It’s A Small, Medium and Outsize World by John Taylor

What caused the Topless Dress and the Mini-Skirt? Why was Male Fashion regarded for years as a subject to be discussed only in private by consenting adults. Do Policewomen long to be loved? Why was the first Top Hat arrested? What is the importance of sexual attraction in the life of the Draper? Did Beau Brummell matter all that much? Why are Footballers sensible, but Cricketers ridiculous? Why did Paris lose the fashion lead to London? What dreadful retribution lies in store for a man whose trousers are too tight? Where is it all going?

There are only a few of the fascinating questions which the author discusses in It’s a Small, Medium and Outsize World. Taking a satirical look at the last century and a half of ‘modern fashion’ in general, and the last twenty years in particular, he draws on two decades of personal experience in fashion journalism wherein he has been a dedicated, fascinated, and sometimes startled, observer of the sociology of clothes.

Tracing the changes of line and silhouette briefly, John Taylor, editor of the world-famous Tailor and Cutter magazine, concentrates more deeply upon the curious and sometimes hilarious results of a society ever seeking novelty, status or ‘just a change’. The results are extremely informative, extraordinarily fascinating, and often very, very funny.

Generally accepted as the leading authority on modern male fashion, Mr Taylor proves here that a double decade of enforced punditry has neither dulled his style nor blunted his wit. He spares no faction or facet of Fashion, and qualifies his wry commentary only with the observation that is he has in any way upset the more pompous sections of the sartorial Establishment he is sorry, but not very.