One of the exciting side effects brought about by the sustained and evolving resurgence in menswear, elegantly executed lifestyles, and well-crafted luxury goods, is the recent release of some great new books geared toward men.

For the past several years, there has been a coffee table drought of sorts; a lack of interesting books devoted to mens style.  Alan Flusser’s contributions are de facto bibles when it comes to elegant dressage and, as he so eloquently coined it, “permanent style.”  However, few titles have been able to give him a worthwhile nudge on the bookshelf.

Things changed in 2009, when “Take Ivy” was published.  Previously beloved as a cult classic in the fashion world, the Japanese language book was republished in English.  The publisher was stunned with the intense demand once word got out.  Apparently, men were starving for quality style guides and substantive books filled with interesting, useful, historical, and practical information about how to dress, how to live, what to drink, and how to behave.

Authors obliged.  Some of the weak offerings were no more than a collection of generalizations and pictures of people on boats and sitting on tartan chairs.  Others, like the impressive “Preppy,” sought to delve deep into the fashion and philosophy of the preppy lifestyle.  “The Ivy League,” a stunning new book, which will be reviewed soon on OTC, captures both the style and culture of the Ivy League world.  It prompted a deep reflection on this editor-in-chief’s own upbringing and resulted in a major article currently undergoing final edits.  Finally, the quality of menswear books is beginning to meet demand.

Perhaps the most interesting book to land on our doorstep is “The Gentry Man: A Guide for the Civilized Male.”

Gentry was a landmark magazine for men from the 1950s, which covered all aspects of gentlemanly pursuits.  It lead with a distinct worldly, intellectual approach; a cross between today’s Esquire and Monocle magazines.

From cocktails to suiting, automobiles to academic treatises.  Art, culture, and travel mingles with fashion and interior design. It was a magazine for the thinking man’s dandy. Playboy, but without the nudity.

Editor Hal Rubenstein collected some of the best articles from the magazine’s 22 issues – far too brief a run. Of course the technology is out of date and the fashions a touch stodgy, but that is beside the point.  The hefty book, 256 pages, is divided into distinct sections that take advantage of the subject matter’s depth and breadth: Style; Homes, Cars, and Travel; Food and Drink; Sports and Culture; and Art and Architecture.  Thomas Crowne likely read Gentry.

Much of the advice perfectly relevant for today, especially the underlying message of gentlemanlyness and intellectual curiosity. These are the hallmarks of a true man and this wonderful book is a guide-cum-historical reference for those seeking to put some substance behind their style.

The Gentry Man goes on sale May 8, 2012.

Launched in 2007 as a new concept in print journalism, this March Monocle celebrates its fifth anniversary.  One of our favorite, or rather favourite, publications, Monocle has grown into a unique and substantive media presence.

With its flagship magazine, online home base, retail arm, Monocle 24 radio broadcast (and iPhone app), and Bloomberg television show, Monocle’s footprint has carefully and deliberately expanded in a targeted approach which neither cannibalizes itself nor devalues the overall brand. Monocle’s hip seasonal Alpino and Mediteranio newspapers support the magazine in a clever and resort-focused fashion and are themselves collectable – like the bookish magazines.

Monocle’s ownership structure and the family-like nature of its core investors allow the company to develop innovative and intellectual products and services that under traditional corporate models would never see the light of day.

Not only has this approach worked, it has created – along with founder and editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé – a profitable, popular brand that is beloved by its affluent, cultured and globe hopping readers.

We vote with our wallets; OTC’s library has every issue except one; the first.  Dear Monocle, would you perhaps have a spare Issue 1 lying about Midori House…?

OTC hit the internet back in 2005.  Back then, there were very few men’s fashion blogs out there.  And there were even fewer sites dedicated to the preppy/Ivy League/East Coast style so familiar to me.

Over the intervening years, the appeal of preppy style and East Coast lifestyle – at least as seen through the eyes of Lisa Birnbach – gained wider appeal and the proliferation of online experts and opinion-makers ensued.  Back in the 1980s, when The Preppy Handbook first gave birth to a new, aspirational preppy phenomenon, the style was bombastic and over the top, colorful and caricatured.   Today, it’s serious business.  And I mean that both figuratively and literally.

