A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and the cultivation of leisurely hobbies. Historically, especially in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, a dandy often strove to imitate an aristocratic style of life despite being of middle-class background.
The model dandy in British society was George Bryan (1778-1840), an undergraduate student at Oriell College, Oxford, and an associate of the Prince Regent: ever unpowdered, unperfumed, immaculately bathed and shaved, and dressed in a plain, dark blue coat, perfectly brushed, perfectly fitted, showing much perfectly starched linen, all freshly laundered, and composed with an elaborately knotted cravat.
The beginnings of dandyism in France were bound up with the politics of the French Revolution; the initial stage of dandyism, the gilded youth, was a political statement of dressing in an aristocratic style in order to distinguish its members from the sans-culottes.
The gilded 1890s provided many suitably sheltered settings for dandyism. The poets Algernon Swinburne and Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater, the American artist James MacNeill Whistler, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Max Beerbohm were dandies of the period, as was Robert de Montesquiou — Marcel Proust's inspiration for the Baron de Charlus; in Italy Gabriele D'Annuzio and Carlo Bugatti exemplified the artistic bohemian dandyism of the fin de siecle.
The twentieth century has been impatient with dandyism: the Prince of Wales, briefly Edward VIII was a dandy; it did not increase his public appeal. Nevertheless George Walden, in the essay Who's a Dandy?, identifies Noel Coward, Lee Hudson Teslik, Andy Warhol, Emmet McDermott, Sam Rountree Williams, Quentin Crisp as modern dandies.
In Japan, dandyism became a fashion subculture during the late 1990s.
The female equivalent of a dandy is called a quaintrelle. In the 19th and 20th centuries many noted quaintrelles were found in the demimonde, in such extravagant women as the courtesan Cora Pearl, while the Marchesa Luisa Casati lived an aesthete-cum-dandy-like career in post–World War I Venice; analogously, the artistic diva might be considered a quaintrelle. In 1819, the novel "Charms of Dandyism" was published "by Olivia Moreland, chief of the female dandies"; although probably written by Thomas Ashe, 'Olivia Moreland' may have existed, as Ashe did write several novels about living persons. Throughout the novel, dandyism is associated with "living in style".
The two best-known royal dandies were both kings of the United Kingdom-George IV and his grandnephew, Edward VII. Both were notorious womanizers and gluttons.
The two best-known royal dandies were both kings of the United Kingdom-George IV and his grandnephew, Edward VII. Both were notorious womanizers and gluttons.
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