Paul Bourget describes Barbey as an idealist, who sought and found in his work a refuge from the uncongenial ordinary world. Jules Lemaître, a less sympathetic critic, thought the extraordinary crimes of his heroes and heroines, his reactionary opinions, his dandyism and snobbery were a caricature of Byronism.
Beloved of fin-de-siècle decadents, Barbey d'Aurevilly remains an example of the extremes of late romanticism. Barbey d'Aurevilly held extreme Catholic opinions, yet wrote about risqué subjects, a contradiction apparently more disturbing to the English than to the French themselves. Barbey d'Aurevilly was also known as a dandy artisan of his own persona, adopting an aristocratic style and hinting at a mysterious past, though his parentage was provincial bourgeois nobility, and his youth comparatively uneventful.
Anatomy of the Dandy
We agree with Barbey d’Aurevilly that dandyism is as difficult to describe as to define. We can opine about effortless elegance and sparkling wit, but dandyism is ultimately characterized by the nearly indescribable effect of the dandy’s appearance and demeanor on the spectator. The French call such effect a je ne sais quoi; in Hollywood it’s called having “it.”
The magic of dandyism resides in the interplay between the dandy’s temperament and his appearance. Yet it is not a question of simple harmony, for one dandy may combine severe dress with a jocular demeanor, while another meshes cold aloofness with colorful and audacious dress.
Nevertheless, what follows is an attempt to describe the indescribable, to unravel the formula of dandyism’s certain something.
To do so we must bear in mind that dandyism is sometimes referred to as an affectation. In Regency England, dandyism became a fashionable pose when men wished to imitate Brummell without having either his sartorial originality or his particular temperament. And though Brummell surely exploited his temperament for effect in fashionable society, it was already present when he was a lad at Eton and distinguished himself by “the most bold and delicate mixture of impertinence and respect.”
The difference between the genuine dandy and the ersatz dandy is shown explicitly in Stendhal’s “The Red and the Black” when Prince Korasoff says to Julien Sorel, “You have that natural froideur we try so hard to affect.”
And so for those not born with a natural dandy effect, this dissection of the dandy temperament will serve as a guide to the proper pose.
Individual dandies throughout the ages have emphasized certain qualities over others, but all qualities must be present in some degree for the effect to reach full fruition.
And so, here are the qualities that comprise the anatomy of the dandy, ranked in order of importance:
1. Physical distinction
Dandyism can only be painted on a suitable canvas. It is impossible to cut a dandy figure without being tall, slender and handsome, or having at least one of those characteristics to a high degree while remaining at least average in the other two. Fred Astaire was neither tall nor handsome, but he was “so thin you could spit through him.”
Count D’Orsay, of course, had all three qualities to the highest degree.
“To appear well dressed, be skinny and tall.” — Mason Cooley
2. Elegance
Elegance, of course, as defined by the standards of a dandy’s particular era.
“[The dandy's] independence, assurance, originality, self-control and refinement should all be visible in the cut of his clothes.” — Ellen Moers
Dandies must love contemporary costume, says Beerbohm, and their dress should be “free from folly or affectation.”
3. Self-mastery
Barbey speaks of the dandy’s staunch determination to remain unmoved, while Baudelaire says that should a dandy suffer pain, he will “keep smiling.”
“Manage yourself well and you may manage all the world.” — Bulwer-Lytton
“Immense calm with your heart pounding.” — Noel Coward
4. Aplomb
While self-mastery is the internal practice of keeping emotions in check, aplomb is how it is expressed to the dandy’s audience.
“Dandyism introduces antique calm among our modern agitations.” — Barbey d’Aurevilly
5. Independence
Ideally financial independence, but if the dandy is forced to work, a spirit of independence will be expressed through his work, as with Tom Wolfe. Independence — often to the point of aloofness — will also characterize the dandy’s dealings with the world.
“The epitome of selfish irresponsibility, he was ideally free of all human commitments that conflict with taste: passions, moralities, ambitions, politics or occupations.” — Moers
“Independence makes the dandy.” — Barbey d’Aurevilly
6. Wit
Especially a paradoxical way of talking lightly of the serious and seriously of the light that carries philosophical implications.
(See Oscar Wilde, his characters such as Lord Henry and Lord Goring, and to a lesser degree every other notable dandy.)
