Style Court and The Peak of Chic have recently been musing about Regency Style on their always interesting and intelligent blogs. There have been postings about new books and new looks and how it all may play in Hollywood.
The upshot? Movies tend to go glamorous with Regency design the favored style when times are tough. If times are getting tougher as you read this, what does this pursuit of Regency style mean for fashion?
We can only hope that it presages the return to favor of that ultimate arbiter of Regency taste: George “Beau” Brummell. It was the Beau who decided what the well-dressed man should wear. He denounced anything showy from fabric to frills to perfume for men. He was fastidiously clean in an era when money and position were often attached to very dirty folk.
Brummell’s house, furniture, library and all his possessions were much admired. “His constant aim was toward a sober but exquisite perfection,” according to J.B. Priestley’s “The Prince of Pleasure and his Regency.”
Priestley notes that Lady Hester Stanhope, that most original and legendary Englishwoman, declared “that Brummell was no fool, and reported how he once said to her, ‘If the world is so silly as to admire my absurdities, you and I may know better, but what does it signify?’”
What does it signify, indeed?
Top: James Purefoy as Beau Brummell. Above: The American band, The Beau Brummels, who missed perfection and the proper spelling.
It has also been said that the Beau would not remove his hat when speaking with a lady lest he should be unable to reposition it in the exact way again. Hmmm. And then he died broke and alone. Yikes. And that is why style should always take precedent over fashion. Changing fashion, it may be argued, killed Beau Brummell.
That said, the picture in in my netflix queue right now. Can't wait!
Posted by: Easy and Elegant Life | Friday, September 19, 2008 at 08:52 AM
Duh! Now why didn't I think to order the movie?
Posted by: LINDA FROM EACH LITTLE WORLD | Friday, September 19, 2008 at 09:47 AM