I've had this little book for a year now, and I have to say I like it!
Nordstrom's Guide to Men's Everyday Dressing is a compact guide to casual style for men.
Let me be clear: It is NOT a complete style guide, it is not big (100 pages, 6X8 inches), and it relies on small crisp photos versus hundreds of lines of text.
However – that is exactly why I love it. It fills the casual menswear hole that Flusser and Roetzel have yet to tackle, and although brief and focused on a single body type, this would be a great book to hand any 16 to 20 year old interested in learning the basics of casual menswear. Actually – there is a lot men age 20 to 60 can learn from this as well:)
Here is my video review-
Although I wish Tom would have devoted more to body types, he is one of the few menswear authors who even broaches the subject. Unfortunately – the entire guide is based off the ideal body type that less than 10% of the world population has – most of whom are between 18 and 24. To be fair – a book targeting style for overweight men wouldn't be as attractive – although sadly it would probably apply to more men especially in the western world.
My favorite part of the Nordstrom Guide to Men's Everyday Dressing was it's strong use of image – pages like this were many and you can easily visualize how the clothing is put together and see the differences between levels of formality and occasion dressing
Another strength of the book was it's focus on particular items – again not text heavy but rather image strong. The pictures are small – but the book is printed professionally so it is easy to distinguish detail.
Like I mentioned above – layouts like this are the main reason I recommend purchasing this book. Each look is shown next to one that you might wear the day before for a different occasion, or change into after work and you can see quickly how color and fit affects the man's image
Perhaps the best quick overview of jeans you'll find in a hard book – Tom does a fine job explaining tot he novice the types of denim and even lightly covers selvage and jean detailing. This isn't a comprehensive volume – but from the beginner, a solid teaser prior to further exploration.
Leather jackets – this could have been given it's own book. Sadly, the guide is constrained to less than 100 pages and this classic style item is given only 2. Still – for it's ability to cover wide topic in a short amount of time with excellent layout – I fully endorse Nordstrom's Guide to Men's Everyday Dressing a strong guide to men's casual style.
