In 1988 I graduated high school and took off on my first solo road trip, and the adventure onto which I embarked was a quest […]
The Complete Dandy
From “D’Orsay, or the Complete Dandy” By W. Teignmouth Shore, 1911 Image: detail of Count d’Orsay in the National Portrait Gallery What a delightful fellow […]
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 […]
Blasé In The Face of Death
In literature, dandyish characters occasionally find cause to duel. Sword in hand, Mikhail Lermontov’s dandyish Byronic hero Pechorin fights a duel on a cliff’s […]
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 […]
The Dandy Horse
When one considers the classic dandyish modes of conveyance, the bicycle does not at first blush top the list. Rather, one first thinks of the […]
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, […]
Beauography
I was prepared to thoroughly dislike Ian Kelly’s biography of Beau Brummell. The attendant ballyhoo when it was released was lascivious and sensational — Brummell […]
Dandy In The Otherworld
Dealing with death is always a hard thing. Dealing with the death of someone you have written about is harder still — especially when what […]
Casual Elegance
Despite the best intentions of our Founding Fathers, Americans have long been crazy for aristocrats — particularly when it comes to emulating their style. In […]
Spleen On Me
Since 1863, a certain type of young man — talented perhaps, but not creative; spiritual and philosophic, yet with expensive tastes; dismissive of commercial success, […]
Born To Be Wilde
Oscar Wilde was controversial almost from the start. The languid pose he struck during his days at Magdelen College, Oxford in the 1870s would become […]
Dandy Of The Apocalypse
The Dandy Of The Apocalypse By Christian Chensvold I am the dandy of the zombie apocalypse Riding the underground tunnel amid blips, Lights […]