8 MAY/JUNE 2019PROFILES
boots with champagne. His bathing and
dressing ritual, which was sometimes at-
tended by the Prince of Wales, occupied
several hours of every morning. He used
a silver spittoon instead of spitting on the
floor, as was the custom. He spent hours
trying out different ways of knotting his
cravat to make it seem effortless.This pursuit of nonchalance extended
to Brummell’s carefully constructed per-
sona. As the first truly modern celebrity,
Brummell understood that his “look” in-
cluded not just his style but his manner.
His physical appearance, from the clothes
he wore to the pose he proffered, was an
image he carefully crafted. Brummell’s witmatched his wardrobe—smart and
sharp—but his superior bearing, his air
of languorous indifference, was a mas-
querade, a character he played. One prop
in his persona—a quizzing glass, a single
magnifying lens held in one hand—
enhanced his ability to haughtily judge
those within his glare. His high-tied
cravat, which forced a slight tilt of his head
and downward cast of his eyes, achieved
the same suggestion of superiority.
His name and image spurred the cre-
ation of exaggerated, fictionalized ac-
counts of his behavior. One story claimed
that Brummell, lounging on an ottoman
at the prince’s manor, ordered the prince
to ring the servant’s bell for more cham-
pagne. When the servant arrived, the af-
fronted prince allegedly asked him to pre-
pare, not more champagne, but “Mr.
Brummell’s carriage.” This incident did
not occur, but Brummell’s attempts toAT A BALL Brummell often
socialized with nobility.
In this 19th-century color
lithograph, Brummell (far
left) converses with a
duchess.
GRANGER/ALBUMTIED TO PERFECTION
BEAU BRUMMELL could spend a whole morning get-
ting the knot of his cravat to look just right. If the knot
did not come out perfectly the first time, he would
untie it, cast it aside, and start again with anoth-
er one. His valet, once seen carrying out a heap of
crumpled cravats, was reported to have said: “These
are our failures.”
CRAVAT TIED IN A 19TH-CENTURY ETCHING
BRIDGEMAN/ACI