He should live and sleep in front of a mirror.

September 5, 2014 9:01 AM

Rose Callahan photographs the colorful and intricate styles of the modern Dandy.
posted by The Whelk (78 comments total)

This is basically the whelkiest possible Whelk post.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:06 AM on September 5, 2014 [43 favorites]

Second guy looks like the next Doctor Who (and I would watch it!).
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:08 AM on September 5, 2014

This is a great paragraph that sheds light on dandyism:

Most people resist being labeled, but dandies are particularly wary of it. Even as dandyism has received newfound attention in popular culture, many of the dandies Callahan spoke to emphasize their own individuality over group solidarity. “These are people who will scorn trends and things like that, so they don’t even like the idea of calling themselves dandies. One of the guys in the book, Winston Chesterfield, said, ‘It's like a knighthood. You can't call yourself a dandy. You want someone else to call you it.’ ”

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:09 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Kinks - Dandy
posted by ChuckRamone at 9:14 AM on September 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

I would pompously refer to myself as a Brummellite so lucky for us all that I only wear sweatpants.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:14 AM on September 5, 2014

I feel the need to point out what I was wearing last night.
posted by The Whelk at 9:16 AM on September 5, 2014 [6 favorites]

Related:

Yinka Shonibare's Diary of a Victorian Dandy which I saw at the Art Institute back in 2005 which is inspired by

William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress which made me learn more about Hogarth, including

The Four Stages of Cruelty, which has a fairly grisly final scene, which inspired me to learn more about the history of dissection, which led to the topic of my bachelor's thesis on grave robbing.

So, in short, we can blame dandies for me creeping the fuck out of half of the people I met my senior year of college.
posted by phunniemee at 9:17 AM on September 5, 2014 [7 favorites]

This is wonderful. WONDERFUL.
posted by bibliogrrl at 9:18 AM on September 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

Brummell killed color in men's fashion and was then exiled for calling Prince George fat!

He was also responsible for an Anglomania phase in France which lead to lots of pointless Hs and Ys in spelling cause English was so fashionable you see...
posted by The Whelk at 9:18 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I saw this link and thought, Oh, The Whelk will love this!

I am so naive.
posted by Windigo at 9:19 AM on September 5, 2014 [12 favorites]

Your'e speaking my language, ChuckRamone.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:21 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

That third photo is basically how I want to live my life. I try, but I can't seem to keep the bottles full.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:21 AM on September 5, 2014 [7 favorites]

That robe o.

( one of the guys in the series is the owner of my regular barbershop!)
posted by The Whelk at 9:23 AM on September 5, 2014

I saw this link and thought, Oh, The Whelk will love this!

I was going to make a joke about how it was wonderful seeing him playing such diverse characters.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:23 AM on September 5, 2014 [3 favorites]

I gots me a dandy robe. And some awesome argyle socks.

Need the rest of that stuff though...guess I'm a wannabe.
posted by CrowGoat at 9:25 AM on September 5, 2014

Someone make a post about TakahiroMiyashita TheSoloIst please.

Don't have time to.

Nxtlvl modern dandyism.
posted by ACair at 9:34 AM on September 5, 2014

Louche robe guy really should have moved his disreputable trashcan out of shot.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:46 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I would pompously refer to myself as a Brummellite so lucky for us all that I only wear sweatpants.

Don't you get... cold?

Second guy looks like the next Doctor Who (and I would watch it!).

Capaldi is swearing at you! Hard style.
posted by Mezentian at 9:49 AM on September 5, 2014

Louche robe guy really should have moved his disreputable trashcan out of shot.

Obviously, you don't understand sprezzatura.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:53 AM on September 5, 2014 [6 favorites]

There are very few things I put this level of care into.
posted by OmieWise at 10:01 AM on September 5, 2014

The third photo makes me realize our home bar (barely overflowing on to the floor) could really use some supplementation.
posted by ldthomps at 10:01 AM on September 5, 2014

Cultural narcissism used to start at home in front of the mirror, nowadays we have mobile vanity (the selfie via smartphone) and so can take a little bit of the magic with us wherever we go...
posted by mfoight at 10:13 AM on September 5, 2014

Flagged as self-link.
posted by rocketman at 10:14 AM on September 5, 2014 [6 favorites]

Marvelous. Really, quite marvelous.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:18 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm conflicted about this. My first thought at seeing most of the guys is, "What a wanker." In the wild I'd definitely have no use for the slick duo pictured. However, the old guys get a pass in my head, and I personally want about half of these suits. Am I a self-loathing closet dandy??
posted by cmoj at 10:21 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

The thing is, you can be a dandy and not dress like a robber baron or a Jeeves LARPer. I see many dandyish young fellows on my very street, in fact, who have obviously spent quite a lot of time and effort on their clothes - but they're not rich, and their clothes aren't rich people clothes.

