<h1>I am Dandy</h1>

Some days ago, a friend showed me a freshly received, newly published book from Gestalten. "I am Dandy -  The Return of the Elegant Gentleman" fascinated me. It is fully illustrated with 288 pages crammed with images of gorgeousness - gorgeous people, gorgeous clothing, gorgeous style.... I could not help feature it on this blog which is dedicated to the great appreciators of the finer things in life including art, vintage fashionwear and vintage jewellery.

Is it all about vanity? Certainly not. This fully documented book which includes exceptionally written individual interviews with all the photographed dandies, is the combined work of photographer Rose Callahan and writer Nathaniel Adams who have been exploring.....
..... "the fascinating phenomenon of dandyism over the past years.They visit contemporary dandies in their homes to document their impeccably designed lives in both words and images. Well-kempt to the tips of their beards and wearing three-piece suits with flawlessly folded pocket handkerchiefs and supple kid gloves, their protagonists revive the charm of the past and reveal that cultivated idleness can be incredibly hard work."

The typical dandy was 'born' in the 18th Century in London and Paris. One such dandy was George Bryan "Beau" Brummell who lived in London at the height of the Regency period. He is believed to have taken as long as five hours to complete his daily toilette which was very often witnessed by friends and curious admirers who sat around, toasting him and drinking in his dressing room while he perfected his look.

Dandyism has witnessed a revival in recent years brought on especially by the fad of dressing up in vintagewear and participating in vintage bike and car rides at specialised organised vintage events. 

Photographer:

Rose Callahan is a photographer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Originally from San Francisco, California, Rose made her way to the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1999 to pursue photography. In 2008, she began The Dandy Portraits:The Lives of Exquisite Gentlemen Today (which became a blog in 2010) as a personal project to tell the nuanced story of extreme masculine elegance alive today. Rose found that the dandies of today are not a cohesive subculture or creed; rather, each man is a fiercely independent arbiter of what it means to be a gentleman and to live with style.

Writer:
Nathaniel "Natty" Adams is a New York-based writer and manager of the Against Nature menswear atelier. His NYU undergraduate thesis was on 20th Century Dandyism and, as a student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he wrote a book proposal on the history of Dandyism, for which he won the prestigious Lynton Fellowship. Adams used the grant money to travel through America, Europe, and Africa meeting and interviewing the best-dressed men in the world.

Preface writer:

Glenn O’Brien is a writer, editor, and creative director who lives in New York. A member of Andy Warhol’s Factory in his early years, he has worked as an editor at Interview and Rolling Stone, and as creative director at Barneys New York, Island Records, and Calvin Klein. He writes “The Style Guy” column in GQ.

Dandies:

MR GAY TALESE

MR NICK WOOSTER

MR DOMENICO SPANO

MR NICHOLAS FOULKES

MR ROBIN DUTT

MR HAMISH BOWLES

MR EDWARD HAYES

MR BURTON

MR NICK SULLIVAN

MR PAOLO CANEVARI

MR SIMON DOONAN

MR ROBERT W. RICHARDS

MR FYODOR A. PAVLOV

MR MICHAEL “ATTERS” ATTREE

MR RAY FRENSHAM

MR ZAC MACLEOD PINSENT

MR WINSTON CHESTERFIELD

MR BARIMA OWUSU NYANTEKYI

MR SEAN CROWLEY

MR MICKAEL FRANCOIS LOIR

MR THOMAS R. CROWLEY

MR IGNACIO QUILES

MR MINN HUR & MR KEVIN WANG

MR DICKON EDWARDS

MR TONY SYLVESTER

MR ROBERT E. BRYAN

MR MATT FOX & MR ENRIQUE CRAME III

DR ANDRE AND DR KEITH CHURCHWELL

MR CATOR SPARKS

MR DORAN WITTELSBACH

MR HUGO JACOMET

MR DANDY WELLINGTON

MR G. BRUCE BOYER

MR DAVID ZYLA

MR PATRICK MCDONALD

MR CHRISTIAN M. CHENSEVOLD

MR MICHAEL ANDREW

MR RAYMOND CHU

MR JOSE LEMUS

MR GUY HILLS

MR MICHAEL A. SALERNO

MR AMECHI IHENACHO

MR MARC GUYOT

MR MICHAEL DAVIS

MR GUSTAV TEMPLE

MR SVEN RAPHAEL SCHNEIDER

MR JOHNNNY VERCOUTRE

MR PETER MCGOUGH

MR MICHAEL ARENELLA

MR DAVID CARTER

MR IKÉ UDÉ

MR MASSIMILIANO MOCCHIA DI COGGIOLA

MR MICHAEL HAAR

MR VICTOR ALLEN CRAWFORD III

MR ANDREW YAMATO

MR JAMES SHERWOOD

All images are by Rose Callahan from 'I am Dandy - The Return of the Elegant Gentleman', copyright Gestalten, 2013