George Bryan Brummell

George Bryan Brummell (June 7, 1778 – March 30, 1840), better known as Beau Brummell, was an arbiter of fashion in Regency England and a friend of the Prince Regent. He led the trend for men to wear understated but beautifully cut clothes, adorned with elaborately tied neckwear. Brummell is credited with introducing and bringing to fashion the modern man's suit worn with tie. The suit is now worn throughout the world for business and formal occasions, even though its origin is England.



He claimed to take five hours to dress, and recommended that boots be polished with champagne. His style of dress came to be known as dandyism.



Dighton's caricature print of Brummell, from 1805.



Brummell became an undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford in 1794. He embarked upon a military career, but abandoned it when he learned that his regiment had been ordered to Manchester.



A falling out with the Prince of Wales led to Brummell's downfall; his famous remark "Alvanley, who's your fat friend?" (referring to Prince George, who had just cut him) probably didn't help. Brummell fled England in 1816 as the result of thousands of pounds of accumulated debts to tradesmen (his gambling debts, as "debts of honour," were always paid immediately). His friends arranged for him to become British consul at Caen in France, but unfortunately the post was abolished. He died penniless and insane from Syphilis in Caen in 1840.



Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly wrote the essay On Dandyism and George Brummell.



Brummell's life was dramatised in a 1890 stageplay by American playwright Clyde Fitch, and in a 1954 film with Elizabeth Taylor, Stewart Granger in the title role and Peter Ustinov as the Prince Regent.



He became, behind only the Prince Regent and the Lady Patronesses of Almack's, the historical character most likely to appear in Regency Romances. He has been made the detective/hero of a series of period mysteries by Rosemary Stevens, including Death on a Silver Tray (2000), The Tainted Snuff Box (2001),The Bloodied Cravat (2002), and Murder in the Pleasure Gardens (2003).