Bend it Like Byron: An Article About Dandies

John Clubbe, the author of ‘Bend it Like Byron: The Sartorial Sublime’, an 18-page PDF document published by Erudit, starts off with some interesting insights about Beau Brummell, Lord Byron, and Napoleon Bonaparte, linking them sartorially during their time and with later dandies, like David Beckham:

Byron liked being linked with Brummell and Napoleon. In fact, [...]

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Games Played in the Regency Era: Cribbage

We have had Mrs. Lillingstone and the Chamberlaynes to call on us. My mother was very much struck with the odd looks of the two latter; I have only seen her. Mrs. Busby drinks tea and plays at cribbage here tomorrow; and on Friday, I believe, we go to the Chamberlaynes’. Last night we walked [...]

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The Regency Gentleman: Neckwear

The cravat rose in popularity during an an age when cleaning dirty linen and ironing clothes presented an enormous challenge. Influenced by Beau Brummell’s penchant for wearing simple clothes and snowy- white cravats, these intricately-tied neckcloths became all the rage among the gentleman of the upper crust. The lower classes, for lack of servants and [...]

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Male Bastions: Regency Clubs in Pall Mall

Dear Readers, As long as my computer woes continue I will be resurrecting old posts. Originally published in 2007, this post describes the gentlemen’s clubs in St. James’s:

As Pall Mall and the immediate neighbourhood of St. James’s have been for a century the headquarters of those London clubs which have succeeded to the fashionable coffee-houses, [...]

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Seen Across the Ether: Regency Fashion

With the love of nature and classical statuary, the young male body became prized. British tailoring enabled better fit and thus could reveal the new athletic ideal. The lower body was encased in extremely fitted coverings that left little to the imagination.
The above quote comes from the Kent State University Museum website, which features the [...]

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Man’s Regency Coat

In “To Cut a Regency Coat”, Suzi Clarke, a British costumer, goes into great detail on how to make this man’s Regency garment.

The basic man’s coat for the first twenty-five years of the 19th century changed very little. It was cut to fit very firmly across the shoulders, with a shoulder seam that sloped [...]

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The Dandy’s Perambulations

The Dandy’s Perambulations, printed and sold in 1819 by John Marchall in Fleet Street, is posted in full by www.dandyism.net. Below are a few lines from the pamphlet:
[They] ran along together straight,
Until they reached the turnpike gate,
Where a coach had made a stop;
So they both got upon the top,
And after their disastrous falls,
At length in [...]

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The Regency Dandy

One of my favorite descriptions of the Regency dandy, and one that I contributed to Wikipedia, is the following in which author Venetia Murray quotes an excerpt from An Exquisite’s Dairy, from The Hermit in London, 1819:
Took four hours to dress; and then it rained; ordered the tilbury and my umbrella, and drove to the [...]

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Male Bastions: The Clubs of St. James’s

Found on the Internet, an abstract of the following article:
The Clubs of St. James’s: places of public patriarchy – exclusivity, domesticity and secrecy, Jane Rendell
“The male clubs of St. James’s, specifically the four at the top of St. James’s Street; Boodle’s, Brooks’s, Crockford’s and White’s, were frequented by men of the same class who used [...]

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Attire of the Regency Dandy

In The Corinthian, Georgette Heyer describes Sir Richard in her inimitable fashion:
“He was a very notable Corinthian. From his Wind-swept hair (most difficult of all styles to achieve), to the toes of his gleaming Hessians, he might have posed as an advertisement for the Man of Fashion. His fine shoulders set off a coat of [...]

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