Imperialist nostalgia is not an essential tool in the dandy kit.
posted by Frowner at 10:22 AM on September 5, 2014 [6 favorites]

My first thought at seeing most of the guys is, "What a wanker."

I always feel that people should reject their impulse to make the world more boring.
posted by maxsparber at 10:23 AM on September 5, 2014 [15 favorites]

I'm conflicted about this. My first thought at seeing most of the guys is, "What a wanker."

I felt that way about the first, third fourth, and last guys. Most of them didn't bother me too much, and I fucking LOVED the two Asian guys and want to steal the suits of their backs, except that I would know I would never look that awesome.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:23 AM on September 5, 2014 [4 favorites]

Looking through the pictures there seemed to be a definite line between those who look really sharp and with strong personal style in a very modern idiom and those who seem to be living in some, I venture imagined, past.
posted by biffa at 10:26 AM on September 5, 2014 [5 favorites]

My first thought at seeing most of the guys is, "What a wanker."

I find things like this kind of sweet. I think most of us, being human, live half in a fantasy world most of the time, with different degrees of social sanction. Some of us dress for the Tour de France we'll never compete in, others for the life of bronco-busting and tree-felling which we will presumably do during the lunch break from doing phone support or making espresso. People dress every day as extreme BMX bikers, lissom fashion shoot characters, famous but reclusive musicians, gangsters and toughs, or walk-on roles in a Nancy Meyers movie while being, like, still just us. The Everyday Carry guys I know are essentially Jason Bourne cosplayers, working at the tire store while always kinda of thinking of themselves as "operators." As Russell Davies put it, most men's watches are 10% about telling the time and 90% about pretending to be a submarine commander.

Which I guess is to say that I feel like we're most of us wankers to some extent, and I appreciate the people who take it a little further, are more open about it, and make everyday life a bit stranger. (In any case, they're a lot better than the guys who want an app to cosplay being tedious IPO billionaires.)
posted by deathmarch to epistemic closure at 10:41 AM on September 5, 2014 [23 favorites]

Obviously, you don't understand sprezzatura.

It's been a long time since I last encountered that term. I wish I still had my book on that topic.
posted by sourwookie at 11:00 AM on September 5, 2014

Unfortunately, the Artist/Rebel/Dandy exhibit at the RISD Museum just ended August 18. Catalog is available for purchase.
posted by Saddy Dumpington at 11:04 AM on September 5, 2014

I feel the need to point out what I was wearing last night.

You have inexplicably forgotten your quizzing glass, sir. Valet problems again?
posted by poffin boffin at 11:27 AM on September 5, 2014

I wish I still had my book on that topic.

Don't worry, it's available online in full text.
posted by CheeseLouise at 11:27 AM on September 5, 2014

I'm just going to leave this here as a "how to" link.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 11:28 AM on September 5, 2014

Hey, this looks like my house—minus the fab suit and glasses, unfortunately.
posted by octobersurprise at 11:36 AM on September 5, 2014

"how to link"

stop I have no more room for more ties.
posted by The Whelk at 11:38 AM on September 5, 2014

The "Ignacio Quiles at QP and Monty, New York, 2012" is perfect. Iam an old guy and embracing my old guyness. I wear a hat unironically. I enjoy pinstriped suits. I wish I had the cash to go full tilt somber dandy.
posted by cccorlew at 11:40 AM on September 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

The last thing I need to do right now is buy more brown gun check tweeds, but what the hell.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:49 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Quiles briefly had a shop on Greenwich Ave before the St. Vincent Economic Apocalypse - it was the most artfully disarried, well curated, manifestation of personal obsession second hand store ever.
posted by The Whelk at 11:49 AM on September 5, 2014

Though the terms aren't mutually exclusive, most of these guys are more retro than dandy to me. I'd be surprised to learn that olde-tyme dandies emulated the fashions of their previous century. Some nice combos though.
posted by rhizome at 11:54 AM on September 5, 2014

Rose!! I worked with her and her amazing husband on some awesome projects.
also there's a typo in her name in the post. CallahaN
posted by Brainy at 12:14 PM on September 5, 2014

“They’re walking down the street and seeing people in sweatpants or T-shirts and sneakers. They’re trying to create their world to counteract what they see all around them,” Callahan said.

