style

Cary Grant, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, Tom Ford and David Beckham have all had an undeniably important influence on the world of men's style – but what about Truman Capote, Che Guevara, the Sex Pistols and Jarvis Cocker? They all deserve credit as well, argues Simone Werle in a cool, lavishly illustrated new book called Fashionisto: A Century of Style Icons from Prestel. Werle names 50 figures from the last 100 years who have had an impact not only on the way men choose to adorn themselves but how they act and as well. She dubs them "fashionistos", the male equivalent of the famous fashionista. What makes a man a fashionisto? "Swagger, elegance, daring, perhaps a really well cut suit," the author notes, but not always – see Oscar Wilde, Johnny Depp and Kurt Cobain.

Each icon is featured in a double page spread with glossy full-color photographs and Werle's acute observations, anecdotes, and historical insight. While you may not have personally felt the sartorial influence of Boy George or Bootsy Collins, Werle makes a compelling case for their inclusion. She divides the book into sections according to the various styles or fashion phylum represented: The Gentlemen, The Rebels, The Dandies, The Rock Stars, The Classics, The Fashion Designers, The Beautiful People, The Bands and The Extraterrestrials.

"Fashionistos like fashionistas choose clothing that accentuates their best parts, not only of their bodies but also their personalities," Werle writes. "Both know when to follow the rules of style and when to break them. And both have the courage to stay who they are. But all the same, there is a huge difference. Men have a much easier time in fashion – and yet a much more difficult one." How so, you ask? "Classic men's fashion has very clear-cut rules; if you follow them, you can't go wrong. The man who doesn't look good in a custom-made suit of fine fabric has yet to be born," she notes. "But to make a mark on the history of style, more is needed – and this is where it gets tricky. Men's fashion does not suffer rebels gladly. If you have the courage to rebel, you need self-confidence – and more than that, a sense of style."

Some say that the first decade of the new millennium doesn't have a "look," the way previous decades have -- but we say they can't see the forest for the trees. It can be hard to notice that what you're putting on every day is actually contextual, and indicative of the time in which you're living. To the wearer, it just seems like "good taste" and that those previous decades were "so silly," but even if you didn't buy anything new, how you wore it this year probably changed.

Here are the Top Ten Fashion Trends of 2010:

1. Aviators

Sunglasses had gotten so big, something had to give -- and it did. Big, plastic frames suddenly looked tired and costume-y, and gave way to sleek metal-rimmed aviators this year.

In the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s the so-called Café Society in Europe drew together aristocrats, millionaires, artists, authors, couturiers, choreographers and musicians in a "glittering world of fashion and frivolity, opulence and ostentation", notes Thierry Coudert in his ultra-stylish new book, Café Society: Socialites, Patrons and Artists 1920 to 1960 from Flammarion. Those decades were the "apotheosis of an era that was to have a profound influence on the history of taste" Coudert writes, with the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Lady Diana Cooper, Diana Vreeland, Cole Porter, Noel Coward and Cecil Beaton setting the tone and deciding which artists, designers, and musicians were in vogue. The cover of the book (above) depicts heiress Barbara Hutton, then the Countess von Reventlow, at a tennis match in 1940, while Yves Saint Laurent, Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau and many more make cameos in the impressive volume.

If you've never heard of photographer Stan Shaffer, who captured the cream of cultural bohemia in the golden age of the '60s and '70s, now's the time to rectify that courtesy of über-luxe German publisher teNeues. You Should Have Been With Me is a massive scrapbook culled from Shaffer's stunning archive, with intimate portraits of celebs of the day including Gloria Vanderbilt, Angelica Huston, Andy Warhol, Halston, Calvin Klein, Peter Beard, Cheryl Tiegs, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Brooke Shields and Mariel Hemingway. These are interspersed with sexy fashion snaps and outtakes of sessions with supermodels on yachts and in Porsches once the "work" was done. In diary form Shaffer shares extracts from his extraordinary life at the nexus of New York's art, fashion and cinema worlds, at glitzy parties "where everyone is somebody and they're all dressed to kill!" Shaffer's journey was that of a "voyeur, participant, invited guest and documentarian" wrapped into one; sadly he died during the final stages of production on this book, which now serves as a fitting legacy for an artist who deserves more recognition.

