mayfairmonster: (Out on the town; Being followed)
Dorian Gray (The Confessions of Dorian Gray) ([personal profile] mayfairmonster) wrote2015-08-29 03:54 am
Entry tags:

Fashion !!

So, clothes. Big deal, right?

(That's right, you. They're the biggest of deals.)






Fashion as Self-Invention

In Dorian's world (and arguably the world of all things Wildean) good clothes, like surrounding yourself with good art, are an essential part of the creation of a personal aesthetic. And when you believe, as Dorian does, that the appreciation of beauty adds an unmissable dimension to life (happiness! beholding ideals! glimpsing worlds that otherwise don't exist outside of art! come on, utilitarians!), you can't afford not to include clothing in that dimension. The artistically-inclined individualist looks at clothing not as something pretty to throw on to turn heads, but as part of one's personal brand: a vital part of the character (harshly restricted to the upper classes as it is) and a calling card that other aesthetes will recognize as a sign that you know what's up. Or, as Oscar put it in part: "Waistcoats will show whether a man can admire poetry or not." In short, it's more than just fashion. To the aesthete at the height of the Aesthetic Movement, good style was a symbol of a cultured and quality mind, built upon hours of painstakingly cultivated sensibility.

While aware of modern fashion and the pillars of conventional dress, for Dorian pretty clothes are primarily this element of self-creation as well as an indulgence--and one he throws himself into. He's flamboyant. Experimental rather than a follower when it comes to his tastes, and for those young men impressed by his style and sheer lack of fucks (and paradoxically, the incredible amount of fucks given), he was something of a tastemaker in his original time.

But because The Picture of Dorian Gray doesn't actually provide details of Dorian's fashion preferences (plenty of information about etched toilet seats, though!), I've done a little research to throw together an approximation of his tastes. To do so I've drawn heavily from Oscar Wilde's personal style/philosophy of dress. (I've left my notes out of this post for the sake of keeping it... only image heavy, but feel free to request an essay if philosophies of fashion are your thing!) All information comes from various essays compiled in John Cooper's excellent Oscar Wilde on Dress.

The most important points I'll include in brief for the sake of context. In fashion, Oscar valued:
  • Classical Greek influence (yep, literal robes and togas -- but this also included classical art, and architecture) and a firm belief in clothing as art and as an aspect of a person's personal "brand".
  • Practicality. And in an era filled with whale bone corsets and monstrous inconveniences like this, can you blame him? Wilde, along with his wife Constance, were active members of reformist dress movements like The Rational Dress Society and both campaigned (and in Wilde's case, also wrote and lectured) widely against the dangers and sheer purposelessness of the French trends that held sway over England at the time.
  • For Wilde's part, he hoped in part that a change in England's tastes in fashion would help ignite an artistic revolution that would resound throughout the entirety of the era's harsh class system. At the heart of Wilde's objections to irrational and inconvenient dress was a desire to bring further freedoms of expression, as well as an honest belief in the transcendent power of art.


So, that aside, what does all of this mean for a person's sense of dress? Let's dive right in:

An approximation of Dorian's personal style:

  • All the drape. If Oscar's opinions on fashion emphasize anything, it's that the beauty of nice clothing originates in the subject him or herself. Clothing should emphasize the wearer--especially if the wearer is, themselves, beautiful. The clothing should not interrupt their natural range of movement, and Dorian's closet follows this rule. Most of his garments hang from the shoulders and drape along his body in soft or oblique lines. There's a sense of natural cascading fall that makes his clothing seem like part of him, rather than idly-considered ornamentation piled on top of him.
  • Avant-garde. Less so than in the past, but being fashionable is still neither a guarantee nor something he strives for-- unless, on a whim, he feels like it.
  • All lines and pieces in proportion and as symmetrical as possible. (No fluffs, flounces, or other standout doodads tacked on.)
  • Comfort. This means fine fabrics, and the silly expenses paid to get them.
  • Fine and detailed elements: embroidered pieces (often in bling-ey golds or silvers, often in the images of flowers or a scroll of some kind), elaborate brocades, etc.
  • Symbolism: be it in the inclusion of a particular color, fine embroidery in a particular shape, or a style to suit a certain occasion.
  • Florals and colors of all kinds (especially bright colors), regardless of whether they're in fashion or not.
  • Equal (and liberal) inclusion of elements that would be traditionally considered more feminine or androgynous. (Florals, literal cut flowers, adventurous patterns and fabrics, heeled shoes, large rings, delicate jewelry, pretty scarves, furs, brocades, etc.)
  • His inventiveness with dress sometimes leads to choices that some might consider ostentatious (read: weird) or looks that verge on costume-like rather than ready to wear.

And now for the fun part-- visual approximations (and a bonus Sherlock Holmes):