Inspired by Ian Kelly’s biography Beau Brummell: the Ultimate Dandy, I was interested to see what material IBSS held on the history of men’s fashion, and perhaps the cultural context of 18th century Britain. I knew little of George ‘Beau’ Brummell until I picked up a copy of Kelly’s work in Fopp, attracted by the dandy tagline. Contrary to popular understanding of the word dandy as a foppish and ostentatious dresser, dandy fashion as conceived by Brummell, the leader of 18th century British dandyism, was a simple style of dress which was the precursor to the modern suit. Beau Brummell eschewed wigs, ruffs, breeches and the like, and trumpeted simplicity of dress, clean linen (it was still uncommon to wash regularly at the time), simple colours (white, buff and navy) and straight trouser legs.
I began by searching for ‘fashion’ and ‘18th century’ in IBSS and came up with 21 results, which were easy to sift through. My eye was caught by ‘Colour in European garments from the middle ages to the end of the 18th century’, Turnau, I. (2003) and ‘The appearance of Enlightenment: refashioning the elites’, McNeil, P. (2007), both works which ought to provide a good background to the study of the changing fashions of the time.
I wondered if ’style’ and ‘18th century’ would generate wildly different hits. I got 27 (generally new) hits, of which top of the list was the gem ‘Gentlemanly masculinities as represented by the late Georgian gentleman’s magazine’, Stafford, W. (2008). The article is a 20 page review of the primary source Gentleman’s Magazine, published between 1785 and 1815, just the era we’re talking about! The abstract informs me that almost half of the magazine comprises letters from readers, ‘making it an excellent source for representations of elite masculinities’. One sentence in the abstract particularly caught my eye: ‘The predominantly reflected masculinity of this source is polite, responsible and educated; but evidence of disapproval of other masculinities – of irresponsible youth, and of the ‘rough’ style of the libertine or sportsman – indicates that there was no single ‘hegemonic’ elite masculinity’. This is interesting in terms of contemporary attitudes towards Brummell and his followers, the Dandiacal Body. Brummell was Eton educated, but his more noticeable ‘masculinity’ was his youthful libertine rumbustiousness. It seems that this source could well provide telling evidence on public opinion about the dandies and changing fashion.
I was curious to see how specific I could get with my search, so tried ‘Fashion’, ‘United Kingdom’ and ‘18th century’. This gave me 3 hits, one of which was the intriguingly titled ‘A foot in the past: consumers, producers, and footwear in the long eighteenth century’, Riello, G. (2007) which would offer a detailed insight into the study of shoes, an issue which Kelly has not yet touched upon in his biography of Brummell. I tried an even more specific search: ‘dandy’ and ‘United Kingdom’. I got 3 results, including ‘I love a man in a uniform: The dandy esprit de Corps’, Hoare, P. (2005). This looks like a useful article since, according to Kelly, Brummell’s taste for simple dress was inspired by his admiration for the uniforms of the 10th Light Dragoons, of which he was a member.
IBSS has certainly thrown up some material which would make useful additional reading to anyone who wants to know more having read Ian Kelly’s Beau Brummell: the Ultimate Dandy.
Blog feed