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 […]
Dandyism As Spiritual Path
Dandyism As Spiritual Path By Christian Chensvold From “The Philosophy Of Style,” 2023 Can dandyism actually serve as a spiritual path, guiding us through the […]
The Canon
This list of canonical texts has not been updated since the belle epoque of Dandyism.net circa 2006, but perhaps it will be someday. Principal Texts […]
A Man For Times Of Decadence
From “Essai de psychologie contemporaine: Charles Baudelaire” by Paul Bourget La Nouvelle Revue 13, 1881 If a special nuance in the meaning of love and […]
Majestic Though In Ruin
You probably remember the ancient riddle about the traveler who meets a fork in the road and isn’t sure which path to take. In the […]
Opposition & Revolt
The Dandy From “The Painter of Modern Life,” 1863 By Charles Baudelaire Translation by P.E. Charvet The wealthy man, who, blasé though he may be, […]
Saint-Loup
First impressions of Robert de Saint-Loup From “Within a Budding Grove” By Marcel Proust, 1919 One afternoon of scorching heat I was in the dining-room […]
Gautier On Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire By Theophile Gautier, 1867 Although his existence was short — he lived scarce forty-six years — Charles Baudelaire had time to assert himself, […]
Eye For Elegance
Eye For Elegance By Christian Chensvold Ralph Lauren Magazine, Fall 2008 Norman Rockwell’s name is synonymous with the golden age of American illustration, while […]
The Beau Of Our Times
The Beau of Our Times From Apparel Arts, Spring 1933 Article unsigned “If there were no God,” said Voltaire some little time before he embraced […]
Robert de Montesquiou
Robert de Montesquiou: The Magnificent Dandy From “Elegant Wits And Grand Horizontals” By Cornelia Otis Skinner, 1962 In a charming book of memoirs Elisabeth de […]
Heroism In Times Of Decadence
Baudelaire’s 1863 essay on dandyism, after characterizing the tradition as a “strange sort of spirituality,” declares it “the last stroke of heroism in times of […]
Pelham’s Maxims
From “Pelham: Or the Adventures of a Gentleman” By Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1828 1) Do not require your dress so much to fit, as to adorn […]
In That Suit You May Pass Anywhere
Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1896 novel Rodney Stone follows the adventures of a young and ambitious boxer as he navigates the world of professional prizefighting in […]
Treatise On Elegant Living
Every era has its particular expression of elegance. But while that expression is forever in flux, the principles that govern it are fixed and eternal. […]
The Joker’s Riled
“La chair est triste, helas, et j’ai lu tous les livres.” When I was younger, those lines of Mallarmé used to haunt me. This was back […]
Something Superior To The Visible World
A 19th-century woman wrote herself into the annals of history by saying that the feeling of being perfectly well dressed brings a supernatural calm that […]
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 […]
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. […]
New Regency: 20 Years Of Dandyism.net
When Christian Chensvold, Dandyism.net’s founder and guiding light for the past two decades, asked me to write a post commemorating the site’s twentieth anniversary, I […]
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 […]