The Dandy Of The Apocalypse By Christian Chensvold I am the dandy of the zombie apocalypse Riding the underground tunnel amid blips, Lights […]
Category: Columns
King Of The Dandies
The magnificent creature you see above is Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord, prince de Sagan (1832-1910). Sagan is the Missing Link in the Dynasty of Dandies. Perhaps that’s […]
Majestic Though In Ruin
You probably remember the ancient riddle about the traveler who meets a fork in the road and isn’t sure which path to take. In the […]
Dandyism As Spiritual Path
Dandyism As Spiritual Path By Christian Chensvold From “The Philosophy Of Style,” 2023 Can dandyism actually serve as a spiritual path, guiding us through the […]
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 […]
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 that […]
Something Superior To The Visible World
A 19th-century woman wrote herself into the annals of history by saying that the feeling of being perfectly well dressed brings a supernatural calm that […]
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, […]
Blasé In The Face of Death
In literature, dandyish characters occasionally find cause to duel. Sword in hand, Mikhail Lermontov’s dandyish Byronic hero Pechorin fights a duel on a cliff’s […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Beaux Regard
Habits — good, bad and in between — start early. The other day, as I sat in my easy chair reading Christopher Hibbert’s new biography “Disraeli, […]
The Dandies, 1861
The Dandies From Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature Science and Arts, 1861 By Anonymous While George III was king, a great number of remarkable events […]
The Dandy Horse
When one considers the classic dandyish modes of conveyance, the bicycle does not at first blush top the list. Rather, one first thinks of the […]
All Hallow’s Eve
At a shopping mall near you, on a cool autumn night when all the world was fast asleep, there suddenly materialized a temporary pop-up shop […]
Casual Elegance
Despite the best intentions of our Founding Fathers, Americans have long been crazy for aristocrats — particularly when it comes to emulating their style. In […]
Dandy Genealogy
Dandy Genealogy By Christian Chensvold, 2004 Recently discovered in a box of old mementos
The Modern Gentleman’s Guide to Watches: Style, Identity, and Everyday Elegance
In the world of dandyism, details are never incidental. Every element — from the cut of a jacket to the choice of footwear — contributes […]
In That Suit You May Pass Anywhere
Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1896 novel Rodney Stone follows the adventures of a young and ambitious boxer as he navigates the world of professional prizefighting in […]