Companies from J. Crew to Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers to J. Press are all rediscovering their uber-preppiness.  New smaller brands that fancy themselves cultural artisans and holders of the “true” preppy standard are popping up by the day.  Of all these modern labels only Brooks Brothers, J. Press and L.L. Bean can really lay claim to a physical connection to the genuine preppy aesthetic.  At the same time, many fashion bloggers and armchair fashion historians extol the virtues of being “authentic” focusing on “heritage” brands.

I’ve seen some of this exuberant tut-tutting in the reviews of Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style and find it a little perplexing.  Some are critical of the book’s lack of historical gravitas and its apparent concession to modern (and apparently blasphemous) interpretations of preppy style.  Too much Ralph Lauren – that’s not authentic prep!  Does that make Polo/Ralph Lauren, founded twilight years of original Preppy, any less preppy?  Is it less authentic?  Of course not, Polo is the bedrock of modern preppy style.

All of this came quickly to mind as I unpacked the book, sent to me through the kindness of its authors, and started to leaf through the pages.  I, and several other bloggers mentioned or quoted in the book have been aware of its development since last year.  When I was contacted for permission to use a quote from my Roots of American Preppy article – for the introduction no less – I was intrigued.  I liked the idea  behind the book and the authors’ approach to creating a modern understanding of the style.

Turns out I also like the book.  In fact, I think it’s a great resource for anyone looking to better understand and adopt preppy style.  Preppy’s authors, very aware of bloggers’ influence and impact on modern preppy style, also reached out to some of the leading online influencers and mined our archives and writings.  That perspective adds to the larger picture of preppy style today.

I don’t know if some people were expecting the Ivy League equivalent of Alan Flusser’s Dressing The Man -  a book so detailed, complete and authoritative as to garner only criticisms about its obsessive detail.  This book is more of an elegant and somewhat contextual style guide that shows you how to dress and accessorize in the preppy fashion.  It’s not an exhaustive tome dedicated to the intricate nuances of preppy culture and history, pedigree and monogramming rules.  Rather, it is a visual reference for achieving the preppy aesthetic.

Preppy runs the gamut of Ivy League influences and trends, styles, luminaries and brands.  It also goes somewhere most books on this subject do not – to modern times.  Photos from Fred Castleberry are mixed with references to the gritty cool urbanity of Street Etiquette.com.  Modern influences have taken the preppy look in new directions, J.Crew being the standard bearer of the “New Prep.”  In fact, even though J.Crew strives to break its generic “preppy” label, no other brand has so forcefully defined what kids today understand to be preppy.

What makes the preppy style of today so resilient and ubiquitous is that it’s not static – it’s not the old 1980s caricature.  Through style blogs and social media, consumers have decided what they like and how they want to blend looks and even eras.  Creating personal signature looks by blending new and old brands, mass market and small run specialty pieces, old school preppy and new school ironic keeps things fresh.

And that’s the way is should be.  “Real” American preppy has always been about practically, function and quality.  Together, those elements yielded the timeless and classic looks we so covet today.  From bags to dogs, footwear to navy blazers, preppies created a distinctive style by finding what worked, sticking with it and evolving to include new elements that matched their style.  Same thing with this book.

Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style takes vintage and modern preppy, blends them up and gives us the recipe for achieving a look, a style and, sort of, a life style.  It’s a lovely book and a great addition to a collection or coffee table.

More importantly, many blogs, including OTC, provide the kind of context men seek when building their own personal style.

Please be sure to view the original article, at this link.

There’s one in every workplace. He sits at the cubicle across from you. Gregarious and well- groomed, he’s the star on your office’s kickball team. But he’s also a secretive character, hunched over his keyboard, closing windows with the haste of a hunted gazelle. Is he dabbling in soft-core pornography or high-stakes gambling?

A secret agent? Arms dealer? EBay overlord? No, chances are that innocent young dandy is just browsing men’s style blogs.

Long ago, in the old country, males visited trusted tailors for tips on fit and style. In the 20th century, fashionable fellows read lifestyle bibles such as GQ or Esquire in the seclusion of their own bathrooms; yet even there, a 100-page monthly couldn’t break the standard, sartorial tropes imposed upon them. Man was divided: urban or rural, white- or blue-collared.

