This book surprised me.

I didn't expect to like it. I picked it up because I gravitate towards immigrant stories, being an immigrant myself. There's something about the dual-identities that draw me in, and then a deeper realisation, that immigrants are not Chinese and Canadian, or, in my case, Australian Canadian, but Chinese Canadian, as its own separate entity that I adore and come to terms with on a daily basis.

And then I started reading it, and it completely blew me away. JJ's passion for menswear is infectious. He would pick an article of men's clothing, such as the pocket square, or the tie, or the lapel and I would be passionate about it. He weaved intricate tales about how the frock coat came into being, how Oscar Wilde defied all of England's fashion conventions, how knights in armour defiantly raised their skirts so they could move better in battle. He told stories of James Dean, of Sean Connery, of Frank Sinatra, all from their pant hems, from their upturned brims of their hats, from their tie pins.

JJ Lee is a sentimental, romantic, admirable little nerd and I adored all of his Star Trek, Star Wars and comic books references.

He challenges masculinity as much as he welcomes it. Through these stories, he tells the story of the fraught relationship he had with his father, how he aspired to be him, his father's alcoholism and his resolve never to be like him. He becomes a tailor for a short time, and in a moment of inspiration, decides to alter his father's suit.

Though the sections about his father's alcoholism were hard to read, the author used micro-histories about clothing between each emotional chapter. As a mechanic of writing, it helped me to keep reading and not get swamped with miserable detail. Lee does what I think is difficult to do when recounting a story of someone who suffers from substance abuse, and that is that he wrote about the good times as well as the bad.

This book is layered without being difficult. It is emotional without being draining. If Lee could be sure of one thing, it is that he can write. Not only that, but that he can write and make the reader care.

tw: alcoholism, domestic abuse ( )

This is an absolutely stunning memoir. In turns funny and heartbreaking it beautifully written and ingeniously paced. And it will change how you look at lapels forever. ( )

“The suit tells the tale of the man who wears it.” In the Measure of a Man, Lee sets out to alter his deceased father’s suit in an attempt to understand how the threads of his own life were woven. The alteration process releases long dormant memories of a childhood filled with alcoholism and abuse but it also allows him to get closer to understanding his father.

Interwoven with stories of the alteration, Lee’s childhood, and his apprenticeship at a Gastown tailor, are sections on the history and evolution of the suit. Lee’s description of the people and events that influenced the changing styles of suits was quite interesting, so much so that now I notice lapels and how many buttons are done up on a man’s suit! His fashion intervention of a graduate struggling to find a suit at The Bay was heartwarming. Grads and best men would do well to take his advice on boutonnieres this June. ( )

Reviewed here.