PROFILE
Antony Jerram modelling a suit from Carlo Brandelli's Kilgour collection
of the last, depicting him as a threadbare pauper, hunched back, tattered, old- fashioned clothes and bearing a walking cane whose top was a carved head of his one-time friend, Prince George. Claiming that one needed at least fi ve hours to get dressed and not getting up too early in the morning (for it to be thoroughly aired), Brummell had many quirks. Gentlemen would queue outside his house in Mayfair’s Chesterfi eld Street to watch him getting ready for a day’s pleasure at his club, the gaming tables or commissioning another snuff box. Today there is the blue plaque to remind us. Brummell had his boots blacked till they shone like light itself and even demanded the soles to be ebonized. According to sartorial legend, he fi nished off the polishing process with the tops lavished with the mousse of the fi nest champagne – something I witnessed Olga Berluti of the shoe supremo, Berluti, perform as almost a sacred act – in tiny circular motions. Brummell changed his shirt three times a day and once had the confi dence to say to a gentleman who asked his opinion about a newly commissioned coat: “D’ye call that thing a coat?” Perhaps, apart from the sparseness of the cut of his clothes and the practical duo chrome simplicity – one garment informing other – Brummell is credited with having invented the narrow ankle trouser. This was much like a vintage ski pant with straps under the foot to keep them taut.
“Brummell was iconic on the Regency scene, hugely instrumental and infl uential without being of birth...”
He ignored jewellery, but invested in
“plenty of country washing”, certainly not of his time as people in general regarded bathing as dangerous. Many women slept with cats to deter the mice which nested in their wigs which they did not remove at night nor have washed. Brummell’s obsessive cleanliness even extended to removing with tweezers every last facial hair daily to give the smoothest, marble-white complexion possible. Of course favour and fortune could not last, especially combined with an addiction for gambling and an over confi dence where even Prince George was concerned. There are two stories that seem to signal Brummell’s downfall. Once, when dining with the Prince, he
said tartly, “ring the bell, George.” Then whilst out with a companion, he met Prince George strolling with a friend. “Who’s your fat friend?” was enough to destroy Brummell. Brummell fl ed to France, avoiding both
his creditors’ and debtors’ prison. Mean- while his possessions were ignominiously sold at auction accompanied by an advertisement – once belonging to “a man of fashion, now gone to the continent”. He ended his days in an asylum, tended by kind nuns, raving and doubly incontinent. A humiliating ending for the man that defi ned the path of modern and contemporary masculine dress. His importance though is too great to let him be forgotten. He remains the gold standard when it comes to male attire. Q
40 SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE
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