The valiant wore vibrant flourishes such as studded cuff links or magenta socks, but, mostly, men dressed like their forefathers, who passed down style heritage like they would a good pocket watch: “[Suits] have to be new, yet they must look old. Filling the pockets of one’s new suit with stones and hanging it out in the rain is one possible solution,” said John Robert Russell Bedford in the 1965 classic “The Duke of Bedford’s Book of Snobs.”

But times have changed.

“Guys today have lost all sense of occasion. They’re not taught to dress for different circumstances,” says Glenn O’Brien, “The Style Guy” columnist at GQ magazine.

O’Brien’s newest fashion-cum-philosophical treatise, “How To Be a Man: A Guide to Style and Behavior for the Modern Gentleman” ($25, Rizzoli), links men’s wardrobe downfall to laziness, bad manners and rejection of history.

But man, ever the entrepreneur, found that the blog is mightier than the sword. The same Web culture that gave way to one-click purchases and 13-year-old viral pop stars preserved a culture of anonymity, a haven for eccentric alter egos once relegated to AOL chat rooms.

And so the stylish man emerged, posting on anonymous forums such as “Ask Andy About Clothes,” a 2001 precursor to menswear blogs, where style enthusiasts debate the construction of calfskin tassel loafers or flap- pocket oxfords. Shortly after, the style blogger arrived, making it hip, or, at least, socially acceptable for men to make videos called “How To Wear an Ascot.” Now, independent blogs such as “A Continuous Lean” (Acontinuouslean.com) or “Put This On” (Putthison.com) offer advice, as do popular brand offshoots such as UrbanDaddy Kempt (Getkempt.com).

“Some guys are shy to admit they’re interested in clothes, but we all want to look good and appropriate. Men want that information instantly,” says The Style Blogger (Thestyleblogger.com) founder Dan Trepanier, who was voted “The Best Dressed Real Man in America” by Esquire in 2009. “While a magazine will take a couple months to publish a story, bloggers publish within days and give men the vocabulary they’re looking for.”

And for men, immediate encyclopedic knowledge is the key for making fashion a masculine endeavor. Chris Hogan, who started the D.C.-based menswear blog “Off the Cuff” (OffthecuffDC.com) five years ago, finds that men are comfortable talking about clothing, so long as they’re given historical context. “It’s different than the way women talk about fashion. Men want context for what they buy. That information is now available. It’s not, ‘I’m wearing these jeans because Brad Pitt bought them,’ it’s more, ‘I’m wearing these jeans because they were made in a factory in Raleigh, N.C., using traditional techniques.’ The heritage, updated preppy movement put menswear in a new context, especially in Washington.”

Trepanier finds that men are more forthcoming about their interest in clothes because so many bloggers are average Joes. “There’s still a stigma surrounding the fashion industry, but blogs have done a service for regular guys,” he says. “I grew up on a farm in Canada and played basketball. That makes fashion seem more OK.”

Retailers and designers view blogs favorably, too. Philip Soriano of D.C. men’s shirt company Hugh & Crye (Hughandcrye.com) sees that guys are more familiarized with styles and taste. “In the past few years, we’ve seen a lot of our customers reading specialized fashion blogs. They know the collar and fit they want. Any blog that highlights fit is a bonus for us.”

Besides providing a shame-free place for dudes to scour trends or watch “how-to videos,” blogs have democratized men’s style, making eccentric sartorial choices available to any guy, whether he lives in Williamsburg or Wichita. “TV sort of homogenized everyone, and for a while, everyone dressed the same,” O’Brien says. “But the Internet changed that. It’s the great cultural medium that’s taking things out of the hands of monopolies.”

And even Washington, one of the last bastions of baggy suits and Dockers, is changing with the times. “I’ve noticed a lot of younger guys in D.C. dressing great,” Hogan says. They’re more comfortable with customization. It’s almost as if they’re rebelling against their parents by dressing well.

Perhaps the only serious examination of classic menswear and men’s style on the news stand today, The Rake is a rich and intellectual celebration of what its publisher refers to as the “renaissance of gentlemanly sophistication and style.”

