Got a copy of Esquire's latest style guide - The Big Black Book, courtesy of Hearst Magazine. Although it looks and feels like a magazine, it does live up to what it promises: a style manual for successful men. And the editorial team managed to do it succinctly and stylishly (duh!).

As it's meant to stay on your coffee table for a fairly long time rather than end up in your waste bin after one month, the style tips it offer are truly timeless. Here's what it got to say about the Wallet:

Paypal and automatic bill pay have rid the culture of the checkbook-length billfolds men used to carry in their breast pockets. The era of the hamburger-shaped lump of leather with its plastic-sleeved photo album passed the instant Nokia put a camera in a mobile phone. We live in a time of stripping away encumbrances. The surest way to preserve the line of a great suit and keep from weighing down the pockets of a great pair of trousers is with a slim wallet for the few essential cards and a money clip for the cash. Wallets are the guardians of life's essential details: driver's license, credit cards. These items need protection from the elements and from one's proclivity for misplacing them - slim, neat, leather-clad protection.

Click here to purchase The Big Black Book online.