By KEVIN M. WILLIAMS

By KEVIN M. WILLIAMS
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
HERE IS A POINT WHERE MEN learn to feed themselves.
But according to a recent volume, "Make Over Your Man: The Woman's Guide to Dressing Any Man in Her Life" (Broadway Books, $29.95), many of us still haven't learned to dress ourselves.
Help is as near as the women in our lives, according to the book's author, Lloyd Boston, who suggests, "With the right attitude and a little guidance from a woman, any man can understand and master the art of personal style."
"The book just came from talking to women I have bumped into over the years," said Boston, style guru on NBC's "Today" show and E!'s "Style Network." "They would ask me, 'Could you dress my guy, or show him how to dress like you?'"
Perhaps, but any man who abdicates control over his personal style, to anyone, deserves to look like the poor soul in the moleskin pants and driving shoes. Men should find what they look good in and wear it. It isn't that women cannot dress men, though this is usually true. It is that they should not.
Bill Blass once said, "A woman should not play too large of a role in the clothes a man wears."
Male style doyen Alan Flusser writes in "Style and the Man" (the bible, lads), "It is virtually impossible for a man to dress well if he does not select his own clothing."
Of course, there's a reason or two that this wisdom is often ignored.
"If I had written this book for a guy, many guys wouldn't have bought it," said Boston, getting at the crux of the matter. "Guys, we just like to take it where it comes. Comfort first."
Deeply involved
Buttressing Boston's offering is that in 2001, women spent roughly $28.5 billion (56 percent) of the $50.9 billion in total sales on clothes for men, according to the NPD Group, an industry tracking firm. Mind you, we don't know the dollar figure of the eventual returns, but still, that lamentable raw figure gives pause.
Too many women buy a man clothes without paying attention to what he likes to wear. Boston said: "He might always be a sweat-pants guy, but you might be the conduit for helping him pick out a better pair. Meeting him where he is, is the first rule of thumb."
We argue that the first rule of thumb should be leave him alone. Rather than the image of male as sartorial mule, think of a man with freedom of choice. If he doesn't want to look better, only rarely will "making him over" work.
The other problem is fashion versus clothes. The former is theoretical, the latter is what people wear. The runways have little bearing on the latter.
But consider the Duke of Windsor. The man who inspired so many aspects of male style (tie knots, cuffed trousers, mixed patterns) never left the house without being impeccably turned out. More important, his clothing is timeless, but its selection is the exclusive province of the person who is wearing it.
In "Make Over Your Man," designer Cynthia Rowley's makeover subject, Adam, gets to the heart of things: "I think men should remember it's their sense of style. ... Sometimes men wear something so not them and it's obvious someone's tried to change them, all of a sudden they're like those fridge magnets that you stick clothes on."
Good source
Scoffing aside, this is an excellent book that imparts useful information to any man interested in style. Every aspect of male raiment is covered, from boxers versus briefs to bow tie knots, and many of the makeovers are top-notch. New York Giants running back Tiki Barber's Zegna ensemble, for example, is exquisite.
So how should men deal with this book? You might buy it and remove the dust jacket, blot out the title on the spine with a marker or, as Boston suggests with a laugh, hide it in the bottom of the underwear drawer.
If you want to learn how to look good, without having a book that will rile you, you needn't rule out outside input altogether.
Head for the store, one with a top-notch menswear department, such as Neiman Marcus, or a tradition of trend-eschewing excellence -- Paul Stuart, Ermenegildo Zegna -- and find a salesman who looks good. Solicit advice that will work for you.
Or just ask some well-put-together guy on the street how he does it. Men never ask other men about their clothes, and that's silly. Of course, we don't ask for directions when we're lost either.
"At the end of the day, there are very few dandies left on this Earth who understand the ritual of fine dressing," Boston said. "Clothing is your first skin, and it's a beautiful thing that you have the power to create that skin the way you want it to be."
"Make Over Your Man" offers the brilliant Lauren Hutton point of view:
"Fashion is what you're offered. Style is what you choose."
Exactly.