With that said, the hefty U.S. subscription fee may very well be worth the outlay.

We are also excited to point out that the article was assembled by two other OTC friends.  Christian Chensvold, founder of Ivy Style and a contributing editor at The Rake, penned the piece.  Fred Castleberry, founder of Unabashedly Prep, took the outstanding photographs.  Both of their sites are knowledge-filled resources for those seeking advice, inspiration and, certainly in Ivy Style’s case, the stories behind East Coast / Ivy League style.

Alan himself is a wonderful example of how classic style, or as he puts it “permanent fashion,” while timeless is not immutable.  The Custom Shop, Alan’s famous home base in Manhattan, has received a significant face lift and his English drape inspired house silhouette has similarly been refreshed a tad.

Does this mean Flusser is selling out and going for the trendy skinny look?  Not at all.  While the new Flusser drape suit is a touch slimmer and proportionally closer to the body, its inherent comfort, balance, flow and stylistic longevity are very much intact.  Anyone who knows Alan knows that he is far from a stuffed shirt.  His style and personality are equally colorful and expansive.

No slouch on the technical end of things, his BeSpeak and SnapDress iPhone applications are building a growing and devoted audience.  BeSpeak 2.0 is expected to launch later this year with even more functionality.

The Alan Flusser brand may evolving, but he is not changing its core values one bit.

To that end, the custom shop’s new streamlined and rakish look evokes Alan’s love of the Art Deco period and his proclivity for personal detail and refined understatement.

To learn more about Alan Flusser, visit the Custom Shop’s website, which itself is getting an overdue refreshing.

To view view The Rake’s article in PDF format, please visit The Rake Compendium, Alan Flusser.

Alan is perhaps best known as the designer of Michael Douglas’ wardrobe for his legendary character Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street.  However, to end the story at that point would not only do disservice to one of the great masters of classic – and timeless – personal sartorial expression.

In full disclosure, OTC has the distinct pleasure of working with Alan on BeSpeak, his innovative iPhone application which is about to launch a completely upgraded version.  Regardless, it goes without saying that Alan Flusser, perhaps more than any other designer understands how a man should dress.

He has an encyclopedic knowledge of menswear and a Rolodex most designers would kill to glance through for even a moment.  More so, he has an innate ability to read a person and know what looks right.

Fareed Zakaria, the dapper host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria 360, journalist and author, is a client of Flusser and shining example of modern classic style.  He is an elegant gentleman who makes being a global intellectual cool and testament to Alan’s ability to help a man’s personality flow through his wardrobe, not the other way around.

Alan Flusser is very much an active clothier, with an eye pinned to the future.  In fact, he is in the process of refining and, in some ways reinterpreting a little, the brand of Alan Flusser.  An updated Custom Shop recently debuted in it’s well-known Manhattan localle, a new website is in the works and a revamped iPhone app is ready to drop any day now.  He is also garnering some fresh and long-deserved notice by the global glossy style trades.

Nick Foulkes profiles Alan and his influence on menswear in the current issue of British GQ and The Rake recently stopped by to pen an article for an upcoming issue.  Though not a contributor – sigh – to the title, OTC agrees that it is one of the best menswear magazines on the market (but you still can’t get it in the States).  All in all, we are quite happy that Alan Flusser is being rediscovered by a new generation of gentleman sorely in need of his style and skills.

Though it may sound like one, this is not a vanity project.  Alan could, if he wished to, simply settle back and enjoy the spoils of an already accomplished career.  He is a Coty award winner, legendary shopkeeper and bespoke tailor, author of some of the most influential menswear books written, designer of the clothing for the movies ‘Wall Street’ and ‘Scent of a Woman,’ and a permanent member of the International Best-Dressed list.

But for Alan, who is at heart an educator and lifelong student of the human condition, being able to reach out and direct men around the world towards understanding the hows and whys of looking their individual best continues to drive and focus his energies.  As you may already know, OTC provides social media services to BeSpeak  To learn more about this relationship, please visit OTC’s BeSpeak page.