I suppose I am ineligible for dandyism by virtue of being female but this is me on every single airline flight and train ride of my life. I've only ever lived in the age of planes being nothing special, but I still feel compelled for some unkown reason to dress as if air travel were An Occasion. Train travel doubly so, since comfort is way less a thing.
posted by looli at 12:37 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I still feel compelled for some unkown reason to dress as if air travel were An Occasion.

I definitely Dress For Travel. Even if I need to wear work boots and jeans when I get to my destination, I still wear a jacket and tie on the plane. Air travel is a miracle of modern technology and logistics, might as well give it (and all the hard-working employees!) the respect it deserves.
posted by backseatpilot at 12:41 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

The interior stylings of these dandies is my perfect ideal of maximalism. I now need to find a pair of ethically-sourced taxidermy zebras.
posted by fermezporte at 12:43 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

There is a very thin line between effortless and trying too hard.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 12:48 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

These guys are great. I am pretty much the anti-dandy, but I appreciate it as performance art and as the creation of something beautiful to look at.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:00 PM on September 5, 2014

So, this is the 1920s finally, and at long last, getting it's moment in nerdstalgia now that electroswing has passed from the white-hot heat of the New Thing and into the comfortable glow of a small and dogged niche. It is going to make CoC campaigns excellent for the next ten years or so.

Also, Retro Goth Night is going to be entertaining as Sisters of Mercy and Combustible Edison follow one another on the turntable.

FlapperPunk - There. I said it. Now a thing. Get used to it.
posted by Slap*Happy at 1:21 PM on September 5, 2014

This is basically the whelkiest possible Whelk post.

Yeah, scrolling through the pictures I was half expecting to find him there going out in a blaze of self-linking glory.
posted by StickyCarpet at 1:23 PM on September 5, 2014

A blazer of self-linking glory.
posted by The Whelk at 1:26 PM on September 5, 2014 [6 favorites]

FlapperPunk - There. I said it. Now a thing. Get used to it.

I'm pretty sure that's the Speakeasy Dollhouse shows - there's a 20s style cabaret at on the roof of the Empire hotel not far from here sooooo
posted by The Whelk at 1:28 PM on September 5, 2014

In fact, here is the description of Time Out New York's top pick for this weekend -

Oh, sneaky, sneaky. Party planners Gemini & Scorpio are bringing back their wildly successful, Prohibition-era speakeasy bash featuring burlesque, bands and beats, and you can only find out the location if you R.S.V.P.

-so yes, it's a thing.
posted by The Whelk at 1:30 PM on September 5, 2014

( one of the guys in the series is the owner of my regular barbershop!)

Is the twist that it's not the guy sitting in the barber's chair?

These are some impeccably-dressed men, whatever the answer.
posted by turbid dahlia at 1:49 PM on September 5, 2014

(no it's him but that place moved to New Hampshire I think?)
posted by The Whelk at 1:51 PM on September 5, 2014

Why can't women be dandies? My home is a carefully curated artistic display of painting, sculpture, antiques and beautiful junk, I plan out every outfit carefully, hell I match my scarf to my shoes even for a walk to the corner store. Sure, I'm not wearing a suit and a straw boater, but the ethos is the same. pout.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:11 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

A female dandy is a Quaintrelle or Dandizette
posted by The Whelk at 2:26 PM on September 5, 2014

Why can't women be dandies?

Because women are supposed to cultivate a style.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:37 PM on September 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

Fyodor's elephant teapot! Front and centre in the pic so I assume it's a treasured possession; I would drink from it and stroke it daily if it were mine, it would be the best-loved teapot ever.
posted by goo at 3:01 PM on September 5, 2014

Did you know that British and American ties are cut in different directions? On the main part of a striped British tie the stripe points up towards the left shoulder of the wearer, on American ties the right shoulder.

