7 questions with fun, foul-mouthed menswear maker Mark McNairy about his book, style sense and L.A.

Last August, New York City-based menswear designer Mark McNairy pulled up stakes, left the city he swore he’d never leave and came to Southern California, where he’s dabbling in a handful of projects that include working with subscription service Five Four (where he serves as head designer), collaborating on a line with the Original Chuck headwear label and creating, when the mood strikes him, pieces for his Mark McNairy New Amsterdam line of menswear and footwear.

Along the way, the 55-year-old menswear “maker” (the word he prefers over “designer”), whose perennially gruff demeanor has earned him the nickname McNasty, managed to cobble together his first book — a combination scrapbook of inspirations/influences and no-nonsense men’s style guide called “F— Ivy and Everything Else” (Harper Design, 176 pages, $29.99) which hit bookstore shelves Feb. 16.

The title might make it sound like the rantings of a foul-mouthed menswear designer — and it is that. But it’s also more than that. It’s a richly illustrated, easy-to-understand, straightforward style guide for the multi-tasking, attention-deficit-disorder crowd that doesn’t take anything (including itself) too seriously. Organized into three parts (“Wardrobe Essentials,” “Classics” and “Good Guys, Good Advices”), the book dispenses wardrobe wisdom the way an older brother (or drunk uncle) might.

“The way I see it: camouflage is a floral print for guys,” McNairy writes in one place, “But, please: only wear one piece at a time.” He shares his opinions on everything from flip-flops (don’t wear them) to Zippo lighters (you should own one — whether you smoke or not), advocates for American heritage brands (Levi’s and Converse among them), embraces the tie bar, lobbies for owning a tuxedo and, perhaps most important, takes the stuffing out of insider-fashion speak (“Hook vents vs. side vents. What [expletive] difference does it make?”), effectively reclaiming menswear for the everyday man.

Last week, we caught up with McNairy in his Carthay neighborhood office overlooking Wilshire Boulevard to talk about living in L.A., what influenced his sense of style and the origin of the decidedly NSFW title of his tome.

You’re currently hanging your hat in Studio City. How do you like it here?

Awesome. Everything is like a [expletive] dream … the minute I landed I was at home.

What’s your favorite part about living here?

Everything. The weather — we have a pool … the food, the people, driving. I love driving, which I didn’t really get to do too much of in New York and New Jersey. I’ve had the windows down and the sunroof open almost every single day.

Has living here made it hard for you to keep up the grouchy persona you’re known for?

You’ll have to ask the people around [the Five Four offices]. I’m not as grouchy, but I’m grouchy by nature. It’s in my DNA.

What are some of your favorite stores in L.A.?

There’s no cool shopping in New York. There’s tons of cool stores out here: Mohawk General Store, Heath Ceramics, American Rag — they’ve got the goods.

What formed your sense of style? Anyone flipping through the pages of this book will notice that right away.

It started in high school with vintage military khakis and Brooks Brothers’ oxford-cloth buttondowns.... I grew up in [Greensboro,] N.C. so [the look was] preppy. The older kids wore Nettleton apron-toe tassel loafers with khaki chinos, an alligator belt and a white T-shirt or a button-down [shirt].

How do you go from that to a book with the title “F— Ivy”?

When I was first approached about doing a book, my idea was to put together a book about the things that had influenced me growing up, that made me who I am. It included things like “The Andy Griffith Show,” GI Joes, Brooks Brothers, vintage military clothing, “Apocalypse Now.” It was kind of like a scrapbook. The publisher I was working with said: “Eh, why don’t you rethink it?” And I was like [expletive] that. Later on, when my agent got me a [different] book deal I decided to do a sort of spoof or parody of that Japanese book, “Take Ivy,” because everyone had been talking about how great that book was and I’d done a T-shirt that said, “F— Ivy,” because I was sick of hearing about it. Neither idea really worked on its own, so it became a mixture of both.

Where did the style advice in the book come from? Were these things you learned growing up or responses to things you learned growing up? Or both?

Everything. And a lot of it is pure [expletive]. It’s entertainment just like my clothing is entertainment. You don’t need a shirt that says, “[expletive] T-shirt,” on it, you know what I mean? But if it gives you a little pleasure to get through this miserable [expletive] life, that’s the way you’ve got to look at it. Everything, for the most part, is entertainment.”

Speaking of entertainment, McNairy is scheduled to appear at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, Wednesday at 7 p.m. He will sign copies of the book, answer questions and, in all likelihood, swear a lot.

adam.tschorn@latimes.com