The Dandy: A People’s History of Sartorial Splendour
The Mark Twain House and Museum
Hartford
Sept. 18, 2025
Was Mark Twain a bit of a dandy?
I don’t mean that as a pejorative term, especially after listening to author and historian Peter K. Andersson talk about new book, The Dandy: A People’s History of Sartorial Splendour, during a virtual discussion at the Mark Twain House in Hartford.
As host Omar Acevedo drew the connection during their conversation, the comparison made sense: Twain was quite fond of his white suit, which even in his era was a fancy look for a gentleman.
Andersson described the dandy as someone who is not only particularly interested in male fashion and style, but also with a particular outlook on life. Dandies are typically young men who dress in flamboyant, counterculture styles that serve as both a provocation to the established order and a self-conscious performance by the wearer. Their general attitude is characterized by a laissez-faire quality, or at worst a kind of nihilism.
Andersson explained that as the dandy counterculture developed and flourished in the 19th century, the Old Guard of men’s fashion and behavior had nothing good to say. Dandies somehow embodied all of the anxiety about men’s sexuality in the era, simultaneously being targeted for alleged homosexuality and for being lascivious womanizers. They were derided as “men that didn’t have a war to fight,” which explained their frivolous dress and behavior.
These negative attitudes persisted as dandyism shifted from British shores and began to find expression among newly freed African Americans in the United States. Attempts by the formerly enslaved to find dignity and respect in their dress and appearance were mocked by broader white society, leading to the explosion of minstrelsy as an entertainment form that specifically targeted African American dandies.
Still, dandyism became a powerful cultural and social force. Andersson described how African American dandies chose to sit wherever they liked on trains in the early 20th century, openly defying Jim Crow and segregation well before the Civil Rights movement.
Dandyism eventually led to the zoot suit, which reached its popularity during World War II. The counterculture nature of dandyism itself, racial tensions and overzealous feelings of patriotism led to the Zoot Suit riots. Mexican and Latino youth were attacked and stripped by white servicemen who thought the exorbitant use of fabric for zoot suits, during rationing for the war, was unpatriotic.
Andersson said that he hasn’t seen a new dandy subculture emerge in recent years, since the New Romantics of the 1970s who modeled their fashion on glam rock icons such as David Bowie and Roxy Music. I’m certainly not an historian, but it seems that the tradition of dandyism may have migrated to online spaces. There, it seems to be alive and well in at least two places.
One of the most famous internet personalities of the last couple of years is Derek Guy, known colloquially as “The Menswear Guy.” While Guy’s popularity has exploded on Twitter thanks to his social and political commentary, he has described himself as forged in the hell of online menswear forums. He often comments on men’s fashion specifically related to the wearing and maintenance of suits.
While some might say that simply talking about men’s suits does not itself constitute dandyism, African Americans are once again pushing forward dandyism as a subculture of the menswear ecosystem. There are thousands of videos of Black men wearing extremely stylized, colorful suits with an array of accessories that challenge perceptions about style, form and masculinity in modern fashion.
Dandyism persists because fashion is one of the most direct forms of self-expression. The racial and class tensions of the style remain a fixture of the movement, showing that even while style may change, the fundamentals remain the same.
NEXTThe Mark Twain House presents More Than Words this Friday at 7 p.m.
Jamil goes to hear the artist discuss an exhibit he previously visited.
