A friend of mine asked me to write an article on Dandyism for “The Fitting Room” a magazine published by Amerano - the clothing company he works for. Of course I obliged gladly. Click the picture to get to the magazine’s website.
“Enter Lord Goring, a flawless Dandy.”
I was eighteen years old when I read this unremarkable sentence in Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband”. I knew the word “Dandy”. It had something to do with clothes and style; it conjured images of men in frock coats and high, stiff shirt collars before my inner eye. In order to be sure I decided to learn a little more about Dandyism – and I haven’t stopped in the years that have passed since.
Dandyism is more than a way of dressing: it is a way of life, and some might even say a form of art. Dandies celebrate themselves and their style. They are always elegant, but not shrill and exaggerated, but understated and effortless. Outwardly they appear cold and calculated, but they are keen observers on the world around them and comment on it with a sharp wit. Often one cannot be sure whether what they are saying is serious or just irony. As Wilde says about Goring: “He is fond of being misunderstood. It gives him a post of vantage.”
Dandies live for their style, the Beautiful and the enjoyment of life. Of course this does not correspond well with work or a “respectable” lifestyle. A Dandy is either independently wealthy, lives on credit or is an artist. While not every Dandy makes his living as an artist they all permanently work on their biggest work of art: themselves. A shining, fascinating figure, that probably has nothing to do with the person behind it - or does it? One can never be sure when Dandies are concerned. But who cares what they really are - what they claim to be is so much more interesting.
There have been people that lived a Dandyism lifestyle for centuries. The first to be called a Dandy was George Bryan “Beau” Brummel. Brummel lived around the end of the 18th century and was a close friend of the Prince Regent. He is said to be the archetypal Dandy, who first defined and lived Dandyism perfectly. Since then much has happened and Brummel had many successors, for example Baudelaire, Byron and of course Oscar Wilde. In my articles I want to introduce you to Dandyism, give you an idea of where it comes from, show how one can live it two hundred years after Brummel, and praise those who live it particularly well.