Quirky Chanel kingpin Karl Lagerfeld has been photographing his muse, supermodel Claudia Schiffer, for the past 20 years. To celebrate their "anniversary", teNeues has published a special oversized portfolio under the auspices of Germany's Stern magazine compiling the best of the Kaiser's images of the famed beauty from his archives. Claudia & Karl features six different covers, capturing Schiffer's personas ranging from studious to sexy. Also included for the first time are some new self-portraits taken in Paris earlier this year of Lagerfeld posing with Schiffer, whom he first met when she was 19. "Right from the start, Claudia was a personality and not just a model," Lagerfeld notes. "That is something completely different."

With the latest in up-market jeans being readied for release, it's exciting to see what's in the pipeline. In this crowded space, look for the biggest noise to be made not by any fashion company you've pined over. Rather, the hottest denim on the market could be coming from the most unexpected place on earth ... by way of Scandinavia.

According to Financial Times, "As clean silhouettes and the much-feted new minimalism shape the autumn trends, it looks like denim will take an equally reductive route: out with slashed, stonewash, fussy 1980s styles and in with the basics." And you'll find this manufactured in North Korea.

FT continues:

Two years ago, a trio of young, twenty-something Swedes were invited by the government into North Korea to manufacture a national jeans line. Really. "Noko", as it was named, features two jeans styles for men and women: the Kara slim-fit and the Oke loose-fit ($215 plus shipping), both straight-cut and dark-wash, in keeping with the austere nightscapes of the designers' inspiration, Pyongyang.

The Noko styles are consistent with what is expected for autumn:

"For autumn, denim is very customer-friendly," says Lesley Torson of Trilogy, a London denim boutique. "It's dark, and washes are quite clean, giving it a more polished look." Meanwhile, the advent of styles such as the utilitarian cargo with convenient side pockets, the forgiving high-rise cut, and the faithful indigo boot-cut flare will offer something the premium jeans world hasn't seen for years: wearability.

An exhibition of photographs by Chanel kingpin Karl Lagerfeld is opening in Paris this September in time for the city's Fashion Week. The show at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in the historic heart of Paris will feature a mix of fashion photos, portraits, landscapes, architectural images and personal shots, including several of his longtime muse, Claudia Schiffer. Lagerfeld, who shoots all of Chanel's ad campaigns himself, has published several books of his photographs, and has his own art book publishing imprint and book shop in Paris called 7L.

"What I admire most is the photographers who have gone down to posterity with a single image," the designer tells La Parisienne. "An image - I prefer this word to the word picture - which went down in the collective memory of the civilized world [... ]. Today the picture is part of my life. It closes the circle of my artistic and professional lives. I look at the fashion world with the eye of the camera. This gives my work a basic critical detachment that helps more than I would have suspected." The exhibition runs from September 10 to October 15.

Here at Luxist we write a lot about fashion and style, mainly in the form of luxury goods, but it's also interesting to look at the inspiration and influence behind what some people only see as pricey items in a luxe boutique. Some style influencers are well known and at times over-used; Steve McQueen and John F. Kennedy are two examples that spring to mind. Less well known but equally as influential among the tastemakers who decide what we buy as musicians – see Ralph Lauren's homage to Davis' take on Ivy League style here – is the late jazz great Miles Davis, who's finally getting his due with a new museum exhibition and accompanying book this summer.

