Introducing the New 'Handbook of Men's Style'
Hard and fast mandates about what you can and can’t do when getting dressed are a drag. But you know what’s even worse? When you’re left out there in this vast world of style alone, without guidance, and told to just make it work. Maybe some guys can pull it off, but for the rest of us—the vast majority of mankind, that is—there’s the newly updated Handbook of Men’s Style. It’s Esquire US’s guide to looking good, no matter the situation. It’ll teach you how to build an enduring wardrobe, mix and match masterfully, and have a little fun with it along the way.
We sat down with editor and menswear expert Michael B. Dougherty, who just revamped the guide, to talk about the process of bringing it up to date and maximising utility—and enjoyment—for modern readers. Like his spin on the book itself, the Q&A below is a lighthearted but deeply informed glimpse into the value of learning the rules (even if only to break them) and the necessity of keeping the “personal” in “personal style.” Give it a read, then get yourself a copy of the book, which just hit shelves this week, posthaste.
The Handbook of Men’s Style hadn’t been updated for a while. Tell us about the biggest additions and why they’re so essential.
Fifteen years, in fact. As you know, things have changed a bit in that time, so there were really two areas that needed the most updating. The original was very much a product of its era and paid very little attention to casual style, so I remedied that with a brand new chapter entitled, “The New Casual.” It brings the book up to speed with where menswear is today, and provides helpful guidance on how to navigate our current “anything goes” era. The imagery throughout has also been refreshed to recognise the contributions of a broader array of style icons, or “The Originals,” as the book calls them. Again, it modernises the guide and I think makes it a lot more relatable to today’s Esquire reader.
We’ve talked about how guidance—not necessarily didactic rules—is so important for a lot of men. Why doesn’t “just do whatever” work, when it comes to getting dressed?
Well, there are very few people who can pull off “just do whatever.” I would say Justin Bieber is one of them, and I do address that in the book, but for the rest of us, some guidance is important because it creates a framework. When you have reference points to always come back to, they not only help you build a lasting wardrobe, they also provide guardrails for when you want to experiment. Not to go all Matrix on you, but some rules can be bent, some broken—black tie is a great example of this.
There are a lot of new faces in this edition of the book. How did you choose the guys you wanted to hold up as paragons of style?
I really wanted to widen the aperture beyond Steve McQueen, the Duke of Windsor, etc. and highlight some influential people who maybe haven’t gotten their due or whose names may not be familiar to everyone today. I think the inclusion of Cab Calloway, as The Original for pleated pants, is a great example of this. Calloway’s style drew from a tradition of Black and Mexican tailoring that I don’t think gets celebrated enough, so I’m glad to see him in there. There’s also a whole new generation of style icons that needed to be referenced.
There’s some stuff that was excised along the way. What, looking back, seemed like a good idea at the time but is a little embarrassing today?
I can’t tell you how many mentions of French cuffs I had to take out. Not that French cuffs are in and of themselves embarrassing, but the emphasis on them as the apex of personal style kinda was.
Do you have any personal style rules or maxims that you think our readers should consider when they’re building a wardrobe and getting dressed?
I love the idea of always wearing one thing that is a little messed up, idiosyncratic, or just plain weird. For example, I have my father’s ‘90s era US Army woodland camo BDU jacket that has a large, ever-expanding hole in it. I keep telling myself I’m going to patch it but never do, probably because I like the character it gives it.
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