Dandy

The term Dandy came mid-18th to early 19th century and named after Friedrich Kluge etymological dictionary " young people who attend church in a conspicuous clothing or fair ."

In contrast to the Macaroni, trying to imitate the fashion of the southern countries, for Beau or its German counterpart, the dandy, abhorred the British Dandy everything Flash, Loud, Perfumed. He is occasionally a snob. He cultivated his clothes, his appearance, also wit and witticism. The original, but any time suitable, elegant clothes for sport ( pastime ), combined with the perfectly shaped manners of a gentleman, is raised to the single life purpose. The lowlands strenuous employment, however, do not fit the metropolitan, jaded, real dandy.

Famous representatives were Beau Brummell, Beau Nash, Charles Baudelaire, Lord Byron, Giacomo Casanova, the Prince Hermann von Pueckler, Benjamin Disraeli, later also the representatives of aestheticism such as Ernst Jünger, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, James McNeill Whistler, Max Beerbohm and Nicolaus Sombart. One of the most famous dandies of the 20th century was the Prince of Wales (briefly King Edward VIII ), later Duke of Windsor. Also, the American writer Tom Wolfe enters with its typical white suits on a modern dandy.

In Germany the dandyism in the 1990s underwent an update by representatives of pop literature such as Christian Kracht and Benjamin of Stuckrad - Barre.

History

In the 18th century the British rejected the French court culture from growing. The new body consciousness, which emerged through the study of classical sculpture, found its fulfillment in the tailoring. These influences were the modern men's suit arise, the slim- cut V- emphasized the silhouette of the man and consisted mostly of solid material in muted colors and still exists today.

This suit was driven by Beau Brummell on the top, which is regarded as the first representative of dandyism. He already propagated the new simplicity, as aristocratic circles still followed all the courtly French fashion. Many legends surround his person. So he should have let his gloves always produce two different manufacturers, one for the thumb, which he knew how to use particularly adept, another for the fingers. He had three hairdressers, one for the front, one for the sides and one for the back of the head ( the wig came with his influence out of fashion ). He changed, contrary to the customs of his time, several times a day his laundry, but he disdained jewelry and perfume. The effort, which he drove, you saw not, at first glance, the more suspicious he was regarded by contemporaries. He ended up in the madhouse of Caen, after he had spent his inherited wealth and was pursued by creditors. Anecdotes and essays about Beau Brummell are narrated by Baudelaire, Neapolitan, Beerbohm and Virginia Woolf.

Oscar Wilde, Max Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley and other representatives of Aestheticism propagated towards the end of the 19th century a new style: velvet breeches and waistcoats, lying down shirt collar and big sunflowers were asked about their external characteristics.

The aesthetes opened the coined by urban confinement and the moralism Victorian society for a new sensuality in colors and shapes. They fought the prevailing taste of the mainstream with ritualized aesthetics. Many dandies were artists, poets or essayists and represented their style and literary. Dandyism is a way of life, to the self-presentation, quick wit and a rather relaxed attitude to money ( many had gambling debts ) belong. Also important is the independence from bourgeois constraints such as bread profession or marriage.

The Dandy Wild Escher embossing is a typical phenomenon of the fin de siècle. His philosophy of life is based on the assumption that the world is determined in its order and bad for ruin. Political or social engagement, self- adhering to the bourgeois norms are not only useless, but downright expression ( small) bourgeois dullness. The sense that he misses in life, the dandy compensated by the shape he gives his self, by narcissistic staging. He stylized himself to the decadent and enjoys the feeling, so to belong to the avant-garde.

A more modern form of dandyism is camp.

The dandy in the literature

Richard of Schaukal sat with his most famous prose Life and Opinions of Mr. Andrew of Balthesser (1907 ) the type of the dandy a monument.

Discography

The English band " The Kinks " published in 1966 the play " Dandy", which has the obsolescence of this lifestyle to content.

Quotes

• " The dandy is a man whose status, work and existence consists in the wearing of clothes. He devotes each asset of his soul, his spirit, his wallet and his person heroic art, his clothes wear well: While the others dress to live, he lives to dress themselves " ( Thomas Carlyle in Sartor Resartus. 1834)
• " The dandy must be whole effort on judge to be sublime without ceasing, he must live and sleep before a mirror. " (Charles Baudelaire, diaries )