Lounging nude in a bathtub, George Brummell holds a razor to his throat. Will he remove his stubble, or end his life? This stark suicidal […]
Adventures In Beauty
There is no excitement quite like that of unwrapping books you have just gotten in the mail. Pretensions to maturity and sophistication fly out the […]
The Golden Age Of The Dandy
The Golden Age of the Dandy By John Peale Bishop Vanity Fair, September 1920 The first dandy was, I suppose, the son of a Macaroni […]
On Dress And Deportment
On Dress and Deportment From “Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow,” 1886 By Jerome K. Jerome They say — people who ought to be ashamed […]
Dandies By Holbrook Jackson, 1914
In the history of dandyism, four works hold pride of place. They are, in chronological order, Barbey d’Aurevilly’s Du dandysme et de George Brummell, Baudelaire’s The […]
Last Of The Dandies, 1862
From Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1862 Article unsigned MR. THACKERAY tells us that having, as he supposed, created his famous Captain Costigan out of innumerable […]
The Philosophy Of Style
In 1988 I graduated high school and took off on my first solo road trip, and the adventure onto which I embarked was a quest […]
Born A Dandy
From “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” 1858 By Oliver Wendell Holmes Image: Sir Philip Sassoon by John Singer Sargent Dandies are not good for much, […]
Wit & Wisdom
“Style is the dress of thought.” — Lord Chesterfield “A dandy does nothing. Can you imagine a dandy addressing the common herd except to make […]
Gautier On Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire By Theophile Gautier, 1867 Although his existence was short — he lived scarce forty-six years — Charles Baudelaire had time to assert himself, […]
The Vice Of High Civilization
Beau Brummell From “Wits and Beaux of Society” By Grace and Philip Wharton, 1861 It is astonishing to what a number of insignificant things high […]
Robert de Montesquiou
Robert de Montesquiou: The Magnificent Dandy From “Elegant Wits And Grand Horizontals” By Cornelia Otis Skinner, 1962 In a charming book of memoirs Elisabeth de […]
Eye For Elegance
Eye For Elegance By Christian Chensvold Ralph Lauren Magazine, Fall 2008 Norman Rockwell’s name is synonymous with the golden age of American illustration, while […]
The Beau Of Our Times
The Beau of Our Times From Apparel Arts, Spring 1933 Article unsigned “If there were no God,” said Voltaire some little time before he embraced […]
Pelham’s Maxims
From “Pelham: Or the Adventures of a Gentleman” By Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1828 1) Do not require your dress so much to fit, as to adorn […]
Saint-Loup
First impressions of Robert de Saint-Loup From “Within a Budding Grove” By Marcel Proust, 1919 One afternoon of scorching heat I was in the dining-room […]
Overrated Hero
Book Review of “The Life of George Brummell, Esq.” By Captain Jesse Littell’s Living Age, 1844 Article unsigned Why on earth was such a subject […]
Treatise On Elegant Living
Every era has its particular expression of elegance. But while that expression is forever in flux, the principles that govern it are fixed and eternal. […]
The Joker’s Riled
“La chair est triste, helas, et j’ai lu tous les livres.” When I was younger, those lines of Mallarmé used to haunt me. This was back […]
The Complete Dandy
From “D’Orsay, or the Complete Dandy” By W. Teignmouth Shore, 1911 Image: detail of Count d’Orsay in the National Portrait Gallery What a delightful fellow […]
Aristocratic By Nature
From “New Notes On Edgar Poe,” 1857 By Charles Baudelaire Decadent literature! Empty words which we often hear fall, with thes onority of a deep […]