Two books land this fall, and they are not really competing. According to WWD, Phaidon has published "ATP No. 1 Club: Icons of Men's Tennis," a 304-page chronicle of the sport's top-ranked players, while Assouline relaunches "Allure of Men" on Oct. 29 — a new edition of a title first published more than 20 years ago. One documents a specific world; the other asks a broad question about charisma. Read side by side, they show how style books now work: narrow evidence on one shelf, big theory on the other.
The Phaidon book is the more concrete of the two, and that is its point. The ATP created the No. 1 Club last year to honor players ranked at the top since the list began in 1973, according to Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore. The book gathers more than 300 photographs of 29 "game changers," running chronologically from Ilie Nastase to Jannik Sinner, with written profiles and archival images along the way. It carries a preface from ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, a foreword from Rod Laver and text by tennis writer Mark Hodgkinson. It retails for $59.95, in a cobalt blue cover with a cutout of a tennis ball.
Why a governing body is publishing a style book
The interesting part is who made it. A tour organization commissioning a coffee-table volume about its own history is a sign that the sport sees its visual culture as an asset worth curating. The book's stated focus — how each player "found a new edge that advanced his cause as well as the entire sport," per the WWD report — treats personal style as part of competitive history, not decoration beside it. On-court rivalries and behind-the-scenes material sit in the same pages as the photographs.
For a reader, that framing matters. It suggests the players' off-court presentation is being recorded as seriously as their results, which is a shift from the era when athlete style lived only in magazine spreads. If you follow the intersection of sport and dress, this is the kind of primary record that usually never gets made. Our fashion news coverage tracks the same crossover from the other direction.
The Assouline reboot and its new cover star
"Allure of Men" takes the opposite approach. The new edition explores masculinity and charisma, and its cover swap tells the story: Gary Cooper, who appeared on the original cover, moves to the back cover, and Lenny Kravitz replaces him on the front. French author and DJ Ariel Wizman wrote the text for this edition and documents how the definition has changed over the years. His line from the book, quoted by WWD: "Allure is not a matter of rules or of symmetry. It is what a man gives off when he has stopped asking to be looked at."
The cast is deliberately wide. The book mixes historical portraits, street photography and editorial shoots, and its subjects run from David Bowie and Snoop Dogg to Sidney Poitier and Daniel Craig, with athletes including Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Lewis Hamilton. Designers appear too, from Hubert de Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent to Dapper Dan and Tom Ford. The 200-page linen hardcover sells for $120 online and at Assouline boutiques globally.
What the pairing says about style publishing
Put the two together and a pattern emerges. The Phaidon book argues that style is traceable — 29 players, 1973 to now, one record. The Assouline book argues that style is untraceable, a quality that resists rules. Publishers are betting on both readings at once, and the price points split accordingly: $59.95 for the documented history, $120 for the object-as-luxury statement. Neither approach is new, but releasing them in the same season shows the market has room for both the archive and the argument. This connects to our earlier piece, Three Layers of Evening Home Lighting (and How to Get Them Right).
For anyone building a personal point of view on dress, the practical takeaway is unglamorous. The tennis book offers evidence: specific players, specific eras, specific choices. The Assouline title offers permission to stop following rules entirely. Most readers will get more from the first, because a record you can study beats a mood you can only admire. That is the same logic behind our Buy Less, Style More approach to a wardrobe — start with what is documented, then decide what it means for you. Readers following this should also see Buy Less, Style More: How to Build Quiet Luxury on a Budget.
What remains unknown is whether these titles signal a wider run of sports-style publishing or a one-off fall slate. The evidence covers two books and one week. Watch what the next publishing season brings before calling it a trend.
