All things Fine and DANDY

  Is the Dandy a rebel?  Absolutely!  Beau Brummell may have been a model of moderation.  But his influence on mens' fashion was a revolution in itself. Within a decade of Brummell's departure to France in 1816 -   his unruly successors were all but competing for the ridicule of caricaturists. (1) Count Alfred d'Orsay became the leading London dandy by the 1820s. And flamboyance - or fashion rebellion - kept him at the hub of celebrity status for decades. As did his elan, amidst far more exuberant spectacles.  By 1850, d'Orsay had returned to his native France. In the debt-ridden manner of Brummell before him. And Victorians slammed the door on the last few Regency rascals in their midst.     Which is where we return to the scene: as retro-Dandyism meets modern celebrity tailoring. (via a raid on Vivienne Westwood's 1970s punk-era zips, studs and leathers) Dandy Rebels takes up themes explored in the recent Joshua Kane collections, Ceremon...

  Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post   April 11, 1925 'Beau Brummell is the Fairest'   by Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874 - 1951)

  "There are too many Smiths, and I don't care for Smythe. My father's content to worry along in the old-fashioned way, but I've decided to strike out a fresh line. I shall found a new dynasty". So began the search for distinction of P.G. Wodehouse's 'Ronald Eustace Smith' over the course of several storylines. (And always with a silent 'P' - "as in psychic") In the way of Evelyn Waugh who basked in the inspiration of dandies at Oxford, Wodehouse was gifted Psmith - in all his exquisite nuances: "The character of Psmith, of whom you are about to read (unless you decide on reflection to watch television instead) is the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a plate with watercress around it . . . Rupert D'Oyly Carte was long, slender, always beautifully dressed and very dignified.  His speech was what is known as orotund, and he wore a monocle. He habitually addressed his fellow Wykehamists as "Comrad...

(The mobile version of this feature got rather tipsy -  there's a more moderate helping here:https://medium.com/@nuromanca )  “ Do you realise, Harold – please pay attention to this – that you and I are going to  have a rather famous career at Oxford?” It could so easily have been a line from Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. And so distinctly attributable to Blanche – should a prequel scene at Eton have arisen. However the pledge was conveyed from one impending member of Waugh’s social set (and fodder for future novels) to another. An elegant pair who would converge to form “an aesthetic bugger who sometimes turns up in my novels under various names.” (1) They were Harold Acton and Brian Howard: both of whom led a relatively rebellious sixth-form existence. At a particular theatre performance: “ Brian and Harold walked into the stalls, in full evening dress, with long white gloves  draped over one arm, and carrying silver-topped canes and top-h...

  Who could ask for a more ornate frame... for a portrait of purest vanity? Envisage, if you will, a gaggle of grown men, sat snarking at almost anyone who dared pass before their gaze. A fashion jury of Regency London who would gather in the bow window of White's Club . The most tailored of the Haut Ton - a clique whose bizarre authority led even the Duke of Wellington to harbour "a high opinion of that mysterious and terrible tribunal." (1)   So what severity of focus could have scorched those strolling, or scurrying, along fashionable St. James's street? Well, there may have been a bemused observer among those pitiless governors of Regency style. And this eventually led to Beau Brummell (and cohorts) becoming victims of an epic-length satire! The work of an equally observant wit, Henry Luttrell, whom Byron described as "the best sayer of good things, and the most epigrammatic conversationist I ever met". Luttrell's poetic volume 'Advice to Julia...