The Gentleman’s Guide to Cocktails by Jack Hughes

If Brooks Brothers and the Gibson Girl had a lovechild, this would be it. The Gentleman’s Guide to Cocktails, illustrated by Jack Hughes, evokes Coles Philips’s early 1900’s postcards featuring the “fade-away girl” through a similar technique of color blocking and stylistically blending foreground into background. The muted pastels visually describe high, aristocratic society of the post-war era with the slightest indiscretions in attitude and candor. The characters are classy, coy, and confident; the slight smirk on a lady’s face after a drag from her cigarette, and the cocky repose of a gentleman holding his drink to the light betray little emotion save for a cool exterior. And that’s how to go about cocktail hour.