A Study of Elegance Part II

[alden]

Aphorism XLII

“The brute covers himself, the rich man and the fop adorn themselves, the elegant man dresses!"

The ugly, the bad and the good: Balzac has Sergio Leone’s order reversed in his Brute, Rich/Fop and Elegant dressing formula, one that remains perfectly measured for today’s reality. We will explore it in this installment of our discussion.

The Brute

Here we have to distinguish between two species of Brutes. Firstly, there are those who will never have an understanding of elegant living, dress or dressing as their lives are bound up every hour in questions of survival. They dress to protect their bodies from the elements and for their long days of labor.

The elegant being does not look down upon or render judgments on the less fortunate. In the elegant life empathy and above all, generosity are cherished qualities and snobbery is despised above all things.

The second species of Brute is separated for eternity from elegance because of constraints that are not as easily pardoned as they are largely self imposed. For the purpose of this discussion we will name this creature "Troggie" which is short for troglodyte, denizen of caves and the darkest bolgias of dressing perdition.

The Troggie's eyes are forever shielded from visions of grace and elegance by an ever enshrouding ego. In the absence of being born with good taste, the chances of a Troggie "learning" anything is mathematically calculated at nil. The Troggie doesn't need to learn, since he knows everything already. And what he knows is necessarily ugly.

Our dear Troggie is omnipresent in the Dressing world and his ilk dominate many dressing forums these days. Armed with platitudes and self assurance, that poorly masks his lack of self esteem, his kind can be seen and heard from miles away. Loud, and opinionated to the point of violence, his clothes are invariably loud, ill-fitting, badly composed, and irretrievably imbalanced. This is the essence of "Troggie Style."

Rich Man and the Fop.

Balzac does not mean to infer that a rich man has as much chance to enter the kingdom of elegance, as a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. No, quite to the contrary, wealth never bothered the author terribly except for his lack of same due to an incorrigible determination to live well beyond his means, in a constant state of debt. Wealth in and of itself was not the problem. The new possessors of wealth, the "nouveau riches" of Balzac's time were the problem.

Balzac pretty much despised the "bourgeoisie" of his time , both the "grand" and "petit" flavors, that had replaced the decimated aristocracy after the "French Massacre" (one can hardly think of it as a Revolution) and the despotism of Napoleon.

Unlike Balzac we are fortunate to live in a time when the "nouveau riches" worship brands, labels, and logos. As such we are lucky not to find many of them in our tailor's ateliers though Balzac, poor fellow, would certainly have seen the lot of them in his.

These troggie-like creatures conceive of life as a twenty four hour infomercial in which they must manifest their new found good fortune to as many people as possible, in the shortest time possible and in the most conspicuous manner imaginable. Whole industries of luxury (sic) goods producers have been created to separate these people from some of their new found wealth. Not much more needs to be said here.

Fops come in so many sizes, shapes and colors, from pure dullards, to coxcombs, to the " terminally wit challenged" etc. that describing them here would be essentially impossible. Better to read Dante, Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson or Balzac for a complete study of same.

The species of Fop that interests us with respect to a discussion of elegance is known in our argot as "Charlie." Blinded by many of the intellectual limitations of a standard, run of the mill Troggie, Charlie has escaped from the deepest pits of bad taste and has seen enough of the light to desire more of its glow. His intense desire, his wanting so badly to appear, to belong, to be something makes him a notorious pretender and notable arriviste. Ambition and ego are his ultimate undoing. And unlike the "rich" of the nouveau riche, he has a decided taste for bespoke.

Spotting Charlie is quite easy and once again there are Charlie channels on the internet where you can listen to their discourse. Charlie knows that elegance exists, he thinks of it as being stylish or beautiful, and therefore desirable. But ornamenting oneself with stylish and beautiful things renders only distant facsimiles of elegance.

Charlie studies everything, and consequently his look is "studied." Charlie conspires to be elegant on the cheap, and his look is cheapened. Charlie does everything he can to imitate the elegant, and his look is an imitation. Charlie asks advice from everyone and anyone, but is incapable of the first step towards elegance which consists in interrogating oneself.

Charlie cannot conceive that elegance radiates from within, and is always seeking the magic pill that will transform him into the prince he imagines lives under the skin of the beast he sees in the mirror each day. To his constant dismay, no artisan possesses the magic formula, the Ring as it were, so he wanders hopelessly to any and all who will take him as a client. He is always dissatisfied and despite all his travail it never occurs to Charlie to imagine that the magic pill does not exist. It never occurs to him to simply see himself in the mirror, and see a prince if he desires it to be!

There is a second variation on the theme of Charlie, known as "Dandy." Now there are two types of Dandy, one we admire and one we loathe. The former, social critic and rebel, and the latter precious as a lapdog adorned with pink ribbons.

Aphorism XXXIX

"Dandyism is a perversion, a heresy of Elegance."

"In reality Dandyism is studied affectation. In becoming a dandy, a man becomes a piece of bedroom furniture, an elaborated stuffed dummy one can position on a horse or on a couch, one who sucks and bites the end of a cane, but never a thinking being..., this never! The man who only sees dress in dressing is a fool. Elegance does not exclude thought or science; it consecrates them!”, says Balzac.

When Dandyism embodies superficiality, slavish adherence to form over substance, it becomes affectation and ornament. When Dandyism conducts to the highest level of thought, ideas, and creativity in the face of crushing conformity, it is more to our taste. Two contrary states are described by the same word.

Now we have a good idea of what Elegance isn't thanks to our good friends Troggie, Charlie and Dandy. In the next installment we will take a look at how "the elegant man dresses!"