Now through August 29, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is staging the first major North American multimedia retrospective dedicated to Miles. Entitled We Want Miles: Miles Davis vs. Jazz, the exhibition (designed and organized with help from the Cité de la Musique in Paris with the support of Davis' estate) combines image and sound to offer visitors a sensory experience inspired by Davis himself, who once said, "A painting is music you can see, and music is a painting you can hear." If you can't make it to the museum in person – or even if you can – Skira Rizzoli's book version (above) is well worth buying. The most comprehensive and lavishly illustrated volume on the jazz great to date, it chronicles Davis' life and his relationship to jazz and musicians surrounding him, on the heels of the 50th anniversary of his acclaimed album Kind of Blue and 40th anniversary of Bitches Brew.

Luxist readers will be familiar with the beautiful and stylish books published by French imprint Assouline; perhaps less so with the man who founded and runs the company. A master of savoir faire, Prosper Assouline is known for merging the modern and the classical in publishing and creative design. The former artistic director of several French fashion magazines, Prosper's resumé includes creating and launching his own magazine, and the founding of a creative agency specializing in branding and advertising in the late 1980s. With a vision of true luxury in print, he founded Assouline Publishing with his wife, Martine Assouline, in Paris in 1995, creating a world of exclusivity in books and brand identity. Under the direction of Prosper, Assouline has invented a visual language that is internationally recognized for its excellence.

After establishing the imprint as the world's most renowned publisher of high-quality illustrated volumes on fashion and style, Prosper opened an office in New York in 2001, which became the brand's international headquarters. In the past 15 years, Assou has published over 750 titles across international markets ranging on subjects including art, architecture, design, fashion, gastronomy, photography, travel and viticulture. The first collection of monographs on the history of fashion, art, and design, Assouline's Memoire series, includes over 250 titles on such legendary names as Azzedine Aläia, Chanel, Charles James, Dolce & Gabbana, and Marc Jacobs. Assouline creates products that stand alone as objets d'art; they have a beauty and a point of view that make them desirable to own and incorporate into the most discerning collections. Click through to the gallery to see Part 1 of Prosper's 10 essential luxuries, from hats and yachts to bars and cars, and find out what makes them a must.

Alexander Wang is a designer who seems to enjoy pushing the boundaries of fashion. We recently covered his Velvet Sandals where he used shoelaces as a decorative ankle accent and now we feature his skirt-shirt. Made from triacetate, a fabric that rarely wrinkles and looks like silk given its sheen, the Silky Front Tie Shirt Skirt ($385) has center buttons, a full cut and curved hems that falls nicely around the body. The front tie is actually two shirt sleeves with 2 button cuffs for extra quirkiness. It also features deep pockets on either side that makes it more casual and perfect for slipping on with a pair of lace up or sandals and a tank top.

In a brief but exclusive interview with Luxist, designer L'Wren Scott, Mick Jagger's gal pal, describes her single-handed revival of a scarlet luxe with a history.

Both the style and charm of Madame du Barry, who, like Marie Antoinette met the guillotine for her extravagance, have been significantly underappreciated historically. Wearing her own dreamy spring collection at a Haiti benefit, press-shy designer L'Wren Scott, model turned stylist and now Mick Jagger's girlfriend, sets the record straight.

Versailles, Sunday, 22 April, 1769, Presentation of Madame du Barry at Court

"Richelieu had ordered a dress fit for a queen with enormous panniers of silver and gold cloth bespattered with diamonds and a train of inordinate length. . . . The extraordinary thing about Jeanne du Barry was that, for all her sordid past, she still managed to look as innocent as any virgin, with a skin so delicate it hardly required any rouge, teeth of dazzling whiteness in a small, naturally scarlet mouth, blue, yes, made all the softer by their long dark lashes." Joan Haslip, "The Wages of Beauty"

May 6, 2010 L'Wren Scott, in a nod to Louix XV's famously big-spending mistress, wears du Barry red to a Manhattan benefit for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

RxHaiti was a benefit that counted. On Monday, May 6, a well-populated rooftop cocktail soiree and auction in New York, hosted by Mick Jagger and designer L'Wren Scott, benefited earthquake survivors in need of replacement limbs.

