# Who is Beau Brummel? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 23, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122 "2005-05-23T17:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/1 "2005-05-23T17:58:39Z")
Who is this mysterious Beau Brummel person? I have heard of him in two places: Garfield cartoon, and a Billy Joel song: You could really be a Beau Brummel baby if you just give it half a chance I get the idea he was either a really bad dresser or a really snappy one. I’ve tried to google him and come up with this: > [@](#): > > Brummel, Beau. Born in London in 1778. In his day, the prince of dandies; was patronized by the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Quarreled with the prince. Fled from his creditors to Calais where, reduced to destitution, he lived some years in the same reckless fashion. He settled at length in Caen, where he became insane, and died in 1840. And stuff like that, which obviously doesn’t help me much. It says he’s a dandy, but why do we still talk about him? Please help! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/2 "2005-05-23T18:03:42Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I get the idea he was either a really bad dresser or a really snappy one. Really snappy. I’ve read a biography of him, but it was quite a long time ago . . . He was known as a dandy-about-town, was widely written about (and wrote about himself), and was, I believe, the first “modern-dressed” man, i.e., he trimmed out all the frills and wigs and diamond buttons and popularized low-key elegance: well-fitting trousers, well-tailored coats with little froufrou on them, trimmed, unpowdered hair. He’d be considered laughably overdressed now, but in his day he was very minimalist. Plus, he was a great wit, which always helps! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/3 "2005-05-23T18:13:00Z")
Ok, that really helps. I guess I am kind of young. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/4 "2005-05-23T18:13:46Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I guess I am kind of young. 🙂 Of course, I remember seeing him on the streets myself back in the 1820s . . . ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/5 "2005-05-23T18:16:03Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Of course, I remember seeing him on the streets myself back in the 1820s . . . Sorry! You see, for the longest time I thought he was a prominent figure in the _1970’s_. I’ve read that bio but it’s stuck in my head that he’s a recent figure. I’d never call you _old_. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/6 "2005-05-23T18:21:54Z")
Um. Yes, you (and all of us) would be too young. Beau Brummel was the fashion leader in Georgian England. He was _the_ arbiter of taste–I believe he either made Prinny fashionable or shunned him for his lack of taste–or both, probably! IMS, he relied on the cut of his coat and breeches, as well as well-polished boots, elegant jewelry etc. In a way, he was the anti-thesis of “dandy”–because he eschewed the extremes of fashion. I didn’t google his name, but I’m sure there’s a whole slew of hits about him. He died in France, suffering from unrelieved debts and poor health. Again, IMS, the debts were of an “honorable” nature(aka gaming). ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/7 "2005-05-23T18:22:37Z")
He has his very own statue on Jermyn Street in London: [http://hittypreble.com/beau-brummel-1.jpg](http://hittypreble.com/beau-brummel-1.jpg) Here’s a cigarette card too: [http://www.georgianindex.net/Prinny/brummel.jpg](http://www.georgianindex.net/Prinny/brummel.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/8 "2005-05-23T18:22:55Z")
must preview… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/9 "2005-05-23T18:30:40Z")
Maybe [these guys](http://www.beaubrummels.com/pages/1/index.htm) are why you thought he was a more modern person yes, in fact I _do_ have all of their albums… ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/10 "2005-05-24T07:43:31Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I get the idea he was either a really bad dresser or a really snappy one. Oh Lordy!!! To South African ears this is too much to handle - Beau Brummel is/was a “prominent” nudist and an ugly old bastard, not what I would call a “snappy dresser” 😃😃 :smack: I can’t find any news of him dating later than 2001, when he was campaigning for mixed race nudist camps. [Link 1](http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=79&art_id=ct20010223201004821N325722) [Link 2](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1162673.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/11 "2005-05-24T07:53:45Z")
I remember reading somewhere that Beau Brummel (the English one) popularised the fashion of _men’s_ corsets in the 1820s and 1830s…had to fit into those [skinny waistcoats,](http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t790/T790985A.jpg) you see. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/12 "2005-05-24T12:02:32Z")
**Eve** said this, but I’m not sure that it registered with some of you younger folks. You can not overestimate the influence Beau Brummel had and has to this day. He pretty much single-handedly revolutionized the way men dress, and his influence is very much alive to this day. Despise a guy in a lime green or powder blue tuxedo? That’s Beau Brummel. Hate pink leisure suits? Beau Brummel. Look back in astonishment at how men used to dress more loudly and ornately than women? Beau Brummel changed all that. He was the one who changed men from wearing brilliant colors, lace, jewels all over the place, velvet, spangles, jeweled high heel shoes, etc, to wearing black, navy, grey, brown, and tan, with white shirts. A man’s clothes, he decreed, should be conspicuous only for the excellence of their tailoring. Basically, he defined what we consider to this day to be good taste. He is believed to have said once of a man dressed extremely ornately: “His tailor makes him. Now me, I make my tailor!” His influence was not restricted to clothing alone. He was witty, and yet self-effacing in the sense of lacking bombast and braggadocio. His snubs and cuts were absolutely deadly, but never rude. He would take up minor eccentricities just for the sake of seeing all the wannabes imitate them, and then drop the habit flat. Again, his influence in behavior was toward the subtle, the muted - he went for the ironic rather than the horse laugh. Think Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Wedding - that kind of guy (although not, to my knowledge, gay). It’s amazing, because he was of genteel but not noble birth, moderate fortune, moderate looks. There was no reason why, beyond sheer force of personality, this man should have become not only the contemporary arbiter of fashion in London, but a two-century-and-counting influence on social behavior throughout the western world. Maybe it wasn’t him - maybe the changes would have happened anyway. There’s no way to know. But when you look around and see the way men dress for business, or the types of behavior that are considered to be in good taste, chances are good that you can trace them right back to Beau Brummel. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/13 "2005-05-24T14:28:54Z")
I meant _Regency_ England. And what **Oy!** said. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/14 "2005-05-24T15:16:26Z")
I thought that Beau Brummel was the band that sang [Laugh, Laugh](http://www.epinions.com/content_181981384324). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/15 "2005-05-24T16:30:02Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Of course, I remember seeing him on the streets myself back in the 1820s . . . Was he with Olivia de Havilland? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/16 "2005-05-24T16:31:28Z")
And is any other queen currently hearing the lyrics > [@](#): > > _Your clothes may be… > Beau Brummel-ly, > they stand out a mile, > but brother > you’re never fully dressed without a smile!_ ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/17 "2005-05-24T19:13:45Z")
Appropriately enough, Beau Brummel shares the same birthday (June 7) with Prince; somewhat less appropriately with Dean Martin (who, while not an obsessive fashion plate, made as much a _bella figura_ as an Italian male should); and, not appropriately whatsoever, with Yours Truly, who looks like he’d been spayed with industial adhesive and dragged through a Salvation Army drop-off bin. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/18 "2005-05-24T20:23:53Z")
If I’m not mistaken, he also pushed for better personal hygiene-bathing more frequently, keeping clean and healthy. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/19 "2005-05-24T22:48:09Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Who is this mysterious Beau Brummel person? I have heard of him in two places: Garfield cartoon, and a Billy Joel song: To add another place, in a picture caption in _Groucho and Me_, Groucho Marx ironically refers to himself as “the Beau Brummel of the early 20th century.” Not that I had a clue what that meant until this thread. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122/20 "2005-05-24T23:19:17Z")
The first metrosexual. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-beau-brummel/305122.md?page=2)