7. A skeptical, world-weary, sophisticated, bored or blasé demeanor
“The dandy is blasé, or feigns to be.” — Baudelaire
“A spirit of gay misanthropy, a cynical, depreciating view of society.” — Lister
8. A self-mocking and ultimately endearing egotism
“Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.” — Wilde, “The Ideal Husband”
9. Dignity/Reserve
Pelham keeps “the darker and stormier emotions” to himself — Bulwer-Lytton
“A flawless dandy, he would be annoyed if he were considered romantic.” — Oscar Wilde, “An Ideal Husband”
10. Discriminating taste
“To resist whatever may be suitable for the vulgar but is improper for the dandy.” — Moers
11. A renaissance man
“A complete gentleman, who, according to Sir Fopling, ought to dress well, dance well, fence well, have a genius for love letters, and an agreeable voice for a chamber.” — Etherege, quoted by Bulwer-Lytton in “Pelham”
12. Caprice
Because dandies are an enigma wrapped in a labyrinth, and because dandyism makes its own rules, the final quality is the ability to negate all the others.
For in the end there is not a code of dandyism, as Barbey writes. “If there were, anybody could be a dandy.”
in Dandyism.net
Photographs of Massimiliano Mocchia di Coggiola Piccolo. by Rose Callahan
De Barbey d'Aurevilly à John Galliano, l'être et le paraître se confondent
À Granville Éric Biétry-Rivierre Mis à jour le 20/05/2008 in LeFigaro.fr
La villa du couturier évoque ces artistes rares, qui ont fait de leur personne un chef-d'oeuvre.
Il y a une géographie du dandysme. Elle est surtout anglaise mais aussi normande. Du haut de la falaise de Granville, on peut parfaitement la considérer. À l'ouest Guernesey, important sanctuaire hugolien et donc du romantisme français, un des proches ancêtres du mouvement. À l'est, Caen où mourut le beau Brummell, l'archétype de l'élégant. Au nord, la presqu'île du Cotentin avec Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte où naquit et vécut Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, le premier théoricien du dandysme. Au sud, Paris, ses salons, ses bals, sa culture du raffinement…
Au cœur, sur la falaise, emmitouflée dans son jardin de bambous, de rosiers et de senteurs, la villa « Les Rhumbs » doit justement son nom au terme de marine désignant les divisions de la rose des vents. C'est la maison d'enfance de Christian Dior et aujourd'hui un musée consacré au couturier, théâtre d'une exposition, petite mais dense, intitulée « Dandysmes 1808-2008, de Barbey d'Aurevilly à Christian Dior », car on fête cette année le bicentenaire de la naissance de l'écrivain. C'est, sur deux étages de pièces cosy, un parcours brillant de correspondances mises en évidence par le commissaire Jean-Luc Dufresne. Littérature, peinture, mode et parfums fertilisent un unique et fin sillon. Celui de ces caractères rares ayant fait d'eux-mêmes le centre de leur vie.
Ce parcours commence avec d'un côté, les gants en chevreau (« J'ai, parfois dans ma vie, été bien malheureux, mais je n'ai jamais quitté mes gants blancs »), la redingote à taille de guêpe et la cravate brodée d'un Barbey, posant fier et précieux, dans un tableau peint en 1881 par Émile Levy. De l'autre, la grande cape sur pantalon noir et chemise blanche de la dernière collection prêt-à-porter Dior Homme, imaginée par Kris Van Assche. Le rapport ? Il se noue dans une photo montrant Christian Dior déguisé en Barbey d'Aurevilly au bal des artistes de 1956.
Mais plus profondément que cela : le dandysme à l'opposé d'une quelconque frivolité se lit dans l'attitude « mannequin », symptomatique d'une sensibilité extrême au monde, en dépit du mépris affiché. Car, avant tout intellectuel, le dandy opère cette « fusion des mouvements de l'esprit et du corps » remarquée par Barbey. Outre ce dernier et le couturier, cette « pose » est commune à un Robert de Montesquiou, à un Jean Cocteau, à un Paul Morand ou encore à un David Bowie dont les portraits ponctuent la visite entre deux gilets brodés XIXe, la canne à pommeau perlé de Balzac, les collections Dior de l'après-guerre, où l'anglomanie, l'androgynie et la sophistication luttent ouvertement contre l'esprit pratique et les restrictions du moment.
Elle se lit enfin, hautement revendiquée, dans les fantasmes « historicisants » de John Galliano. Dans sa démesure et ses excentricités s'impose majestueusement le pouvoir d'être soi. Un pouvoir contradictoire car douloureux, puisqu'il s'accompagne sans cesse d'une « recherche inquiète de l'approbation des autres ».
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