Hard-bound style

Compelling style is often found far from the runways — on a Hamptons lawn, in a Mexico City wrestling ring, in a Paris park long ago. Three new books bring these worlds to life.

ELITE AESTHETE

Is there secret meaning to madras blazers, ballet flats and chintz beyond the comprehension of outsiders and those not to the manor born? Is there a reason to wax nostalgic for the grand old days of restricted country clubs and the de facto uniforms of their members?

Susanna Salk, in “A Privileged Life: Celebrating WASP Style” (Assouline, $40), makes her position clear in the book’s title. Salk celebrates a lifestyle she fears is disappearing. After Sept. 11, she found herself yearning for “a time and place where things never seemed to go wrong.” WASP style represented a sanctuary for her, filled with “unexpected grace, strength, quirkiness and glamour.”

Now no one would deny Salk the right to be proud of her heritage. But it would be nice if she could have affectionately bitten into this slice of Americana without savoring the pie so smugly. A photograph of a group of Bermuda shorts-and-polo-shirted guys and their all-American pooches romping on a fogged-in beach bears this caption: “Whether it’s Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, or Point O’Woods, an important part of the WASP lifestyle is enjoying spectacular beaches with your dogs.” How nice for them. Of course, Lisa Birnbach’s “The Official Preppy Handbook” simultaneously venerated and mocked the WASPY East Coast aesthetic. Nearly 30 years later, that book’s specificity and wit are still hard to top.

WRESTLEMANIA

Felino, El Gangster, Guerrero Azteca, Histeria. As noms de guerre, the signatures of Mexican wrestlers are almost as colorful as their outfits, and photographer Malcolm Venville has assembled more than 120 color portraits of masked marvels, dressed to kill, or at least maim in “Lucha Loco” (Therapy, $80). His portraits are funny, scary, artistic or bizarre. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

The book includes an introduction by Sandro Cohen, the Mexican poet, novelist and literary critic, that wrings all the cultural, historical and socioeconomic meaning out of the sport of lucha libre, which became popular in the 1950s and ‘60s and survives, he writes, as “a circus for the poor.”

The colorful, cartoonish get-ups of “Lucha Loco” deserve a place in any encyclopedic review of native costumes. One wonders what many people would choose to wear if they could hide their identities behind masks.

CANDID CAMERAS

Step behind the scenes at a fashion shoot today and you will discover it takes about a dozen people and a fleet of reflectors to create an image of “effortless” perfection.

It was not always so. The 300 black-and-white photos in “Elegance: The Séeberger Brothers and the Birth of Fashion Photography,” by Sylvie Aubenas, Virginie Chardin and Xavier Demange, chronicle stylish women at cafes, beach resorts, in city parks and at the racetrack. The models and socialites whom Jules, Louis and Henri Séeberger captured between 1909 and 1939 communicate through their clothing, accessories and primarily their attitude, that they enjoy being on display. And yet, there’s a natural grace in their appearance. In many cases, minor imperfections make these fashion plates more inspiring than today’s air-brushed models. Anyone interested in the evolution of fashion will delight in how timeless many of the clothes are. Subtract a glove here, a dated hat there, and what remains is truly classic style.