A Study of Elegance Parts I and II

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Part I

It is time to turn away from the discussion of coats and trousers, fabrics and thread, to one of Elegance itself. Using Honore de Balzac’s seminal “Treatise on Elegant Living” as our guide, please find the first installment of the Study of Elegance.

Many times over the course of the last year the question of style or "form" versus substance was discussed. The all too often contraries are united in the phenomenon known as "Elegance."

Let's first be clear on the use of words that are sometimes confused. The words "stylish" and "elegant" are often used interchangeably. And yet, one can be dressed in a completely "stylish" manner and not be in the least bit "elegant" while one who is "elegant" is always "stylish" whatever the clothes they happen to wear. In a similar way, the words "beautiful" and "elegant" are often confused despite the fact that "beautiful" is not always "elegant" but elegance is always beautiful.

So what is Elegance? How do we recognize it and how can we learn it?

Elegance is the unity of several virtues that when combined transform the merely beautiful or stylish into something of much greater consequence and substance.

Now many might consider the study of Elegance to be a presumptuous one. Is the study of the weather, anatomy, physics particularly presumptuous? These are studies of naturally occurring phenomenon, the same kind that "elegantologists", a term coined by de Balzac, choose to explore and understand.

The perceivable effect of Elegance in the natural world is presence and magnetism. It is a phenomenon similar to what theatrical people call "stage presence." When the actor Orson Welles entered a room "his presence nearly sucked all the oxygen out of the room", wrote a journalist of the time.

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."


As Brummel instructed, “presence” is nothing that would make us stop in the street and turn around to look because it is only partly a visual stimulus. Instead "presence" communicates to all our senses together and deeply: the physical, spiritual and moral. It refreshes and expands our vision. We seem to understand the answer to questions we have never posed or imagined before. It is neither poetry nor music but both at the same time. For Balzac,

“It is an exquisite sense of tact, whose constant use and practice allows us to see otherwise hidden relationships, predict consequences, imagine the true dimensions and import of objects, words, ideas and beings, for, to summarize, the principle of Elegance is the vision of order, balance and harmony that reveals the intrinsic poetry of all things."

So we are embarking together on a study of a naturally occurring phenomenon that goes beyond a trivial and superficial question of fashion or style.

“The man who only sees dress in dressing is a fool. Elegance does not exclude thought or science; it consecrates them!”

So we have concluded and I hope you agree, that Elegance can be studied. But an essential question remains, is Elegance something that can be learned and applied?

Aphorism IX

"A man can become rich, but he is born elegant."

"To distinguish one's life with elegance, it is no longer sufficient to be born a noble or to have won the jackpot in one of modern times human lotteries, instead one must have been graced with that hard to define faculty that allows us to always choose things that are beautiful and good, things that when joined together match both our physique and our person.”

There is no reason to be too discouraged by this essential verity as Balzac believes that some aspects of elegance can be learned. But "natural" elegance is a gift one is either born with or not.

"Since Elegance is the perfection of real, physical objects, it should be accessible to all given practice. Patient study might lead a rich man to wear shoes and trousers just as well as we do and to spend his fortune with grace and wit....No! exclaimed Brummel slamming his fist on the table, not all legs are fit to even wear the boot or trouser..No, milord, no! "

(Well, we didn't really think an Englishman and a Frenchman would agree on everything, did we?)

Aphorism XLII

“The brute covers himself, the rich man and the fop decorate 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 the next installment of our discussion.