Sporty Parisian dandies of the 1830s: a girdle helped one achieve this silhouette. The man on the left wears a frock coat, the man on the right wears a morning coat

A dandy^[1] is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and the cultivation of leisurely hobbies. Historically, especially in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, a dandy often strove to imitate an aristocratic style of life despite being of middle-class background. Dandy can refer to: Dandy, a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance Dandy, a fashion from Japan Dandy, a former mascot of the New York Yankees Dandy (computer game), a computer game The Dandy, the British childrens comic book This is a disambiguation page: a list of... French dandies from the 1830s. ... French dandies from the 1830s. ... Formal black frock coat with silk-faced lapels, light grey waistcoat, striped trousers, button boots, gloves, ascot-knotted cravate, and necktie pin; April 1904. ... Two men wearing formal morning dress at a wedding in 1929. ... Variation in the physical appearance of humans is believed by anthropologists to be an important factor in the development of personality and social relations in particular physical attractiveness. ... Aristocracy is a form of government in which rulership is in the hands of an upper class known as aristocrats. ... This article is about the socio-economic class from a global vantage point. ...

Given these connotations, dandyism can be seen as a political protestation against the rise of egalitarian principles — often including nostalgic adherence to feudal or pre-industrial values, such as the ideals of "the perfect gentleman" or "the autonomous aristocrat". Egalitarianism is the moral doctrine that equality ought to prevail among some group along some dimension. ...

Though previous manifestations, of Alcibiades, and of the petit-maître and the muscadin have been noted by John C. Prevost,^[2] the modern practice of dandyism first appeared in the revolutionary 1790s, both in London and in Paris. The dandy cultivated skeptical reserve, yet to such extremes that the novelist George Meredith, himself no dandy, once defined "cynicism" as "intellectual dandyism"; nevertheless, the Scarlet Pimpernel is one of the great dandies of literature. Some took a more benign view; Thomas Carlyle in his book Sartor Resartus, wrote that a dandy was no more than "a clothes-wearing man". Alcibiades Cleiniou Scambonides (Greek: ; English /ælsɪbaɪədi:z/; 450 BC–404 BC), also transliterated as Alkibiades, was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... George Meredith, OM (February 12, 1828 – May 18, 1909) was an English novelist and poet. ... Binomial name Anagallis arvensis L. The Scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) is a low-growing plant in the family (Myrsinaceae). ... The most familiar view of Carlyle is as the bearded sage with a penetrating gaze Thomas Carlyle (December 4, 1795 – February 5, 1881) was a Scottish essayist, satirist, and historian, whose work was hugely influential during the Victorian era. ...

Charles Baudelaire, in the later, "metaphysical" phase of dandyism^[3] defined the dandy as one who elevates æsthetics to a living religion,^[4] that the dandy's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class: "Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism" and "These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking .... Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of his mind." “Baudelaire” redirects here. ... Aesthetics (also esthetics and æsthetics) is the philosophy of beauty and art. ...

Etymology

The word dandy first appears in a Scottish border ballad, circa 1780, but probably without its more recent meaning. The original, full form of 'dandy' may have been jack-a-dandy, (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911); it was a vogue word during the Napoleonic Wars. In that contemporary slang, 'a dandy' was differentiated from 'a fop' in that the dandy's dress was more refined and sober than the fop's. This article is about the country. ... Scottish Borders (often referred to locally as The Borders or The Borderland) is one of 35 local government unitary council areas of Scotland. ... Combatants Austria[a] Portugal Prussia[a] Russia[b] Sicily[c] Sardinia  Spain[d]  Sweden[e] United Kingdom French Empire Holland[f] Italy Etruria[g] Naples[h] Duchy of Warsaw[i] Confederation of the Rhine[j] Bavaria Saxony Westphalia Württemberg Denmark-Norway[k] Commanders Archduke Charles Prince Schwarzenberg Karl Mack... For other uses, see Slang (disambiguation). ... FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is an XSL-FO processor written in Java, which provides the feature to convert XSL-FO files to PDF or direct-printable-files. ...

In the 21st century, the word "dandy" is a jocular, often sarcastic adjective meaning "fine" or "great", while "a dandy" refers to a well-groomed, well-dressed, and self-absorbed man.

