The Dandy
and his subgenres :
The Butterfly Dandy: Joyaux of the fashion world
the Count d'Orsay: the father of Butterfly dandies The Butterfly Dandy: Butterfly dandyism was the joyaux of the fashion world for most of the Victorian period, and while it did not follow the rules for dandyism as inspired by Brummel, it nevertheless profoundly marked the world of men's fashion even up to today The Romantic Dandy: The lover of elegance past
Byron: the father of Romanticism The Romantic loves elegance. Like the first dandies he wished to embody it, and like the Decadent he finds it full of pleasure. He sees past ages, and the elegance they contained, and he wants to weep: how could such elegance be lost! The Romantic loves elegance and wants capture it, hold on to it, keep it forever...let other share it, and appreciate it. The Romantic has the Gothic temperament par excellence. The Aesthete Dandy: The well dressed artist
Oscar Wilde: the prince of aesthetes An Aesthete is an artist. His life is focused around his art, and he lives for his own creativity. An aesthete's wardrobe, manners, style, conversation will generally [if not frequently] be aimed at impressing, capturing attention, and entertaining those to whom he speaks; he lives for the crowd.
The Decadent Dandy: The philospher of pleasure
Count Robert de Montesquiou: the prince of decadents The Decadents are philosophers of pleasure. They seek elegance, but not for itself as the first Dandies did, but for the pleasure it brings. The Decadent's fashion is rich, colorful [a little gaudy] and inspires an almost tactile admiration. Decadents love elegance and beauty and clothe themselves in it. The dandy saw several manifestations as the years went by, and the idea of clean masculine elegance inspired by Brummel continued to be interpreted a little differently by the next generation who took it up: each aspire to elegance in its own way. Thus while having the simple goal of pursuing elegance and impressing [or inspiring] by fashion, dandyism has nevertheless seen a multitude of expressions over its history.
You will find that there are cross overs, and even that one individual may appear in more than one category...it's like the fashion world itself, many trends, few hard and fast rules. |
