The Style Guide is constructed as a series of street-style shots featuring some of the most stylish people in the menswear industry. But unlike most style books, it focuses on practical analysis of every image, picking up why the outfit works in terms of texture, colour or cut. Most street-style compilations are simply a series of pretty images - that often look good because of the location, or the individual, but not necessarily the clothes. The Style Guide, by contrast, shows why these images and these outfits work using ideas of formality, colour combinations and mixing up sartorial and more casual clothing. The effect is an attractive summary of the most important style advice discussed on PermanentStyle.com over the past decade: the Italian Background, the sliding scale of formality, trousers for grey jackets, dressing for a modern office, and so on. Compared to other books by Simon Crompton, if Best of British is about history, and The Finest Menswear in the World is about quality, this book is about style - what makes it, what drives it, and how to reproduce it. The book is supported by Anderson & Sheppard, Begg & Co, Edward Green and Vitale Barberis Canonico. They are included in a special photo shoot in the back of the book, where Simon is featured in outfits with the same practical, accessible style theme as the rest, but concentrating around pieces from those brands. The book is self-published by Permanent Style, and is therefore only available here, as well as in around 30 specialist menswear stores around the world. You can find a list of those stores here. Imagery in The Style Guide is largely from highly talented photographer Jamie Ferguson, drawing on his archive of street-style shots over the years.
