#known dandy authority edward bulwer-lytton

[clove-pinks]

When I was recently in London, I saw an exhibition on menswear at the V&A that included this incredible print from 1819 called Laceing a Dandy.

The caption read: "This satirical print illustrates the use of corsetry by men while lampooning male vanity and effeminacy. The dandy, with exaggerated coiffure, neck and waist, begs his servants not to 'spoil my breasts! The depiction of this Black man and French hairdresser reflect racist and homophobic stereotypes. A loss of manhood is further implied by a large pair of phallic-shaped shears hanging on the mirror."

Thought you'd appreciate this!!

Thank you for sending this, and my apologies for my very delayed response!!

You're actually the second person to send me a picture of this satirical print from the "Fashioning Masculinities" exhibit! (But the first on tumblr, which is better for discussion). I reached out to people who are more knowledgeable about women's dress history for the names of the doohickeys at the bottom of the stays, turns out they're called tabs. I may not have known the name, but I know that I've only seen them on extant women's stays, not men's. Other caricatures I've seen also put tabs on a man's stays, with the obvious intent of ridiculing him as womanish.

Here is a possibly more realistic(?) depiction of a contemporary (c. 1820s) dandy getting dressed (Rijksmuseum):

I question the padding worn directly on the body. I'm not saying this never happened, but as far as I know only the clothing was padded to give a more desirable silhouette, and we have extant examples, like this 1830 Royal Marines uniform with padded chest, that the National Maritime Museum Greenwich states was probably worn with a corset:

Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1828 novel Pelham has a scene where a tailor talks about padding the clothes of the dandy protagonist:

“We are a very good figure, Mr. Pelham; very good figure,” replied the Schneider, surveying me from head to foot, while he was preparing his measure; “we want a little assistance though; we must be padded well here; we must have our chest thrown out, and have an additional inch across the shoulders; we must live for effect in this world, Mr. Pelham; a leetle tighter round the waist, eh?”

Pelham protests, and the tailor rejoins that "all the gentlemen in the Life Guards are padded, Sir."

So I suspect that the pads attached to the body are only to make caricature dandies look as silly as possible, but I could be wrong!