The Dandy

 The Dandy: 


Tasteful, tailored, and subtle.  It's a  dash of the Spartan, a little of the Neoclassical republican and  the sangfroid of the regimental avante garde.

Beau Brummel  The First Dandy

• Arbiter Elegantarium--A leader of fashionable society in Regency England who used "good taste, good manners, wit and impudence," to rise to the top.
• A Friend of the Prince Regeant (who would come watch Beau bathe and dress).
• Popularized the wearing of trousers over pantaloons.
• His caravats are the predecessors to the modern tie
• Bathed and shaved daily (which was revolutionary in England at the time)

Lord Byron

Lord Byron

 "I would rather be Beau Brummell than Napolean"

Aristocrat, dandy, rebel, libertine, freedom fighter, and voluptuary.

The dandy look was elegant and bold.

The look, on the whole, does not call attention to itself by being ostentatious, but in its precision: no-thing is out of place.

Robert de Montesquiou

Oscar Wilde

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

The colors are basic and often understated, the drama comes from the cut and drape of fabrics.

Did we say and subtle and understated?   Well...celebrity interpretations generally are more attention seeking and often take the more louche Lord Byron approach.

  

  Designers' interpretations of the Dandy.




Pop Culture Dandy