On a sparkling, clear evening atop the 20-story Scholastic building in SoHo, a wrinkly Mick Jagger bounded into the room wearing fresh New Balance running shoes, skinny jeans, a gray blazer with schoolboy dark edging around the lapel, and the characteristic lips and undone coif. In the open air, next to gal pal L'Wren Scott, who towers a head taller, Jagger brandished a Sharpie to sign the glossy keyboard cover of a screaming red baby grand being auctioned to raise funds for prosthetic limbs. A vast glass atrium, also on the roof, housed further auction items, including guitars signed by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Bono. A handler correctly mentioned to actress Rachel Weisz that her buddy Naomi Watts would turn up at any moment. "I love charities that focus on something very specific," Weisz told Luxist.

Even though the Camilla Skovgaard's Tassel Knot Mules ($728) remind me of a man's fuzzy mustache (I think I've been watching too many cartoons lately), I actually do like them. Made from nubuck leather and featuring in-your-face knotted tassels dangling about under a knotted bow, these super skinny heeled mules are a standout. At just under 5 inches, the stiletto heels have the potential to wreak havoc on your feet, but with a rubber platform and zip zag sole, I appreciate the effort in adding some comfort and ensuring that who ever is wearing them will not be slipping and falling all over the place. I'd love to see Skovgaard's Tassel Knot Mules paired with rolled up boyfriend jeans or even a pair of matchstick jeans, a flowing yet tapered v-neck t-shirt, a vibrant colored cardigan and a light spring scarf to finish it off.

I'm not sure I know too many occasions where a gold sequined mini dress would be ideal, unless you are Beyonce, but that doesn't discourage me from wanting Burberry's Mini Sequin Dress ($4495) anyway. It features a round neck, short sleeves and a front zipper as decoration. The working zipper is actually in the back. Since this dress is completely decorated in metallic gold sequins and is a bold statement in of itself, there is no need for jewelry or overly embellished heels - this will only serve as a distraction to your shimmering gold masterpiece of dress. Pair with understated stilettos, a sleek ponytail and light yet glowing makeup and viola - you are a rockstar.

Hot off the runways in Milan, Versace is launching their Fall/Winter 2010-2011 sunglasses. These swirly-chic pieces are both Maison and Alice in Wonderland inspired, and feature the house's classic, elegant baroque renderings and raised bas relief technique Versace Medusas on the sides.

A far cry from the drugstore prints, these acetate-framed shades easily complement most ensembles, including contrasting patterns. Check out the hot colors in the gallery below to see how rock and roll this look can be. Accessories like sunglasses are always a fabulous way to update a stagnant wardrobe of safe staples, and the perfect way to sport a high end brand without spending too much cash -- these will only set you back $190.

The unmistakable Baroque-Print sunglasses are available in Versace boutiques now and will be hitting other stores in May.

Lacoste: The Element of Style, a smashing new book dedicated to the famed French brand about to be published by Assouline, covers much more than just sport shirts; it's about savoir vivre and savoir faire, literally "how to live" and "how to be" with plenty of style. It's designed to illuminate the contemporary relevance of the legacy of René Lacoste, the brand's founder who was the best tennis player in the world at the end of the Roaring Twenties. Nicknamed "Le Crocodile" for his tenacity on the court he began sporting an alligator patch on his blazers starting in 1927, which then became the basis for the sportswear brand he founded in 1933, one of the first labels to marry American functionality with European elegance. He also designed tennis rackets and other equipment, filing 25 patents during his lifetime.

The logo was applied to the easy breathing piqué sports shirts Lacoste favored, which helped him to cope with the heat on American tennis courts. It was a major revolution for players, who until then had worn starched, long-sleeve dress shirts even on the hottest days. The book comes in various different colors, a nod to the fact that Lacoste began producing its shirts in dozens of different shades well before anyone else caught the color bug. Until the 1950s, only white polos and shirts were allowed on tennis courts, but beginning in 1951, the company dared to add contrasting elements in navy blue, then red. That helped revitalize fashion both on and off the courts and presaged the color explosion of the 1960s.