Dandies can look all sorts of ways and live in all sorts of places. What unites them? “An obsessive male pursuit of elegance in life and style,” writes Nathaniel Adams, in his book with the photographer Rose Callahan, We Are Dandy: The Elegant Gentleman Around the World (Gestalten).
Adams may describe dandyism as a “unique affliction” that has reached “near-epidemic levels,” but We Are Dandy is undoubtedly a love letter. After their first book, I Am Dandy: The Return of the Elegant Gentleman, which explored the phenomenon in New York, London, Paris, and the West Coast, Callahan and Adams expanded their study to four continents. Their new book features 56 men in total from Japan to South Africa to Europe. Each man receives a colorful introduction from Adams. Callahan’s accompanying photos of the men at home, at work, and on the street are sumptuous and warm, the kind you’d expect to find in a high-end magazine.
In Adams’ introduction, he gives an overview of the kinds of dandies catalogued in the book. There are the vintage dandies, those men “obsessive about period-accurate details.” There are the classicists, “men who believe in a permanent style” who are concerned with “craftsmanship and quality” above all else. There are the #menswear dandies, “usually young, savvy users of social media” who are “somewhat more flamboyant and exhibitionist” than other dandies. And then there are the fashion dandies, “men who value the churning oceans of fashion and design.” The dandy world is wide in We Are Dandy, and Callahan and Adams have chosen a representative cross section with care. The international focus, meanwhile, helps illuminate the dandy’s connection to history and local traditions.
Some of the most intriguing dandies are those that are eccentric even by dandy standards. Take Mr. Ignatious Joseph, who wears red socks, red shoes, gray pants and blue jackets every day. Or Mr. Aymeric Bergada du Cadet, a “decadent disco dandy” who sports World War I-era facial hair and whose wardrobe is chock full of samurai pants and sequins. Or Mr. Gian Maurizio Fercioni, a tattoo artist who has the look of “a mad sea captain who has murdered an Oxford don and stolen his clothes.” In a subculture defined by its fierce individualism, these men manage to defy easy categorization
True dandyism is about more than clothes, of course; it’s a wholistic fashion stance and a personally-tailored lifestyle. Callahan wisely captures this truth in photos of the exquisite spaces dandies inhabit and the possessions they love. Mr. Fercioni’s tattoo shop, for instance, Baron Ambrosia’s Victorian mini-mansion in Yonkers, and Mr. Richard Aloisio’s collections of cookie jars and vases are expressions of the all-inclusive aesthetic universes they’ve curated.
Indeed, a dandy’s world is his own invention; in many ways, it’s a fantasy. But that doesn’t make it frivolous. As Dita Von Tesse argues in an essay in the book, dandies are “courageous, convention-breaking shape- shifters” who are “transgressing contemporary life.” In that case, We Are Dandy provides ample inspiration for the coming revolution.
Jordan G. Teicher
Jordan G. Teicher is an American journalist and critic based in Brooklyn, New York.
We are dandy, The elegant gentleman around the world
Published by Gestalten
€39.90