Beau Brummell and early British dandyism

The model dandy in British society was George Bryan "Beau" Brummell (1778-1840), an undergraduate student at Oriel College, Oxford, and an associate of the Prince Regent: ever unpowdered, unperfumed, immaculately bathed and shaved, and dressed in a plain, dark blue coat, perfectly brushed, perfectly fitted, showing much perfectly starched linen, all freshly laundered, and composed with an elaborately knotted cravat. From the mid 1790s, Beau Brummell was the early incarnation of 'the celebrity' man chiefly famous for being a laconically witty clothes-horse. Brummell, engraved from a miniature portrait. ... College name Oriel College Named after Blessed Virgin Mary Established 1324 Sister College Clare College, Cambridge Trinity College, Dublin Provost Sir Derek Morris JCR President Frank Hardee Undergraduates 304 Graduates 158 Homepage Boatclub Oriel College (in full: The House of Blessed Mary the Virgin in Oxford commonly called Oriel College... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ... George IV (George Augustus Frederick) (12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death. ... Modern neckties, shown here tied as if they were on a person, may be found in a plethora of colours and designs. ... For other uses, see Celebrity (disambiguation). ...

By the time Pitt taxed hair powder in 1795 to help pay for the war against France, Brummell had already abandoned wearing a wig, and had his hair cut in the Roman fashion, "à la Brutus". Moreover, he led the transition from breeches to snugly tailored dark "pantaloons," which directly lead to contemporary trousers, the sartorial mainstay of men's clothes in the Western world for the past two centuries. In 1799, upon coming of age, Beau Brummell inherited from his father a fortune of thirty thousand pounds, which he spent mostly on costume, gambling, and high living. In 1816 he suffered bankruptcy, the dandy's stereotyped fate; he fled his creditors to France, quietly dying in 1840, in a Caen lunatic asylum, just shy of his sixty-second birthday. William Pitt the Younger (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British politician of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Pants. ... Caen (pronounced /kɑ̃/) is a commune of northwestern France. ...

Men of more notable accomplishment than Beau Brummell also adopted the dandiacal pose: George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron occasionally dressed the part, helping re-introduce the frilled, lace-cuffed and lace-collared "poet shirt." In that spirit, he had his portrait painted in Albanian costume. Byron redirects here. ...

Max Beerbohm in an 1893 lithographic portrait

Another prominent dandy of the period was Alfred Guillaume Gabriel d'Orsay, the Count d'Orsay, who had been friends with Byron and moved in the highest social circles of London. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 253 × 434 pixelsFull resolution (253 × 434 pixel, file size: 18 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Max Beerbohm, William Rothensteins lithographic portrait, 1893, from http://www. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 253 × 434 pixelsFull resolution (253 × 434 pixel, file size: 18 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Max Beerbohm, William Rothensteins lithographic portrait, 1893, from http://www. ... Max Beerbohm by William Rothenstein, 1893 Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (August 24, 1872 - May 20, 1956) was an English parodist and caricaturist. ... Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, Count DOrsay (September 4, 1801 - August 4, 1852), the famous dandy and wit, was born in Paris, and was the son of General DOrsay, from whom he inherited an exceptionally handsome person. ...

Dandyism in France

The beginnings of dandyism in France were bound up with the politics of the French revolution; the initial stage of dandyism, the gilded youth, was a political statement of dressing in an aristocratic style in order to distinguish its members from the sans-culottes. The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on...

During his heyday, Beau Brummell's dictat on both fashion and etiquette reigned supreme. His habits of dress and fashion were much imitated, especially in France, where, in a curious development, they became the rage, especially in bohemian quarters. There, dandies sometimes were celebrated in revolutionary terms: self-created men of consciously designed personality, radically breaking with past traditions. With elaborate dress and idle, decadent styles of life, French bohemian dandies sought to convey contempt for and superiority to bourgeois society. In the latter nineteenth century, this fancy-dress bohemianism was a major influence upon the Symbolist movement in French literature. For other uses, see Bohemian (disambiguation). ... See also Decadent movement Decadence refers to a personal trait and, much more commonly, to a state of society. ... La mort du fossoyeur (The death of the gravedigger) by Carlos Schwabe is a visual compendium of Symbolist motifs. ...

Baudelaire was deeply interested in dandyism, and memorably wrote that a dandy aspirant must have "no profession other than elegance . . . no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons . . . . The dandy must aspire to be sublime without interruption; he must live and sleep before a mirror." Other French intellectuals also were interested in the dandies strolling the streets and boulevards of Paris. Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly wrote The Anatomy of Dandyism, an essay devoted, in great measure, to examining the career of Beau Brummell. Jules Amédée Barbey dAurevilly Barbey dAurevilly is buried alongside the castle of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte Jules-Amédée Barbey dAurevilly (November 2, 1808 – April 23, 1889), was a French novelist and short story writer. ...