Alan wanted to create some kind of training tool or device that could help men understand what colors, patterns and fabrics looked best on them.  And even more important, he wanted to be able to demonstrate why – so that the information became a permanent gateway towards helping them form their own unique, yet permanent dressing style.  In essence, it’s the same thing Alan has been doing for much of the last twenty-five years with his custom clients; that is, when he’s not writing about the larger process for the benefit of those inclined to want to study it further.

The BeSpeak application took more than a year to create and, in addition to his day job, Alan was actively involved in every detail.  He insisted that the digital fabric swatches actually look like real fabric – a far more complicated and time-consuming task than initially realized– and used only Pantone colors which are what actual clothing manufactures use.  So if Cambridge Blue matches your profile, rest assured that it’s a real color used in real clothing.

Don’t worry though, BeSpeak is not a cage.  It does not restrict your ability to express a personal or unique style.  Quite the opposite; the app allows you to understand what works on you and in doing so give you the freedom to expand and finesse your wardrobe while always looking your best.

This is how BeSpeak came to be.

And so, as Luxist concisely put it, “after 31 years of men coming to him to find out how best to attire themselves, he has developed an iPhone app called BeSpeak which means that now Alan Flusser comes to you.”

BeSpeak launched several months ago and has been well received by thousands of men looking to better understand how to dress well.  As with anything so pioneering and multi-dimensional, it’s a work in progress. To that end, we just launched a major upgrade that now gives the user a whole new perspective on a selected outfit.

The basics remain the same: you build a personal profile includes your hair color, skin tone, eye color, face shape, body shape and size. The app’s recommendations are based first on that profile, and then on matching and complimenting all of the colors and patterns of the items you’ll be wearing – suit, dress shirt, tie, and pocket square.

A major feature of the upgrade is the remarkable new mannequin view, which allows the user to view a selected outfit on a mannequin form matching his contrast profile.  The suit, shirt tie and pocket square all appear as they would when worn giving the user a clear look at the potential outfit.

In the end, you are still in charge.  BeSpeak makes suggestions, it does not dictate personal taste or hinder personal expression.  What it can do is educate men to identify the colors, styles, proportions and materials that best match their personal profiles.

Once you have all that under your belt, you are free to break the rules…..because now you know them.

When the book’s author, Susan Getgood, interviewed me a few months ago, it never crossed my mind that our chat would eventually become a two-page case study. Even since then, we been busy building the OTC brand and moving forward , in fact you’ll probably notice that the OTC screen shot on page 29 is of our beloved original blog, now retired.  Boy, have we grown!

The book itself is an outstanding tool for those looking to understand how to be a better, more effective and successful blogger.  It’s also a great resource for those who want to understand what makes a great blog in the first place.

Getgood, a major force in world of professional bloggers, captured my goals and hopes for OTC in a wonderful way.  Setting aside so much real estate just for OTC says a lot about what Off the Cuff has accomplished so far, and hopefully, what’s next.  And, since OTC was profiled up front, in Chapter 1 (Examining  Blogging at the Professional Level), it also means we have a lot to live up to!

A big thanks to Susan, the ‘For Dummies’ team and most importantly the many thousands of readers who make OTC a regular stop on their sartorial journey.

In recent months however, the folks at Fairchild saw the opportunity to re-imagine the men’s focused trade publication in an updated and more insightful format.  They were kind enough to send over a couple of the inaugural issue’s stories for OTC’s readers to check out.

Read the cover story on actor Jeremy Renner, actually a pretty interesting guy with a distinct sense of style and self.

And many men, seeking a new definition of what it means to be a man, are now looking to our classically masculine past instead of the sometimes effete spa life. Menswear calls these guys retrosexuals, and this article is a great one.  In fact they let me post the first page of the paper edition below.  The full story is available HERE.

Distribution will be newsstand-only at $6 an issue.  As with the old format, menswear is a quarterly publication, so that translates to four issues per year.  The inaugural issue is on sale right now and the fall issue is scheduled to drop on October 18.  In 2011 the standard quarterly cycle kicks in to full production.

We are also happy to point out that our good friend and legendary menswear authority Alan Flusser was asked to contribute his thoughts to a sartorial leaders mind-meld addressing some of the key mistakes men make when it comes to getting dressed.  See what Mr Flusser has to say and read the whole article HERE.

So take a look and let us know what you think about the new and improved Mesnwear.