The dandy strikes back
08/10/05 19:20 englandCharlie Allen
Charlie is mentioned in an article in the Times
“Empires had risen and fallen while he experimented with the crease of a neck-cloth and criticised the cut of a coat,” wrote Virginia Woolf in an essay on Brummell. We should not, however, belittle his influence. He might have been the progenitor of dandyism, the man who spent half his life getting dressed and the other half being dressed, but it was largely thanks to him that corsets and calf-muscle stocking implants were replaced by a new look achieved in the subtle remoulding of the body achieved by tailoring. Now the humble tape measure became the key to fashion; the sculpted W collar on his jackets remains to this day. From the beginning of the 19th century, an air of social indifference and an effortless wit were to become the mark of the gentleman, and thanks to Brummell you could lord it in London without being the son of one.
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