On Dress and Deportment From “Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow,” 1886 By Jerome K. Jerome They say — people who ought to be ashamed […]
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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Social & Literary Dandyism
Social and Literary Dandyism Littell’s Living Age, 1880 Article unsigned Dandies, like saints, are never much beloved by their fellow-creatures. Like saints, they have an […]
Letters To A Young Dandy
My Dear Palmieri: It is a rare and wonderful gift for a curmudgeon such as myself to receive the praise of youth. It’s nice […]
I Lock The Door Upon Myself
In 1900 Fernand Khnopff had a house built according to his plans — a house with false windows. Silence and solitude were central themes in the […]
A Nero Of Our Time
Cold, elegant and aloof, Boris Lermontov is the “attractive brute” at the center of “The Red Shoes,” the 1948 cinematic masterpiece by Powell & Pressburger. […]
Dandyism In Practice
What does the dandy do when he wakes up early in the afternoon? Does he moon over beauty and contemplate the eternal verities? Does he […]
The Prophet Of Dandyism
If it weren’t for Barbey d’Aurevilly, you probably wouldn’t be reading this. What do we mean? That if he hadn’t been born this week in […]
The Amateur Of Fashion
The Amateur of Fashion By SC Hall The St. James’s Magazine, 1862 Towards the conclusion of the first decade of the present century, a young […]
The Very Model Of A Modern Major Minor
All dandies have their rituals. On a typical morning in the years just after the Second World War, Osbert Lancaster would rise about nine to […]
Dandyism & Decadence
From “The Idea of Decadence in French Literature” By AE Carter, 1958 Dandy and decadent are fused in Baudelaire’s work and life. He affected an […]
The Prince Of Chic
It’s not often one happens upon a gem in the papers, especially one with something poignant and propitious to say about the body dandiacal. Well, […]