Elegant Living

[alden]

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.

[uppercase]

Indeed, a very worthy follow up to your past musings on elegance, the elegant life and the elegant spirt.

The beautiful soul.

""The elegant being has the same effect on those around him. He does nothing to draw attention to himself, but our attention goes to him nonetheless. This is "presence." De Balzac writes

"Acquiring this magnetic power is the great objective of living elegantly. We all need to try to tap into its power, but success in this endeavor is always extremely difficult, for to have it we need possess a beautiful soul.""

The beautiful soul.

To fill it with compassion, forgivness, kindness and generosity.

As we strive to express the desire for harmony, proportion, balance and ease in our lives through our clothing, it is really only one small attempt to bring grace and beauty to our lives generally.

[Gruto]

Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie

An aestheticization of anonymity

[Marabunta]

Most interesting. Regarding clothes . . . for me, it's not difficult to spot an 'aristocrat,' if there really is such a thing . . . as opposed to someone who has tried all his life, to achieve elegance. Not that all aristocrats, are elegant . . . but those who are, sometimes affect a 'telltale,' repose, a quiet reserve, altogether absent in 'newly arrived,' fashion plates. For me, the actor Zachary Scott, was the last word, in sartorial elegance.
The heir to two, huge fortunes . . . civility and urbanity were his hallmarks.
Regarding women's fashion . . . very, very few designers have achieved what it took, to create true elegance. Rhythm, craftsmanship, creativity, daring, perfection of line, and fit . . . all must be in synch. A daunting task. Vionnet, Balenciaga, and Yves Saint Laurent, are the three geniuses, who come to mind.
Rhythm and balance are essential in interior design, too. When I created the gallery for the Saint Laurent exhibition that I curated, I had to stand back and peruse the entire scene, from many angles. Finally, I was satisfied that nothing 'stood out' too much, or faded away into the background, or made only a modicum of an impression. A challenge, but fun, too.

[ccox]

Gentlemen;
I heartily encourage you all to meet Sara and Gerald Murphy. They are the subjects of a new exhibition at Williams College (http://www.wcma.org/modules/murphy/index.html), a marvelous book by Amanda Vaill (Everybody Was So Young), and inspired works of art by F.Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Philip Berry, Pablo Picasso and Ferdinand Leger, among many others.

Together they made living into a fine art. Inspiration at its best for pursuing the elegant life.

Regards,
CCox

[storeynicholas]

For me, the elusive thing (maybe the It Factor), is very well put by a couple of English writers: first, Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton, in lines from his great poem 'The Men of Old':

'Man now his Virtue's diadem
Puts on and proudly wears:
Great thoughts, great feelings came to them
Like instincts, unawares.
Blending their souls' sublimest needs
With tasks of every day,
They went about their gravest deeds
As noble boys at play.'

- and, secondly, Ben Jonson, in the lines:

'Give me a look, give me a face
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free:
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all th' adulteries of art;
They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.'

So it must come from within - and can but be enhanced by good clothes.
NJS.

[SMCK]

I have just discovered Nicholas Storey's blog : the nakedapegetsdressed.blogspot.com.
This seemed to me to be the best place to put my question.
Is this blog available via E mail?
I do receive other blogs via E mail and have not yet ventured into the world of Facebook, which I think ( maybe incorrectly, is aimed at a younger age group than I)
I can find no way of contacting Nicholas Storey to ask wether he can do E mail or no; hence placing my question here.
Meanwhile I must recommend this blog to other London loungers as it covers many similar topics in a well written and entertaining way.

[Edward Bainbridge]

You can subscribe to blogspot blogs as RSS or Atom feeds. Depending on what e-mail software you use, they might simply appear in your inbox. Otherwise, you can use some web-based service which will fetch the new posts as a feed and send them on to you as a regular e-mail.
I haven't any experiences with this, so I can't recommend any in particular, but I'm sure you'll find something: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22rss+to+e-mail%22

[SMCK]

Thank you Edward.
The internet never ceases to amaze me, the things one can do seem limitless.
Thank you for your help and for that link which seems to work so await my first mail!

[storeynicholas]

I am so sorry that I missed these last posts. My blog is still running but, owing to a few recent pressures of time, it has been fallow for the last few days. I'll do my best to catch up soon and thanks for the interest.
NJS

[cathach]

Hello,

I wonder if there would be a way to put up a directory of sites that provide those hard to find essential items (copper hot water bottle anyone)? Also I know of the accredited artisans but is there a place on the forum to put up details of semi-bespoke made in the EU items or clothing? Or where details of tailors not in UK could be put? I have a list of Irish tailors and shirtmakers that members may be interested in. Just a thought.

Micheal

[marburyvmadison]

Hello,

I wonder if there would be a way to put up a directory of sites that provide those hard to find essential items (copper hot water bottle anyone)? Also I know of the accredited artisans but is there a place on the forum to put up details of semi-bespoke made in the EU items or clothing? Or where details of tailors not in UK could be put? I have a list of Irish tailors and shirtmakers that members may be interested in. Just a thought.

Micheal

Those Irish artisans sound interesting.