Later Dandyism

The gilded 1890s provided many suitably sheltered settings for dandyism. The poets Algernon Swinburne and Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater, the American artist James McNeill Whistler, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Max Beerbohm were dandies of the period, as was Robert de Montesquiou — Marcel Proust's inspiration for the Baron de Charlus; in Italy Gabriele d'Annunzio and Carlo Bugatti exemplified the artistic bohemian dandyism of the fin de siecle. Algernon Swinburne, Portrait by Rossetti Algernon Charles Swinburne (April 5, 1837 – April 10, 1909) was a Victorian era English poet. ... Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. ... Walter Horatio Pater (August 4, 1839 - July 30, 1894) was an English essayist and literary critic. ... Self portrait (1872) James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 11, 1834 – July 17, 1903) was an American-born, British-based painter and etcher. ... Joris-Karl Huysmans. ... Max Beerbohm by William Rothenstein, 1893 Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (August 24, 1872 - May 20, 1956) was an English parodist and caricaturist. ... Robert de Montesquiou, portrait by Giovanni Boldini, Musée dOrsay, Paris. ... “Proust” redirects here. ... Gabriele dAnnunzio (12 March 1863, Pescara – 1 March 1938, Gardone Riviera, province of Brescia) was an Italian poet, writer, novelist, dramatist and daredevil, who went on to have a controversial role in politics as a precursor of the fascist movement. ... Fin de siècle is French for End of the Century. The term turn-of-the-century is sometimes used as a synonym, but is more neutral (lacking some or most of the connotations described below), and can include the first years of a new century. ...

The twentieth century has been impatient with dandyism: the Prince of Wales, briefly Edward VIII was a dandy; it did not increase his public appeal. Nevertheless George Walden, in the essay Who's a Dandy?, identifies Noël Coward, Lee Hudson Teslik, Andy Warhol, Emmet McDermott, Sam Rountree Williams and Quentin Crisp as modern dandies. This article is about the title Prince of Wales. ... Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; later The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972) was King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India from the death of his father, George V (1910–36), on 20... George Gordon Harvey Walden (born 15 September 1939) was a British Conservative politician. ... Noël Coward Sir Noel Peirce Coward (spelling his forename Noël with the diaeresis was an affectation of later life, and Peirce is the correct spelling) (December 16, 1899 - March 26, 1973) was an English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987), better known as Andy Warhol, was an American artist who was a central figure in the movement known as Pop art. ... Quentin Crisp (December 25, 1908) – November 21, 1999), was an English writer, artists model, actor and raconteur known for his memorable and insightful witticisms. ...

In Japan, dandyism became a fashion subculture during the late 1990s.

Female Dandies

The female equivalent of a dandy is called a quaintrelle. In the 19th and 20th centuries many noted quaintrelles were found in the demimonde, in such extravagant women as the courtesan Cora Pearl, while the Marchesa Luisa Casati lived an aesthete-cum-dandy-like career in post–World War I Venice; analogously, the artistic diva might be considered a quaintrelle. In 1819, the novel "Charms of Dandyism" was published "by Olivia Moreland, chief of the female dandies"; although probably written by Thomas Ashe, 'Olivia Moreland' may have existed, as Ashe did write several novels about living persons. Throughout the novel, dandyism is associated with "living in style". Demimonde (French for half-world) is a polite 19th century term that was often used the same way we use the term mistress today. ... Cora Pearl (1835-1886) was a famous courtesan of 19th century France. ... Marchesa Luisa Casati (1881-1957) with a greyhound by Giovanni Boldini Luisa Casati Stampa di Soncino, Marchesa di Roma (23 January 1881 - 1 June 1957) was an eccentric Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th century Europe. ... For other senses of this word, see diva (disambiguation). ...

Royal Dandies

The two best-known royal dandies were both kings of the United Kingdom-George IV and his grandnephew, Edward VII. Both were notorious womanizers and gluttons. George IV (George Augustus Frederick) (12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death. ... Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death on 6 May 1910. ...

Quotations

A Dandy is a clothes-wearing Man, a Man whose trade, office and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and well: so that the others dress to live, he lives to dress ... And now, for all this perennial Martyrdom, and Poesy, and even Prophecy, what is it that the Dandy asks in return? Solely, we may say, that you would recognise his existence; would admit him to be a living object; or even failing this, a visual object, or thing that will reflect rays of light....

