The Dandy: A People's History of Sartorial Splendour

A history of the dandy from below, from Beau Brummell and Baudelaire to Bowie and Bolan... and beyond.The historical figure of the dandy has commonly been described as an upper-class gentleman, often exemplified by well-known men such as Beau Brummell, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, and Max Beerbohm. But there is a broader history to be told about the dandy - one that incorporates unknown men from the lower strata of society. The Dandy: A People's History constitutes the first ever history of those dandies who emanated from the less privileged layers of the populace - the lowly clerks, shop assistants, domestic servants, and labourers who increasingly during the modern age have emerged as style-conscious men about town. Peter Andersson shows that dandyism is far from just an elite phenomenon represented by famous poets and artists. He shows how dandyism as a popular youth subculture grew into an influential cultural movement, from the days of Beau Brummell in the early 19th century to the age of mods in the 1960s. A series of fascinating in-depth studies of the wide variety of dandy subcultures that have surfaced around the world in the last two centuries tell the story of how the shaping of fashions and the image of men became increasingly democratized, with the arbiters of taste increasingly coming from the other end of the social spectrum. Along the way, we encounter such long-forgotten groups as the mashers, the knuts, the Paris gandins and the Berlin transgender dandies, alongside more well-known but unexplored figures like the zoot suiter, the teddy boy, and the New Romantic. Above all, this is a story of how fundamental aspects of modern culture such as fashion, style, and conduct have been shaped from below just as much as from above. It is a story that shows how the problematic business of young men trying to find an identity is an enduring phenomenon - and one sadly often accompanied by innocent victims along the way.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1: On or About 1818: Dandyism Enters the Public Sphere 2: Lacking the Strength of Samson: The Calicot in Restoration Paris 3: Making Middling Men Look Well: The Mystery of the Swell 4: The Age of the Gent, or: The Foppery of the Shopocracy 5: Part(y)ing Parisians: From the Second-Empire Gandin to the Third-Republic Gommeux 6: From White Dude to Black Dude and Back Again: American Dandyism and Racial Segregation 7: Worshipping at the Gaiety Shrine: The Masculine Martyrdom of the Masher 8: Self-Conscious Clowning: The Masher in Vienna and Stockholm 9:

About the Author :
Peter K. Andersson is a historian and writer, with a PhD in History from Lund University in Sweden. He has been a visiting scholar at the universities of London, Oxford, and Bologna, and has written extensively on Victorian cultural history, urban history, and popular culture. His previous books include Streetlife in Late-Victorian London (2013) and Fool: In Search of Henry VIII's Closest Man (2023), and he has contributed to periodicals such as The TLS, History Today, and Journal of Victorian Culture.

Review :
...the author artfully accounts for dandyism as an amalgamation of both a subculture and the public's reaction to it, and he harnesses that clash to stitch together a formidable sociological history. Encyclopaedic in scope,... The Dandy traces a glittering arc from Regency affectation to New Romantic androgyny - a tour through two centuries of stylistic defiance and fabric-bound flamboyance. The Dandy paints a rich picture of two centuries of sartorial magnificence. Era-hopping [and] globe-trotting …The Dandy will likely appeal to anyone beguiled by youth sub cultures, outré fashion and male identity…[Andersson] has written a book that thoroughly engages. Moustaches (real and false), canes, cigars, high heeled boots, spurs, monocles high collars, and tall hats …all feature prominently as Andersson takes us on a whistlestop tour of the swells, gents and dudes who played a huge role in the establishment of the mass-market fashion industry. [An] entertaining history of the dandy ... the reader is left with the pleasurable sensation of having enjoyed some stylish company. With an infectious joy, Andersson reanimates these long-lost heroes of the battle for a man to look marvellous.