All things Fine and DANDY

Something about this couple invokes the dolour of Sebastian Horsley 's day of reckoning:  "The day of the wedding dawned foul. Slowly and silently I got ready. I dressed all in white. I looked like a glass of milk. But inside I was black. Walking through the graveyard towards the chapel I felt about as hopeful as one of the tombstones. "The priest was waiting outside the church, like a ticket tout at the gates of heaven peddling his wares for four times their real worth. I shook his hand. He had a soft pale grip. I walked up the aisle. My soles clipped against stone like the tick of a death-watch beetle.  "Ev was late. I passed the time she made me linger there at the altar listing all her faults. I could have done with another hour... " Okay, you get the picture.  And can always pursue several pages of the sorry charade... in the much-missed Mr Horsley's 'unauthorised autobiography' Dandy in the Underworld (Hodder & Stoughton, 2007).   In time, ...

Trends are often creatures of cycle. . . With an occasional twist of irony along the way. In the 1800s, the Regency Dandy was in the ascendant. Led by Beau Brummell - a relentless snob whose capricious eyebrow could banish the best dressed from Haut Ton events. Simply for lacking 'the look'. When his regiment was relocated to Manchester, Brummell resigned: "Now you must be aware how disagreeable this would be to me. I could really not go: think, Your Royal Highness, Manchester! " (or so the story goes: Brummell's anyway. His military career was shabby and his motives a matter of speculation)* In recent decades, the revitalised city has hosted the Commonwealth Games and a thriving international arts festival. Now Manchester captures Dandy Style . Where "concepts such as elegance, uniformity and spectacle will be explored from the 18th Century to the present day." The exhibition draws upon Manchester Art Gallery 's own collection of men's clothin...

Excuse an awry likeness . . .  it's the melancholy that counts.   Well not all fellows who sport bright red suits do so with a jovial style!  Or for that matter, could carry the Glitter Look: any month of the year.   At least not in the manner of the late Mr. Horsley ✨  Sebastian Horsley (1962-2010) (sebartianhorsley.blogspot.com