Explore Buttoned-Up: The East London Line Picturized By Jop Van Bennekom In Readable Copy

getting towards the end of my reading of the Penguin Lines series but there are still surprises in store for me.
ButtonedUp is the story of the East London line and takes a completely different focus to the other books Ive read so far.
This is the story of the buttonedup shirt that is so commonly seen worn on young men in the East End.
Think of a collared shirt, buttoned up to the very top but with no tie, Through essays, interviews and photography, the team from Fantastic Man a mens fashion magazine probe into the reasons why a shirt is worn this way.
Its a unique angle for a book and one that I quite enjoyed because of its difference to the standard novella format.


Tube purists wont enjoy this book as the closest you will get are six junctions of east London, photographed moodily in black and white in day and night.
There are also other portraits of rather handsome men wearing buttonedup shirts, some famous, from thes to the modern era.
In between these pictures, there are various short forms about the buttonedup shirt, The history, what it represents and how it distinguishes the man and what he stands for, There is also an interview with Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys, who reveals a keen eye for fashion I wouldnt mind going through his basement.
The buttonedup shirt throughout music is also explored, with many great bands mentioned, It got me thinking about the bands I like and their taste for buttonedup shirts or fashion in general.


Its a quirky, short read that is genuinely interesting, The photography is stunning this is what black and white portraits should be like, Moody and capturing the essence of the subject and their life, I loved the style captured and the structure of the book, Recommended if you want something short and different,

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Mixing the inherently yet unintentionally comical in fashion writing here, about men buttoning the top shirt button as a quasiphilosophical statement about dignity and sexual availability with the inherently visceral in popmusic writing, peppered withandsomething men looking twee, vulnerable, and forlorn.
It succeeds in making you laugh not what the editors were hired for and in wanting to look good.
Bit dull . but then again, given it's a short piece on men's fashion in East London, not sure why I would expect to find it all that interesting.
Some nice photos and I liked the very short chat with Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys fame.
its a bit repetitive, and very magazine style, but that's not necc a bad thing, It's not a terrible read, just too much of a light one, Almost felt as if I was reading a fashion students dissertation, London is a centre of cuttingedge fashion here, the creators of 'the best fashion mag out there', Fantastic Man, tell the story of London style through the history of the buttondown shirt part of a series of twelve books tied to the twelve lines of the London Underground.


Encompassing music, street style, fashion, portraits, day and night locations, the visual context of east London where clothes factories and workshops used to be, night shots where bars and clubs used to be or still are, an examination of collar shapes and archive images from fashion and music.


Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom are the creators of Fantastic Man, a singular modern men's style journal.
Here they chart the history of the buttonup shirt and explore why it's so central to contemporary London's fashion, design and people.
With star contributors, fashion shoots and singular writing, this is a fashion magazine in a book, This book is written by two people from the magazine Fantastic Man, and is about the phenomenon of buttoning down a shirt, i.
e. using all the buttons on a shirt, especially the top one, and how this affects people,

There are some fairly interesting interviews here, e, g. with Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, but otherwise it could delve far into the uninteresting to me.
Still, it's nice to see that someone can actually take their time to do something like this, about such a narrow subject.


Somehow the authors excluded women from this phenomenon, which strikes me as very strange and unexplained.
Fantastic Man is not, as I first thought, a pretentious pseudonym, but a men's fashion magazine that originated in The Netherlands.


Although this book is part of a series celebrating theth anniversary of the London Underground, this book has absolutely nothing to do with trains or public transport, instead focussing on: "The peculiarity of buttoning up one's shirt, especially in east London" it sounds like a strange topic, and it is one, and it seems incredible that apage book was published about this subject.
It sounds like it could be meant as hilariously funny, but the writers take themselves very seriously,

The book consists of a series of different articles, written by different writers from the magazine, all talking about how several young men in the Shoreditch area of London took to wearing a shirt with the top button done up, but without a tie.
The book includes an interview with Neil Tennant ofs band The Pet Shop boys and an article that connects the fashion with mod rock culture.


Overall, this feels like a very niche interest, and the book is padded out by various pictures of young men modelling shirts and street corners in Shoreditch.
I thought it made for a reasonably interesting read, though the chapter where it talked about mod rocker culture felt like it was giving a very quick overview when it

could have gone into great depth about this topic.
I thought this was an okay book, but I suspect many audiences would be quite cynical about it.
Lightweight, but interesting. The essay on mod culture is the best part, This is another of the dozen books in the Penguin Underground Series, written in celebration of theth anniversary of the London Underground in.
Unlike the otherbooks in the series, which are based on current Underground lines, the East London line is no longer in service, as it closed inand was replaced by London Overground services in.


In keeping with the closure of the East London line, the writers of sitelinkFantastic Man, a London men's fashion magazine, eschew any mention of the past or current train services, and instead focus on the fashion sense of ordinary men and male celebrities who work and live there.
The title of the book refers to the current trend of tasteful young men to wear dress shirts completely buttoned and without ties.
The book contains numerous pictures of these fashion plates, along with occasional photos of East London street corners.


This book was a complete waste of my time, and it may possibly be the worst of thePenguin Underground books that I've read so far.
Together with Gert Jonkers, Art Director and Editor Jop van Bennekom is the creator of Fantastic Man, a formal and intelligent mens fashion magazine that positions itself above the commercial fray with a singular tone and elegant design.
Inthey launched the female counterpart of Fantastic Man called The Gentlewoman, a modern ladies style journal, Together with Gert Jonkers, Art Director and Editor Jop van Bennekom is the creator of Fantastic Man, a formal and intelligent men's fashion magazine that positions itself above the commercial fray with a singular tone and elegant design.
Inthey launched the female counterpart of Fantastic Man called The Gentlewoman, a modern ladies style journal, sitelink.