I Am Dandy?

[patrickBOOTH]

I'm afraid to say it, but if a "normal" person today calls me a dandy I have good reason to throw the entire outfit in the garbage.

 

[bourbonbasted]

Again, going out on a limb, if someone calls you a "dandy," safe to say they are calling you ****.

 

[dieworkwear]



Piggy-backing off of pB, I don't think "normal people" these days know what a dandy is. And if someone calls you a "dandy," they're likely not saying what we're talking about here.

They just mean you're someone who's preoccupied with dressing up. And if you correct them on the term, you're either a historian or a dandy.

 

[bourbonbasted]

I don't know the definition of dandy is even that mainstream. I feel like if I asked a person on the street, they'd view dandy with more effeminate emphasis than an emphasis on appearance. Though I may be going too-middle-Middle America.

 

[PhiloVance]

I picked up the book at the recent NYC launch event and got it signed by the authors and a few of the subjects - Christian Chensvold, Dandy Wellington, Domenico Spano, and a few others. Missed out on Nick Sullivan and Nick Wooster.

The featured dandies are a mixed bag. Some I would characterize as costumey and just plain strange, but all in good fun and to each his own. In addition to the gentlemen mentioned above, I enjoyed the photos of the Churchwell Brothers, Ed Hayes, Gay Talese, Bruce Boyer, and a few others.

I was caught in one of the pics that appeared on one of the various blogs - it may have been Rose's actually. I went with my favorite RLPL 3-piece with peaked lapels (some might call that costumey), with a 3-fold from Passaggio Cravatte and the Drake's unicorn PS in red and blue.

 

[PhiloVance]

I think to the average person, "dandy" usually means someone who dresses well. I kind of take that to mean event and era appropriate. So I'm not sure that I would define people with handlebar moustaches or people with plus fours and tophats in their regular wardrobe rotation as someone who is even dressed "normally" for the 21st century. Personally I wouldn't call them dandies - but my understanding is the title was selected against the wishes of the authors by the publisher Gestalten (a German company who might have a completely different interpretation of the term "dandy").

 

[Manton]

well, fwiw, I wanted to call my book "The Dandy," no subtitle. It was, um, carefully written with contrived word usage patterns, paragraph groupings, plan idiosychracies, etc., all of which I worked very hard on and strongly did not want to change. The publisher made exactly zero changes to the text. The editor did not edit beyond proofing.

However, they insisted on a title change. Which they got.

Though, anyone bored or intrepid enough to count instances and distributions of the word "dandy" and variants in the text wll make amusing discoveries.

 

[unbelragazzo]

Many, including myself, have mourned the modern, and supposedly bastardized, definition of the word "dandy." But there has never really been a precise or universal definition of the word, except that Brummell definitely was one, and the good kind.

 

[Mariooo]



I think to the average person, "dandy" usually means someone who dresses well. I kind of take that to mean event and era appropriate. So I'm not sure that I would define people with handlebar moustaches or people with plus fours and tophats in their regular wardrobe rotation as someone who is even dressed "normally" for the 21st century. So personally I wouldn't call them dandies - but my understanding is the title was selected against the wishes of the authors by the publisher Gestalten (a German company who might have a completely different interpretation of the term "dandy").

In the german speaking countries the term and the book cover fit pretty good the general idea of a dandy
The classic definition used in german dictionaries is of young guys who wear flashy and exaggerated clothes in public...
But it's a term which is usually associated with people from the 18th/19th century..... flamboyant, peacocky, feminine, velvet slippers and that kind of stuff
So it is kind of different from the actual definition..

At least that was my sense for as long as I can remember...

 

[Svenn]



I feel like if I asked a person on the street, they'd view dandy with more effeminate emphasis

This is the implication of the term, in my opinion. I think being labeled as such means you really screwed up, and to be honest you're socially damned on multiple levels if everyone around you thinks you're preoccupied with appearance. It's a dangerous game. Not only effeminate, but vain, financially wasteful, and worst of all, self-conscious ergo insecure are all impressions people can have of you if you're exposed as a dandy.

It depends what your crowd you associate with, where you live, etc; but for me, pocket squares are an assured damnation, and as a secondary safeguard, if I'm wearing a suit I avoid any cloths but solids. I don't even get neckties anymore that are a different color than my coat. All-navy or all-charchoal. Boring perhaps to some on SF, but not unmanly.

 

[unbelragazzo]

Why care that much?

 

[Renault78law]



This is the implication of the term, in my opinion. I think being labeled as such means you really screwed up, and to be honest you're socially damned on multiple levels if everyone around you thinks you're preoccupied with appearance. It's a dangerous game. Not only effeminate, but vain, financially wasteful, and worst of all, self-conscious ergo insecure are all impressions people can have of you if you're exposed as a dandy.

It depends what your crowd you associate with, where you live, etc; but for me, pocket squares are an assured damnation, and as a secondary safeguard, if I'm wearing a suit I avoid any cloths but solids. I don't even get neckties anymore that are a different color than my coat. All-navy or all-charchoal. Boring perhaps to some on SF, but not unmanly.

 

[poorsod]

Apparently there is another book signing this weekend.

http://dandyportraits.blogspot.com/2013/10/i-am-dandy-book-signing-at-against.html

Those interested can get their dandy on!

 

[Ivar]



In the german speaking countries the term and the book cover fit pretty good the general idea of a dandy
The classic definition used in german dictionaries is of young guys who wear flashy and exaggerated clothes in public...
But it's a term which is usually associated with people from the 18th/19th century..... flamboyant, peacocky, feminine, velvet slippers and that kind of stuff
So it is kind of different from the actual definition..

I find that hard to believe. The Swedish definition -- more so than, for example, Merriam Webster's ("A man who gives exaggerated attention to personal appearance") -- still suggests that the dandy's focus on appearances might be about more than clothes:

"A person who (to an exaggerated degree) aims at refinement and elegance in his appearance, particularly with regard to his dress: fop, snob, man of fashion, fashionmonger (see ELEGANT)."

That said, just as in Germany, the term is more popularly understood to mean someone who wears classic menswear to extravagant effect. (It generally wouldn't be used for someone who wears bold and/or garish streetwear.)

 

[bourbonbasted]



Why care that much?

I can't speak for Svenn, but there are a number of jobs and industries in which there is a strict adherence to a certain style of dress. I remember someone once told me, "never trust a banker who wears a pocket square." I can say, even for my non-formal and decidedly sloppy biz-casual job, if I wore certain more affected items or looks I would get a lot of ball busting from my directors on the light end and sent home on the heavy end. As bizarre as it seems there are a lot of client-facing jobs out there that require great care in dressing as pedestrian as possible.