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. ( )

I’m getting towards the end of my reading of the Penguin Lines series but there are still surprises in store for me. Buttoned-Up is the story of the East London line and takes a completely different focus to the other books I’ve read so far. This is the story of the buttoned-up 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 men’s fashion magazine) probe into the reasons why a shirt is worn this way. It’s a unique angle for a book and one that I quite enjoyed because of its difference to the standard novella format.

Tube purists won’t 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 buttoned-up shirts, some famous, from the 1960s to the modern era. In between these pictures, there are various short forms about the buttoned-up 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 wouldn’t mind going through his basement). The buttoned-up shirt throughout music is also explored, with many great bands mentioned. (It got me thinking about the bands I like and their taste for buttoned-up shirts or fashion in general).

It’s 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.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

This is part of the Penguin Lines series published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground. In theory, it covers the East London line. In reality, it has absolutely nothing to do with public transportation or the Tube.

What it is instead is a sociological look at a subculture of London where skinny young men wear their shirts buttoned to the top, without a tie. It traces the influences through 80s new wave (there's an interview with one of the Pet Shop Boys) and back to the Mods. Being a book about English people, there is of course much mention of class.

Note that Fantastic Man is a magazine. This book is made up of several essays by its editors and writers.

Rating: As a book about the London Underground (and how it is sold), this book is a complete fail and would get half a star. As a study of a very specific topic and group of people, I actually rather enjoyed it and give it four stars.

Recommended for: this is an extremely niche book. If you're not interested in menswear, 1980s British music, Mods, and the English class system, you will not like anything about Buttoned-Up. ( )

This is another of the dozen books in the Penguin Underground Series, written in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the London Underground in 2013. Unlike the other 11 books in the series, which are based on current Underground lines, the East London line is no longer in service, as it closed in 2007 and was replaced by London Overground services in 2010.

In keeping with the closure of the East London line, the writers of Fantastic 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 the 11 Penguin Underground books that I've read so far. ( )