Editing Dandy (section)

==British dandyism==
[[File:BrummellDighton1805.jpg|thumb|upright|The British Dandy: Beau Brummell in a double-breasted sportscoat and odd trousers, in 1805. ([[Richard Dighton]]).]]
[[File:Alfred_D’Orsay.png|thumb|upright|right|The French Dandy: Alfred d'Orsay was a social butterfly and friend of Lord Byron. ([[James Baillie Fraser]])]]
[[File:The Dandies' Holy of Holies.jpg|left|thumb|In The Dandies' Holy of Holies: a man scans an over-sized edition of the novel ''[[Pelham (novel)|Pelham: Or, The Adventures of a Gentleman]]'' (1828), by  [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]].<br><br> The illustration, by [[E. J. Sullivan]], is from an 1898 edition of the novel ''Sartor Resartus'' (1831), by Thomas Carlyle.]]

[[Beau Brummell]] (George Bryan Brummell, 1778–1840) was the model British dandy since his days as an undergraduate at [[Oriel College, Oxford]], and later as an associate of the [[George IV of the United Kingdom|Prince Regent]] (George IV){{snd}}all despite not being an aristocrat. He was always bathed, shaved, powdered, perfumed, groomed and immaculately dressed in a dark-blue coat of plain style.<ref>"In Regency England, Brummel's fashionable simplicity constituted, in fact, a criticism of the exuberant French fashions of the eighteenth century" (Schmid 2002:83)</ref> Sartorially, ''[[Gaze|the look]]'' of Brummell's tailoring was perfectly fitted, clean and displayed much linen; an elaborately knotted [[Cravat (early)|cravat]] completed the aesthetics of Brummell's [[Suit|suite of clothes]]. During the mid-1790s, the handsome Beau Brummell became a personable man-about-town in [[Regency London]]'s [[high society]], who was ''famous for being famous and'' celebrated "based on nothing at all" but personal charm and social connections.<ref>D'Aurevilly, Barbey. "Du dandisme et de George Brummell" (1845) in ''Oeuvres complètes'' (1925) pp. 87–92.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=Ian |title=Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style |date=2006 |publisher=Free Press |location=New York |isbn=9780743270892 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/beaubrummellulti00kell }}</ref>

During the national politics of the [[Regency era]] (1795–1837), by the time that Prime Minister [[William Pitt the Younger]] had introduced the [[Duty on Hair Powder Act 1795]] in order to fund the Britain's war efforts against France and discouraged the use of foodstuffs as hair powder, the dandy Brummell already had abandoned wearing a powdered wig and wore his hair cut ''à la Brutus'', in the Roman fashion. Moreover, Brummell also led the sartorial transition from [[breeches]] to tailored ''pantaloons'', which eventually evolved into modern [[trousers]].

Upon coming of age in 1799, Brummell received a paternal inheritance of thirty thousand pounds sterling, which he squandered on a high life of gambling, lavish tailors, and visits to brothels. Eventually declaring bankruptcy in 1816, Brummell fled England to France, where he lived in destitution and pursued by creditors; in 1840, at the age of sixty-one years, Beau Brummell passed away in a [[lunatic asylum]] in [[Caen]], marking the tragic end to his once-glamorous legacy.<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 6018–6019). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref> Nonetheless, despite his ignominious end, Brummell's influence on European fashion endured, with men across the continent seeking to emulate his dandyism. Among them was the poetical persona of [[Lord Byron]] (George Gordon Byron, 1788–1824), who wore a [[poet shirt|poet's shirt]] featuring a lace-collar, a lace-placket, and lace-cuffs in a portrait of himself in Albanian national costume in 1813;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/byron-portrait|title=Portrait of Lord Byron in Albanian Dress, 1813|website=The British Library|access-date=16 January 2017|archive-date=28 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328165248/http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/byron-portrait|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Alfred Guillaume Gabriel d'Orsay|Count d'Orsay]] (Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimod d'Orsay, 1801–1852), himself a prominent figure in upper-class social circles and an acquaintance of Lord Byron, likewise embodied the spirit of dandyism within elite British society.

In chapter "The Dandiacal Body" of the novel ''[[Sartor Resartus]]'' (Carlyle, 1831), Thomas Carlyle described the dandy's symbolic social function as a man and a persona of refined masculinity:<blockquote>A Dandy is a Clothes-wearing Man, a Man whose trade, office, and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and well: so that as others dress to live, he lives to dress. . . . <br><br>And now, for all this perennial [[Martyrdom]], and [[Poetaster|Poesy]], and even [[Prophecy]], what is it that the Dandy asks in return? Solely, we may say, that you would recognise his existence; would admit him to be a living object; or even failing this, a visual object, or thing that will reflect rays of light.<ref>Carlyle, Thomas. "The Dandiacal Body", in ''Sartor Resartus'' (1833–1834).</ref></blockquote>

In the mid-19th century, amidst the restricted palette of muted colors for men's clothing, the English dandy dedicated meticulous attention to the finer details of sartorial refinement (design, cut, and style), including: "The quality of the fine woollen cloth, the slope of a pocket flap or coat revers, exactly the right colour for the gloves, the correct amount of shine on boots and shoes, and so on. It was an image of a well-dressed man who, while taking infinite pains about his appearance, affected indifference to it. This refined dandyism continued to be regarded as an essential strand of male Englishness."<ref>Ribeira 2002:21.</ref>