– Thomas Carlyle, "The Dandiacal Body", in Sartor Resartus The most familiar view of Carlyle is as the bearded sage with a penetrating gaze Thomas Carlyle (December 4, 1795 – February 5, 1881) was a Scottish essayist, satirist, and historian, whose work was hugely influential during the Victorian era. ... Sartor Resartus, Oxford Worlds Classics edition 1999 Thomas Carlyles major work, Sartor Resartus (meaning The tailor re-tailored), first published as a serial in 1833-34, purported to be a commentary on the thought and early life of a German philosopher called Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (which translates as...

How would I describe myself? Well, I'm a clothes-wearing Man, a Man whose trade, office and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes. Every faculty of my soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and well: so that the others dress to live, I live to dress ... And now, for all this perennial Martyrdom, and Poesy, and even Prophecy, what is it that I ask in return? Solely, I may say, that you would recognise my existence; would admit me to be a living object; or even failing this, a visual object, or thing that will reflect rays of light.... I also collect stamps.

– Emmet McDermott, "My Dandiacal Body"

One should either be a work of Art, or wear a work of Art

– Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. ...

See also

• Fop
• Flâneur
• Macaroni
• Metrosexual
• Bourgeois personality
• Ubersexual

FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is an XSL-FO processor written in Java, which provides the feature to convert XSL-FO files to PDF or direct-printable-files. ... Look up flaneur in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In 18th century England, a macaroni was a fashionable man who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected manner. ... Metrosexual is a neologism generally applied to heterosexual men with a strong concern for their appearance, and who display many of the lifestyle tendencies of stereotypical gay men. ... An upscale, well-kept California home, exterting an image of success and respectability. ... The word übersexual (from German über = above, superior and Latin sexus = gender) was claimed to be coined by the authors of the book Future of Men (OReilly, Matathia, Salzman, 2005). ...

Notes

FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is an XSL-FO processor written in Java, which provides the feature to convert XSL-FO files to PDF or direct-printable-files. ... OED stands for Oxford English Dictionary Office of Enrollment & Discipline This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Constantin Guys (Vlissingen, Netherlands 1802 - Paris 1892) was a war correspondent, water color painter and illustrator for British and French newspapers. ...

Further reading

• Barbey d'Aurevilly, Jules. Of Dandyism and of George Brummell. Translated by Douglas Ainslie. New York: PAJ Publications, 1988.
• Carassus, Émile. Le Mythe du Dandy 1971.
• Carlyle, Thomas. Sartor Resartus. In A Carlyle Reader: Selections from the Writings of Thomas Carlyle. Edited by G.B. Tennyson. London: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
• Jesse, Captain William. The Life of Beau Brummell. London: The Navarre Society Limited, 1927.
• Lytton, Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton. Pelham or the Adventures of a Gentleman. Edited by Jerome McGann. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.
• Moers, Ellen. The Dandy: Brummell to Beerbohm. London: Secker and Warburg, 1960.
• Murray, Venetia. An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England. New York: Viking, 1998.
• Nicolay, Claire. Origins and Reception of Regency Dandyism: Brummell to Baudelaire. Ph. D. diss., Loyola U of Chicago, 1998.
• Prevost , John C., Le Dandysme en France (1817-1839) (Geneva and Paris) 1957.
• Stanton, Domna. The Aristoicrat as Art 1980.
• Wharton, Grace and Philip. Wits and Beaux of Society. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1861.

The Lord Lytton Novelist and politician Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (May 25, 1803–January 18, 1873) was an English novelist, playwright, and politician. ... Image:JeromeMcGann. ...

External links

• "Bohemianism and Counter-Culture": The Dandy
• Dandyism.net
• Dandymag.com
• Charles Baudelaire, essay on dandyism from "The Painter of Modern Life", about the artist Constantin Guys.
• Dictionnaire International des termes littéraires: "Dandy" Extended definitions and analysis (French)
• Dandyism: Beyond Fashion (.pdf file)
• "The Dandy"
• Dandies and Dandies by Max Beerbohm
• Refinement (forum)
• Il Dandy, in Italian
• LordWhimsy.com
• "Duchamp is Dandy" by Michael Beyer
• Shubow, Justin. "The Prince and the Dandy": a review of Nicholas Antongiavanni's The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style. The Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2006.