In men’s wear today, nothing is off limits anymore. Frills, flounces, bows, pleats, see-through sheers, pastels, neons, graffiti, graphics, grunge... anything goes! There are men here, there and everywhere who are wearing all kinds of things their fathers would have thrown a fit over and probably still do! And you thought fashion and style went hand-in-hand with women?

In what author Shernaaz Engineer describes as a “fascinating project” in “chronicling the contemporary male style idiom”, Soul Of Style, a 196-page overview of men’s fashion, describes, dissects and sets the ground rules for male style as we perceive it today. The creative endeavour has been supported by Siyaram Silk Mills.

The volume starts off with a historical perspective of the evolution of men’s fashion. Fashion designer Bennu Sehgal points out that “men are getting feminine as far as colours are concerned? it’s a bit of gender-bender ideology at work. Women want to be like men, what with their trousers and crisp corporate shirts. And men want to explore their feminine side.”

Designer Narendra Kumar notes that “we have reached a stage of dichotomy where the Indian market doesn’t care for Indian clothes unless it is for the odd ‘occasion’ like a marriage or a festival. Post-1960, we have moved almost entirely into Western silhouettes and styles? it is inevitable that fashion had to move towards a utilitarian function at some point.”

The list of fashion icons includes the Indian maharajas of yore, Jawaharlal Nehru (whose innovation was the Saville Row-patented Nehru jacket), Mahatma Gandhi (who made a political as well as fashion statement with his bare torso), Rajiv Gandhi, M.F. Husain, Amitabh Bachchan, the westernised Dev Anand and the original metrosexual, Rajesh Khanna.

There are entire chapters dedicated to fabrics, colours, suits, Friday dressing, wedding wear as well as accessories like belts, cufflinks, watches, shoes, pens and wallets. A whole section has been devoted to ties and the many styles of knotting them along with step-by-step illustrations.

Women haven’t been altogether left out. In the chapter The Unfair Advantage, there is a low-down on women’s dressing in corporate circles, make-up and styling tips.

Did you know that “construction” in men’s wear parlance meant shoulder padding and other manufacturing processes that add an engineered, three-dimensional shape to a suit jacket? For many more such interesting information, flip through the book.It offers valuable insight into the arena of men’s fashion from the likes of Falguni and Shane Peacock, Anita Dongre, Krishna Mehta, Nandita Mahtani, Narendra Kumar, Payal Singhal, Salim Asgarally and Pradeep Hirani.

Take a look at some striking photographs by Suresh Natrajan. Though not highly stylised, they are good enough to give you an understanding of the clothes that are described in the volume. One of the prime attractions of the book is the style guide at the end ? a set of pencil sketches of attire designs that will make things easier for even the layman. The book is priced at Rs 2,500.