French Pressed

The Dandy Project was featured in the latest issue of Elle France and made an appearance on French television.

The Dandy Project in the May 2011 issue of French Elle

The French Elle feature was in the one with perennially chic Catherine Deneuve and daughter Chiara Mastroianni on the cover. Dear Mother, look her up; Mme. Deneuve's style is teeming with inspiration for your countless dinner party outfits!

photo courtesy of Pelayo Diaz

I had my friend Antoine translate the article for me via Facebook, and it says something like "male fashion bloggers are the new wave of fashion bloggers", and that The Dandy Project, alongside Kate Loves Me and Bryanboy.com were great examples of this.

The Dandy Project was also briefly the topic of conversation on a show called La Chronique Tendances de Daphné Bürki on French TV channel Canal Plus. I spent hours last night dissecting HTML, trying to embed the video on this site, but to no avail. I took some screenshots of the show, and you can just click here to view the page with the video.

French television fashion authority Daphné Bürki is quite the comic

and is, of course, very chicly put together. Look at that mountain-print leather-trimmed (?) armor-like over-blouse!

my fist's five seconds of fame

See the full video on Daphné Bürki's blog.

Today is an awesome day to be a blogger; I'm very, very grateful for the recognition received. With this, I'm nudging those who wish to start a blog, and those with blogs but are perhaps too busy or too lazy (or too crazy) to update them---put honest and original content out on the blogosphere, and they'd be nuts not to let your voice be heard.

A million thank you's to the Elle France team and to Daphné Bürki and the Canal Plus team for the mentions, and special thanks to Mikee and Wax for taking the photographs featured.

Meet Jeeves & Wooster, my newest style idols.

I chanced upon this British television series while rummaging through a friend's torrent-downloaded TV show collection while listening to a boring lecture.  Airing in the UK from 1990 to 1993, it starts a young Hugh Laurie (House) as old-rich bum Bertie Wooster and Stephen Fry as Jeeves, Wooster's well-informed valet (pronounced va-let), much like a butler/nanny for the very rich.  

Stephen Fry as Jeeves and Hugh Laurie as Wooster

Being British and set in the 1920's/1930's, the show takes quite an effort to understand, and even when I'm listening closely, I confess, I can only understand 80% of what the characters are saying.  Nevertheless, I think the show masterfully employs a comedy style that transcends eras and language barriers.  It's got both the dry sense of humor the British are known for and a light dose of Mr. Bean slapstick which make for a laugh-out-loud viewing experience.

Hugh Laurie as Wooster in what seems to be an ivory tail-less tuxedo jacket (cut much like the recently resurrected marching band jackets of yesteryear) with gold buttons and epaulettes (!)

The wardrobe is a delight to see, why else would I be writing about the show on this blog anyways?  Hugh Laurie's character Wooster, a member of the idle rich, is a bit of an eccentric dandy, favoring bolder sartorial choices than what was currently in fashion then.  Never short of luncheons, dinners, nights out on the town, and weekends in the country, he always has somewhere to go to dress up.  It also helps that he's six-foot-three and on the skinny side, making his bespoke suits drape perfectly on him.

Here he is on his way to the gentleman's club.  I love the short double breasted waistcoat paired with full, high-waisted pleated trousers.  

Close-up of the same outfit.  Note to self: try wearing a freshly cut rose as a boutonniere one of these days. 

Intensely dandy, Wooster wears extra-full pleated glen-plaid trousers tucked into yellow socks that match his yellow plaid waistcoat to play golf.  Michelle, inspiration for your golf pro outfit!

We can learn a thing or two from the duo Jeeves and Wooster regarding matters of accessorizing.  Brown leather gloves, oxfords, and fedora go well with a mouse-gray suit.  Jeeves' signature bowler hat is the perfect complement to his perpetual sly grin.

For Bertie Wooster, style is a round-the-clock committment.  He always wears a full-on tux to dinner:

and goes to bed in immaculate pj's.

Must download more episodes.