Dandy Style: 250 Years of British Men's Fashion, Shaun Cole and Miles Lambert

Dandy Style charts 250 years of sartorial panache, tracing the lineage from Regency icon Beau Brummell to today’s sartorial provocateurs. This beautifully curated volume—rich with fashion photography, portraiture, and archival illustrations—examines how elegance became an art of rebellion and self-expression for men. Whether through the foppish flamboyance of Oscar Wilde or the tailored mastery of Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, it reveals how dandyism continually reshapes notions of identity, taste and societal norms.

Structured around themes of refinement, uniformity and spectacle, the book pairs historical analysis with contemporary commentary, showing how each era’s dandy uses clothes as a statement. Featured figures range from Edward VIII and Gilbert & George to Ozwald Boateng and modern-day urban stylists. Designed as the companion to a Manchester Art Gallery exhibition, Dandy Style is both scholarly and visually arresting—a manifesto of male elegance that refuses to stay buttoned down.

About the Author
Shaun Cole is Associate Professor in Fashion at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton; his research sits at the intersection of menswear, identity and cultural expression.

Miles Lambert, Curator of Costume at Manchester Art Gallery, brings decades of experience staging exhibitions that dissect clothing’s social and aesthetic roles

Publication date: 2021 
Publisher: Yale University
Pages: 168
ISBN: 9780300254136