Elegant Living
Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:39 pm
Towards a definition of Elegant Living
Many writers take a structural approach to the subject of dressing. That is to say they break dress down into its component parts and focus their study on these parts as unique and disassociated objects. Chapters are written on shirts, shoes, overcoats and ties. Writers comment on the proper fit, styling and construction of each of these elements in varying degrees of detail, consistency and clarity. The resulting text is held together by a good dose of entertaining anecdotes centered on the glamorous personalities who marked one era or another.
The question that is rarely addressed is how these composing elements work together, how they fuse and disappear in the alchemy of elegant dressing and how dressing itself figures in the context of the elegant life.
It is the latter of the two subjects that leads discussion in this forum dedicated to Elegant Living.
Honore de Balzac defines as follows:
“Elegant living is the development of grace, and good taste in all that we own and all that surrounds us.”
The fundamentals are these:
Aphorism XX
The essential matter of elegance is unity.
Aphorism XXI
Unity is not possible without cleanliness, without harmony, without understated simplicity. But it is not simplicity rather than harmony, nor harmony rather than cleanliness that produces elegance: for it is born of a mysterious concord of these three essential virtues.
Traite de la Vie Elegante
There are unities of form and unities of substance.
For example, in elegant dress the fundamental “unities of form” are those that relate to cut, color, pattern and construction. There are volumes written on thelondonlounge on the form of elegant dress.
The “unities of substance” deal with the man who wears the clothes, how he wears his clothes, who he is. The man makes the clothes. His personality, persona, taste, sensibility, presence animate the well cut compositions of cloth.
“We recognize the man like we do a snail, from the colors of his shell”
A man’s dress is a window that permits an intimate visit into his life. We will see self assurance or insecurity. As with his speech and bearing, we will recognize the education, the experience of the world, the curiosity, the very intellect of the man standing before us, an open book. It is not a Dun & Bradstreet report. It tells us less about his accounts than about his taste and his passions.
Imbalances inform immediately. The man who aspires to Elegance on the cheap will appear ridiculous as will the man who lives in a hovel to afford his clothes.
Balance informs of the elegant life. The home, furnishings, gardens, cellar, travel, dinners, receptions, parties will be in unity with dress like polished shoes matching a well cut suit.
“The art of Elegant Living is spontaneous and natural to those who are gifted.”
To others it must be learned. To begin, think of your living space as compared to your dress. Do the rooms and furnishings invite? Are they comfortable, easy and appealing to the eye, an oasis? Or does the “heirloom” vase stand out like the modernist red polka dot tie, a gift from a well intentioned in-law?
In the final analysis, all objects of infirm taste violate the fundamental unity Balzac describes. But what to do in a civilization far removed from his, where brand focus has standardized all objects?
The bespoke lifestyle is the only way to capture individuality and elegance in today’s world; and this via the very few artisans and craftsmen in many fields that still remain to realize our visions of Elegant Living.
Many writers take a structural approach to the subject of dressing. That is to say they break dress down into its component parts and focus their study on these parts as unique and disassociated objects. Chapters are written on shirts, shoes, overcoats and ties. Writers comment on the proper fit, styling and construction of each of these elements in varying degrees of detail, consistency and clarity. The resulting text is held together by a good dose of entertaining anecdotes centered on the glamorous personalities who marked one era or another.
The question that is rarely addressed is how these composing elements work together, how they fuse and disappear in the alchemy of elegant dressing and how dressing itself figures in the context of the elegant life.
It is the latter of the two subjects that leads discussion in this forum dedicated to Elegant Living.
Honore de Balzac defines as follows:
“Elegant living is the development of grace, and good taste in all that we own and all that surrounds us.”
The fundamentals are these:
Aphorism XX
The essential matter of elegance is unity.
Aphorism XXI
Unity is not possible without cleanliness, without harmony, without understated simplicity. But it is not simplicity rather than harmony, nor harmony rather than cleanliness that produces elegance: for it is born of a mysterious concord of these three essential virtues.
Traite de la Vie Elegante
There are unities of form and unities of substance.
For example, in elegant dress the fundamental “unities of form” are those that relate to cut, color, pattern and construction. There are volumes written on thelondonlounge on the form of elegant dress.
The “unities of substance” deal with the man who wears the clothes, how he wears his clothes, who he is. The man makes the clothes. His personality, persona, taste, sensibility, presence animate the well cut compositions of cloth.
“We recognize the man like we do a snail, from the colors of his shell”
A man’s dress is a window that permits an intimate visit into his life. We will see self assurance or insecurity. As with his speech and bearing, we will recognize the education, the experience of the world, the curiosity, the very intellect of the man standing before us, an open book. It is not a Dun & Bradstreet report. It tells us less about his accounts than about his taste and his passions.
Imbalances inform immediately. The man who aspires to Elegance on the cheap will appear ridiculous as will the man who lives in a hovel to afford his clothes.
Balance informs of the elegant life. The home, furnishings, gardens, cellar, travel, dinners, receptions, parties will be in unity with dress like polished shoes matching a well cut suit.
“The art of Elegant Living is spontaneous and natural to those who are gifted.”
To others it must be learned. To begin, think of your living space as compared to your dress. Do the rooms and furnishings invite? Are they comfortable, easy and appealing to the eye, an oasis? Or does the “heirloom” vase stand out like the modernist red polka dot tie, a gift from a well intentioned in-law?
In the final analysis, all objects of infirm taste violate the fundamental unity Balzac describes. But what to do in a civilization far removed from his, where brand focus has standardized all objects?
The bespoke lifestyle is the only way to capture individuality and elegance in today’s world; and this via the very few artisans and craftsmen in many fields that still remain to realize our visions of Elegant Living.
