Allure of Men Book

Some men change the temperature of a room. Allure of Men is about them. More than two decades after Assouline first published a book by this name, the house returns to the subject with Ariel Wizman. The French writer, broadcaster, and DJ explores two centuries of masculine aura through fashion, photography, art, cinema, and philosophy. The visual journey goes everywhere from the extravagant elegance of Congo’s La Sape movement and the evolving menswear cultures of Seoul and Shanghai to Hollywood’s golden age movie stars and London’s swinging sixties.

The pages run from Jean-Baptiste Belley, France’s first Black deputy, painted by Anne-Louis Girodet in 1797, to A$AP Rocky, shot by Atiba Jefferson in 2025. In between are Serge Gainsbourg and Sidney Poitier, Elvis in black leather in 1968, Daniel Craig walking out of the sea in Casino Royale, and Burt Reynolds’s 1972 nude Cosmopolitan centerfold, plus Marcello Mastroianni, Bowie, Basquiat, Lewis Hamilton, and many others. You’ll find your type. Possibly several.

This unapologetically subjective study arrives as traditional notions of masculinity are being reconsidered. Gary Cooper, the original cover star, now graces the back cover, while the front makes way for Lenny Kravitz, joint in hand. “Allure is not a matter of rules or of symmetry,” Wizman writes. “It is what a man gives off when he has stopped asking to be looked at.”

About The Author

Born in 1962 in Casablanca, Morocco, Ariel Wizman grew up in France, where an early encounter with philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas shaped an enduring curiosity about ideas. He began his career as a journalist, contributing to Actuel, Vogue Hommes, and 20 Ans, producing programs for France Culture radio, and serving as editor in chief of Interactif. A DJ and one half of the electronic duo Grand Popo Football Club, he also became one of France’s most recognizable television presenters, co-hosting Tentations.06 on Canal+ alongside Stéphane Bern. He has performed onstage in a production directed by John Malkovich. In 2020, he acquired the French franchise of the Chinese lifestyle brand Miniso, expanding it to fifteen stores across the country. Most recently, he joined the founding editorial team of Esquire France, launched in spring 2026. Wizman is Isabel Marant’s music director and the author of Morocco, Kingdom of Light (Assouline, 2023) and co-author, with Harold Colbert, of Paris by Paris (Assouline, 2025). In 2015, Wizman co-directed, with Laurent Lunetta, the 2015 document Black Dandy: A Political Beauty.