The Adornments of the Dandy

Dries G.M. Dulsster

If there is one figure known for his adornments, it is without a doubt the dandy. Although the dandy is often considered superficial and flamboyant, it would be a mistake to think that being a dandy concerns the way one dresses. According to scholars on Dandyism, the appearance of a dandy must be seen as a means to an end. His striking attire deals with a specific characteristic: he does not want to be like the rest.[1] He is an artistic, rebellious figure who employs profound thought and imagination in his presentation, and for the dandy, the first step towards elegance is to free oneself from others.[2] The dandy agrees with Epictetus, talking about the purple stripe of the toga: “But I wish to be purple, that small part which is bright, and makes all the rest appear graceful and beautiful. Why then do you tell me to make myself like the many? and if I do, how shall I still be purple?” [3]

According to Jacques-Alain Miller,[4] the analyst has something to do with the dandy: he even states that Lacan might have been a bit of a dandy at heart. He highlights that for Lacan, “there was a refusal of the norm and a refusal to go unnoticed. One must be able to bear it, not to go unnoticed, not to blend into the crowd, but on the contrary, to intensify the appearance.”[5]

However, what’s at stake for Lacan is not that he wants to be the purple stripe:  it is about being driven by a desire for nonconformity.[6] What served in this as Lacan’s compass was a desire to be Other, despite the law.[7] It is a style that is marked by the desire to make one’s mark immediately and not to let oneself be dominated by the Other.[8]

J.-A. Miller highlights that Lacan did not recoil from his own mischievousness;[9] he was not fascinated with the idea of ‘doing good and being good.’ This is where the analyst is inhumane, but it is an inhumanity that is respectful of the absolute otherness of the other.[10] As such, Lacan in a certain way subjectivized his definition of the real: that which is unbearable. The real does not understand reason. The real is irrational. The real is extravagant.[11]

References

[1] Cf. Artist, Rebel, Dandy: Men of Fashion, eds. L. A. Brewer, K. Irwin, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

[2] Adams, N., Callahan, R., I am Dandy: The Return of the Elegant Gentleman, Berlin: Gestalten, 2013.

[3] Epictetus. The Discourses. 2010. Available online: https://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.1.one.html

[4] Miller, J.-A., “Bonjour Sagesse”, La Cause du Désir, No. 95, 2017, p. 93.

[5] Miller, J.-A., “L’Orientation Lacanienne: Vie de Lacan,” teaching delivered under the auspices of the Department of Psychoanalysis, University Paris 8, lesson of 10 February 2010, unpublished.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Cf. Lacan, J., “L’Autre manqué,” Aux Confins du seminaire, Paris: La Divina/Navarin, 2021, p. 52.

[8] Miller, J.-A., “L’Orientation Lacanienne: Vie de Lacan,” op. cit., lesson of 7 Avril 2010, unpublished.

[9] Ibid., lesson of 3 February 2010, unpublished.

[10] Ibid., lesson of 24 March 2010, unpublished.

[11] Ibid., lesson of 10 February 2010, unpublished.