How do we know what we know about the Beau?
Hover over the list below to see links to sub-pages:
- Memoirs
- Images
- Archival / Manuscript Material
- Biographies
- in Fiction
- on Stage & Screen
- Current Scholarship
- Dandiana
For over two hundred years, Beau Brummell has reigned supreme in the sartorial imaginary as the king of the dandies; the very origin of masculine fashionability. The problem with the outsized sartorial legacy of Brummell is that much of it is closer to fiction than fact—he didn’t actually say many of the things attributed to him, and even his contemporaries insisted that he couldn’t rightly be called a dandy. So…..what is a fashion historian to do?
Fashion history has not always been overly concerned with verifying its sources, but as the field has established itself in academic discourse, scholars are having to return to the things we thought we knew to be true…and separate out historical facts from fashion legends. What we do with the information we find is up to us—it may be that the myths created around fashion icons or clothing trends are as important as what actually happened. As with any other form of scholarship, the key is to be transparent about how we know what we know, and to leave traces for future scholars to retrace our steps.
In my research on men’s suits in the early nineteenth century, I have amassed a database on Beau Brummell and dandies. I share this archive of Beau Brummell material with fellow scholars, in the hopes that we might together build a better fashion history. [Dandies are also welcome here!] The menu above will guide you. All I ask is: please research responsibly, and cite your sources.
