Book review: One Hundred Years Of Menswear

Dear readers,

first of all, please welcome my latest follower Stefan Kröger. Stefan, welcome to Inner City Style!

I have been off for a couple of weeks what I do regret. But here are the reasons for my absence: A lot of work, forcing me to spend my lunch breaks in the office instead of taking pictures on KÖ (in combination with bad weather conditions in Ddorf), nothing relevant to blog about, spending the evenings with my little familiy.

But as things are getting better (and posting becomes an addiction, as you guys know), I'll promise you'll soon find a lot of new stuff as coming events cast their shadows. On the weekend of 5-6th of February, famous CPD will be in town just like every year, attracting hundreds of fashion related folks to visit Düsseldorf. A great opportunity to take pictures and write about the latest trends in fashion and clothes design.

But back to my review:

As you guys know that I'm collector of books about fashion, here's my latest purchase:

"One Hundred Years Of Menswear" by Cally Blackman.

This book takes its readers on a journey through the history of men's fashion starting from the 19th century to today's designers, revealing a lot of insights about how different styles did develop through the centuries.

The book is divided into two periods: 1900-1939 and 1940 until today (what was 2009). Each period is broken down into six themes, "chosen because they were important at a particular point in history."

For 25 Euros you will get over 300 pages of pictures of clothes, advertisements and illustrations from fashion magazines. Eyery chapter comes with an insightfull explanation about the why and when of men's fashion with a lot of pictures I saw for the first time.

One of my favorite chapters is "Media Star" as it holds a lot of info about the fashion styles of many different movies, TV series and celebrities, from "The Thomas Crown Affair", to "007", "Shaft" and even "Miami Vice".




Chapters:

1900-1930:
-Suit
-Worker & Soldier
-Artist & Reformer
-Good Guy, Bad Guy
-Player
-Dressing Down, Dressing Up

1940- :
-Rebel
-Peacock
-Media Star
-Culture Clubber
-Stylist
-Designer


This is a book, every guy interested in clothes and fashion MUST own, as Cally did an excellent job.

10 out of 10.

Go and buy it! NOW!

Book review: The New English Dandy

Dear readers,

this is one of my Christmas presents: The New English Dandy by Alice Cicolini.

As you know that I'm a collector of books about fashion, this one was on my list for quite a long time, even though the cover's not very inviting (of which more later).

The main problem with most coffee table books is that you won't find any pictures of the content on the Internet. Neither on Amazon nor somewhere else.
And that's why I'd like to share my insights about this book with you.

TNED is pretty big of size. Same as "Dressing The Man". If you take a closer look at its cover, you might find it a little aggressive, as it shows Mr. Nordmann in a very arrogant pose I don't like . But, as you know, I'd never judge a book by its cover.

Alice Cicolini asks the question, what it is, that makes the dandy in the 21st century and shows us the beginning of man's fashion referring to well known dandies like Beau Brummel and Oscar Wilde, who both had a more or less big say in man's clothes.
You'll find a lot of interviews with designers, tailors, etc. and a lot of pictures of english men, trying to look as best as they can.

"The New English Dandy" is fairly inspiring to me, with a few exceptions.

The chapters:

-The Gentleman
-Neo-Modernist
-East End Flâneur
-Celebrity Tailor
-Terrace Casual
-New Briton

The last pages of the books feature:

-Notes
-Bibliography
-Tailor's Glossary
-Patterns For Knitted Tie And Plus-Fours
-Guidelines For Bespoke
-Directory
-Picture Credits

261 illustrations, 100 in colour.

Go and buy it!

One bad thing about this book: The quality of the binding is more than questionable.

Alice Cicolini, The New English Dandy