Customer Reviews

Personal Style

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I find it fascinating that the Library Journal review on this page should contrast "Personal Style" with Alan Flusser's great book, "Clothes and the Man," because I acquired both these titles at about the same time. And while Flusser's book was very influential on my then-developing sense of dress and style, the impact of Wagenvoord's book was much more limited and fleeting.

This is interesting, because "Personal Style" sets out to cover an awful lot of ground, broadly but not especially deeply -- not only principles of men's clothing, but also issues of hygiene, diet and exercise, how to iron a shirt or pack a jacket into a suitcase without getting it all wrinkled, how to host a dinner party at home or order with confidence from a restaurant menu, and quite a lot more. The key to developing a distinctive personal style, he argues, is simply to feel comfortable about yourself, take good care of yourself and your possessions, and know how to handle yourself in a variety of situations. Nothing really all that complex.

The book is a decent guide for what it sets out to do. But there's another element to it as well. It's a commercial for Grey Flannel.

This title must have been commissioned by Geoffrey Beene, because not only does the man himself provide the introduction and the back-cover blurb, but the section on grooming, especially, is liberally illustrated with drawings of Grey Flannel products: deodorant, aftershave, shampoo, soap-on-a-rope, and so on. To its credit, the copy itself doesn't flog Grey Flannel. But the line's presence is still rather obvious. If this isn't a problem for you, you may well find some things in here moderately useful.