This book is entitled "Dandies," and, with the monocled and waistcoated Lady Troubridge on the cover, one expects an investigation on dandyism in the Western sense. Sadly, this is not the case. This book should have been named, "Sartorial display: a look at dressing up across genders and cultures." It could have been given a number of different titles, but to use the English word "dandy" misleads would-be readers. The book attempts to redefine/broaden the definition of "dandyism," which, in Western culture, is restricted almost exclusively to the 19th century and to males. In addition, dandyism is not simply dressing up in a particular fashion--dandyism implies a whole analysis of attitude, economics and lifestyle. The essays wander into Native American dress and well into the twentieth century. There is discussion of Coco Chanel, George Sand and the Romaine Brooks set, which describe the appropriation of male Western dress. This is indeed food for thought. Nevertheless, one expects writers who write on dandyism to be thoroughly versed in the history of the dandy in his original 19th century form. In one essay, there is an illustration of sheet music from 1843 with an accompanying illustration of a man in "dandified dress." To look at this image (with the chin-framing beard, black neckcloth, waist-nipped silhouette and broad-lapelled tailcoat) and *not* mention the signature trend-setting styles of Count Alfred d'Orsay--extremely famous in his day as the international fashion leader and masculine beauty icon of the 1830s and 1840s--strikes the scholar of dandyism as astounding in its omission. All in all, this book is an anthropological inquiry into dress with its implications of class, gender and race in historical/cultural context. It is not, however, an analysis of dandyism by any stretch. For cultural anthropologists, this book certainly has its place, but for scholars of dandyism, one should examine the classic writings of Carlyle, Baudelaire, d'Aurevilly and the 20th century Moers.
