Aubrey Beardsley was one of the most fascinating of artists. He was born in 1872 so he's
Victorian but he came of age in this extraordinary decade of the 1890s. As a
child he was diagnosed as being tubercular for which there was no cure so he
must have always known that he would die young. By the age of 25 he was dead. He
was intent on causing a sensation and he certainly managed that
Do you think that we can consider Beardsley as a dandy? I think he kind of
fits a kind of really interesting pattern of where dandyism had got to by
the 1890s and it's meant different things at different times but he's sort of
fascinated by the idea of creating image whether himself or on paper. How would
you define dandyism? I think everyone's got their own definition in a curious
way Baudelaire said the clothes are only the
symbol of an inner sense of superiority that quite appeals to me. I think for me
I've always associated dandyism with the aspirational and the unattainable
growing up most if not all representations of the dandy depicts him
as male so being a girl that mode of masculinity always seemed inaccessible
to me which is why I think dandyism lends itself so well to something like
drag because drag can by nature be an art form that is temporary and that sits
outside of the everyday. As a drag king the whole notion of dandyism really
appeals to me as this exuberant other way of being. Yeah it's interesting
whether dandyism is performative and whether
it's the performance of five minutes on stage or whether dandyism is
performative in the sense of it being a lifetime's performance. It strikes me
that Beardsley actually loves the whole notion
of dressing up. The whole world is a dressing up box for him
He loved to dress himself very elegantly but the details are often just that
little touch more extravagant And I think with dressing up there is always
that element of a fantasy which I think the dandy really embodies because they
do stand outside the parameters of everyday life
This place is wonderful, it's got a thousand different looks that we can choose from. Velvet is
always the answer yeah whatever the question. Yes I think
I need something in a similar line there a velvet frock coat I think that's quite
'moi'. Here we go. And how many buttons have you done up? I've done two. There's a lot of
argument about buttons. If you've got three buttons you can only do up the
middle one. If you've got four you can do them all up
oh wow Is that looking promising?
yes I think that coat was made for that outfit
I think I might just possibly walk away wearing this one
What would a female dandy be like? Aubrey Beardsley's sister Mabel was an aspiring
actress. She actually quite often dressed as a man and there are paintings that
show her wearing men's costume of the day. So tell me all about this
drag performance? Some of the time I am known as a drag king called Orlando, a
reference to Virginia Woolf's novel. You have Woolf's play on gender and as an
English student it seemed obvious. I think Beardsley would have actually got it
I think he was very well aware of the idea of how much is it real, how much is
it just fantasy? It's the idea of fluidity and gender and sexuality as
moveable that's something that we see in Beardsley that's something that we see
in the work of drag kings and queens with contemporary pop stars playing with
masculinity and femininity and I think dandies say things for effect
they say things to get a reaction. Beardsley came up with wonderful ones like
'I caught cold by going out without the tassle on my walking stick'
He knew exactly how to manipulate publicity as well, he's very very clever at
creating his own image. The minute he becomes famous people
start to interview him for magazines and he spins them wonderful lines, he says
'Oh I can only draw at night with the curtains drawn by the light of
two ormolu candlesticks'. He knows exactly how to position himself to
indicate that he belongs to this very precious world of decadence
Baudelaire's wonderful line is that 'dandyism is the last spark of heroism amid decadence'
I think that kind of fits Beardsley rather beautifully. I like the idea that with
dandyism as performative, what's happening beneath the performance I
think that's what really interests me. I love the story of Beau Brummell
and his spending four hours getting ready to go out for 20 minutes and of
trying endlessly to tie the perfect cravat and his manservant found with an
arm full of crumpled scarves saying 'These, sir, are our failures'
It's just that wonderful idea that you've got to get it right
Historically there was a real class implication which I think for a lot of
people definitely ties into the idea of dandyism as being unattainable
The funny thing is you get lots of different sorts of dandies even from
other what you might call walks of life. I'm thinking of the sapeur and I think they
kind of reference zoot suits and fifties and sixties tailoring. And the
way that they take traditionally Western cuts and styles and reimagine and
reinterpret them with really bold colours. They create an amazing effect and
absolutely live the dream. So maybe we could say then that dandyism is
something which can be reconsidered, reimagined and reinterpreted by anyone
really. It's that idea that you create yourself to make your own statement