel’s Wardrobe by Bryan Szabo
There are a lot of talking heads online these days telling us about what to wear and how to wear it—I might include myself in that list too. But what’s perhaps important as the current trends and the next big thing are the roots of it all. This beautiful book written by the highly respected denim head Bryan Szabo not only features a kind of essential lexicon of what’s cool—and always will be cool—in menswear terms, but also provides a detailed explanation as to how these things came to be cool. Szabo gives so much of the stuff guys are discovering or rediscovering right now—from the plain white T-shirt to the letterman jacket, from the chore coat to the cowboy boot—a historical and cultural context that along with adding to your menswear knowledge—which can never be a bad thing—will also help inform the readers’ buying choices too. What I love is that this book is so beautifully designed with such great images that not only does it talk about modern objects of desire, it also is one.
Ralph Lauren: 50 Years
Just like his clothing and his retail stores, any Ralph Lauren book is a window into a lifestyle, giving us the permission to dream. While people might critique him for being all-American and patriotic, his version of the American Dream is a unique one, personal and steeped in romance for a past that actually only existed in movies starring the likes of Grace Kelly, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn filtered—most importantly—through the vivid imagination of Ralph Lauren himself. This book—celebrating 50 years in the industry—is both an insight into that world and an excerpt from the real world in which his clothes provide a kind of bridge between the two.
Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of ’70s New York by Guy Trebay
Not your typical style book, but one written in typically sublime style by Guy Trebay. It’s his memoir and it tells the story not only his childhood days in the Bronx, his father’s failed business ventures, his sister’s band-robbing antics and his mother’s innate elegance, it also tells the story of his entrance into the rather sleazy but incredibly glamorous world of pre-AIDS New York in the 1970’s—the Chelsea Hotel, Warhol’s Factory, and superstars like Candy Darling and Jackie Curtis. Now an incredible, well-respected writer for the New York Times, Trebay’s book makes for great reading and a brilliant gift for anyone who wants to get a real sense of what New York was like before the days of the Broken Window policy that cleaned it up and washed away much of its uniqueness and unpredictability. This is a book not about style but imbued with style, giving us a vivid insight and incredibly powerful sense of what it takes to pursue a dream not lightly, but with authenticity and most of all elegance.
Avery Trufelman, host and producer of Articles of Interest
Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style by W. David Marx
Obviously, my top choice is Ametora by W. David Marx, which is such a succinct, perfect, and well written history book that almost reads like a novel. Not only is it a pleasure, it fundamentally changed my relationship to clothing and to Japan.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
I also have a particular soft spot for The Age of Innocence from the people’s heiress Edith Wharton. She so deftly captures what was worn in the Gilded Age and how fashion used to function (at least among the couture clients of Charles Frederich Worth). For example, one woman talks about sending her wedding dress back to Paris to be “made over for next winter.” Fabulous, eh?
Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close by Hannah Carlson
She’s the authority on all things relating to the pocket and it’s quietly fascinating!
Best of Robb Report
Sign up for RobbReports's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
