Dior Museum Celebrates History Of Dandyism

Boys Keep Swinging...

The Independent newspaper in the UK has a spread entitled THE ART OF MALE ATTIRE (see below) which takes a look at a new French exhibition, Dandysmes, at The Dior family home, now a museum, on the Normandy coast at Granville.

The exhibition spans two centuries of dandies, marking the bicentenary of the birth of Jules Barbey D'Aurevilley, also a native of Normandy, who wrote a definitive treatise on dandyism.

Here's a bit from the Independent spread...

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In the unlikely setting of the small Norman seaside town of Granville, an exhibition has opened to record two centuries of "dandyism" ? from radical, in-your-face, male peacockery to studied elegance. The exhibition is called Dandysmes, in the plural, to emphasise the fact that dandyism, at its best, is always individual, even heroic. (It takes, one imagines, a kind of heroism to wear a turquoise, fur-edged bow-tie.)

One of the lessons from the exhibition, and its excellent catalogue, is that dandyism ? from Brummell to Oscar Wilde to David Bowie and John Galliano ? has almost always been a British-led phenomenon. Female chic may be forever French but radical, or over-the-top, male elegance is, to the French at any rate, largely British-inspired.

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Representing David Bowie is the jacket from a black suit designed by Hedi Slimane for Dior mens-wear which he wore when he played the Olympia in Paris in 2002. (07.02.2002 NEWS: LAST NIGHT'S PARIS SHOW RECORDED FOR TV)

You can read the whole Independent article here.

The exhibition runs until September 21st and you can reach the official site here.