The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies

Dandyism

MICHELE BONAZZI

University of Bologna, Italy

DOI: 10.1002/9781118989463.wbeccs090

The term “dandyism” refers to a British cultural movement of the late nineteenth century, within the Victorian era. It was a doctrine of elegance, finesse, and originality which was primarily concerned with language, sophisticated manners, and dress. An aphorism coined by the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio, one of the leading representatives of the Italian movement, perfectly sums up its essence: “living life as a work of art.” For that reason, “being dandy” became an expression not only of sophisticated dress, but of a proper lifestyle that expressed itself in every aspect of existence, such as attitude and personal tastes, and was superior from the point of view of social and cultural capital. This way of life was driven by a determination to stand out from the stereotype of the ordinary bourgeois man, and its aim was to rise above social conventions and the common way of thinking. In this sense, the dandy played a leading role in the society of his time, as an actor on a theater stage, shocking the audience with his eccentric and provocative style.

This type of mentality had been conceived by the cultural and artistic movement of the Pre-Raphaelites, for example with the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In England, Beau Brummell and Oscar Wilde are often regarded as the embodiment of the figure of the dandy in the collective imagination. Dandyism became a cultural movement in Europe, mainly ...