Hi, everyone and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope.

欢迎回来【闲话英伦】.

Hi 安澜.

Hi, lulu. Hi everyone.

And welcome back to the studio.

Thank you.

So how was your holiday?

Really really good. Very wet, very cold, there were two storms in the UK, but I stayed at home .

Binge eating and binge drinking

Pretty much.

I think all holidays around the world are pretty much the same, food oriented, family oriented, that's about it.

Exactly. When I came back to china, I did find that my clothes were a little bit snug, let's say snug. That's better than saying I’ve got fat.

So what are we going to talk about today?

As I was struggling to put on my clothes,

Okay.

I started thinking about something from British history and I started thinking about the dandies.

The dandies, the best dressers. 首先解释下 dandies, 你知道在中文里其实不是特别好翻译这个dandy. 我看过直接音译的叫 “丹迪主义”, 我也看过它被翻译成 “绅士”, 或者有一种直接翻译成”纨绔子弟”.

翻译是也有点奇怪.

Yeah, because a very specific type of men and it's got its own context, historical context.

Yeah. I would also say, but even British people and English speakers don't really quite understand what a dandy is or what a dandy was.

Well, I guess it's just part of the history. Nowadays nobody really says that, I mean would they say he's such a dandy, you wouldn't say that, would you ?

Well, you would say he's such a dandy, but it's always negative.

So what does that mean now if you say he's such a dandy.

If you say he’s such a dandy, then you are saying he cares too much about his appearance. He worries too much about how he looks, how he dresses. It has the connotation of he's acting a little bit girly.

okay, 精致男那种感觉, but you know let's dive in history and let's go back to the origin of these words and then let's start from there.

Okay. So I would say first of all, that what a dandy originally was is very different to what we perceive them as today (okay). I would say that dandies were the original metrosexual men.

Metrosexual. For our listeners you probably heard of heterosexual, homosexual, sapiosexual, but what is metrosexual? Do you know back in university when I was doing my translation degree, (yeah) we actually had this huge discussion, two-hour discussion as in how to translate the word metrosexual.

It’s a difficult word to translate.

Metro means metropolitan right? (yeah) City, urban life; and sexual, just sexual. Metrosexual的那个意思, 我们最后决定把它翻译成“都市欲男”或者”都市花美男”.

I would say that's a pretty decent translation.

It's not really a sexual orientation, is it? It's not necessarily that they are gay or they like men. It's just that they just love grooming themselves dressing better.

They just wanna be well groomed. So they focus about... So they focus on their hair, they focus on skin care, they focus on clothes. That is what a metrosexual is.

They're not your traditional manly man that never shower.

Exactly.

That's a stereotype. I'm pretty sure there are lots of you male listeners out there that take care of your personal hygiene. Yes, so dandy these were the original metro sexual men. They were in the 18th century. No?

Yeah You're looking towards the later half of the 18th century and the reason why you have a dandy is actually comes from war.

Hang on, I just can't put these two to get... dandy, the well dressed metrosexual man(yeah) and soldiers in the war?

Okay.

That's because in the past, men and women, they would focus a lot on France, so they would look at French fashion which focused on very bright colors. It focused on clothes that very flashy with lots of gold.

the pale skin.

the very pale skin,

the wigs, the cotton candy wig.

the huge wigs, and men wearing makeup. But in the 18th century, what happened?

Oh. It's France became your enemy.

Exactly. We went to war with France again. Lots of aristocrats, lots of men started saying we're very patriotic. We're not going to dress like the French. We're going to invent our own style of clothes and our own style and our own fashion.

Our own style of metrosexual men.

Exactly, and that's exactly what happened.

Okay, so back then a dandy, like you said, a man who really was well groomed, well dressed. Anything else?

Also manners. This was the era where men were expected to show their emotions.

OH, So it's completely against this whole real men don't cry, it’s like real men do cry.

Real men cry a lot. If you read 18th century English literature, all of the men are crying. And that's seen as a good thing, that's seen as being in touch with your feelings. It was only the 19th century where you had the idea of the stiff upper lip.

WOW. I mean history is fun, it’s just... and that also goes to show how much of what we think is normal, it’s just shaped by societal changes.

Exactly. And I would say that we can probably talk about it a little bit later, but how ideas of masculinity are constantly changing? So Everyone goes from one extreme to another.

Masculinity就是用男子气概男性气概what makes a man, how men should behave.

By the way, talking about dandy I bet there were some poster child or poster children or like an icon. That is the dandy.

His name was Beau Brummell.

And when I hear dandy, I always think about Oscar Wilde, would Oscar Wilde be considered a dandy?

Oscar Wilde would be considered a little bit of a dandy, but when you think of a pure dandy, you think of this man, Beau Brummell.

Beau like beau?

Beau is an old fashioned word for dandy. And it's also a very old fashioned word for a handsome young man or lover.

Beau in French, this means beautiful. oh so basically like nowadays we would say, like帅哥, 靓仔 that sort of thing .

Exactly, except that in the 19th century people would say he's my Beau, which means he's the man I love, he's the handsome young man that I like.

I see.

But we don't say that anymore, if you say that you sound like my great grandmother.

Yeah exactly, I think I've watched some comedy show making fun of their grandmother using the word Beau to refer to their boyfriends.

Okay, what made him the most famous dandy.

He was the one that really first started this whole idea. Brummell wasn't an aristocrat, but eventually he became friends with the prince of Wales and other leading nobles. And He essentially became like their personal shopper/ fashion influencer.

Ah Yeah, actually, if you... in today's context, he would definitely be like a social media influencer, a fashion influencer, the one who's sharing OOTD every day.

YEAH. and that's what he did. Okay, without mobile phones.

So he was famous for how he dressed. He wasn't famous for being a great intellect. He was famous for being quite witty and also for being very well dressed. So famous that people would actually pay to watch him dress.

YEAH. like I said a fashion influenza, yeah, sharing OOTD, outfit of the day.

Exactly, so people just go into his bedroom. It would take him hours to dress. He would just focus on how to make the perfect cravat, how to make the perfect tie.

Cravat是领巾, 宽的不是那种领带. Yeah. I've seen you wearing a cravat.

You have.

Yeah well, makes you a bit of a dandy.

It does, I guess, yeah.

For those of our male listeners out there, I don't know if you have ever heard of cravat. If you're interested, check online, check the pictures and see if you have worn them. I think especially for Chinese guys, if you have worn a cravat, chances are you're probably much more into fashion than other people.

YES. Brummell just focus so much on fashion. It was rumored that he used to clean his boots with champagne.

Hang on a minute我CPU都干烧了. So cleaning his boots with champagne? Wouldn’t that make it a bit sticky.

I think that's why it's a rumor because I don't know about you, but if you accidentally spill champagne, it just becomes very sticky.

Exactly.Exactly. But obviously that means he was rich.

WELL. He was rich to a certain extent. So he was rich because people would pay to watch him dress. Probably people also gave him clothes as well, like an influencer.

I was just going to say, so these big designers would just give him clothes because he would be able to promote them (Oh. YEAH.) in a way .

before we even had big designers.

Oh true true. Famous tailors back then.