Just seemed sort of relevant.
posted by Segundus at 3:18 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

DTEC's comment made a lot of sense to me. Fantasy (as) fashion. Ever since I started wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat as sun protection, I've drifted toward the garden party and mint julep section of my wardrobe. What if I wasn't a grad student drafting an IRB application but rather a lady of leisure, on her second cocktail! I tell you whut, it makes the library seem silly and less stultifying. Also sometimes the cocktails aren't imaginary.
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:33 PM on September 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

I dunno, I think a dandy has to not look like a pastiche of hisself. Also should have an air of not giving a fuck. I saw at most three, three-and-a-half dandies in those pics.

But then again I'm old-fashioned. To me a dandy has to have an ineffable something, very hard for a young guy to pull off (fnar fnar.) More important than any detail of the fineness of his clothing, is the way in which it's flung together carefully disposed upon his person. Some articles may be incongruous - shabby, even - the dandy's charisma suffuses all with his personal glamour. Clothes are tasteful by virtue of the fact he wears them, and I think a lot of the younger men in the photos haven't got that down.

In The Red Shoes there's a scene where the Ballet Company arrives in Monte Carlo by train. Anton Walbrook is wearing a typical dark 1940's pinstripe suit, with the baggy trousers and waspy waist; a huge pair of tortoiseshell sunglasses; and a panama hat. He is exquisite. I'd remembered him as wearing sandals but google says "black-and-white spectator shoes".

So, any Mefites aspiring to the condition of dandy, what do you think about the last paragraph of the Walbrook article? 'Can a dandy’s search for perfection ever encompass love'? (Love is so awfully imperfect.) Or is his fate to endure at last 'beautifully dressed, wrapped in shadows and smoke, and alone'?

(Or is that just another of those puritanical storytelling tropes where anyone of ambiguous status or in the least bit out of the way of conventional morality is made to suffer for the hubris?)
posted by glasseyes at 3:34 PM on September 5, 2014

Imperialist nostalgia is not an essential tool in the dandy kit.

On preview, Frowner, how perceptive.

But this is a lovely post though.
posted by glasseyes at 3:38 PM on September 5, 2014

spamandkimchi: "What if I wasn't a grad student drafting an IRB application but rather a lady of leisure, on her second cocktail!"

I am the 'coordinator' for my lab (read: lab bitch) and henceforth I will use such mental stylings during all compliance-related tasks.
posted by Strass at 3:40 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

I caught a picture of this guy. He was dancing in 95+ degree weather- in New York City- wearing a jacket and vest. So impressive.
posted by BungaDunga at 5:08 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

My favorite dandy is Space Dandy, a dandy guy in space.
posted by Small Dollar at 5:10 PM on September 5, 2014

So, is a dandy kind of an antihipster or something?
Or is it what a hipster becomes when he grows up?
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:14 PM on September 5, 2014

Dandy is the antidote to normcore.
posted by hot_monster at 5:29 PM on September 5, 2014

Per the issue of imperialist nostalgia, I think this is why the sapeurs or even Wang and Hur of HVRMINN are so interesting to me. The masters' clothes will dismantle the empire?
posted by spamandkimchi at 6:37 PM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

That guy in the barber chair is so totally about to cut one.
posted by 4ster at 8:50 PM on September 5, 2014

Herman's Hermits - Dandy
posted by Rash at 8:56 PM on September 5, 2014

I would like to know more about dandy-preferred scents. Nothing hotter than a guy wearing a good scent, preferably one I haven't encountered before.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 6:05 AM on September 6, 2014

Appears to be missing this guy.
posted by Corduroy at 11:00 AM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

I am about as far away from 'dandyism' as is humanly possible. But absolutely loved this.
posted by notreally at 12:13 PM on September 6, 2014

Rose and her dude Kellfire are good folks -- like, the best folks possible. It's been amazing to watch her personal passion become something so refined and extraordinary.

Always strange and slightly unnerving when a friend pops up on the mefi, though.
posted by milquetoast at 12:57 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

I appreciate the dandy appearance, but I don't think the style fits my build or appreciation for clothes. I'm more a 1920s barkeep kind of person I feel like - shirt garters, suspenders, zester in the back pocket.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:11 AM on September 7, 2014

Dandies! How would you describe the blue suit that Kevin Wang is wearing in that image? If I were looking for something similar on the internet, what are the key terms that will return that type of cut?
posted by Cantdosleepy at 7:40 AM on September 8, 2014

Three piece, 6x2 double breasted peak lapel with flat-front trousers.
posted by backseatpilot at 7:45 AM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

Slim doube breasted peaked lapel - on preview never mind!
posted by The Whelk at 7:45 AM on September 8, 2014 [2 favorites]